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Breeding for stress tolerance in cool-season food legumes
AN p ELSEVIER
Plant Science
s
CiENCE
104 (1995) 231-232
Book review
Breeding for Stress Tolerance in Cool-Season Food Legumes, edited by K.B. Singh and M.C. Saxena,
John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 474 pp., 1993, f69.95 (Sterling) This volume collects the papers presented at the International Conference on ‘Breeding for Stress Tolerance in Cool-Season Food Legumes’ held at Ravello, Italy, September lo-12 1990. The objective of the conference was to review past and current research on stress tolerance in the most important cool-season food legumes (chickpea, faba bean, lentil, pea) and to plan future strategies for controlling the stresses that limit the yield of these crops. The conference papers revealed the recent progress made in the area. The opening chapter of the book discusses the challenge of developing abiotic and biotic stress resistance in cool-season food legumes. Subsequent chapters present state of art and perspective on stress resistance breeding, screening for resistance to viral, fungal and bacterial diseases, insect pests, nematodes as well as climatic stresses such as cold and heat, and soil problems like drought and salinity. Other papers include the use of molecular genetics, the application of mutagenesis, the use of wild species and germplasm resources. The last five chapters deal with the different aspects of breeding for stress resistance, including durable resistance, multiplestress resistance, breeding strategies for self- and cross-pollinated crops. The cool-season food legumes are traditionally low-input crops and are grown extensively in the farming system of the Indian subcontinent, the Mediterranean area, the Nile Valley, Central Europe, the Americas and Australia. The global 0168-9452/95/.$09.50 0 1995 Elsevier Science Ireland SSDI 0168-9452(94)04012-6
production of these crops are low and unstable mainly because many of the currently grown cultivars are susceptible to various abiotic and biotic stresses. The cultivation of stress resistant cultivars will result in increased and stabilized production, and thus resistance breeding constitutes a major goal in the research programmes for the improvement of these legumes. A successful breeding programme for stress resistance should incorporate, on one hand, the development of effective and efficient screening techniques as well as clear rating scales and, on the other, the presence of an adequate amount of variation for the desired traits; so collection of valuable germplasm and extensive screening for stresses has to precede any effort in breeding. Despite the fact that programmes to improve resistance in those crops to stress have been set up only recently, and considering that the genetic bases of stress resistance are known just in a few cases and are not always simple characters, the papers indicated that an impressive effort has been made in identifying the sources of resistance to the various stresses and in starting breeding programs for the incorporation of resistance genes in commercial varieties. The most important examples reported are the identification of a wild species (Lens orientalis) as a potential source of drought resistance in lentil and the release of chickpea cultivars resistant to Ascochita blight and fusarium wilt, and adapted to low temperature. Conventional breeding strategies have shown some success but their effectiveness could be considerably increased with the application of suitable biotechnologies. Improvement in screening techniques, the use of molecular markers for identifying and utilizing economically important genes, the
Ltd. All rights reserved
232
Book review/Plant Science 104 (1995) 231-232
use of in vitro culture for transferring the desirable genes from wild species to not crossable cultivated ones, and of genetic engineering using identified alien resistance genes, all offer opportunities for improving stress resistance in future cultivars of cool-season food legumes. Anyway, from the conference discussions it is clear that there is still a need for basic researches in this field. In fact, recombinant DNA technology would be successfully applied for crop improvement for stress tolerance only when biochemical and physiological events, occurring in the plant in response to the stress condition, will be fully identified and characterized.
In conclusion, this book provides a comprehensive review of the current constraints to food legume production, the chapters, written by specialists in the field, should help scientists, teachers, students, and administrators increase their understanding of the problem and will encourage further research for the development of stress resistant varieties of these legumes species. Stefania Grille
(Research Centre for Vegetable Breeding, National Research Council - CNR Portici, Italy)
Plant Science
s
CiENCE
104 (1995) 231-232
Book review
Breeding for Stress Tolerance in Cool-Season Food Legumes, edited by K.B. Singh and M.C. Saxena,
John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 474 pp., 1993, f69.95 (Sterling) This volume collects the papers presented at the International Conference on ‘Breeding for Stress Tolerance in Cool-Season Food Legumes’ held at Ravello, Italy, September lo-12 1990. The objective of the conference was to review past and current research on stress tolerance in the most important cool-season food legumes (chickpea, faba bean, lentil, pea) and to plan future strategies for controlling the stresses that limit the yield of these crops. The conference papers revealed the recent progress made in the area. The opening chapter of the book discusses the challenge of developing abiotic and biotic stress resistance in cool-season food legumes. Subsequent chapters present state of art and perspective on stress resistance breeding, screening for resistance to viral, fungal and bacterial diseases, insect pests, nematodes as well as climatic stresses such as cold and heat, and soil problems like drought and salinity. Other papers include the use of molecular genetics, the application of mutagenesis, the use of wild species and germplasm resources. The last five chapters deal with the different aspects of breeding for stress resistance, including durable resistance, multiplestress resistance, breeding strategies for self- and cross-pollinated crops. The cool-season food legumes are traditionally low-input crops and are grown extensively in the farming system of the Indian subcontinent, the Mediterranean area, the Nile Valley, Central Europe, the Americas and Australia. The global 0168-9452/95/.$09.50 0 1995 Elsevier Science Ireland SSDI 0168-9452(94)04012-6
production of these crops are low and unstable mainly because many of the currently grown cultivars are susceptible to various abiotic and biotic stresses. The cultivation of stress resistant cultivars will result in increased and stabilized production, and thus resistance breeding constitutes a major goal in the research programmes for the improvement of these legumes. A successful breeding programme for stress resistance should incorporate, on one hand, the development of effective and efficient screening techniques as well as clear rating scales and, on the other, the presence of an adequate amount of variation for the desired traits; so collection of valuable germplasm and extensive screening for stresses has to precede any effort in breeding. Despite the fact that programmes to improve resistance in those crops to stress have been set up only recently, and considering that the genetic bases of stress resistance are known just in a few cases and are not always simple characters, the papers indicated that an impressive effort has been made in identifying the sources of resistance to the various stresses and in starting breeding programs for the incorporation of resistance genes in commercial varieties. The most important examples reported are the identification of a wild species (Lens orientalis) as a potential source of drought resistance in lentil and the release of chickpea cultivars resistant to Ascochita blight and fusarium wilt, and adapted to low temperature. Conventional breeding strategies have shown some success but their effectiveness could be considerably increased with the application of suitable biotechnologies. Improvement in screening techniques, the use of molecular markers for identifying and utilizing economically important genes, the
Ltd. All rights reserved
232
Book review/Plant Science 104 (1995) 231-232
use of in vitro culture for transferring the desirable genes from wild species to not crossable cultivated ones, and of genetic engineering using identified alien resistance genes, all offer opportunities for improving stress resistance in future cultivars of cool-season food legumes. Anyway, from the conference discussions it is clear that there is still a need for basic researches in this field. In fact, recombinant DNA technology would be successfully applied for crop improvement for stress tolerance only when biochemical and physiological events, occurring in the plant in response to the stress condition, will be fully identified and characterized.
In conclusion, this book provides a comprehensive review of the current constraints to food legume production, the chapters, written by specialists in the field, should help scientists, teachers, students, and administrators increase their understanding of the problem and will encourage further research for the development of stress resistant varieties of these legumes species. Stefania Grille
(Research Centre for Vegetable Breeding, National Research Council - CNR Portici, Italy)