One of the goals of plant science is to improve agricultural sustainability, increasing yield, food diversity, and nutrition, while minimizing the negative impact on our environment. In response to internal and external cues, plant hormones control various aspects of plant growth and development. The wealth of our knowledge on plant hormones shall greatly advance sustainable agriculture.

Non-staple crops (sometimes known as underutilized, semidomesticated, orphan and/or forgotten crops) usually refer to under-researched grain and legume compared to staple crops, such as sweetpotato, buckwheat, millet, barley, pea, mung beans, and adzuki beans, which contain unique and beneficial nutrients that staple crops do not have. Combining them with staple foods is an important guarantee for a nutrition-balanced diet. With the deepening of research, the current research on non-staple crops has gradually started to create a wide range of materials, identify varieties and quality, improve yield, respond to environmental conditions and regulate growth and development. Therefore, it is an important research objective to improve the important agronomic traits of non-staple crops, including anthocyanins in sweetpotato, rutin in buckwheat, vitamins in millet, β-glucan in barley, etc. through both cultivation and molecular breeding methods and to create new germplasm resources with high yield and abundant nutrients. Recently, notable successes have been made using genomic-related approaches to uncover the genes responsible for important phenotypes in non-staple crops. The genetic basis of metabolomic divergence and domestication has been revealed in buckwheat, and the QTLs for controlling agronomic traits such as flesh color of sweetpotato have been obtained, however the function of related genes still needs further investigation. In addition, biotic and abiotic stresses in extreme climatic conditions change the yield and quality of crops by affecting the growth and development of crops and important metabolic regulation processes. Non-staple crops are often climate-resilient and grown in marginal regions with low-input conditions, including examples for tolerance of drought stress in cowpea and buckwheat, tolerance of heat in cassava and tolerance of barren in sweetpotato. Investigating the mechanism of their environmental adaptability would provide new insights for breeding of not only non-staple crops but also staple crops that are limited in the tolerance of a changing climate to ensure future food security. It is of great theoretical significance and practical application value to study the molecular regulatory network of non-staple crops under these stress conditions. • Using cultivation measures, plant growth regulators, fertilizers, and other methods to improve the environmental stress resistance and important agronomic traits in non-staple crops. • Revealing molecular mechanisms and regulatory network under all kinds of environmental stresses in non-major crops and improving stress tolerance through genetic engineering. • Identifying key regulatory genes of important agronomic traits in non- staple crops and improving molecular breeding methods.

Advancement in Crop Improvement Techniques presents updates on biotechnology and molecular biological approaches which have contributed significantly to crop improvement. The book discusses the emerging importance of bioinformatics in analyzing the vast resources of information regarding crop improvement and its practical application and utilization. Throughout this comprehensive resource, emphasis is placed on various techniques used to improve agricultural crops, providing a common platform for the utility of these techniques and their combinations. Written by an international team of contributors, this book provides an in-depth analysis of existing tools and a framework for new research. - Reviews techniques used for crop improvement, from selection and crossing over, to microorganismal approaches - Explores the role of conventional biotechnology in crop improvement - Summarizes the combined approaches of cytogenetics and biotechnology for crop improvement, including the importance of molecular techniques in this process - Focuses on the emerging role of bioinformatics for crop improvement

The entire range of the developmental processes in plants is regulated by a shift in the hormonal concentration, tissue sensitivity and their interaction with the factors operating around them. Out of the recognized hormones, attention has largely been focused on five - Auxins, Gibberellins, Cytokinin, Abscisic acid and Ethylene. However, the information about the most recent group of phytohormone (Brassinosteroids) has been incorporated in this book. This volume includes a selection of newly written, integrated, illustrated reviews describing our knowledge of Brassinosteroids and aims to describe them at the present time. Various chapters incorporate both theoretical and practical aspects and may serve as baseline information for future researches through which significant developments are possible. This book will be useful to the students, teachers and researchers, both in universities and research institutes, especially in relation to biological and agricultural sciences.

Plants live in environments influenced by various abiotic factors that can cause diverse stresses, for example, because of low or high temperature, deficient or excessive water, high salinity, heavy metals, and ultraviolet radiation, etc. These abiotic stresses are hostile to plant growth and development, leading to great fruit quality and crop yield penalties worldwide, especially under the global climate change. Facing the numerous abiotic stresses, plants have developed strategies to protect themselves in evolution. The elucidation of their effects and underlying mechanisms is of great significance as a fundamental principle to relieve the pressure of environmental changes and to meet the demand of human population growth Up-to-date scientific efforts are welcome to be delivered into this topic for a comprehensive understanding of the physiological and molecular effects of diverse abiotic stresses on plants ranging from model species to economically important crops. The newly identified and characterized mechanisms and genetics associated with plant adaptability to abiotic stress will provide novel insights into the physiological and molecular alterations of plants under abiotic stresses. It will assist in understanding plants’ behavior adapting to the environmental change and perspective agricultural practice including crop breeding and field management, and eventually help maintain the food security, safety, and sustainability. In addition, increasing evidence shows that the recent advancements and developments of plant biotechnologies and application of big data to the area of plant science promote the understanding of the physiological and molecular effects of diverse abiotic stresses on plants. Hence, the investigations integrated by multidisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged, including but not limited to: CRISPR/Cas-mediated gene editing, functional genomics, phenomics, and high-throughput phenotyping etc.

Completely updated and revised, this bestselling book continues to explain the growth and developmental processes involved in the formation of vegetables. Since the publication of the successful first edition significant discoveries, particularly in the area of molecular biology, have deepened and broadened our knowledge and understanding of these processes. This new edition brings the topic up-to-date and is presented over two sections: the first provides general knowledge on germination, transplanting, flowering, the effects of stress and modelling, whilst the second section details the physiology of specific crops or crop groups.

Plant Breeding Reviews presents state-of-the-art reviews on plant genetics and the breeding of all types of crops by both traditional means and molecular methods. Many of the crops widely grown today stem from a very narrow genetic base; understanding and preserving crop genetic resources is vital to the security of food systems worldwide. The emphasis of the series is on methodology, a fundamental understanding of crop genetics, and applications to major crops.