Contents: Preface. I. General overview: 1. Stress environments and their impact on crop production/Shafiq-ur-Rehman, P.J.C. Harris and M. Ashraf. 2. Breeding for stress resistance: general principles/Mervyn O. Humphreys and Michael W. Humphreys. 3. Use of genetic engineering and molecular biology approaches for crop improvement for stress environments/Viswanathan Chinnusamy, Liming Xiong and Jian-Kang Zhu. 4. Genome mapping and its implications for improving stress resistance in plants/Nguyen Thi Vinh and Andrew H. Paterson. 5. Breeding for salinity tolerance/Rajinder S. Malhotra and Thomas Blake. 6. Breeding for drought resistance/D. Kumar. 7. Molecular genetics and breeding for flooding tolerance/Apichart Vanavichit, Somvong Tragoonrung and Theerayuth Toojinda. 8. Breeding for metal tolerance/Wilfried H.O. Ernst. 9. Breeding crops for adaptation to environments with low nutrient availability/Zed Rengel. 10. Genetic improvements of tolerance to high temperature/Catherine J. Howarth. 11. Breeding for cold tolerance/Pedro Revilla, Ana Butron, M. Elena Cartea, Rosa Ana Malvar and Amando Ordas. II. Breeding for abiotic stress tolerance in individual crops: 12. Breeding for abiotic stress tolerance in wheat/Wolfgang H. Pfeiffer, Richard M. Trethowan, Maarten van Ginkel, Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio and Sanjaya Rajaram. 13. Breeding for abiotic stress tolerance in barley/Sakti Jana and Ron W. Wilen. 14. Breeding for abiotic stress tolerance in rice/Glen B. Gregorio and Gloria S. Cabuslay. 15. Breeding for abiotic stress tolerance in maize/Hans-Werner Koyro and Bernhard Huchzermeyer. 16. Breeding for abiotic stress tolerance in oilseed crops/David A. Dierig. 17. Breeding for abiotic stress tolerance in cotton/Daryl T. Bowman and Randy Wells. 18. Breeding for abiotic stress tolerance in tomato/Majid R. Foolad. Index.

"Abiotic Stresses: Plant Resistance Through Breeding and Molecular Approaches explores innovative methods for breeding new varieties of major crops with resistance to environmental stresses that limit crop production worldwide. Experts provides the basic principles and techniques of plant breeding and examine work that has been done in relation to improving resistance in specific important world food crops.

This timely resource is divided into two sections. The first section presents:

The general principles of breeding crops for stress resistance.
Genetic engineering and molecular biology procedures for crop improvement for stress environments
Data on genome mapping and its implications for improving stress resistance in plants.
Information about breeding for resistance/tolerance to salinity, drought, flooding, metals, low nutrient availability, and high/low temperatures.
The second section Abiotic Stresses: Plant Resistance Through Breeding and Molecular Approaches focuses on the efforts of acknowledged specialists toward improving wheat, barley, tomato, rice, maize, cotton, and oilseed crops. With extensive bibliographies at the end of each chapter, as well as tables and figures that illustrate the research finding, this book will help scientists and academics examine, modify, and improve breeding programs about the world."