Molecular improvement of cereal cropsI. K. Vasil From the pre-historic era to modern times, cereal grains have been the most important source of human nutrition, and have helped sustain the increasing population and the development of human civilization. In order to meet the food needs of the 21st century, food production must be doubled by the year 2025, and nearly tripled by 2050. Such enormous increases in food productivity cannot be brought about by relying entirely on conventional breeding methods, especially on less land per capita, with poor quality and quantity of water, and under rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions. Complementing and supplementing the breeding of major food crops, such as the cereals, which together account for 66% of the world food supply, with molecular breeding and genetic manipulation may well provide a grace period of about 50 years in which to control population growth and achieve sustainable development. In this volume, leading world experts on cereal biotechnology describe the production and commercialization of the first generation of transgenic cereals designed to substantially reduce or prevent the enormous losses to cereal productivity caused by competition with weeds, and by various pests and pathogens, which is an important first step in that direction. |
Contents
Molecular Improvement of Cereal Crops An Introduction | 1 |
Methods of Genetic Transformation Electroporation and Polyethylene Glycol Treatment | 9 |
Methods of Genetic Transformation The Gene Gun | 21 |
Methods of Genetic Transformation Agrobacterium tumefaciens | 43 |
Expression and Regulation of Transgenes for Selection of Transformants and Modification of Traits in Cereals | 83 |
Transgenic Cereals Triticum aestivum wheat | 133 |
Transgenic Cereals Oryza sativa rice | 149 |
Transgenic Cereals Zea mays maize | 189 |
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Common terms and phrases
Acad activity Agrobacterium tumefaciens Agrobacterium-mediated transformation analysis barley bialaphos Bio/Technology Biol biolistic breeding Bregitzer calli callus CaMV 35S cell suspension cereals chromosomes codon crop cultivars Datta dicot DNA delivery efficient electroporation embryogenic embryogenic callus embryos encoding endosperm enzyme explants fertile transgenic frequency Fromm gene expression genetic engineering genetic transformation genome genotypes Golden Promise Gordon-Kamm hybridization hygromycin immature embryos improvement Indica inflorescences integration intron Japonica Lörz maize cells marker genes Matzke medium methods methylation mg/L microprojectile bombardment molecular monocot monocotyledonous particle bombardment Plant Cell Plant Cell Rep Plant Mol Plant Physiol plant regeneration Plant Sci plasmid Potrykus Proc production of transgenic progeny protein protoplasts recombination reporter gene sativa seed sequences sorghum species stable transformation T-DNA target Theor tissue culture tobacco transgenic cereals transgenic maize transgenic plants transgenic rice plants transgenic wheat transient expression Tritordeum uidA Vasil vectors vitro Walbot Wan and Lemaux Zhang