eChapters

Introduction

The improvement of the quality of foods can be made by fortification of foods nutrients quality and quantity in food. It can be a very cost effective public health intervention. As a result of the high consumption pattern of dairy products viz. yogurt, the fortification process will effectively diminish or prevent diseases associated with nutritional deficiencies (Gahruie et al., 2015). However, due to nutrients deficiencies in human population especially in certain stages of life, holding, importing, and consumption of fortified foods is increasing (Preedy et al., 2013). As a general rule, addition of one or more essential nutrients to a food and increasing their concentration in that particular food to levels higher than normal is known as fortification. This is intended at preventing and correcting shortages in one or more micronutrients in the society or specific population groups (Bonner et al., 1999). The major ways of food fortification are (1) commercial and industrial fortification for wheat flour, corn meal, cooking oils, (2) bio-fortification of crops to augment their nutritional value, which can include conventional as well as selective breeding, and genetic engineering and (3) house hold fortification like vitamin D drops. Fermentation has twofold outcome on glycemic index though there are conflicting results after consumption. The reduced glycemic index of fermented food has been featured to the production of short?chain organic acids during fermentation.

Introduction

Fermented foods and beverages comprise an indispensable part of the human diet. They can be generally defined as those foods and beverages produced via controlled microbial growth and conversion of various substrates using either enzymes or as whole cell itself, as shown in Figure 1.

Introduction

Wine is a very unique fermented beverage. It was an essential part of various religious and cultural ceremonies in ancient civilizations; and continues to be considered as a ‘drink for elite’. The reason is that wine was considered as ‘Gift of God and ‘God’s nectar’ in religious text books, and medicinal value of the beverage is well supported by modern science. Wine is a beverage well tagged with its geographical origin. This concept originally comes from French concept of terroir; which explains that a varietal wine from a defined region possess distinctive qualities. Wine makers of the past enjoyed this definition of quality for better marketing opportunities. Today, globalization and advancement in wine science created empowered consumers who could clearly discriminate quality of wines. In addition to a product with high sensory qualities, consumers expect a healthful beverage produced in an environmentally sustainable manner. Enology research projects focus on such aspects; and this chapter is a glance on enology advancements and proven health benefits of wine, such as cardiovascular health gut health, dental health etc.

Introduction

Since long time fermentation process is in use for the production of functional food products for human welfare. SSF is a cost effective industrially important method that could be used by food industries to improve the nutritional profile of natural substrates (Salar and Purewal, 2016; Postemsky et al., 2017). The process is being carried out by trained microbiologists in the presence of aseptic conditions using suitable starter culture on steam sterilized substrates. Steam sterilized substrates possess minimal amount of moisture so as to support the microbial growth during the fermentation period. Growth of microbial strains on specific substrates during the fermentation time results in formation of koji (antioxidant rich fermented product). Selection of substrates and starter microbial strains is an important step in the fermentation process which will determine the nutritional properties of fermented product. One of the major advantages of SSF at industrial level is its potential to be utilized on cereal grains, fruits, vegetables and even agricultural wastes (Salar et al., 2012; Postemsky and Curvetto, 2015; Bhanja et al., 2009). Most common substrates that are being used as solid platform for the growth of microbial strains are cereal grains.

Introduction

The entire living organism from the smaller creatures viruses to the advanced human beings are composed of a set up of biochemical reactions which form the metabolism. These set of metabolic reactions are responsible for the life of organism. The rate of these reactions is a major concern for effective working of organism which is governed by biocatalyst. These biocatalysts are known as enzymes, which accelerates rate of biochemical reaction. These are not utilized in reaction. In 1877, Wilhelm Friedrich Kuhne (Kuhne, 1877) proposed the term enzyme which means ‘in yeast’ and is derived from the Greek word; inzume “leavened” or “in yeast”. At the molecular level of study it is observed that enzymes are proteins which are functional as tertiary and quaratanary structures. Enzymes have active site for the binding to substrate. The active site has two positions; binding and catalytic site (Ogeston, 1948). The former help to bind the substrate with the enzyme followed by the catalysis of reaction by the catalytic site.

Introduction

Off late our understanding of the composition and functions of the human gut microbiota has increased exponentially and there is a great interest in producing healthy foods in particular that which have an impact in improving the gastrointestinal health such as probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics. Many of these functional foods are dairy based and have been accepted greatly worldwide. Nonertheless, there has been a need for the development of nondairy probiotic, prebiotic and synbiotic products (Salmeron 2017). This has prompted food scientists and food industrialists to study the feasibility of applying other fermenting substrates such as cereals for the development of innovative nondairy fermented functional foods. The importance of including nanoscience and nanotechnology techniques for the creation of fermented cereal beverages that contain specific bioactive nanoparticles and their role in food packaging systems will be discussed.

