Food security: It starts with seed
May 4, 2009With each passing year, the human population of our planet continues to expand. This growth has created a wide ranging strain on our water and soil resources, as well as our environment, creating an unprecedented urgency to address the issue of food security. One way that scientists are working towards this goal is through the genetic modification of seeds, both as a method of improving crop yields as well as enhancing the nutritional composition of foods. A new book published by American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America and the Soil Science Society of America addresses the issue of seed modification for the improvement of food sources around the world.
The newly released book, Modification of Seed Composition to Promote Health and Nutrition, brings together research and interpretations from prominent scientists from around the world who are addressing many food-related human issues through modification of seed composition. Among the wide range of cutting-edge topics that this book covers are the pursuit of grains that could eradicate global malnutrition and the potential growth of vaccines.
This book provides valuable, science-based insights for researchers and practitioners in disciplines ranging from medicine to human nutrition to crop production. Readers from across a spectrum of various disciplines should find a topic of interest in this text. Chapter titles include "Engineering Proteins for Improved Nutritional Value"; "Reducing Peanut Allergy Risks by Means of Genetic Modification"; "Engineering Seeds for the Production and Delivery of Oral Vaccines"; and "Engineering Plants to Produce Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids".
Hari Krishnan, a research molecular biologist with the USDA-ARS and an Adjunct Professor of Plant Sciences at University of Missouri in Columbia, MO, is the editor of the book. Current areas of research in his lab include the genetic modification of soybean seed composition and improvement of biological nitrogen fixation in the model symbiosis between soybean and Sinorhizobium fredii USDA257.
The publishing of Modification of Seed Composition to Promote Health and Nutrition coincides with the initiation of the Biomedical, Health-Beneficial and Nutritionally Enhanced Plants division in the Crop Science Society of America. This division of CSSA focuses on plants as food or feed, as well as the development and evaluation of novel characteristics and compositional quality traits in crops that are important to the health, well being, and nutritional requirements of humans.
More information: View the table of contents for Modification of Seed Composition to Promote Health and Nutrition at: https://portal.sci … f/B40723.pdf
-
Plant soybean early to increase yield
Feb 02, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Can hemp help the everglades?
Aug 06, 2007 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Oil seed rape grown for biofuel can help clean up toxic soils
Sep 09, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
A model to measure soil health in the era of bioenergy
Nov 19, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Nitric oxide regulates plants as well as people
Apr 28, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (31) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Stem cell question.
Feb 10, 2012
-
Protease cleavage
Feb 10, 2012
-
Pertubance in a model
Feb 10, 2012
-
Cancer drugs and Alzheimer's, Oh my!
Feb 09, 2012
-
Squishing cells
Feb 09, 2012
-
Any books/articles for evolutionary stable strategy models in humans?
Feb 09, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - Biology
More news stories
Entire genome of extinct human decoded from fossil
(PhysOrg.com) -- In 2010, Svante Pääbo and his colleagues presented a draft version of the genome from a small fragment of a human finger bone discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. The ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (58) |
45
|
Why are there so few fish in the Earth's oceans?
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Stony Brook University researcher has found that, contrary to popular belief, there are not plenty of fish in the sea.
Feb 08, 2012 |
4.3 / 5 (17) |
26
|
Miami battling invasion of giant African snails
No one knows how they got there. But an invasion of African giant snails has southern Florida in a panic over potential crop damage, disease and general yuckiness surrounding the slimy gastropods.
Feb 10, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
5
Deciding to go left or right: Researchers use device to determine that lower animals can navigate too
For decades, scientists have associated binary decision making — opting to go left or right — with higher-ranking animals, including humans. A team of Harvard researchers, however, is rewriting that ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
4 / 5 (1) |
4
|
Study shows chimps able to understand needs of others
(PhysOrg.com) -- By setting up a unique experiment, a small team of researchers has found that chimpanzees are able to understand need in other chimps, despite their general disinclination to offer aid when ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
4
|
Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon
(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...
Latin America mining boom clashes with conservation
Latin America is experiencing a mining boom as prices rise fuelled by a hike in global demand, but the region is also being hit by a wave of violent protests, strikes and rallies by environmentalists.
Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...
Love a click away in Indonesia's Twitter Republic
He was a geeky kid from Yogyakarta, she a glamorous city girl in Jakarta. In a country with one of the world's most vibrant social networking scenes they fell in love on Twitter.
GPS court ruling leaves US phone tracking unclear
A US Supreme Court decision requiring a warrant to place a GPS device on the car of a criminal suspect leaves unresolved the bigger issue of police tracking using mobile phones, legal experts say.
Europeans protest controversial Internet pact
Tens of thousands of people marched in protests in more than a dozen European cities Saturday against a controversial anti-online piracy pact that critics say could curtail Internet freedom.
