Sumita Jha - Böcker

This handbook provides comprehensive reference information on the efficient production of secondary metabolites from plants by transgenesis and other genetic manipulation strategies. It reviews and summarizes selected important case studies in genetic methods applied to enhance the production of a given metabolite or a group of related or derived compounds. Readers will find reference information on a multitude of techniques and methods, including traditional breeding and screening; over-expression of genes encoding key enzymes; functional genomics approaches; metabolic engineering of the relevant biosynthetic pathways; indirect genetic approaches to improve metabolite production, including Agrobacterium mediated transformations. Furthermore, combinatorial biochemistry approaches to engineer secondary metabolic pathways are summarized, which can offer access to new structures or to the design of novel compounds.Since many commercially valuablesubstances are still extracted from plants, being largely inaccessible to efficient modern laboratory synthesis methods, this book provides a valuable resource of information for biotechnological approaches that can help to find alternative and more efficient methods for the production of natural secondary metabolites. Thus adjusted production methods, with the help of tailored plant systems, can potentially help to release the stress on plants, which are currently suffering from extensive human harvesting, and to conserve global biodiversity.Readers will find comprehensive reference information on plant genetic manipulation toward more efficient synthesis, accumulation and production of target secondary metabolites. The handbook will appeal to researchers and professionals, but also graduate students and scholars working in the fields of biotechnology, genetic engineering, medicinal plant research, pharmacy, and phytochemistry.

This reference work presents an authoritative review of endophytes and their applications to human welfare. Endophytes have become a class of interesting and curious microorganisms due to their intimate intra- and intercellular association with plants for competence, survival and reproduction. They can be bacteria or fungi, and they are usually non-pathogenic to their host. Endophytes have important applications in agriculture and industry, namely, they can help with plant growth, act as biocontrol agents and biosurfactant and secondary metabolite producers, and they are also rich sources of bioactive natural products.Novel and beneficial effects of endophytes are constantly emerging, and this book, divided into four sections, provides readers with the latest developments in this fast expanding field. In the first section, readers will discover the biology of the major groups of endophytes, followed by a summary of conventional and molecular tools for endophytes’ identification in Section II. The production of high-value metabolites by endophytes will be explored in the third section of this book, and in the final section, readers will find several case studies, examples and prospects for endophytes’ application in agriculture and industry.Written by leading international authors, this reference work will appeal to a wide readership, from students and researchers in the field of botany, biotechnology and agriculture to professionals interested in the production and applications of endophytic metabolites.

This contributed volume provides a comprehensive, in-depth and subject-based reviews on the current status of active ingredients, sustainable use, biodiversity and conservation of certain endangered medicinal plants.