Molecular Approaches to Crop Improvement

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Transgenic Rice Plants

   • Ko Shimamoto

   Pages 1-15

3. Genetic Transformation of Potato to Enhance Nutritional Value and Confer Disease Resistance

   • Luis Destéfano-Beltrán, Pablito Nagpala, Kim Jaeho, John H. Dodds, Jesse M. Jaynes

   Pages 17-32

4. Improvement of the Protein Quality of Seeds by Genetic Engineering

   • Mark A. Shotwell, Brian A. Larkins

   Pages 33-61

5. Novel Insect Resistance Using Protease Inhibitor Genes

   • Angharad M. R. Gatehouse, Donald Boulter, Vaughan A. Hilder

   Pages 63-77

6. Engineering Microbial Herbicide Detoxification Genes in Higher Plants

   • Bruce R. Lyon

   Pages 79-108

7. The Manipulation of Plant Gene Expression Using Antisense RNA

   • Wolfgang Schuch

   Pages 109-126

8. Molecular Biology of Flavonoid Pigment Biosynthesis in Flowers

   • Trevor W. Stevenson

   Pages 127-148

9. Molecular Aspects of Self-incompatibility in the Solanaceae

   • Volker Haring, Bruce A. McClure, Adrienne E. Clarke

   Pages 149-160

10. Back Matter

    Pages 161-170

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Although plant genes were first isolated only some twelve years ago and transfer of foreign DNA into tobacco cells first demonstrated some eight years ago, the application and extension of biotechnology to agricultural problems has already led to the field-testing of genetically modified crop plants. The promise of tailor-made plants containing resistance to pests or diseases as well as many other desirable characteristics has led to the almost compulsory incorporation of molecular biology into the research programs of chemical and seed companies as well as Governmental agricultural agencies. With the routine transformation of rice and the early evidence of transformation of maize the possibility of the world's major cereal crops being modified for improved nutritional value or resistance characteristics is now likely in the next few years. The increasing number of cloned plant genes and the increasing sophistication of our knowledge of the major developmental and biochemi­ cal pathways in plants should eventually allow us to engineer crop plants with higher yields and with less detrimental impact on the environment than now occurs in our current high input agricultural systems. This book draws together many of the expanding areas of plant molecular biology and genetic engineering that will make a substantial contribution to the development of the more productive and efficient crop plants that the world's farmers will be planting in the next decade.

• crop improvement

• CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, Canberra, Australia

  Elizabeth S. Dennis, Danny J. Llewellyn

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