Preamble

Historically, food has been an integral part of human civilization and diet with varied food components has sustained human life on this planet over the centuries. Similarly, culturing of food with natural fermentation as means of preserving foods with extended shelf life for future use. In the background of sustaining food security, advances made in biotechnology and molecular biology has provided ample scientific platform to use the advances in increasing and expanding food production on a global magnitude, so as to meet the needs of an ever-growing world population.

The intestinal microbiota is a key component of both the metabolism and immunity of humans and animals. The desirable microbes do have a significant role to play in healthcare through control of digestive disorders and foodborne illnesses. The continued research in this area over the years has led to the identification of important molecules that regulate major functional attributes in the betterment of human health and wellness in the long run. The science and technique of genetic engineering through molecular biology approaches has enabled in enriching the beneficial molecules for the benefit of human life. The accuracy in targeting and designing of molecules will go a long way in developing genetically modified (GM) lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and GM probiotics to significantly rewrite the medical care with food-based approach in the form of targeted specific diets – “Dietomics”.

Introduction

Since the last century, nutritional science has made a remarkable contribution to the biological sciences through identification of diverse nutrients and their sources, functions, requirement, deficiency symptoms and their remedial measures etc. The advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies together with bioinformatic tools identified the presence of 100 trillion of microorganism belonging to all forms of life in the gastrointestinal tract. In fact, the whole gut microbial consortia are considered as a virtual organ in human and animals and is responsible for the development and functioning of series of essential physiological activities including digestion, absorption, metabolism, immunity, homeostasis, brain and gut development, resistance against disease etc. According to the modern scientific dogma, the human being is in fact a “Superorganism”, carrying consortium of numerous symbiotic Eukarya, Bacteria, Archaea and Viruses. The gut microflora has been co-evolved with human and presumed to maintain an intricate balance among different microbial communities. Upon introspection about the functionality of the gut microflora, it is amply clear that a few of these microorganisms have the ability to make healthy state; while other members are responsible for health-related problems including food poisoning, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, indigestion, inflammatory bowel disease, predisposition to colon cancer, compromising immunity, allergy etc.

In 1907, the Russian Nobel laureate, Dr. Elie Metchnikoff, fascinated by the unusual longevity of Bulgarian farmers, consuming beneficial lactic acid bacteria by way of traditional fermented milk products, suggested that regular intake of friendly microbes could benefit human health. Although Dr. Metchnikoff ’s recommended bacteria for the purpose proved largely ineffective, the theory was carried forward with moderate success until the war on bacteria began because of the advent of sulfa drugs and antibiotics (Scott, 2012). However soon after their rampant use and the realization of the rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance, researchers turned yet again to ecological notions and the time was fertile for the advent of probiotics. By the 1980’s the term had stabilized both in medical and veterinary literature. The mid 1990’s witnessed a surge of exponential studies on probiotics, the definition of Probiotics emerged in 2001 and the years thereafter saw tremendous progress in the science of probiotics.

Almost simultaneous was the study on the study of the intestinal microbiota when Alfred Nissile demonstrated that transferring members of the human gut microbiota to healthy typhoid carriers helped in Salmonella being cleansed from their system (Nissle, 1916). It was then, that the importance of the gut microbes in prevention of infection became evident. What followed was the advent of culture independent, modern biotechnological tools for whole genome sequencing and the successful launch of two most ambitious projects - Human Microbiome project (Turnbaugh et al., 2007) and the Met Hit project (Metahit, 2009; Qin et al., 2010). They provided fascinating insights into the highly complex microbial ecosystem harboured by the human body. The term Microbiome (refers to the collective genome of our microbial inhabitants) had entered literature in 2001 and the concept of gut microbiota in maintaining overall health gained wider attention.

Fermentation process is known to humans since ancient times. It involves the transformation of raw materials into value added or nutritional products as a result of microbial action or their growth. The fermentation as a science involves aspects of the biological action of microbes, biochemical changes in the substrates and metabolites formed and their effect on food, health and nutritional applications. While fermentation as technology, involves chemical engineering, food engineering and instrumentation aspects and commercialization of the products prepared keeping in view the consumer acceptability. The term fermentation is derived from the Latin word ‘Fervere - to boil’ thus describing the actions of yeasts on extracts of fruits or malted grain. Fermented foods and beverages enhance the pleasure of eating and their nutritional roles include indirect contributions through subjective enhancement of appetite. The instant mixes for fermented or fermentable products such as idli, dosai, dhokla and bhatura mix can reduce the overnight fermenting of the raw materials required for preparation of these products. The instant mixes for idli & dhokla are quite common in the market. However, instant mix for Jalebi and Bhatura are still emerging. Such products add convenience to the consumers and products can be prepared instantly. Certain other fermented foods include dairy products, pickles, sauerkrauts, Kanji, beverages, food supplements and nutraceuticals from fermented biomass.

