1st ed. 2020 Edition
by Shabir Hussain Wani (Editor), Ajay Kumar Thakur (Editor), Yasin Jeshima Khan (Editor)
Global population is mounting at
an alarming stride to surpass 9.3 billion by 2050, whereas
simultaneously the agricultural productivity is gravely affected by
climate changes resulting in increased biotic and abiotic stresses. The
genus Brassica belongs to the mustard family whose members are known as
cruciferous vegetables, cabbages or mustard plants. Rapeseed-mustard is
world’s third most important source of edible oil after soybean and oil
palm. It has worldwide acceptance owing to its rare combination of
health promoting factors. It has very low levels of saturated fatty
acids which make it the healthiest edible oil that is commonly
available. Apart from this, it is rich in antioxidants by virtue of
tocopherols and phytosterols presence in the oil. The high omega 3
content reduces the risk of atherosclerosis/heart attack. Conventional
breeding methods have met with limited success in Brassica because yield
and stress resilience are polygenic traits and are greatly influenced
by environment. Therefore, it is imperative to accelerate the efforts to
unravel the biochemical, physiological and molecular mechanisms
underlying yield, quality and tolerance towards biotic and abiotic
stresses in Brassica. To exploit its fullest potential, systematic
efforts are needed to unlock the genetic information for new germplasms
that tolerate initial and terminal state heat coupled with moisture
stress. For instance, wild relatives may be exploited in developing
introgressed and resynthesized lines with desirable attributes.
Exploitation of heterosis is another important area which can be
achieved by introducing transgenics to raise stable CMS lines. Doubled
haploid breeding and marker assisted selection should be employed along
with conventional breeding. Breeding programmes aim at enhancing
resource use efficiency, especially nutrient and water as well as
adoption to aberrant environmental changes should also be considered.
Biotechnological interventions are essential for altering the
biosynthetic pathways for developing high oleic and low linolenic lines.
Accordingly, tools such as microspore and ovule culture, embryo rescue,
isolation of trait specific genes especially for aphid, Sclerotinia and
alternaria blight resistance, etc. along with identification of
potential lines based on genetic diversity can assist ongoing breeding
programmes. In this book, we highlight the recent molecular, genetic and
genomic interventions made to achieve crop improvement in terms of
yield increase, quality and stress tolerance in Brassica, with a special
emphasis in Rapeseed-mustard.
