Published online 19 March 2008
Published in Crop Sci 48:823-824 (2008)
© 2008 Crop Science Society of America
677 S. Segoe Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA
Genetic Resources, Chromosome Engineering, and Crop Improvement: Volume 4: Oilseed Crops.
Edited by Ram J. Singh. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487–2742. 2007. Hardcover, 304 pp., $134.96. ISBN 0–8493–2629–2.
Hussein Abdel-Haleem
Center for Applied Genetic Technologies,
University of Georgia,
111 Riverbend Rd.,
Athens, GA 30605
hussein{at}uga.edu
The book starts with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) "What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not been discovered." Weedy plants often are potential resources for new traits or new components that can be used to improve current crops or to introduce new crops. From that point of view the editors started a series of volumes titled Genetic Resources, Chromosome Engineering, and Crop Improvement. In the first three books of this series, the editors were able to establish good library resources that are not only a useful introduction to an important subject but also useful references that deserve a place on the shelf of many plant breeders. These three books cover a wide array of economic plants including grain legumes crops (Vol. 1), cereal crops (Vol. 2), and vegetable crops (Vol. 3). The fourth book continues this tradition and covers the important oilseed crops including soybean, groundnut (peanut), cotton, sunflower, safflower, brassica oilseeds, and sesame. Other oilseed crops such as linseed and perennial tree crops were omitted from the current volume. The book has 15 contributors who are authorities in breeding, cytogenetics, genetics, and genomics of oilseed crops.
The book contains authoritative information on the importance of these crops as primary sources throughout the world for food, feed, medicinal, household, and industrial purposes. The book explains in detail germplasm resources, cytogenetic manipulation, breeding, and biotechnological approaches to improve these crops. Chapter one defines the gene pools of these crops as primary, secondary, and tertiary gene pools. The importance of each gene pool and the management of genetic resources in these gene pools are mentioned in general for this group of crops, and are discussed in more detail in the following chapters for specific crops. Chapters two through eight contain information devoted to one of the major oilseed crops. Each chapter starts with an introduction that paves the way for general information about that crop, including botanical description of the plant, crop utilization, world distribution, and production. The authors and editor have made special efforts to make the outline of each crop-specific chapter similar. This effort provides the reader with a good appreciation of the genetic diversity and variation available for each crop, even though these crops have different origins, belong to different families, and grow under different conditions. Each chapter presents the current status of taxonomy, genomic and chromosomal constitution, germplasm resources, crop enhancement, genetics, and cytogenetics research that has been done on that crop. References cited at the end of each chapter are extensive and provide good sources for additional information on topics mentioned in the chapter.
The book focuses on a broad array of subjects that are important to the plant breeding field, including new approaches such as DNA-marker technology, marker assisted selection, tissue culture, and gene transfer. The authors did a great job in covering these subjects, but some chapters suffered from a lack of detailed information. For example, some chapters discussed application of quantitative trait loci (QTL) analyses to underline the complexity of these traits in excellent detail, such as those chapters on brassica, sunflower, and groundnut, while other chapters simply summarized these studies, such as chapters on soybean and sesame, while yet other did not mention this QTL analyses or other new trends at all. It is important to discuss in detail potential uses of DNA-based technology along with other new technologies in plant breeding, and how these new tools could be involved in cultivar improvement side by side with conventional methods.
The book is intended for scientists, researchers, and professionals with an interest in plant breeding. The book is presented and organized in textbook style, which will allow graduate students in this field, with an adequate background in plant breeding and genetics, to find many chapters of this book to be a worthwhile source. The text is good and readable. Tables and figures are clear and detailed. At the beginning of each chapter a table of contents is presented, and at the end of the book, a subject index is included. In summary, this is a good book on genetic diversity and crop improvement of oilseed crops, and a useful addition to oilseed crops and genetic resources libraries. The authors have simplified a complex subject, so that it will be easy for beginners and experts in the field of plant breeding to understand.
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