Bøger i Plant Biotechnology Series serien

Plant biotechnology offers important opportunities for agriculture, horticul ture, and the food industry by generating new transgenic crop varieties with altered properties. The purpose of this series is to review the basic science that underpins plant biotechnology and to show how this knowledge is being used in directed plant breeding.

The intricacies of plant growth and development present a fascinating intellectual challenge, and yet our understanding of the subject has increased relatively slowly, despite the application of many different experimental approaches.

Volumes I and 2 of this Plant Biotechnology series reviewed fundamental aspects of plant molecular biology and discussed production and analysis of the first generation of transgenic plants of potential use in agriculture and horticulture. These included plants resistant to insects, viruses and herbicides, which were produced by adding genes from other organisms. Realisation of the potential of plant breeding has led to a resurgence of interest in methods of altering the structure, composition and function of plant constituents, which represents an even greater challenge and offers scope for improving the quality of a wide range of agricultural products. This, in tum, has resulted in a re-evaluation of priorities and targets by industry. Volume 3 of this series considers the biochemical and gentic basis of the biosynthesis of plant products such as starch, lipids, carotenoids and cell walls, and evaluates the ways in which biosynthesis of these products can be modified for use in the food industries. Authors also cover the biosynthesis of rare secondary products and the function and application of proteins for plant protection and therapeutic use. The emphasis throughout is on the relationship between fundamen- tal aspects of biosynthesis and structure-function relationships, and application of this knowledge to the redesigning and altering of plant products by molecular genetics.