Abiotic stress: Unfavourable situation created by non-living factors to the growth and development of plants. Factors include water, temperature, soluble salts, heavy metals, etc.

Abscissic acid (ABA): A plant hormone belongs to isoprenoid compounds. It is also known as stress hormone since it has relevance in stress tolerance in plants. Some of the physiological effects of ABA are closing of stomata, synthesis of osmolytes and seed dormancy.

Abscission layer: Distinct layer of cells with weakened cell walls in abscission zone.

Abscission zone: A region near the base of petiole of leaf which contain abscission layer.

Bacteriochlorophylls: A group of light absorbing photosynthetic green pigments of anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria.

Ballistic transformation: The use of a particle gun to insert foreign DNA into a host.

Beneficial elements: These are the elements that help to optimize the growth and development only in some species. It is not essential to all the plants. Aluminum is beneficial to some species that are adapted to acidic soils. Cobalt can have a number of beneficial effects, especially in leguminous plants.

Betalains: Highly coloured nitrogen containing glycosylated compound in the category of alkaloids imparting red-purple and yellow colour in plants of centropsermae (e.g., beet root).

Beta-oxidation: Breakdown of fatty acids into Acetyl co-A by successive oxidation. It is the first step of lipids breakdown.

Bidirectional transport: Simultaneous transport of solutes in opposite directions in the same file of sieve elements. Bidirectional transport may occur under some circumstances. For e.g., in a file of cell, as a result of cytoplasmic streaming.

C₃ cycle or Calvin cycle: It is a process of dark reaction of photosynthesis. It is also called as photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle which results in the production of sugars. It occurs not only in C₃ plants but also in C₄ and CAM pathway also. It occurs in the mesophyll cells. It is described in three stages: (1) Carboxylation, (2) Reduction, (3) Regeneration.

C₃ plants: Group of plants with calvin cycle wherein the first stable product is 3-phosphoglyceric acid, a three carbon compound. e.g., rice, wheat, barley.

C₄ cycle: C₄ cycle may also referred to as the dicarboxylic acid cycle or Hatch and Slack Cycle. The first stable product is a C₄ compounds like oxaloacetic acid. Here CO₂ molecule is accepted by phosphoenol pyruvate in the carboxylation reaction. The main purpose of this cycle is carbondioxide enrichment.

C₄ plants: Plants with Hatch-slack pathway and kranz anatomy of leaves in which the first stable product is four carbon compound, oxaloacetic acid. These plants posses high photosynthetic efficiency and low photorespiration rate. e.g., sugarcane, maize, sorghum.

Dark reactions: It is light independent reactions occurs during daytime. This includes C₃, C₄ and CAM pathway involving the utilization of NADPH and ATP to fix CO₂ into carbohydrates. It is also called as stromal reactions.

Day neutral plants: The plants that flowers regardless of the length of the period of the light that is exposed to. They are called as day neutral plants.

DCMU (Dichlorophenyl dimethyl urea or diuron): An herbicide that inhibits non-cyclic photophosophorylation specifically blocks the electron flow at the quinone acceptors of PSII, by competing for the binding site of plastoquinone that is normally occupied by PQB.

DCPIP (Dichlorophenol indophenols): A dye often used as artificial hydrogen acceptor to demonstrate in Hills reaction in isolated chloroplast in laboratory. The oxidized form is blue in alkali and red in acid, while reduced form is colourless.

Ectodormancy: A kind of dormancy which is due to environmental factors.

EDTA: An important chelating agent often used in modern nutrient solutions. It forms soluble complexes with metal ions such as that of iron and prevents from precipitation in the solution.

Elaiosomes: Greek élaion means “oil” and sóma means “body” , are fleshy structures that are attached to the seeds of many plant species. The elaiosome is rich in lipids and proteins, and may be variously shaped. Many plants have elaiosomes that attract ants, which take the seed to their nest and feed the elaiosome to their larvae and by which the seed get dispersed.

