Olejar Books

Plant cytogenetics comprises a topic of broad interest and increasing importance in plant science. In keeping with the exciting advances in plant genetics and genomics, we believe that a comprehensive and up-to-date reference on plant cytogenetics would be of great interest and value for researchers, instructors, and students with interests in genetics, plant biology, and plant genomics. The field of cytogenetics is currently expanding at the same fast pace that genome technologies are moving but no reliable reference exists that captures the current state of progress. The goal then of the proposed reference is to provide a scholarly and timely review of plant cytogenetics that covers traditional aspects of plant cytogenetics together with the emerging and exciting new areas of genomics, epigenetics, evolution, and chromosome engineering. Advances in plant genetics and genomics are driving major changes in how we view fundamental concepts such as gene regulation, genome organization, and plant evolution. Plant Cytogenetics: Genome Structure and Chromosome Function provides a unique and critical perspective on these precepts. Our proposed new reference on cytogenetics will be offered in two separate and individual but complementary volumes. This volume will consist of 16 chapters and a glossary, and collectively present a must-have reference for researchers, instructors, students, or breeders whose work on plants can be described as genetics, structural or functional genomics, evolution, or epigenetics. The genome revolution has opened new avenues for understanding and modifying plant genomes. A modern reference book on plant cytogenetics will be a major asset as plant geneticists move from engineering genes and pathways to engineering more complex genetic elements such as whole chromosomes and composite genomes. We expect that this definitive reference would serve just such a role covering the fundamentals of plant cytogenetics on this topic of great historic and contemporary importance.