Pushpendra K. Gupta - Böcker

This book is the first of its kind, where twenty chapters written by experts of international repute, cover all aspects of cereal genomics research. In recent years genomics has become a thrust area of research in life sciences, and cereals, being the most important group of crops, their genomes have been subjected to intensive/extensive analyses. The knowledge and the products generated through cereal genomics research are already being used for plant breeding through both, the marker assisted selection (MAS) and transgenic cereals. The areas covered in this book include, development and use of all kinds of molecular markers (including SNPs), construction and use of molecular maps, study of population genetics and domestication of cereals using tools of genomics research, structural and functional genomics (including whole genome sequencing in Arabidopsis and rice), comparative genomics, QTLs (including epistatic and e-QTLs) and genes for resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses, marker assisted selection (MAS), map-based cloning of genes/QTLs and the use of genomics research for crop improvement.The book, therefore, should prove useful not only for students and teachers, but also for the young research workers, who are starting their research career in the field of cereal genomics.

“Cereal Genomics” published in 2004 served the purpose of collecting all information on cereal genomics at one place and was well received by the cereal workers through-out the world. The last eight years have witnessed significant advancement in the field of cereal genomics. For instance, high-density genetic maps, physical maps, QTL maps and even draft genome sequence have become available for several cereal species. Furthermore, the next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have revolutionized genomics research, so that it is possible now to sequence genomes of hundreds or thousands of accessions of an individual cereal crop. Significant amounts of data generated using these NGS technologies created a demand for computational tools to analyse this massive data. In view of these developments, the Editors realised that there was a need to have an updated volume on the present status and future prospects of cereal genomics. These developments related to technology and the toolshave been documented in this volume, thus supplementing our earlier edited volume “Cereal Genomics”. “Cereal Genomics II” discusses advances in cereal genomics research made during the last eight years, and presents state-of-art cereal genomics and its utilization involving both basic research such as comparative genomics and functional genomics, and applied research like QTL mapping and molecular breeding.