Genomics of Tropical Crop Plants

There is a critical need for a book to assess the genomics of tropical plant species. Early genomics successes resulted in tremendous advances in high throughput technologies and data management that greatly reduced costs and increased rates of data accumulation. In addition, the early plant successes showed that, although Arabidopsis can be a reasonable model for dicots and rice a model for monocots, there is a real need for species-specific genomic information if it is to be used for...
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There is a critical need for a book to assess the genomics of tropical plant species. Early genomics successes resulted in tremendous advances in high throughput technologies and data management that greatly reduced costs and increased rates of data accumulation. In addition, the early plant successes showed that, although Arabidopsis can be a reasonable model for dicots and rice a model for monocots, there is a real need for species-specific genomic information if it is to be used for crop improvement. Thus began programs for developing the genomics of numerous plant crop species with considerable emphasis on tropical plant species. Reasons for this emphasis are that the tropics are recognized as the regions of origin of a large part of genetic diversity with genes and phenotypes not found in temperate plants, and that human population growth is destroying much of the tropical environment and with it the genetic diversity located there. Remarkable genomics progress has been made in several tropical crop plants, noticeably sorghum and papaya, both of which are undergoing whole genome sequencing. International consortia or networks have been established for a number of tropical crops to mobilize and coordinate resources and efforts towards generating genomic tools and eventual sequencing of the genome for basic biological research and crop improvement. These crops include sugarcane, banana, coffee, citrus, millet, cacao, and peanut. The genomic information generated by these international consortia will enhance the capacity for identification, characterization, and cloning of agronomically important genes of tropical crop plants. This book covers the recent progress on genome research in tropical crop plants, including the development of molecular markers, genomic and cDNA libraries, expressed sequence tags (ESTs), genetic and physical maps, gene expression profiles, and whole genome sequences. The first section of this book provides background information for tropical agriculture of its crops. The second section consists of concise summaries of genomic research for the economically most important tropical crop plant species. As a comprehensive genomic resource, it is of considerable interest to practicing plant biologists, graduate and undergraduate students, and research professionals such plant breeders and germplasm curators who work on or are interested in tropical plant species.