Electrical conductivity: Electrical conductivity is the measure of a material’s ability to allow the transport of an electric charge. It is used to measure the level of salinity in water or soil. When electrical conductivity is more, then salinity is more since as salt concentration is more in water or soil, then those salts will conduct more of electricity. Normally measured in μS/cm.

Electrical impedance: The application of alternating electrical current to pre-frozen or frozen plant tissues to predict damage or measure injury, respectively.

Facilitated diffusion: Facilitated diffusion is a movement in the direction of a concentration gradient; but it involves moving through a channel protein or a carrier protein. A channel protein is merely a pore in the membrane, and is often gated to control movement. A carrier protein has a binding site where the substance attaches and moved through the membrane.

Facultative CAM: Plants which behave as C₃ under conditions of normal water supply. However, switch over to CAM mode under conditions of water deficit.

FAD (Flavin adenine dinucleotide): A riboflavin containing co-enzyme of some oxidation reduction reactions.

Facultative long day plant: Facultative photoperiodic plants are more likely to flower under appropriate light conditions, but will eventually flower regardless of length of night.

FADH: In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) is a redox cofactor, more specifically a prosthetic group, involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in three different redox states, which are quinone, semiquinone and hydroquinone. FAD is converted between these states by accepting or donating electrons. FAD, in its full oxidised form or quinone form, accepts two electrons and two protons to become FADH₂ (hydroquinone form). The semiquinone (FADH) can be formed by either reduction of FAD or oxidation of FADH₂ by accepting or donating one electron and one proton, respectively.

Gel: A semi-solid medium in to which proteins or nucleic acids are subjected to electrophoresis, to determine their size or to separate them from other components.

Gene family: A set of genes whose sequences differ only slightly that encode identical products; within a single species, a multigene family.

Gene tagging: The addition of a marker to a gene; often by the introduction of a transposon or insertion element.

Gene transfer: Transformation; the insertion of foreign DNA into a host conferring a trait not previously inherant in that organism.

Gene: The concise meaning might be the sequence of DNA that encodes a gene product (an RNA or protein), including all upstream and downstream sequences involved in the expression of the gene.

Genome: Sum of all genetic information of an organism, nucleus, organelle, or virus.

Geotropism (Barytropism or gravitropism): When a seedling is kept horizontally on the soil, the radicle always grows towards soil, and the plumule grows away from the soil. This type of growth movement of radicle and plumule is called positively geotropic and negatively geotropic respectively. But some runners and rhizomes grow parallel to the surface of the soil and this is referred to as diagiotropic. When the lateral roots grow obliquely into the soil, it is referred to as plagiogeotropic phenomenon.

Germination percentage: Germination percentage is an estimate of the viability of a population of seeds.

Half life: The time required for the disappearance of one half of a given component of a system.

Halochromism: It occurs when a substance changes color as the pH changes. This is a property of pH indicators, whose molecular structure changes upon certain changes in the surrounding pH. This change in structure affects a chromophore in the pH indicator molecule.

Halomorphic soil : A suborder of the intrazonal soil order, consisting of saline and sodic soils formed under imperfect drainage in arid regions and including the great soil groups Solonchak or Saline soils, Solonetz soils, and Soloth soils.

Hatch-Slack pathway: It is one of the carbon fixation pathway used by certain group of plants (C₄ plants) where the first stable compound is oxalo acetate, a C₄ dicarboxylic acid compound. In the first carboxylation reactions, atmospheric CO₂ combines with phosphoenol pyruvate (PEP) to oxalo acetate and then to malate. These plants posses kranz anatomy with mesophyll and bundle sheath cells.

Ice nucleation: It is a process of reducing the formation of ice crystal under freezing stress, by some polysaccharides and proteins known as ice nucleators.

Imbibitions: It is a special type of diffusion when water is absorbed by solids-colloids-causing them to enormously increase in volume. The classical examples of imbibition are absorption of water by seeds and dry wood.

Immobile elements: The elements which get translocated slower inside the plant are called immobile elements. Examples: Ca, Fe and B.

Immunoassay: This is very sensitive method of identifying and or quantifying the hormones and other molecules which has antigen and antibody interaction.

Indeterminate growth: Plant growth in which the main stem continues to elongate indefinitely without being limited by a terminal inflorescence or other reproductive structure; also growth is characterized by sequential flowering from the lateral or basal buds to the central or uppermost buds.

Indole -3 acetic acid: It is naturally occurring auxin responsible for cell elongation, apical dominance and other physiological functions of auxins.

Induced dormancy: Induced dormancy in which dormancy develops as a response to external environmental factors.

