Table Of ContentPLANT GENETIC RESOURCES
FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
The OMICS Era
PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES
FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
The OMICS Era
Edited by
Kioumars Ghamkhar, PhD
Warren M. Williams, PhD
Anthony Hugh Dean Brown, PhD
First edition published 2023
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Plant genetic resources for the 21st century : the OMICS era / edited by Kioumars Ghamkhar, PhD, Warren M. Wil
liams, PhD, Anthony Hugh Dean Brown, PhD.
Names: Ghamkhar, Kioumars, editor. | Williams, Warren M. (Plant scientist), editor. | Brown, A. H. D., editor.
Description: First edition. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220285101 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220285144 | ISBN 9781774910825 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781774910832 (softcover) | ISBN 9781003302957 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Plant genetics. | LCSH: Gene banks, Plant. | LCSH: Genomics.
Classification: LCC QK981 .P53 2023 | DDC 581.3/5—dc23
Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Names: Ghamkhar, Kioumars, editor. | Williams, Warren M. (Plant scientist), editor. | Brown, A. H. D., editor.
Title: Plant genetic resources for the 21st Century : the omics era / edited by Kioumars Ghamkhar, Warren M. Williams,
Anthony Hugh Dean Brown.
Other titles: Plant genetic resources for the Twenty-First century
Description: First edition. | Palm Bay, FL, USA : Apple Academic Press, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Summary: “Exploring plant genetic resources is crucial in a time when food security has been a critical topic worldwide
due to crop shortages and the impact of climate change. This new book, Plant Genetic Resources for the 21st Century: The
OMICS Era, presents the practical advancements in genomics, epigenetics, metabolomics, and phenomics from the point of
view of researchers and scientists working in the field of genebanks, genetics resources, and germplasm for enabling plant
breeding and adaptation to a changing climate. The book highlights the importance of genebanks as centers of innovation
for crop and forage improvement and discusses database solutions for genebanks and germplasm collections. The book
first looks at plant genetic resources and their values and goes on to investigate several genomic technologies for plant
improvement, conservation, and better adaptation to changing climates. Major crops such as wheat and barley are discussed
with genomic approaches for diversity and resilience to drought and other adverse conditions. Other omics techniques
discussed include phenomics for the improvement of crop adaptation, metabolomics research for germplasm improvement
and adaptation, and more. This volume will be valuable for researchers who are presently working in or with genebanks and
genetic resources, primarily for trait or allele discovery and germplasm improvement. Most chapters in the book can also be
used as teaching material at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022031959 (print) | LCCN 2022031960 (ebook) | ISBN 9781774910825 (hardcover) | ISBN
9781774910832 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003302957 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Germplasm resources, Plant. | Food crops--Germplasm resources. | Plant genetics. | Genomics.
Classification: LCC QK981 .P523 2023 (print) | LCC QK981 (ebook) | DDC 581.3/5--dc23/eng/20220831
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022031959
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022031960
ISBN: 978-1-77491-082-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-77491-083-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-00330-295-7 (ebk)
Dedications
Kioumars wishes to dedicate this book to his family who live far away
from him in Iran: his siblings (Mahnoosh, Kianoosh, and Mahrang) for
their support and encouragement throughout his career. He also dedicates
the book to the spirits of his parents (Amir Hedayatollah and Mahvash) for
everything they did for him.
The editors collectively wish to honor our late colleague Dr Margot
Forde who, from the 1970s to 1992, was the curator of the New Zealand
Forage Germplasm Centre, AgResearch Grasslands Research Centre,
Palmerston North, New Zealand. This collection was started in 1940 and
was renamed the Margot Forde Forage Germplasm Centre in 1992. Margot
was a visionary leader, recognizing and promoting the values of conserving
plant genetic diversity and was an early adopter of genetic techniques in the
management and use of plant genetic resources.
