The emergence of fungicide resistance is a major challenge facing agriculture. With increasing regulation and costs limiting the development of new fungicides, farmers remain reliant on a relatively small group of working fungicides, many of which are decreasingly effective as major crop disease pathogens develop resistance to them.Understanding and minimising fungicide resistance provides an authoritative review on the wealth of research on understanding ...

The fungi are a highly diverse kingdom of eukaryotic microbes. Recent advances in molecular genetics, together with the release of whole genome sequences of an increasing number of fungi, are facilitating their exploitation and commercialisation. Fungi have the ability to secrete large quantities of proteins of commercial value, and their complex secondary metabolic pathways produce a diverse range of bioactive compounds which have had a major impact in the pharmaceuticals market. In addit...

Plant Defense provides an overview of all major aspects of plant defence, including defence against pathogens, parasites, and invertebrate and vertebrate herbivores. The book looks at defense mechanisms including structural and chemical defences, and constitutive and inducible defences. Including details of how plants 'sense' attack and how this is communicated within the plant and also to neighbouring plants, how plants coordinate defence responses to simultaneous multiple attack...

Discusses ways of ensuring genetic diversity, advances in wheat breeding and their use to improve properties such as drought resistance and cold tolerance;Summarises research on factors affecting nutritional and other aspects of wheat quality;Reviews advances in understanding wheat pests and diseases together with ways of controlling them such as disease-resistant varieties, integrated pest and weed management

Plant stresses are serious threats to the sustainability of crop yields accounting for more crop productivity losses than any other factor in rainfed agriculture. Post-harvest losses mean surplus crops do not reach market, affecting the livelihoods of farming families, and too often these families are left with no other option than to eat contaminated stored food. These constraints impact the food security of these farming families as well as the communities and countries in which they liv...

Neither pest management nor resistance management can occur with only an understanding of pest biology. For years, entomologists have understood, with their use of economic thresholds, that at least a minimal use of economics was necessary for proper integrated pest management. IRM is even more complicated and dependent on understanding and using socioeconomic factors. The new edition of Insect Resistance Management addresses these issues and much more. Many new ideas, facts and case studi...

This book collates the most up to date information on Fragaria, and Rubus genomes. It focuses on the latest advances in the model system Fragaria vesca, along with the allied advances in economically important crops. Covering both basic and applied aspects of crop genomics, it illustrates strategies and resources for the study and utilization of genome sequences and aligned functional genomics resources.Rosaceous berries are collectively an increasingly important set of high-value ...

The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the world’s fourth most important food crop after maize, rice and wheat with 377 million tonnes fresh-weight of tubers produced in 2016 from 19.2 million hectares of land, in 163 countries, giving a global average yield of 19.6 t ha-1 (http://faostat.fao.org). About 62% of production (234 million tonnes) was in Asia (191), Africa (25) and Latin America (18) as a result of steady increases in recent years, particularly in China and India. As a majo...

Particular focus on improving functional traits needed for more resilient poultry breedsComprehensive coverage of key advances in genomic selection and their practical application in breeding improved breeds of layers and broilersLooks forward to emerging trends such as the use of epigenetics and genome editing

Soils into which crop plants root and from which they obtain essential minerals and water contain huge arrays of microbes. Many have highly beneficial effects on crop growth and productivity, others are pathogens causing diseases and losses to yield and quality, a few microbes offer protection from these pathogenic forms and others have little or no effect. These intimate and often complex inter-relationships are being explored with increasing success providing exciting opportunities for i...

In this ready reference, a global team of experts comprehensively cover molecular and cell biology-based approaches to the impact of increasing global temperatures on crop productivity.The work is divided into four parts. Following an introduction to the general challenges for agriculture around the globe due to climate change, part two discusses how the resulting increase of abiotic stress factors can be dealt with. The third part then outlines the different strategies and approach...

This volume offers a comprehensive coverage of the general principles and recent advances in fungicide resistance. It describes the development, mechanisms, monitoring, and management of resistance and covers the most important group of fungicides that have caused resistance on various crops. An historical review of fungicide resistance over the past 40 years sets the scene for up-to-date basic information on mode of action, as well as the genetics, mechanisms, and evolution of resistance....