Biotechnology of Major Cereals

The world’s major cereals are staple foods supplying about two-thirds of mankind’s calorific needs as well as being a rich source of proteins, vitamins, minerals and fiber. They also contribute significantly to animal feeds and non-food products such as packaging materials, cosmetics, liquid transport biofuels etc. Conventional plant breeding has made major gains in yield, quality and pest- and disease-resistance; however, since the early 1990s this has been augmented significantly by biotechnology. Although currently, maize is the only cereal with significant biotech seed sales, advances in the other major cereals outlined in this text indicate that rice, wheat, barley and sorghum could soon follow, either using conventional genetic engineering or incorporating the new developments in genome editing. In Biotechnology of Major Cereals, expert authors explain and discuss the latest advances including nuclear and chloroplast transformation, anther-culture and gene silencing.