Jasmonic acid: Jasmonic acid is derived from the fatty acid, linolenic acid. It is a member of the jasmonate class of plant hormones. It is biosynthesized from linolenic acid by the octadecanoid pathway. The major function of JA and its various metabolites is regulating plant responses to abiotic and biotic stresses as a well as plant growth and development processes.

Ketose: A simple sugar in which carbonyl group is a ketone.

Kinases: Enzymes that catalyse phosphorylation of an acceptor molecule such as protein molecule by ATP.

Lactate dehydrogenase: An enzyme that reversibly catalyses conversion of pyruvate to lactate by utilizing NAD as coenzyme. This operates under anaerobic respiratory condition.

Lactate fermentation: Lactic acid fermentation is a biological process by which glucose and six carbon sugars (also, disaccharides of six carbon sugars, e.g. sucrose or lactose) are converted into cellular energy and the metabolite lactate. It is an anaerobic fermentation reaction.

Latent heat: The heat required to convert a solid into a liquid or vapour, or a liquid into a vapour, without change of temperature. It is also called as hidden heat.

Leaching requirement: (LR) The amount of water in excess of the plant requirement that is needed to remove salt from the root zone in order to prevent soil salinity from exceeding a specified value.

Leaf Area Duration (LAD): It is the functional leaf area or estimated photosynthetic area which contributed for the total biomasss. To correlate dry matter yield with Leaf area, Power et al., (1967) integrated the Leaf area with time and called as Leaf Area Duration. LAD taken into account, both the duration and extent of photosynthetic tissue of the crop canopy. The LAD is expressed in m². days.

Macromolecule: A molecule having molecular weight ranging from few thousand to millions.

Macronutrients: The essential elements which are required by plants in comparatively large amounts are called as major elements or macro nutrients. Examples: C, H, O, N, P, K, Ca, S, Mg. In this C, H, O, N, P, K are called primary elements and Ca, S, Mg are called as secondary elements.

Malate shuttle: A mechanism of transferring reducing equivalent of cytosolic NADH in the form of malate across the inner mitochondrial membrane by a specific ketoglutarate malate transporter for oxidation through electron transport chain in little animal tissue like heart muscle.

Malic enzyme: An enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of malate to pyruvate and carbondioxide.

NAD/NADP (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide/ Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Phosphate): Coenzymes acting as carriers of hydrogen atoms and electrons in some oxidoreductases catalyzed reactions. Their oxidized and reduced states are NAD⁺ and NADH + H⁺/NADP⁺ and NADPH + H⁺

Nanotechnology: Nanotechnology refers broadly to a field of applied science and technology whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the molecular level in scales smaller than 1 micrometre, normally 1 to 100 nanometers, and the fabrication of devices within that size range.

Nastic movement: Nastic movements are non-directional responses to stimuli (e.g., temperature, humidity, light irradiance), and are usually associated with plants. The movement can be due to changes in turgor or changes in growth. An example of such a response is opening and closing of flowers. There are several types of nastic movements such as Epinasty, Hyponasty, Photonasty, Nyctinasty, Chemonasty, Hydronasty, Thermonasty, Geonasty/Gravinasty, Thigmonasty, etc.

Obligate photoperiodism: Obligate photoperiod plants absolutely require a long or short day before flowering. If required photoperiod condition is not met they won’t flower. This phenomenon is called obligate photoperiodism.

Oleosome (Spherosome or oil body): Cell organelle bounded by a single membrane and contains triglycerides.

Oligohalophyte: A plant adapted to habitats of low salinity (0.04 to 0.4 MPa at field capacity; EC 1 to 10 dS/m).

Oligomycin: An antibiotic that inhibits oxidative phosphorylation by blocking the activity of F₀F₁ ATP synthase.

Oligosaccharide: A molecule containing fewer number of monosaccharide units joined by glycosidic bonds.

P680: Reaction center chlorophyll in Photosystem II (PSII) which absorbs maximum light of 680 nm in its neutral state.

P700: Reaction center chlorophyll in Photosystem I (PSI) which absorbs maximum light of 700 nm in its neutral state.

P870: Form of bacteriochlorophyll in reaction center of pigment system in photosynthetic purple bacteria that absorbs light maximally at 870 nm in its neutral state.

Paclobutrazol: It is a chemical compound which inhibits Gibberellin biosynthesis. It is also a growth retardant commercially used in overcoming alternate bearing of mango.

Palindrome: Inverted repeats of DNA such that the sequence is the same when read forward or backward; e.g., CAGTTGAC, or in the English language, “Madam, I’m Adam.”

