Ranked on the basis of harvested mass, the top five cereals in the world are maize (corn), rice, wheat, barley and sorghum. However, the commercial application of biotechnology over these five species is heavily skewed. Only in maize are there genetically engineered varieties currently marketed to...

This chapter describes relevant technologies and their development in maize transformation for both random and targeted transgene integration. It focuses on the recombinant DNA techniques and transformation methods used by the commercial maize biotech sector. Although there has been considerable...

This chapter details the significant global adoption of genetically engineered maize and surveys current traits and future trends. The first generation of commercial biotech maize products were single-gene, insect-resistant traits for Lepidopteran pests, primarily European corn borers, Ostrinia...

Asparagine (Asn) is an amino acid which serves as a carrier and storage form of nitrogen. In this chapter, the history, chemical properties and general role of Asn will be examined, followed by an account of the history of asparagine synthetase (AsnS) research in humans, microbes and plants. The...

This chapter presents the taxonomy, distribution, genetic diversity, disease symptoms, host range, transmission, economic importance, detection and control of Sugarcane mosaic virus which infects maize and sugarcane, as well as provide some insights into its evolution. Efforts to obtain resistance...

This book contains 16 chapters focusing on the recombinant DNA techniques and transformation methods used by the commercial maize biotechnology sector, current traits and future trends of the global adoption of transgenic maize, specific breeding challenges and the current trends in applied sorghum ...

The tryptophan (Trp) pathway diverges from the shikimate pathway at chorismate. The first committed enzyme for Trp synthesis is anthranilate synthase. Anthranilate is then converted to Trp in five steps. The secondary metabolites derived from this pathway have been shown to play important roles in...

Farmers planted genetically engineered crops that produce insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) on a cumulative total of 570 million ha worldwide from 1996 to 2013. These Bt crops kill some key insect pests, yet they are not toxic to most other organisms, including...

The evolution of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) maize by the African stem borer, Busseola fusca, in South Africa highlighted the importance of the development of appropriate integrated resistance management (IRM) strategies for stem borers in Africa. Landscape heterogeneity is...

Since first being commercialized in 1996, transgenic maize expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins has gained widespread acceptance in the world. In 2013, nearly 50 Mha of Bt maize were planted in 15 countries. In the same year, growers in the USA alone planted c.30 Mha of Bt maize, which...