Climate-Resilient Brassicas: A Pathway to Food Security

Plant Biology is reaching an extraordinary degree of complexity, especially due to late technological advances. Integration from the molecular to the whole plant level of the mechanisms governing growth and developmental processes provides a better and an increasingly diverse vision of the functioning of plants in different habitats and under changing environmental conditions. This covers various levels of plant research: cellular, biochemical, molecular, physiological, ecological and evolutionary, allowing us to more precisely understand the physiological/molecular mechanisms, to see the richness of phenotypic responses of plants to the diverse environments, search the molecular basis of variation, consider the diversity and specificities of plant functionalism, progress made in the fundamental knowledge of reception of external signals and internal signaling pathways, the integration of metabolic functions, and the differentiation and development of plants exposed to stress.

Brassicaceae is a large plant family with 338 genera, approximately globally distributed 4000 species, with major agro-economic and scientific importance. Several members are metal hyperaccumulators among 0.2 percent of all angiosperms, playing a role in phytoremediation technology. The oilseed Brassicas grow fast, yield high biomass and are well adapted with a potential for selecting superior genotypes for different purposes; well suited to genetic manipulation, in vitro culture techniques and attractive candidates for the introduction of genes. The genus ＂Brassica＂ include oilseeds and vegetables of global economic importance.

This book reviews advances in various areas of ＂Brassicas＂, covering the botanical aspects as well as use of rapid-cycle Brassicas, their ecophysiology, tissue culture and gene transfer, molecular genetics, biotic and abiotic stress resilience, and molecular/speed breeding farming. It targets a potentially broad spectrum of audience ranging from the researchers in this field to undergraduate and graduate students who want an overview of current knowledge referred to the Brassica’s as food.

Dr. Munir Ozturk, received his PhD and D.Sc. from Ege University, Izmir- Turkiye; served at the Ege University-Turkiye for more than 50 years and has been Founder Director of the Centre for Environmental Studies, Ege University, as well as Chairman of the Botany Department & Director of the Botanical Garden. Sideritis ozturkii and Verbascum ozturkii are 2 newly recorded endemic plant species from Turkiye in his name. Dr. Ozturk is a Fellow of the IAS and served as Vice President IAS ＂The World Islamic Academy of Science＂ for 5 years, Foreign Fellow Pakistan Academy of Science, Distinguished Fellow (Division of Natural Sciences)-Core Academy, Singapur, Fellow of Honour -Russian Academy of Ecology (Moscow). He has published 76 books, over 200 papers in international journals with impact factor; 145 book chapters, and has presented large number of papers at the international and national meetings; served as guest editor of 13 international journals.

Professor Nafees A. KHAN is a Professor and Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. His research focuses on identifying strategies for developing abiotic stress-tolerant crop plants through modulation of tolerance mechanisms and strengthening positive source-sink relationships under optimal and limited environmental conditions. He has published about 200 research papers and 22 books. He has received recognition as UGC-Career Award, UGC-Mid Career Award, Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fellow of Linnean Society of London, Fellow of Indian Botanical Society and Fellow of Indian Society of Plant Physiology, Highly Cited Researcher 2019-2023, India Research Excellence Citation Award-2023 by Clarivate Analytics (Web of Science), and Plant Science and Agronomy in India Award 2023 and 2024 by Research.com.

Dr. Sarvajeet Singh GILL is Professor (Asstt.) of Agriculture Biotechnology, at Stress Physiology & Molecular Biology Lab, Centre for Biotechnology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India. He has specialised in the fields of Plant Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering, Plant Biotic & Abiotic Stress Tolerance, Reactive Oxygen Species Signaling and Antioxidant Machinery in Plants, Helicases, Transgenic, Nitrogen & Sulfur Metabolism, Plant Fungal Symbiotic Interactions for Crop Improvement and increasing crop production- now the highest agricultural priority because of increasing world population & changing climatic conditions. Has undertaken research to understand the mechanism of abiotic stress tolerance (heavy metal/salinity/drought) in plants (Brassica juncea etc) at molecular & physiological level. Featured consecutively in the ＂World Google Scholar Citations 22166; h-index: 51; i10index:109; Ranking of Top 2% Scientists＂ in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Guest Editorship of several journals. He has also published 30 books.

Dr. Volkan ALTAY is a full Professor at the Biology Department, Faculty of Science and Arts, Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Turkiye. His fields of interest are; Plant Ecology, Vegetation Ecology, Taxonomy, Biodiversity, Biomonitoring and Pollution Ecology, and Sustainable Use of Medicinal Plant Resources. He received his PhD. in 2009 and holds a proven track record of nearly 100 publications in highly reputed professional journals. He has also published 8 books; nearly 50 research articles in impact factor journals, more than 65 book chapters (Springer, Elseiver, Cambridge, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, AAP, CRC Press, etc.) and reviews, more than 70 international and national congress reports. He has been an invited speaker for various conferences. Dr. Altay has been listed in top 2% scientists in the world (Stanford University report published by Elseiver in 2024). Total citations of publications are 5250, h-index: 41, i10-index: 90.