The Use of plant genetic resources /

This volume grew out of a workshop convened by the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources in 1986. The 31 individual contributors focus on various ways that the pool of plant genetic resources provide vital raw material for producing new and improved crops. The 15 chapters provide a detailed survey of the role of plant collections in research and breeding, and ways to enhance their usefulness. Management of germ plasm collections and their evaluation are discussed along with some case histories for specific plants. The final seven chapters stress the increasing availability and importance of germ plasm from wild relatives of crop plants and discuss how new technologies such as recombinant DNA methodology could enable the plant breeder to make even greater use of the many beneficial characteristics in wild plants (such as disease resistance and drought resistance). Most of the chapters have a bibliography that includes a broad mixture of technical literature suited for the professional plant breeder as well as basic reference material for other plant scientists seeking a general overview of current genetic research aimed at crop improvement. Recommended for crop scientists, conservationists, plant biologists, and students at upper-division undergraduate and graduate levels. R. Mellor University of Arizona