Depiction and Designing of Plant Genomes

Genome sequencing of the model plant Arabidopsis in 2000 followed by the crop plant rice in 2002 flagged of genome sequencing in an array of plants. In the last twenty years, more than 1000 genomes of about 800 different plant species have been sequenced and published, and the number has been continuing to grow exponentially. The list includes many model plants in addition to several crop plants. Sequencing of the nuclear genomes was followed by sequencing of extranuclear genomes such as mitochondria and chloroplast and also studies on functional genomics. However, detailed information on them are scattered in the literature including research articles, reports and reviews. Therefore, a comprehensive compilation of the sequences with enumeration of the sequences, annotation, assembly, gene families and comparative genomics of these useful genomes and elucidation of functional genomics including transcriptomics, metabolomics and proteomics in these higher plants is timely.

A number of higher plants provide the basic F5 - food, feed, fuel, fiber and furniture – needs; and also, nutraceuticals, beverages, luxury and aesthetic items. Genetic improvement in these plants with regard to their utilities were being done in the last century mainly by traditional breeding. Advent of molecular breeding and genetic engineering in the last two decades of the last century strengthened the breeding strategies in the economic plants. Advances in plant genomics has ultimately revolutionized the concepts and strategies of crop improvement. Employment of high-throughput genotyping and phenotyping together with other genomics assisted breeding tools like gene discovery, allele mining, genome-wide association studies, genome selection and genome-wide prediction etc. has facilitated accelerated and precise plant breeding. Recent emergence of the genome editing technique has finally supplemented the molecular and genomics tools making it possible to design and tailor the genomes according to the needs. However, success stories of next-generation breeding techniques need to be compiled for easy access of the readers.

About the Editor

Prof. Chittaranjan Kole is an internationally reputed scientist with an illustrious professional career of spanning over thirty-seven years and original contributions in the fields of plant genomics, biotechnology and molecular breeding leading to the publication of more than 150 quality research articles and reviews. He has edited over 180 books for the leading publishers of the world including Springer-Nature, Wiley-Blackwell and Taylor and Francis Group. His scientific contributions and editing acumen have been appreciated by seven Nobel Laureates including Profs. Norman Borlaug, Arthur Kornberg, Werner Arber, Phillip Sharp, Günter Blobel, Lee Hartwell and Roger Kornberg. He has been honored with a number of Fellowships, Honorary Fellowships, and national and international awards including the Outstanding Crop Scientist award conferred by the International Crop Science Society. He has served at all prestigious positions in academia including as Vice-Chancellor BC Agricultural university, Project Coordinator of Indo-Russian Center of Biotechnology in India, and Director of Research of Institute of Nutraceutical Research of Clemson University, in USA. He worked also in the Pennsylvania State University and Clemson University as Visiting Professor in USA. In the recent past, he was awarded with the Raja Ramanna Fellowship by the Department of Energy, Government of India.

Phullara Kole, the Executive Director of Prof. Chittaranjan Kole Foundation for Science and Society and formerly Research Associate in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson University, USA is an expert on plant genomics and biotechnology. She has contributed to in vitro culture, molecular mapping, RNA-interference and agrinanotechnlogy in a number of crops during her professional tenure in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA and Clemson University, USA. She developed a number of interspecific and intergenereic hybrids in Brassicaceae and successfully employed RNAi in peanut for disease resistance. She contributed to construction of a molecular map, mapping of several genes and QTLs and comparative mapping in Brassicaceae, and association mapping, molecular map construction and mapping of genes and QTLs in bitter melon. She also contributed to the first demonstration that use of nanoparticles can improve yield, biomass and phytomedicine contents in crops with bitter melon as a model. She was also involved in the development of many varieties in bitter melon that possess high content of anticancer and antidiabetic phytomedicines.