About the Editors
Kioumars Ghamkhar, PhD
Kioumars Ghamkhar, PhD, has been the Director of the
Margot Forde Forage Germplasm Centre, AgResearch,
Palmerston North, New Zealand’s National Forage
Genebank, since 2014. He received his BSC and MSC
in Iran. In 2004, he completed his PhD in plant diversity
and evolution from the University of New England,
Australia. Dr Ghamkhar worked at the University of
Western Australia (2003–2010) before moving to the
Department of Primary Industries and Environment,
Victoria, Australia (2011–2014) as a senior scientist. He has had a long
involvement in crop ex situ genetic resource conservation and characterization,
driving several initiatives in characterization of forage and crop germplasm,
including integration of omics data into genebank databases.
Dr Ghamkhar’s has 20 years of research experience in using different
technologies in the area of agriculture and plant genetic diversity. In 2020, his
plant phenomics team at Agresearch won the Science NZ team award (jointly
with the genomics team).
At the international level, Dr. Ghamkhar co-chairs the Phenomics Working
Group at the DivSeek International Network, which is focused on the use of
imaging and sensor technologies to establish common standards and methods
for collecting, analyzing, and sharing phenomics data among genebanks and
their users. He also co-chairs the Seed and Germplasm Phenotyping Working
Group at the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN). He has been an
associate editor with the journal “Frontiers in Plant Science” and a guest editor
with the journal “Plants” since September 2020.
viii About the Editors
Warren M. Williams, PhD
Warren M. Williams, PhD, is currently Emeritus Scientist at the AgResearch
Grasslands Research Centre, Palmerston North, New Zealand, since 2014.
Dr. Williams graduated with MSc in botany from the Victoria University
of Wellington, New Zealand, in 1965, and then worked as a forage breeder
at the Grasslands Research Centre, DSIR, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
In 1972, he completed his PhD in plant breeding and plant genetics at the
University of Wisconsin, studying with Prof. J. L. Kermicle in maize genetics
and epigenetics. After a period of forage breeding in New Zealand, he moved
to Australia as a principal geneticist for the Victorian Department of Agri
culture. Later he returned to the Grasslands Research Centre in Palmerston
North and became the Curator of the Margot Forde Germplasm Centre, the
New Zealand’s genebank for forage species. He carried out plant breeding
research using interspecific hybridization in forage species and participated
in seed collecting expeditions in Europe and North America. He was the
breeder or cobreeder of eight commercially successful forage cultivars and
contributed as a prebreeder for several more. He has authored over 80 peer-
reviewed scientific papers and was a contributor and coeditor of the 1987
CABI book White Clover with MJ Baker.
Anthony Hugh Dean Brown, PhD
Anthony Hugh Dean Brown, PhD, received his Agricultural Science degree
from the University of Sydney Australia in 1963. His first employment was
with Colonial Sugar Company, stationed at Lautoka, Fiji, as a technical field
officer working on the breeding and quantitative genetics of sugarcane. In
1966, he began his PhD research in genetics with Professor R. W. Allard at
the University of California, Davis, USA. Upon completion in 1969, he took
up a lectureship in Biology at the University of York, England. He returned
to Australia in 1972 to join the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation (CSIRO) as a research scientist. In 2006, he retired
as a Chief Research Scientist in the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research,
CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra, but continued until 2015 there as Honorary
Research Fellow in the Australian National Herbarium, researching the
evolution and conservation biology of indigenous species related to crops.
His research has been in the fields of plant population genetics, plant
breeding, conservation genetics, evolution, and molecular systematics. He
About the Editors ix
has authored singly or jointly over 200 research papers and reviews and
one monograph (with O. H. Frankel and J. J. Burdon), “The Conservation
of Plant Biodiversity,” and helped edit five volumes. He has participated
in plant collecting missions for wild relatives of crops, two for wild barley
(Israel, Iran), and six for wild Glycine and Gossypium in many regions of
Australia. He was curator of the Australian Plant Genetics Resources Centre
for indigenous wild relatives of crops. He is currently an Honorary Research
Fellow of Bioversity International, Rome, Italy, and Technical Advisor on
their global project developing the scientific basis of in situ conservation
on-farm.
