Crop Stress and its Management: Perspectives and Strategies

Preface.- 1. Overview of plant stresses: Mechanisms, adaptations and research pursuit.- 1.1. Introduction.- 1.2. Stresses and their significance in crops.- 1.3. Improving stress tolerance - Conventional and Molecular approaches.- 1.4. Future outlook.- 1.5. References; Maheshwari. M. et al.- 2. Dryland Agriculture: Bringing resilience to crop production under changing climate.- 2.1. Introduction.- 2.2. Major Dryland agricultural regions of the world.- 2.3. Climate change scenario in drylands.- 2.4. Challenges to agricultural production in drylands under changing climate.- 2.5. Strategies to increase resilience to climate change in dryland agriculture.- 2.6. Conclusions and future directions.- 2.7. References ; Venkateshwarlu B., Arun K.Shanker.- 3. Abiotic and biotic stresses in Plantation Crops: Adaptation and Management.- 3.1. Introduction.- 3.2. Adaptation to abiotic stresses.- 3.3. Adaptation to biotic stresses.- 3.4. Management of stresses.- 3.5. Conclusions.- 3.6. References ; Vinod K.K.- 4. Enhancing productivity and performance of oil seed crops under environmental stresses.- 4.1. Introduction.- 4.2. The Relay: Sensing and Signaling.- 4.3. Defending Drought Stress.- 4.4. SnRK Family of Protein Kinases and Stress Response.- 4.5. Quantitative trait loci and temperature stress.- 4.5. Summary and Future Perspectives .- 4.6. References; Bhinu V.S. et al.- 5. Applications of Machine Learning for Maize Breeding for stress.- 5.1. Introduction.- 5.2. Machine Learning: An overview.- 5.3. Molecular breeding for drought tolerance.- 5.4. Mapping of QTLs (Quantitative trait loci).- 5.5. Final Considerations.- 5.6. References.- 5.7. Appendix: Support Vector Machines; Leonardo Ornella et al.- 6. Heat stress in rice – physiological mechanisms and adaptation strategies.- 6.1. Introduction.- 6.2. Threshold temperature.- 6.3. Different changes along the phenological phases.- 6.4. Mechanism and induction of heat tolerance.- 6.5. Breeding strategies.- 6.6. Fertigation- a novel strategy.- 6.7. Energy economics under heat stress.- 6.8. Concluding remarks.- 6.9. References ; Kondamudi R. et al.- 7. Improvement of drought resistance in crops:From conventional breeding to genomic selection.- 7.1. The complexity of drought environments and plant adaptation.- 7.2. Assessment of drought tolerance in crops.- 7.3. Achievement of the conventional breeding in the last Century.- 7.4. Selection by secondary traits.- 7.5. Assessment of secondary traits.- 7.6. Molecular markers-assisted genetic improvement.- 7.7. Transgenic-assisted genetic enhancement.- 7.8. Conventional versus molecular breeding .- 7.9. Concluding remarks.- 7.10. References; Anna Maria Mastrangelo et al.- 8. Plant response and tolerance to abiotic oxidative stress: antioxidant defense is the key.- 8.1. Introduction.- 8.2. Abiotic stressors in plants.- 8.3. Production of reactive oxygen species in plants.- 8.4. Detoxification of ROS by the antioxidant defense system.- 8.5. Plant responses and antioxidant defense under major abiotic stresses.- 8.6. Transgenic approaches to enhance oxidative stress tolerance.- 8.7. Conclusion and future perspectives.- 8.8. References; Mirza Hasanuzzaman et al.- 9. Transcription Factors and Genes in Abiotic Stress.- 9.1. Introduction.- 9.2. Role of Transcription Factors in the activation of stress responsive genes.- 9.3. Drought.- 9.4. Flooding Stress.- 9.5. Salinity.- 9.6. High light stress.- 9.7. Ultraviolet-B (UVB) radiation.- 9.8. Cold Stress.- 9.9. Oxidative stress .- 9.10. References; Pasqualina Woodrow et al.- 10. Chlorophyll a fluorescence in abiotic stress.- 10.1. Introduction.- 10.2. Chlorophyll fluorescence: basic concept.- 10.3. Stress in relations to chlorophyll fluorescence.- 10.4. Concluding remarks.- 10.5. References; Lucia Guidi, Elena Degl’Innocenti.