Palisade Parenchyma : Palisade parenchyma cells are seen beneath the upper epidermis. It consists of vertically elongated cylindrical cells in one or more layers. These cells are compactly arranged without intercellular spaces. Palisade parenchyma cells contain more chloroplasts than the spongy parenchyma cells. The function of palisade parenchyma is photosynthesis.

Pantothenic acid (Vitamin B₅): An important constituent of coenzyme A which is involved in transacylation reactions.

Q₁₀ (Temperature coefficient): The ratio of the rate of chemical reaction at a particular temperature to the rate of that chemical reaction exactly at 10°C lower.

Qualitative photoperiod: Qualitative plants are those in which a particular photoperiod is an absolute requirement for the occurrence of a response. Ex: Common cocklebur

Qualitative response (absolute response, obligatory response): A plant response, usually flowering, that absolutely depends on some day length, temperature, or other environmental stimulus. If the plant does not experience the required stimulus, the response does not occur (e.g., the plant remains vegetative). Opposite to quantitative response.

Quantasomes : Quantasomes are particles found in the thylakoid membrane of chloroplasts in which photosynthesis takes place. They are embedded in a para crystalline array on the surface of thylakoid discs in chloroplasts. They are composed of lipids and proteins that include various photosynthetic pigments and redox carriers.

Radiant energy (Q_e, J): The transfer of energy of radiation.

Radiation frost: Heat radiated from surface of soil, trees, and any other solid particles to reduce the temperature low enough to cause frost conditions. Solid particles lose heat more rapidly than air, reducing the surface temperature. Eventually the air at low levels becomes cool and heavy compared to air at higher elevations. Occurs more readily on cloudless nights when there is no barrier for retaining the heat (i.e., a barrier that radiates the heat back to earth).

Radiation: The emission and propagation of electromagnetic waves or particles through space or matter.

Radical (Free Radical): An atom or a group of atoms with an unpaired electron which can exist independently for short period during the course of chemical reaction.

Radicle: Embryonic root of seed plants.

Salicyclic acid: Salicyclic acid (from Latin salix, willow tree, from the substances used to be obtained) is aminohydroxybenzoic acid, a type of phenolic acid and a beta hydracid. It has the formula C₇H₆O₃. This colourless crystalline organic acid is widely used in organic synthesis and function as a plant hormone. It is derived from the metabolic of salicin. In addition to being an important active metabolic of aspirin (acetylsalicyclic acid), which acts in part as a prodrug to salicyclic acid, it is probably best known for its use as a key ingredient in topical anti-acne products. The salts and esters of salicyclic acid are known as salicylates.

Salination: The process of accumulation of soluble salts in the soil.

Saline adaptation: Genetic modification of individuals in a population that increases their ability to survive excess salt.

Saline adjustment: Physiological and biochemical changes of individual plants that increase their ability to survive excess salt.

Tannins: Group of plant phenolic compounds found in higher plants as secondary metabolites. Their main function is to defense against microorganisms, insects, and herbivores and in allelopathy.

Taxis (tactic orientation; formerly topotaxis): Movement of motile organisms, cells or organelles, the prevailing direction of which is determined by the direction of the stimulus.

TATA box (Hogness box): A sequence of nucleotides which serves as the main recognition site for the attachment of RNA polymerase in the promoter region of eukaryotic genes. Located at around 25 nucleotides upstream of the transcriptional start site. It consists of seven base consensus sequence, TATAAAA.

TCA cycle: Tricarboxylic acid cycle. It is also called as citric acid cycle or Krebs cycle, It is a step in aerobic degradation of glucose to convert into energy. During this cycle several intermediates are produced, which leads to several metabolic pathways. During this cycle, there is production of reductancts such as NADH, FADH and GTP.

Telomere: Sequences at both termini of each eukaryotic chromosome that facilitate replication.

Ubiquinone (UQ): It is a lipophilic metabolite that functions in the electron transport chain in the plasma membranes of prokaryotes, and the inner mitochondrial membranes of eukaryotes, apart from its roles as an antioxidant and in the regeneration of tocopherols. Also called as Coenzyme Q.

Ubiquitin: It is a small protein that is found in almost all cellular tissues in all eukaryotic organisms,( i.e. it occurs ubiquitously) which helps to regulate the processes of other proteins in the body.

Ultracentrifuge: A high speed centrifuge with speed upto 60,000 rpm and centrifugal field of 500,000 x g

Vacuole: A fluid filled space within the cytoplasm surrounded by membrane called as tonoplast, that occupies most of the volume of cell. Aside from storage, the main role of the central vacuole is to maintain turgor pressure against the cell wall.

