Phenotyping Crop Plants for Physiological and Biochemical Traits

About the Book Plants experience various environmental stresses and result in both general and specific effects on its growth and development. Tolerance or susceptibility to these stresses is complex phenomenon and plants exhibit a variety of responses to abiotic stresses viz., drought, temperature, salt, floods, oxidative stress which are depicted by symptomatic and quantitative changes in growth and morphology.      The challenge is to identify those responses that provide the most meaningful phenotypic information, to design sampling methods suitable for use in the field. Phenotyping involves measurement of observable attributes that reflect the biological functioning of gene variants (alleles) as affected by the environment. Although many studies reporting several physiological and molecular traits with the relevance to field applicability were reported, many of them are not simple, reliable and researcher friendly due to complicate procedures and high genotype and environment interaction.                This book elaborates various methods that can contribute to phenotyping of crop plants for various physiological and biochemical traits. They involve analysing methods for field-based assessment of these traits as well as laboratory - based analyses of tissue constituents in samples obtained from field-grown plants. Researchers or students working in this direction will have several options to select the reliable methodology according to the objective and experimenting conditions. Table of Contents | : | Click here Chapter1 | : | Click here Contents SECTION – I: 1. Various Methods of Conducting Crop Experiments,  SECTION – II: 2. Seed Physiological and Biochemical Traits, SECTION – III: 3. Plant Growth Measurements, 4. Photosynthetic Rates, 5. Drought Tolerance Traits, 6. Other Drought Tolerant Traits, 7. Tissue Water Related Traits, 8. Heat Stress Tolerance Traits, 9. Oxidative Stress Tolerance Traits, 10. Salinity Tolerance Traits, SECTION – IV: 11. Kernel Quality Traits, 12. Carbohydrates and Related Enzymes, 13. Nitrogen Compounds and Related Enzymes, 14. Other Biochemical Traits, 15. Plant Pigments, 16. Growth Regulators, SECTION – V: 17. Analytical Techniques About the Authors Dr. P. Sudhakar, M.Sc. (Ag.), Ph.D., presently working as Senior Scientist, Department of Crop Physiology, Institute of Frontier Technology, Regional Agricultural Research Station, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Tirupati. He has got 21 years experience in research, teaching and industry. He was involved in 8 international, national research projects pertains to abiotic stresses. He has published 85 research papers in various reputed national and international journals and several presentations at national and international conferences. He has guided 32 students as chairman and member. He was instrumental in strengthening phenotyping lab at RARS, Tirupati and team member in releasing drought tolerant groundnut varieties viz., Abhaya, Greeshma, Rohini and Dharani.Dr. P. Latha, M.Sc. (Ag.), Ph.D., presently working as Scientist, Department of Crop Physiology, Institute of Frontier Technology, Regional Agricultural Research Station, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Tirupati. She was involved in four national research projects pertains to abiotic stresses. She is one of the team member in releasing drought tolerant variety Dharani. She has published 27 research papers in various reputed national and international journals. She has got 7 years experience in research and guided 5 post graduate students as member.Dr. P. V. Reddy, M.Sc. (Ag.), Ph.D., was former Associate Director of Research, Regional Agricultural Research Station, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Tirupati and eminent Crop Physiologist in the country. He was the founder of Phenotyping lab at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Tirupati. He led three international and one national research projects pertains to abiotic stresses. He was instrumental in releasing drought tolerant varieties viz., Abhaya, Greeshma, Rohini and Dharani.