Overview
Genetic engineering and biotechnology along with conventional breeding have played an important\xa0 role in developing superior cultivars by transferring economically important traits from distant, wild and even unrelated\xa0species to the cultivated varieties that otherwise could not have been possible with conventional breeding. There is a vast amount of literature pertaining to the genetic improvement of crops over last few decades. However, the wonderful results achieved by crop scientists in food legumes\' research and development over the years are scattered in many journals. The two volumes in the series "Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants" address this issue and offer a comprehensive reference on the developments made in major food crops of the world. These volumes aim at bringing the contributions from globally renowned scientists on one platform in a reader-friendly manner.\xa0The first volume entitled "Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants: Innovations, Methods and Risk Assessment" deals exclusively with the process and methodology. The contents has been designed to apprise the readers of all theoretical and practical aspects of wide hybridization and gene transfer like processes and methods of gene transfer, role of biotechnology with special reference to embryo rescue, genetic transformation, protoplast fusion and molecular marker technology, problems such as cross incompatibility and barriers to distant hybridization and solutions to overcome them. Since wild and weedy relatives of crop plants may have negative traits associated with them, possibilities of linkage drag exist while transferring alien alleles. Therefore, problems and limitations of alien gene transfer from these species will also be discussed in this series. Further, the associated risks with this and assessment of risks will also be given due weightage.
