Phenomics in Crop Plants: Trends, Options and Limitations

Identification of desirable genotypes with traits of interest is discernible for making genetic improvement of crop plants. In this direction, screening of a large number of germplasm for desirable traits and transfer of identified traits into agronomic backgrounds through recombination breeding is the common breeding approach. Although visual screening is easier for qualitative traits, its use is not much effective for quantitative traits and also for those, which are difficult to score visually. Therefore, it is imperative to phenotype the germplasm accessions and breeding materials precisely using high throughput phenomics tools for challenging and complex traits under natural, controlled and harsh environmental conditions. Realizing the importance of phenotyping data towards identification and utilization of a germplasm as donors, global scientific community has exerted increased focus on advancing phenomics in crop plants leading to development of a number of techniques and methodologies for screening of agronomic, physiological, and biochemical traits. These technologies have now become much advanced and entered the era of digital science. This book provides exhaustive information on various aspects related to phenotyping of crop plants and offers a most comprehensive reference on the developments made in traditional and high throughput phenotyping of agricultural crops.

Dr. Jitendra Kumar, born in 1973, is presently working as a Senior Scientist in the Division of Crop Improvement at Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur. He has an excellent research career throughout. He secured Gold Medal during masters’ programme and pursued his Ph.D. in Genetics & Plant Breeding from G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, India. He was awarded CSIR-Research Associateship during 2003-2005 for postdoctoral studies at the Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu (India). He has more than 14 years of research experience in genetic improvement using both conventional and molecular marker-assisted breeding approaches on various crops including sunflower, medicinal and aromatic, cereal and pulse crops. He has done work on development of SSR markers, identification of QTLs for preharvest sprouting and high grain protein content and marker assisted breeding in wheat for pyramiding the preharvest sprouting tolerance and high grain protein content and leaf rust resistance and developed a number of lines. During this period, he undertook study tours of several countries including Austria, Syria, Bangladesh, Nepal, Lebanon and Canada. His research interests include conventional and molecular breeding, QTL analysis and marker assisted selection for crop improvement. He has more than 100 publications including research and review articles in reputed national and international journals, book chapters, meeting reports, popular articles, and bulletins. He has also co-edited three books including “Biology and Breeding of Food Legumes” published by CABI, Oxfordshire, “Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants: Innovations, Methods and Risk Assessment” and “Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants: Achievement and Impacts” both published by Springer, New York, USA. He has developed high-yielding varieties (IPL 316 and IPL 526) of lentil and several others are in pipeline. His current priorities include involvement of molecular marker technology in conventional lentil breeding programme for making genetic improvement towards biotic and abiotic stresses. Dr. Aditya Pratap, born on October 18, 1976, is currently working as a Senior Scientist (Plant Breeding) in the Crop Improvement Division, Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur. He obtained his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Plant Breeding and Genetics from CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur, India in 1999 and 2003. Holding a brilliant academic and service record, he has been associated with crop research since last eight years. He has worked on genetic improvement of crop plants including wheat, triticale, rapeseed-mustard, chickpea and Vigna species and has been instrumental in development of haploidy breeding protocol in cereals through chromosome elimination technique. He has been associated with the development and release of five crop varieties including two in rapeseed-mustard (RSPT-2 and RSPR03), two in green gram (IPM 02-14 and IPM 02-3) and one in facultative winter wheat (DH 114). He has developed two extra early mungbean genotypes (IPM 205-7 and IPM 409-4 (48 days maturity) besides being instrumental in establishing prebreeding garden of rapeseed-mustard at SKUAST-Jammu and of pulses at IIPR, Kanpur. Presently, he is working on genetic improvement of green gram (Vigna radiata) through distant hybridization aided by conventional and biotechnological tools. His research interests include distant hybridization, doubled haploidy breeding, plant tissue culture, and molecular breeding. To his credit, he has about 120 publications which include research papers published in high impact journals as well as reviews/chapters for best international publishers including Springer, Academic Press and CRC. He has published four books entitled, "Haploidy breeding in Triticale and triticale x wheat hybrids: Comparison of Anther Culture and Chromosome Elimination Techniques" by Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, “Biology and Breeding of Food Legumes” published by CABI, Oxfordshire, “Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants: Innovations, Methods and Risk Assessment” and “Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants: Achievements and Impacts”, both published by Springer, New York. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship. He is an acknowledged speaker and has several awards to his credit. Dr. Shiv Kumar is Food Legumes Coordinator and works as Lentil and Grasspea Breeder at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Rabat platform, Morocco. Before joining the present position, he served the Indian Council of Agricultural Research as a Plant Breeder for 18 years. He also served the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics as Post Doctoral Fellow and worked on basic studies in chickpea breeding and genetics between 1991 and 1993. His post-doctoral work has led to identification of extra early photo-thermo insensitive genotypes in chickpea which have been used as donors across the globe. Dr. Kumar has over 25 years of research experience on basic and applied aspects of breeding rice and pulses including chickpea, grasspea, Vigna crops and lentil. He has been associated in the development of 28 varieties of pulse crops and one variety of rice. He also identified useful new germplasm for use in breeding program of rice, lentil, chickpea, grasspea, mungbean and urdbean. He has to his credit more than 300 articles including 110 research papers in refereed journals, 52 book chapters, six books, seven technical bulletins and two training manuals. He also received a number of academic distinctions and awards including Rockefeller Fellowship, Best Scientist Award from IIPR for the year 2005 and 2008, and Best Research Team Award from MULLaRP of ICAR in 2008. His research interests include pre-breeding activities, genetic enhancement through conventional and marker assisted breeding and biometrical genetics.