Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants Volume 6 Series Editor: Chittaranjan Kole Volumes of the Series Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants Volume 1 Cereals and Millets Volume 2 Oilseeds Volume 3 Pulses, Sugar and Tuber Crops Volume 4 Fruits and Nuts Volume 5 Vegetables Volume 6 Technical Crops Volume 7 Forest Trees Chittaranjan Kole (Ed.) Technical Crops With 35 Illustrations, 2 in Color 123 Chittaranjan Kole Department of Horticulture 316 Tyson Building The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802 USA e-mail:
[email protected] Library of Congress Control Number: 2006933736 ISBN-13 978-3-540-34537-4 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permissions for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law. Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media springer.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007 The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Editor: Dr. Sabine Schreck, Heidelberg, Germany Desk Editor: Dr. Jutta Lindenborn, Heidelberg, Germany Cover design: WMX Design GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany Typesetting and production: LE-TEX Jelonek, Schmidt & Vöckler GbR, Leipzig, Germany 39/3100/YL 5 4 3 2 1 0 – Printed on acid-free paper Preface to the Series Genome science has emerged unequivocally as the leading discipline of this new millennium. Progress in molecular biology during the last century has provided critical inputs for building a solid foundation for this discipline. However, it has gained fast momentum particularly in the last two decades with the advent of genetic linkage mapping with RFLP markers in humans in 1980. Since then it has been flourishing at a stupendous pace with the development of newly emerging tools and techniques. All these events are due to the concerted global efforts directed at the delineation of genomes and their improvement. Genetic linkage maps based on molecular markers are now available for almost all plants of significant academic and economic interest, and the list of plants is growing regularly. A large number of economic genes have been mapped, tagged, cloned, sequenced, or characterized for expression and are being used for genetic tailoring of plants through molecular breeding. An array of markers in the arsenal from RFLP to SNP; tools such as BAC, YAC, ESTs, and microarrays; local physical maps of target genomic regions; and the employment of bioinformatics contributing to all the “-omics” disciplines are making the journey more and more enriching. Most na