Genetic engineering is a powerful tool for crop improvement. Crop biotechnology before 2001 was reviewed in Transgenic Crops I-III, but recent advances in plant cell and molecular biology have prompted the need for new volumes. Transgenic Crops IV deals with cereals, vegetables, root crops, herbs and spices. Section I is an introductory chapter on the impact of plant biotechnology in agriculture. Section II focuses on cereals (rice, wheat, maize, rye, pearl millet, barley, oats), while Section III is directed to vegetable crops (tomato, cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, chickpea, common beans and cowpeas, carrot, radish). Root crops (potato, cassava, sweet potato, sugar beet) are included in Section IV, with herbs and spices (sweet and hot peppers, onion, garlic and related species, mint) in Section V. This volume is an invaluable reference for plant breeders, researchers and graduate students in the fields of plant biotechnology, agronomy, horticulture, genetics and both plant cell and molecular biology.

Section I Plant Biotechnology in Agriculture I.1 Impact of Plant Biotechnology in Agriculture S.K. Datta 1 Introduction 2 Crops and Genomics 3 Genetic Transformation of Plants 4 Transgenics in Stabilizing Production 5 Plant Protection 6 Enhancing Shelf Life 7 Improving Productivity 8 C4 Pathway in C3 Plants 9 Nutrition-Rich Crops 10 Conclusion References Section II Cereals II.1 Rice Y. Wang, M. Chen, and J. Li 1 Introduction 2 Hybrid Rice 3 Marker-Assisted Selection and Quantitative Trait Locus Analysis 4 Rice Transformation and Genetic Engineering 5 Gene Isolation and Characterization 6 Application of Rice Biotechnology 7 Conclusions References II.2 Wheat F.D. Meyer and M.J. Giroux 1 Introduction 2 Particle Bombardment 3 Integration and Expression of Biolistic Transgenes 4 Agrobacterium-Mediated Transformation 5 Biolistics versus Agrobacterium: Which Method is Preferred? 6 Improving Wheat Field Performance 7 Improving the End-Use Quality of Wheat 8 Conclusions References II.3 Maize F. Torney, B. Frame, and K. Wang 1 Introduction 2 Penetration -- Delivery Methods 3 Competence and Regenerability -- Target Tissue 4 Future Prospects 5 Concluding Remarks References II.4 Rye F. Altpeter and V. Korzun 1 Introduction 2 Economic Importance of Rye 3 Molecular Markers, Genetic Mapping and Marker-Assisted Selection 4 Androgenesis for the Production of Double Haploids 5 Genetic Transformation 6 Conclusion References II.5 Pearl Millet M. Girgi and M.M. O¿Kennedy 1 Introduction 2 Species Origin and Economic Importance 3 Pearl Millet Biotechnology 4 Conclusions References II.6 Barley K.J. Kasha 1 Introduction 2 Economic Importance of Barley 3 Current Research and Development 4 Practical Applications of Biotechnology in Barley 5 Conclusions and Future Challenges References II.7 Oat A. Carlson and H.F. Kaeppler 1 Introduction 2 Economic Importance 3 Current Research and Development 4 Practical Applications of Transgenic Plants 5 Conclusion and Future Challenges References Section III Vegetables III.1 Tomato G. Tucker, P. Walley, and G. Seymour 1 Origin of Solanum lycopersicum 2 Current Uses of Tomato Fruit 3 Tomato Biodiversity 4 Molecular Biology Tools for Tomato Improvement 5 Applications of Biotechnology to Tomato 6 Conclusions References III.2 Cucumber W. Plader, W. Burza, and S. Malepszy 1 Introduction 2 Current Research and Developments 3 Conclusion and Future Challenges References III.3 Eggplant M.V. Rajam and S.V. Kumar 1 Introduction 2 Tissue Culture 3 Genetic Engineering 4 Future Prospects References III.4 Lettuce M.R. Davey, P. Anthony, P. Van Hooff, J.B. Power, and K.C. Lowe 1 Morphology, Origin and Production of Cultivated Lettuce 2 Genetic Improvement of Lettuce: Conventional Breeding and Biotechnological Approaches 3 Culture of Tissues and Isolated Protoplasts of Lettuce 4 Somaclonal Variant Plants Regenerated from Cultured Tissues and Protoplasts of Lettuce 5 Somatic Hybridisation of Lettuce 6 Transformation for the Genetic Manipulation of Lettuce: Direct DNA Uptake into Protoplasts and Agrobacterium-mediated Gene Delivery 7 Introduction of Agronomically Important Genes into Lettuce 8 Inactivation of Gene Expression in Transgenic Lettuce 9 Plastid Transformation in ...