Carbohydrates in grain legume seeds. Improving nutritional quality and agronomic characteristics.

Chapter 6 (Page no: 145)

Biotechnology.

This chapter concentrates on the biotechnological techniques developed in the fields of plant cell tissue culture and genetic engineering. Information is presented under the following headings: in vitro cultures and plant regeneration of grain legumes, including introduction to in vitro culture, plant regeneration systems, pioneering studies on pea regeneration, regeneration via somatic embryogenesis, regeneration via organogenesis and multiple shoot formation, recent studies to produce more efficient, fast and reliable systems for regeneration, factors affecting regeneration (explant, growth regulators and genotype), and advantages of the different developmental pathways for in vitro manipulation; isolated protoplasts from grain legumes, including introduction to protoplast cultures (definition, general procedures for the isolation and cultivation of plant protoplasts, and advantages of isolated plant protoplasts), protoplast cultures from leguminous species, application of grain legumes protoplasts to the study of carbohydrates (the role of carbohydrates in protoplast media, the role of carbohydrates in cell wall synthesis, the role of carbohydrates in protoplast division and sugar transport through plasmalemma); somaclonal variation in grain legumes, including introduction, factors causing variation, mechanisms of somaclonal variation, potential disadvantages of somaclonal variation, variation in grain legumes at the cell and tissue culture level in vitro (cytological instability in vitro, and variation in tolerance/resistance to biotic and abiotic factors (stresses)), and variation in grain legumes at the whole plant level (variation in ploidy level, chromosomal aberrations and DNA content, biochemical and molecular changes (total proteins, isozymes, DNA fingerprints), morphological and physiological traits, yield characters, variation in tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress, and product quality changes (proteins, carbohydrates and lipids)); transformation methods in grain legumes, including introduction, gene delivery systems used in agronomically important legumes, methods giving positive results - transgenic plants (Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer, biolistic plant transformation (particle bombardment), and electroporation and microinjection), transgenic plants and useful genes/traits transformed into grain legumes (herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, virus resistance and nutritional quality), field trials with transgenic grain legume plants and commercialized transgenic legume crops, and future prospects; the availability and possible manipulation of genes involved in starch biosynthesis, including biochemical pathways of starch biosynthesis, the availability of genes involved in starch biosynthesis, and the availability of other genes influencing starch biosynthesis and starch quality; the availability and possible manipulation of genes involved in α-galactoside accumulation and degradation, including biochemical pathways of α-galactoside biosynthesis, and the availability of genes involved in α-galatoside accumulation and degradation and their possible manipulation; and cell suspension culture as a model for studying carbohydrate metabolism, including introduction, composition of plant cell walls, biosynthesis of cell wall components, oligosaccharides as signals and substrates in the plant cell wall, and plant cell suspension cultures - a powerful tool in investigating cell wall metabolism.

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