- 11. Crop Stress and Aflatoxin Contamination: Perspectives and Prevention Strategies.- 11.1. Introduction.- 11.2. Significance of Aspergilli and Aflatoxins.- 11.3. Insect Herbivory Stress.- 11.4. Environmental Factors Cause Crop Stress.- 11.5. Crop Management Factors.- 11.6. Genetic Control Strategies.- 11.7. Further Researches.- 11.8. References; Baozhu Guo et al.- 12. Role of Ethylene and Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria in Stressed Crop Plants.- 12.1. Ethylene.- 12.2. Inhibitors of ethylene biosynthesis.- 12.3. Transgenic plants with expression of bacterial ACC-deaminase.- 12.4. Future prospects and applications.- 12.5. References; Baby Shaharoona et al.- 13. RNAi: Machinery and role in pest and disease management.- 13.1. Introduction.- 13.2. Biochemical properties of RNAi components.- 13.3. Small RNAs-Big roles.- 13.4. RNAi: virus resistance.- 13.5. RNAi: fungal resistance.- 13.6. RNAi : Insects resistance.- 13.7. Future perspectives.- 13.8. References; Surekha Agarwal et al.- 14. Conservation Biology.- 14.1. Introduction.- 14.2. Classical biocontrol – the good, the bad and the ugly.- 14.3. Biodiversity and Biological control in ephemeral ecosystems.- 14.4. Functional significance of biodiversity in annual crops – a case study of cotton and rice.- 14.5. The number game – does it really count?.- 14.6. Enhancing eco-systems services.- 14.7. The road to take.- 14.8. References; Chitra Shanker et al.- 15. Postharvest biocontrol - New concepts and application.- 15.1. Initial Step.- 15.2. Mode of action of BCA’s.- 15.3. Biocontrol agents can affect pathogenicity of fungal pathogens.- 15.4. Applications of molecular methods to biocontrol fungi and yeasts.- 15.5. Where We Stand and Where To Go.- 15.6. References; Neeta Sharma et al.- 16. Remote Sensing of Biotic Stress in Crop Plants and its Applications for Pest Management.- 16.1. Introduction.- 16.2. Principle of operation.- 16.3. Types of remote sensing platforms.- 16.4. Concept of spectral vegetation index.- 16.5. Ground based remote sensing of biotic stress.- 16.6. Airborne remote sensing of biotic stress.- 16.7. Space borne remote sensing of biotic stress.- 16.8. Conclusions.- 16.9. References; M. Prabhakar et al.- 17. Nematode Pathogens of Crops: Consequences of Climate Change.- 17.1. Introduction.- 17.2. Impact of climate change on plant pathogenic nematodes.- 17.3. Impact of Climate Change on Microbial feeding and Predatory Nematodes.- 17.4. Impact of Climate Change Insect Parasitic Nematodes.- 17.5. Climate Change, Ecosystem Disturbance and Nematode Model Systems.- 17.6. Conclusions.- 17.7. References; Nethi Somasekhar, Prasad J.S.- 18. Socio Economic and Policy Issues in Abiotic Stress Management.- 18.1. Introduction.- 18.2. Types and nature of abiotic stress.- 18.3. Land Degradation and Implications.- 18.4. Community actions for mitigation and coping mechanisms.- 18.5. Dealing with abiotic stress – socio-economic dimensions.- 18.6. Public Policies for Communities and Regions Affected by Abiotic Stress.- 18.7. Conclusion.- 18.8. References; Kareemulla K., Rama Rao C.A.- 19. Changing roles of Agricultural Extension: Harnessing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for adapting to changing climate.- 19.1. Introduction.- 19.2. ICTs and Extension in the Context of Climate Change.- 19.3. Climate Change Stresses: Information Needs.- 19.4. What ails information provision?.- 19.5. Driving the ICT use: Tech driven Need or Need Driven Tech?.- 19.6. ICTs in work – Process of Combating Stresses: A Case of VASAT.- 19.7. ICT Enabled Extension for Climate Change: Towards a Comprehensive Framework.- 19.8. From Tactical Methods to Practical Approaches.- 19.9. Research-Extension-Farmers Linkages in Climate Change Scenario.- 19.10. Conclusion.- 19.11. References; Shaik N. Meera et al.- Index.