Valinomycin: An antibiotic that uncouples electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation only in presence of some cations such as K⁺ or Na⁺

Van der Waals interaction: Weak intermolecular forces between molecules as a result of each inducing polarization in the other.

Wall pressure: The inward pressure exerted by the cell wall against expanding protoplast; equal but opposite to turgor pressure.

Warburg effect: Warburg effect states that the competition between CO₂ and O₂ for enzyme RuBisCO with CO₂ promoting photosynthesis and inhibiting glycolate formation and inhibiting photorespiration and O₂ promoting glycolate formation and inhibiting photosynthesis.

Water deficit: Water available to the plant is less than optimum requirement.

Water potential (ψ_w): Water potential is defined as free energy status of water in a system compared to the free energy status of pure water. Here system refers to water in plant cell or soil and pure water refers to the water which does not have any solute in it. Water potential is measured in terms of bars, Pascals or Megapascals and denoted by ψ_w.

Xanthophylls (Carotenoids): These are tetraterpenes with general formula C₄₀H₅₆O₂. Xanthophylls are a class of oxygen-containing carotenoid pigments, responsible for the color of many of the yellow, orange, and red hues of flowers, fruits, vegetables (corn, pepper, etc.), egg yolks, and feathers, shells, or flesh of many animal species (flamingo, canary, shrimp, lobster, chicken, or salmonids). In plants, they are involved in photosynthesis with chlorophyll and are responsible for the red, yellow, and/or brown colors of autumn foliage as the chlorophyll levels decline.

Xeromorphy: Morphological characteristics, such as small, tough leaves, a heavy cuticle, etc., that are generally important for adaptation to dry environmental conditions.

Yamogenin: A triterpene plant steroid belonging to a group of sapongenins that is obtained from Dioscorea and is used in making oral contraceptives.

Z scheme: Refer non-cyclic electron transport.

Z-DNA: A duplex DNA structure in which helical coiling of the two polynucleotide chains is left handed and phosphate backbone of the polynucleotides follows a zig-zag course.

Zeatin: Most abundant natural cytokinin present in plant.

Defining-Commercial Plant Breeding

The term commercial plant breeding originates by putting prefix ‘commercial’ before ‘plant breeding’ and is used as an adjective to plant breeding which surely is a noun. Naturally, commercial plant breeding remains largely plant breeding with slight twist that commercial plant breeding aims at delivering commercial products to be delivered to the end users that is the farmers as per the need of the consumers/markets. Thus, the farmers plant those products (open-pollinated cultivars and hybrids) which are easily accepted by the consumers and which are easy to be handled by the traders as the products reach to the traders and then from traders to the retailers and ultimately to the consumers. Along with consumers’ acceptance, these kinds of products must meet certain level of yield, maturity and resistance/tolerance to diseases and pests. Accordingly, these are designed and bred by the commercial seed companies which operate as per demand of the markets. Private seed companies operate on a business model and generate their own revenue to keep the companies running and therefore these seed companies are bound to design and breed commercially viable products. Thus, all plant breeding activities which occur at the research farm and laboratory of private seed companies aimed at designing and delivering commercially viable products are called as commercial plant breeding activities. While designing such project and running the plant breeding activities at the research farm and laboratories of the private seed companies, the emphasis has to be on ‘how to do’ and ‘how quickly to do’ rather than ‘why to do’. ‘Why to do’ issue is not totally ignored and this gets due consideration while formulating the research project based on extensive deliberations between various departments, namely, R&D, Sales and Marketing, Product Development, and Seed Production.

The term commercial plant breeding is generally not in use in public sector research institutes and the agricultural universities and certainly not in class room teachings and discussions while teaching courses on plant breeding and related courses under the domain of plant breeding. There the focus is on theory in contrast to applications which form the backbone of commercial plant breeding as practiced by the commercial organizations such as private sector seed companies which have to earn revenue by selling the products to meet the operational expenditure of running the companies and also to earn profit to run the activities of the company on long term basis in a sustainable manner and to invest in R&D. Therefore, a working definition of commercial plant breeding could be as follows.

