Bibliothèque de L'IMIST/CNRST

Plant biotechnology offers important opportunities for agriculture, horticulture, and the pharmaceutical and food industry by generating transgenic varieties with altered properties. This is likely to change farming practice and reduce the potential negative impact of plant production on the environment. This volume shows the worldwide advances and potential benefits of plant genetic engineering focusing on the third millennium. The authors discuss the production of transgenic plants resistant to biotic and abiotic stress, the improvement of plant qualities, the use of transgenic plants as bioreactors, and the use of plant genomics for genetic improvement and gene cloning. Unique to this book is the integrative point of view taken between plant genetic engineering and socioeconomic and environmental issues. Considerations of regulatory processes to release genetically modified plants, as well as the public acceptance of the transgenic plants are also discussed. This book will be welcomed by biotechnologists, researchers and students alike working in the biological sciences. It should also prove useful to everyone dedicated to the study of the socioeconomic and environmental impact of the new technologies, while providing recent scientific information on the progress and perspectives of the production of genetically modified plants. The work is dedicated to Professor Marc van Montagu.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record.

Cover -- Table of contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1. Global Status of Transgenic Crops: Challenges and Opportunities -- Chapter 2. Can the Biotechnology Revolution Feed the World? -- Chapter 3. Biotechnology Can Help Crop Production to Feed an Increasing World Population-Positive and Negative Aspects Need to be Balanced: A Perspective from FAO -- Chapter 4. Molecular Markers in Variety and Seed Testing -- Chapter 5. The Genetic Basis of Drought Tolerance in Maize and Options for Improvement Via Marker-Assisted Selection -- Chapter 6. Analysis of Quantitative Trait Locis (QTL) Based on linkage Maps in Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) -- Chapter 7. Molecular Characterization of the Sugarcane Variability for Genetic Improvement -- Chapter 8. Somaclonal Variation in Transgenic Sugarcane Plants: Practical Implications -- Chapter 9. On the Mechanism of Horizontal Gene Transfer by Agrobacterium tumefaciens -- Chapter 10. Sugarcane (Saccharum hybrid) Genetic Transformation Mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens: Production of Transgenic Plants Expressing Proteins with Agronomic and Industrial Value -- Chapter 11. Progress in Agrobacterium-mediated Maize Transformation at the Plant Transformation Facility of Iowa State University -- Chapter 12. Assessment of Conditions Affecting Agrobacterium-mediated Soybean Transformation and Routine Recovery of Transgenic Soybean -- Chapter 13. Genetic Engineering of Cuban Rice Cultivars. Present and Perspectives -- Chapter 14. Histological and Ultrastructural Analysis of A. rhizogenes-mediated Root Formation in Walnut Cuttings -- Chapter 15. Genetic Improvement Program at the Institute of Plant Biotechnology -- Chapter 16. Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) Regeneration and Transformation Technology to Provide Weevil (Cylas formicarius) Resistance. Field Trial Results -- Chapter 17. Regulation of Transgene Expression: Progress Towards Practical Development in Sugarcane, and Implications for Other Plant Species -- Chapter 18. Polycistronic Translation in Plants. What Can we Learn from Viruses -- Chapter 19. Towards Plantibody-Mediated Resistance to Plant Parasitic Nematodes -- Chapter 20. Field and Molecular Evaluation of Insect-Resistant Transgenic Poplar (Populus nigra L.) Trees -- Chapter 21. Insect-resistant Tropical Plants and New Assessment About Cry Proteins -- Chapter 22. Inserting the Nucleoprotein Gene of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus in Different Plant Species, and Screening for Virus Resistance -- Chapter 23. Advances in Potato Improvement Through Genetic Engineering -- Chapter 24. Agriculture for Marginal Lands: Transgenic Plants Towards the Third Millennium -- Chapter 25. Commercialization of Genetically Engineered Potato Plants Resistant to Disease -- Chapter 26. Potato Transgenic Plants Expressing Mammalian Double Stranded RNA-Dependent Protein Kinase (mPKR) -- Chapter 27. Genetic Engineering of Potato for Tolerance to Biotic and Abiotic Stress -- Chapter 28. Metabolic Engineering of Brassica Seeds Oils: Improvement of Oil Quality and Quantity and Alteration of Carbon Flux -- Chapter 29. Towards the Improvement of Sugarcane Bagasse as Raw Material for the Production of Paper Pulp and Animal Feed. -- Chapter 30. Strategies for Fructan Produc.