Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants, Volume 1

1. Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants: An Introduction.- 2. Distant Hybridization: A Tool for Interspecific Manipulation of Chromosomes.- 3. Tissue culture and regeneration: a prerequisite for alien gene transfer.- 4. Methods and Role of Embryo Rescue Technique in Alien Gene Transfer.- 5. Horizontal Gene Transfer through Genetic Transformation.- 6. Distant Hybridization and Doubled Haploidy Breeding.- 7. Role of Molecular Markers.- 8. Molecular Cytogenetics for Identification of Alien Chromosomes and Chromosome Segments.- 9. Agronomically relevant traits transferred to major crop plants by alien introgressions.- 10. Gene flow and risk assessment in genetically modified crops.- 11. Bioinformatics approaches to deciphering alien gene transfer: a comprehensive analysis.- 12. Alien gene transfer: Challenges and Opportunities.

Dr. Aditya Pratap, born on October 18, 1976, is currently working as a Senior Scientist (Plant Breeding) in the Crop Improvement Division, Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur. He obtained his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Plant Breeding and Genetics from CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur, INDIA in 1999 and 2003. Holding a brilliant academic and service record, he has been associated with crop research since last ten years and has worked on genetic improvement of crop plants including wheat, triticale, rapeseed-mustard, chickpea and Vigna species and has been instrumental in development of haploidy breeding protocol in cereals through chromosome elimination technique. He has been associated with the development and release of five crop varieties including two in rapeseed-mustard (RSPT2 and RSPR03), two in green gram (IPM 02-14 and IPM 02-3) and one in facultative winter wheat (Him Pratham) and registered two extra early maturing greengram genotypes (IPM 205-7 and IPM 409-4) while a few other varieties are in pipeline. His research interests include distant hybridization, doubled haploidy breeding, plant tissue culture, and molecular breeding. To his credit, he has about 100 publications which include research papers published in high impact Journals, technical bulletins, as well as reviews/chapters for best international publishers including Springer, Academic Press, CABI and CRC. He has published two books entitled, "Haploidy breeding in Triticale and triticale x wheat hybrids: Comparison of Anther Culture and Chromosome Elimination Techniques" by Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany and another on "Biology and Breeding of Food Legumes" published by CAB International, Oxfordshire, UK. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship. He is an acknowledged speaker and has several awards to his credit.

Dr. Jitendra Kumar, born in 1973, is presently working as Senior