Springer Salinity Responses and Tolerance in Plants, Volume 2: Exploring RNAi, Genome Editing and Systems Biology

Soil salinity is a key abiotic-stress and poses serious threats to crop yields and quality of produce. Owing to the underlying complexity, conventional breeding programs have met with limited success. Even genetic engineering approaches, via transferring/overexpressing a single ‘direct action gene’ per event did not yield optimal results. Nevertheless, the biotechnological advents in last decade coupled with the availability of genomic sequences of major crops and model plants have opened new vistas for understanding salinity-responses and improving salinity tolerance in important glycophytic crops. Our goal is to summarize these findings for those who wish to understand and target the molecular mechanisms for producing salt-tolerant and high-yielding crops. Through this 2-volume book series, we critically assess the potential venues for imparting salt stress tolerance to major crops in the post-genomic era. Accordingly, perspectives on improving crop salinity tolerance by targeting the sensory, ion-transport and signaling mechanisms were presented in Volume 1.  Volume 2 now focuses on the potency of post-genomic era tools that include RNAi, genomic intervention, genome editing and systems biology approaches for producing salt tolerant crops. From the Back Cover Soil salinity is a key abiotic-stress and poses serious threats to crop yields and quality of produce. Owing to the underlying complexity, conventional breeding programs have met with limited success. Even genetic engineering approaches, via transferring/overexpressing a single ‘direct action gene’ per event did not yield optimal results. Nevertheless, the biotechnological advents in last decade coupled with the availability of genomic sequences of major crops and model plants have opened new vistas for understanding salinity-responses and improving salinity tolerance in important glycophytic crops. Our goal is to summarize these findings for those who wish to understand and target the molecular mechanisms for producing salt-tolerant and high-yielding crops. Through this 2-volume book series, we critically assess the potential venues for imparting salt stress tolerance to major crops in the post-genomic era. Accordingly, perspectives on improving crop salinity tolerance by targeting the sensory, ion-transport and signaling mechanisms were presented in Volume 1.  Volume 2 now focuses on the potency of post-genomic era tools that include RNAi, genomic intervention, genome editing and systems biology approaches for producing salt tolerant crops. About the Author Dr. Vinay Kumar is an Assistant Professor at the Post-graduate Department of Biotechnology, Progressive Education Society’s Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Ganeshkhind, Pune, India and a Visiting Faculty at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Savitribai Phule University, Pune, India. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Savitribai Phule Pune University (Formerly University of Pune) in 2009. For his Ph.D., he worked on metabolic engineering of rice for improved salinity tolerance. He has published 32 peer reviewed research/review articles and contributed 13 book chapters in edited books published by Springer, CRC Press and Elsevier. He is a recipient of Government of India’s Science and Engineering Board, Department of Science and Technology (SERB-DST) Young Scientist Award in 2011. His current research interests include elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying salinity stress responses and tolerance in plants. His research group is engaged in assessing the individual roles and relative importance of sodium and chloride ions under salinity stress in rice and has made significant contributions in elucidating the individual and additive (under NaCl) effects of sodium and chloride ions. Dr. Shabir H. Wani is an Assistant Professor cum Scientist at the Mountain Research Centre for Field Crops, Khudwani Sher-e-Kashmir University