Mutations, In Vitro and Molecular Techniques for Environmentally Sustainable Crop Improvement

During the last thirty years, most increases in agricultural production were achieved through high input agrieulture in areas with fertile soils and sufficient water. Intensive methods of production with high levels of nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides were often accompanied by environmental degradation and in some instances by pollution of the food supply. However, rapid population growth has also led to increasing use of marginal lands, where adverse soil and climatic eonditions are serious constraints to food production. These areas are even more sensitive to ecological destabilization. Environmentally sound systems of food production and land use are essential for meeting the food security needs of developing countries. To do this, greater genetic variability is needed within the best crop genotypes available for the areas in need coupled with better management praetices and crop rotations. These requirements can only be realized if suitable crop varieties are bred. These should be varieties with a much shorter growing period, suitable for rotation, increased tolerance or resistance to diseases and pests as weil as to drought and salinity and other adverse soil and climatic conditions.

Table of Contents:
Mutation genetics of salt tolerance in barley: an assessment of Golden Promise and other semi-dwarf mutants.- Mapping genes for flowering time and frost tolerance in cereals using precise genetic stocks.- Characterization of wheat-Thinopyrum partial amphiploids for resistance to barley yellow dwarf virus.- In vitro techniques for genomic alteration in rice plants.- An improved in vitro technique for isolated microspore culture of barley.- Heterosis in crop mutant crosses and production of high yielding lines using doubled haploid system.- Haploidy breeding and mutagenesis for drought tolerance in wheat.- Anther culture in connection with induced mutations for rice improvement.- Production of salt tolerant rice mutants using gamma rays and anther culture.- Induction of photoperiod sensitive genetic male steriles for use in hybrid rice seed production.- Aluminum tolerance in triticale, wheat and rye.- Evaluation of ‘Anahuac’ wheat mutant lines for aluminum tolerance.- Barley mutants with increased tolerance to aluminum toxicity.- Anthocyanin mutations improving tomato and pepper tolerance to adverse climatic conditions.- The use of somaclonal variation and in vitro selection for improvement of plants to environmental stresses..- In vitro techniques for the selection of Basmati rice mutants better adapted to Saline environments.- Rice germplasm enhancement by induced mutations in Chile.- Induced mutations as a method of obtaining iron toxicity resistant and high quality rice cultivars.- Improvement of tartary buckwheat by induced mutations with 60Co gamma rays.- Evaluation of barley mutants for drought tolerance: a physiology — breeding approach.- Mutations affecting nodulation in grain legumes.- Summary.