This Special Issue on 'Advances in Cereal Crops Breeding' comprises 10 papers covering a wide range of subjects, including the expression-level investigation of genes in terms of salinity stress adaptations and their relationships with proteomics in rice, the use of genetic analysis to assess the general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) in promising hybrids of maize, the use of DNA markers based on PCR in rice, the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in wheat and simple sequence repeats (SSR) in rice, the use of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in cereals, and Nanopore direct RNA sequencing of related with LTR RNA retrotransposon in triticale prior to the genomic selection of heterotic maize hybrids.

This volume provides a comprehensive collection of methods for plant breeders and researchers working in functional genomics of cereal crops. Chapters detail advances in sequencing of cereal genomes, methods of traditional plant breeding, use of machine learning for genomic selection, random and targeted mutagenesis with CRISPR/Cas9, quantitative proteomics and phenotyping in cereals. Authoritative and cutting-edge, Accelerated Breeding of Cereal Crops aims to be of interest to plant breeders, researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and students working in functional genomics for the development of the next generation of crop plants.

Part 1 of this volume reviews advances in gene editing techniques such as insertion-based genome edits, base editing, guide RNAs and CRISPR/Cas off targeting. Part 2 surveys applications of gene editing in key cereal and vegetable crops.

Plant improvement has shifted its focus from yield, quality and disease resistance to factors that will enhance commerical export, such as early maturity, shelf life and better processing quality. Conventional plant breeding methods aiming at the improvement of a self-pollinating crop, such as wheat, usually take 10-12 years to develop and release of the new variety. During the past 10 years, significant advances have been made and accelerated methods have been developed for precision breeding and early release of crop varieties. This work summarizes concepts dealing with germplasm enhancement and development of improved varieties based on innovative methodologies that include doubled haploidy, marker assisted selection, marker assisted background selection, genetic mapping, genomic selection, high-throughput genotyping, high-throughput phenotyping, mutation breeding, reverse breeding, transgenic breeding, shuttle breeding, speed breeding, low cost high-throughput field phenotyping, etc. It is an important reference with special focus on accelerated development of improved crop varieties.

The basic concept of this book is to examine the use of innovative methods augmenting traditional plant breeding towards the development of new crop varieties under different environmental conditions to achieve sustainable food production. This book consists of two volumes: Volume 1 subtitled Breeding, Biotechnology and Molecular Tools and Volume 2 subtitled Agronomic, Abiotic and Biotic Stress Traits. This is Volume 1 which consists of 21 chapters covering domestication and germplasm utilization, conventional breeding techniques and the role of biotechnology. In addition to various biotechnological applications in plant breeding, it includes functional genomics, mutations and methods of detection, and molecular markers. In vitro techniques and their applications in plant breeding are discussed with an emphasis on embryo rescue, somatic cell hybridization and somaclonal variation. Other chapters cover haploid breeding, transgenics, cryogenics and bioinformatics.

From the pre-historic era to modern times, cereal grains have been the most important source of human nutrition, and have helped sustain the increasing population and the development of human civilization. In order to meet the food needs of the 21st century, food production must be doubled by the year 2025, and nearly tripled by 2050. Such enormous increases in food productivity cannot be brought about by relying entirely on conventional breeding methods, especially on less land per capita, with poor quality and quantity of water, and under rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions. Complementing and supplementing the breeding of major food crops, such as the cereals, which together account for 66% of the world food supply, with molecular breeding and genetic manipulation may well provide a grace period of about 50 years in which to control population growth and achieve sustainable development. In this volume, leading world experts on cereal biotechnology describe the production and commercialization of the first generation of transgenic cereals designed to substantially reduce or prevent the enormous losses to cereal productivity caused by competition with weeds, and by various pests and pathogens, which is an important first step in that direction.