Genetic Engineering Molecular Biology and Tissue Culture for Crop Pest and Disease Management

During this decade a new powerful weapon has been made available to plant protection scientists to tackle pests and diseases of crops. The weapon is 'Genetic Engineering', and molecular biologists have developed this weapon. Many useful genes have been identified in bacteria, viruses, fungi and higher plants which can be tailored to the susceptible, but high yielding cultivars. The most extensively studied gene is the B. t. gene which is being exploited for management of certain lepidopteran pests in many developed countries. Developing countries are also attempting to exploit the B. t. gene. Chitinase gene is the key gene for management of fungal diseases. Much information has been accumulated on pathogenesis -related proteins and most of which have been identified as chitinases. Transgenic plants expressing coat protein gene have been developed to combat virus diseases. Identification of movement protein genes is another landmark, and these genes are responsible for virus disease development. Transfer of avirulence genes in avirulent bacterial pathogens into crop plants may block the bacterial disease development. Plant defense mechanisms due to phenyl propanoid metabolism have also been exploited by cloning the defense genes. Toxins have been identified as molecular tools to select disease-resistant plants from cell culture. Tissue culture has been exploited to manage weeds also. This book will serve as a source book for Pathologists, Entomologists, Nematologists and Agronomists to exploit the modern technology for management of diseases, insect pests, nematodes and weeds. The intricacies of tissue culture techniques have been elaborately dealt so that even a beginner can take up these modern tools for their studies. This book will be a text book for post -graduate students in Plant Pathology in the field of Molecular Plant Pathology. More than 3000 references have been given in this modern topic and hence it will be a good reference book for all the researchers.