Soybean is a protein-packed functional food used widely as both food and feed crops. Despite its many medicinal, culinary, as well as various agronomical complementary traits, it is vulnerable to various abiotic and biotic stresses. This new two-volume set Soybean: History, Taxonomy, Genetics, Breeding, Diseases, and Biotechnology, provides comprehensive coverage of many aspects of soybean, its utilities, vulnerabilities, and most recent discoveries.
The first volume emphasizes aspects of taxonomy, domestication of soybean, and its evolution. Comprised of four sections, it covers the history, taxonomy, distribution, and economic importance of soybeans. It also discusses soybean breeding, seed systems, product development as well as product profiles of soybean.
The second volume looks at the current trends, genomic information, conventional breeding techniques along with their challenges, and the need for modern methods in the cultivation of soybeans. This volume explores the genetics, genomics, and proteomics of soybeans, discussing advances and improvements in soybeans, soybean diseases, the use of soybeans in medicine, and other future uses of soybeans.
Together, this two-volume set provides a holistic approach and covers a wide range of areas of both research and interest for soybean crop improvement. The volumes will prove beneficial for agriculturalists, plant physiologists, biotechnologists, and particularly soybean breeders.
R. Ambika Rajendran, PhD, is a Senior Scientist of Plant Breeding in the Division of Genetics at the Senior Scientist of Plant Breeding, Division of Genetics, Indian Council of Agricultural Research–Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi, India. She was the Directorate of Maize Research (DMR), New Delhi (currently referred to as the Indian Institute of Maize Research [IIMR], Punjab, India) from 2009 until 2016. Later, she joined the Division of Genetics, IARI, as a scientist in a senior scale in 2016. She has over 15 years of research experience. She currently works in abiotic stress tolerance and doubled haploidy in soybeans. She worked in maize breeding for high oil along with baby corn. Her significant research includes heterotic grouping and patterning of quality protein maize using molecular markers, in vitro mutagenesis in rice, identification of sources of high oil post-Fusarium stalk rot resistance genetic stocks in maize, and identification of tolerant sources for pre-germination anaerobic stress tolerance in soybean. She has edited two books and also served as an editor for a book on soybean. She has many peer-reviewed research articles published in journals of international and national repute and book chapters to her credit. She is also serving as a reviewer for various national and international journals. She earned her bachelor degree from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Tamil Nadu, India, her master’s degree from Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), Kerala, India, and her doctorate from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU).
Ayyagari Ramlal, MRSB, is a doctoral scholar at the School of Biological Science, University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia. He has worked as a junior research fellow at the Division of Genetics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI), Delhi, India, and Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Uttar Pradesh, India. He also worked on an innovation research project initiated by the University of Delhi. He has received young scientist and best author awards from different societies/organizations in India. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed research and review articles in international journals of repute and many book chapters. He served as an editor for the book Phytohormones in Abiotic Stress and is currently serving as a reviewer for many international and national journals of repute and as a review editor for the section on niodiversity for the journal Frontiers for Young Minds. He is a member of the Royal Society of Biology, UK. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s in Botany at the University of Delhi, Delhi, India.
Sanjay Kumar Lal, PhD, is a Principal Scientist at the Division of Genetics, Indian Council of Agricultural Research–Indian Agricultural Research Institute, and Coordinator of the Delhi Centre for All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Soybean. He is also the group/project leader for genetic enhancement of soybean. He has been working as an active researcher and possesses over 25 years of experience in conducting and doing research. His area of specialization includes soybean breeding, tissue culture, and molecular breeding. He has published over 50 original articles in journals of repute. He has released several varieties of soybean including Pusa9712 and Pusa9814. He has also guided many students including masters and supervised doctoral theses.
Godfree Chigeza, PhD, is currently associated with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Lusaka, Zambia, as a soybean breeder. Prior to this appointment, he worked as breeder project lead at MRI Zambia, Syngenta Africa and Middle East (AME). He was the projects team lead for maize breeding at the Agricultural Research Council-Grain Crops Institute, Potchefstroom, South Africa, and worked as a field trial and horticultural manager at the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) Department of Biology, University of York, UK. Dr. Chigeza has a PhD in Plant Breeding from the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. He received his MPhil in Agricultural Sciences and graduate diploma in Agricultural Sciences (Plant Breeding and Biotechnology) at the University of Queensland, Australia. He earned his graduate diploma in Seed Technology and BSc in Agricultural Crop Science at the University of Zimbabwe.
