The Capsicum Genome

This book contains complete information on Capsicum genetic resources, diversity, evolution, history and advances in capsicum improvement from classical breeding to whole genome sequencing, genomics, databases and its impact on next generation pepper breeding. Capsicum is one of the most important Solanaceae crops grown worldwide as vegetables and spices. Due to its high economic value and to meet the demands of enormous population growth amid biotic and abiotic stresses, there has been an ongoing breeding program utilizing available genetic resources with desired traits to increase the sustainable productivity of this crop for several decades. However, the precision breeding of this crop for desired traits only started with the advent of molecular markers. The recent advances in high-throughput genome sequencing technologies helped in the quick decoding of transcriptome, epigenome, nuclear and organeller genomes, thereby enhancing our understanding of the structure and function of the Capsicum genome, and helping in genomics assisted breeding. These advanced technologies coupled with conventional mapping have greatly contributed towards dissection and manipulation of economically important traits more precisely and made less time consuming.

Prof. C. KoleProf. Chittaranjan Kole is an internationally reputed scientist with an illustrious professional career spanning over thirty-three years and original contributions in the fields of plant genomics, biotechnology and molecular breeding leading to the publication of more than 160 quality research articles and reviews. He has edited over 90 books for the leading publishers of the world including Springer, Wiley-Blackwell and Taylor and Francis Group. His scientific contributions and editing acumen have been appreciated by seven Nobel Laureates including Profs. Norman Borlaug, Arthur Kornberg, Werner Arber, Phillip Sharp, Günter Blobel, Lee Hartwell and Roger Kornberg. He has been honored with a number of Fellowships, Honorary Fellowships, and national and international awards including the Outstanding Crop Scientist award conferred by the International Crop Science Society. He has served at all prestigious positions in academia including as Vice-Chancellor BC Agricultural university, Project Coordinator of Indo-Russian Center of Biotechnology in India, and Director of Research of Institute of Nutraceutical Research of Clemson University, in USA. He worked also in the Pennsylvania State University and Clemson University as Visiting Professor in USA. Recently, he has been awarded with the Raja Ramanna Fellow by the Department of Energy, Government of India. He is also heading the International Climate-Resilient Crop Genomics Consortium and International consortium for Phytomedomics and Nutriomics as their founding Principal Coordinator.
Dr. Nirala ramchiaryDr. Nirala Ramchiary is currently working as Assistant Professor at School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He has more than 15 years of experience on breeding, genetics and genomics of crop plants especially Brassica and Capsicum crops. After completion of his Ph.D from the Department of Genetics, Delhi University South Campus, he went to work as Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Department of Horticulture, Chungnam National University, South Korea for almost four years and returned back to India to join as Assistant Professor at Gauhati University, Assam and subsequently joined Jawaharlal Nehru University. Since then he has been working on Genetics and Genomics of Capsicum crop. His significant research contributions on crop genetics and genomics led to several publications on journals of international repute. He is recipient of several national fellowships from scientific organizations of Government of India such as Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and Prestigious Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship from the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India; and international fellowships which are Foreign Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the National Research Foundation, Department of Science and Technology, Government of Republic of Korea, and European Union Erasmus Mundas –BRAVE fellowship. His current research interests are development of genetic and genomic resources for Bhut jolokia/Ghost chilli, understanding the molecular basis of extreme pungency in ghost chilli and intra and interspecies heterotic hybrids.