The general recommendation for intake of fruits and vegetables is at least 400 g per person as recommended by World Health Organization (WHO), five servings of 80 g per day or about 146 kg per person per annum. For vegetables, the recommended intake requirement is at least 300 g per day per individual. This 300 g requirement must include 50 g leafy vegetables, 50 g roots and tubers and 200 g other vegetables (Kapur, 2016). Current annual vegetable production including potato, based on recent three years (2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18) average is around 177 million tons from 10 million ha giving a productivity of 17.7 ton/ha. With this average and stagnating production and assuming Indian population at 133 CR (1.33 billion) and 25% postharvest losses, per capita per day availability of vegetables comes to 273 g leaving a gap of 27 g between the recommended dose and the availability of vegetables per head per day in India. By 2050, the projected population of India is 1.5 billion and to meet the requirement of this population, vegetable production will have be 220 million tons, of course making allowance of 25% post-harvest losses. Considering all kind of constraints on the available land area of vegetables, the vegetable area will be around 10 million ha and consequently, major gain of production will have to come from productivity increase from current level of about 18 tons/ha to 22 tons/ha and this seems to be a gigantic task as during last several years, the productivity of vegetables in India has been between 17 and 18 tons/ha, an indication that it has reached to a plateau. This situation calls for fall massive interventions on technological fronts in terms of innovative products with focus on better hybrids with higher yields, and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses deploying precision breeding technologies using more of marker assisted breeding, genomics and gene editing tools and delivering high quality seeds to the farmers with assurance of high performance. This chapter looks into the present seed scenario and the emerging trends with respect to new seeds and new technologies and examines the need to facilitate rules, regulations and IPR environment for more investment in vegetable research and development and quality seed production and distribution. Improved seed with shift towards hybrid seed will be the key driver to increase vegetable production and productivity in India.

Genotype × environment interaction underlies the efforts of crop ecologists, agronomists, and plant breeders to define ecological regions, mega-environments, and ecotypes and to specify the adaptation and yield stability of individual cultivars. Multi-location testing or multiple year testing gives rise to an important term, genotype x environment interaction. “Interaction” is a statistical term signifying differential response of genotypes over the environments. The environments could be in terms of more numbers of diverse locations or years. Multi-location trials (MLTs) are also called as multiple environment trials (METs) and these have been adequately reviewed by Yan and Hunt (1998) and Kang et al. (2004). The following sections of this chapter derive extensive information on MLT/MET from these two sources.

Introduction

The genotype-environment-interaction (GEI) is a complex phenomenon that undermines the repeatability of experimental results and consequently reduces the selection efficiency. Agricultural researchers have long been concerned of the various implications of GEI in plant breeding programmes. Understanding of the implications of GEI structure/nature is important in crop breeding programmes as a significant GEI can seriously impair selection of superior genotypes in new crop introduction and cultivar/hybrid development programmes. Crop breeders of field and vegetable crops, etc. are in better position to decide whether crop cultivars should be developed for all the environments of interest or if the breeders should develop specific cultivars for specific target/mega environments. Variation among genotypes in phenotypic sensitivity to the environment may require the development of locally adapted varieties.

Genotype-by-environment is widely observed and reported issue. Large numbers of publications both on GEI and stability parameters are pointers to the facts that it is a complex and intriguing issue and these are expected to be more relevant in the light of the fact that greater emphasis is going to be placed on sustainability of agricultural systems.

Genetic purity (GP) is a crucial seed quality factor. Several steps and precautions are involved in achieving the desired levels of genetic purity in the seed. Right from the choice of genetically pure seed for seed production up to final packing of the seed produced, at any stage, genetic purity can get affected. Field inspection and postharvest checks help in verifying conformity to seed quality standards especially genetic purity. Wherever seed characteristics are clear, examination of samples in the quality assurance laboratory for other distinguishable varieties (ODV) gives an idea of the genetic purity status. Among the several methods available for GP assessment, Grow Out Test is one.

In this context, some basic principles and procedures and guidelines relating to GOT are presented with more of information in tabular forms. In brief, the aspects covered include objectives, principles, kinds of GOT, genetic purity standards, procedure, main factors for observations, evaluation, and recording and reporting. Table 4.1 gives the submitted sample size for GOT; and Table 4.2 shows the minimum number of days required for evaluation from sowing and Table 4.3 deals with maximum weight of submitted sample and minimum weight of working sample for GPM, GOT and ODV.

Supply chain management or inventory management is an important and integral component of commercial breeding activities practiced by the private seed companies whose over all research efforts in terms of developing and commercially releasing high performing cultivars and hybrids get defeated unless the product reaches to the end users that is the farmers. Seed supply chain management is the lifeline of any seed business especially when the seed business is under private sector seed companies whose delivery is very strong. Supply chain management refers to the process of ordering, storing, and using a company’s inventory. These include the management of raw materials, components, and finished products, as well as warehousing and processing such items and ultimately delivering virtually to the door steps of the farmers through a strong network of dealers/distributors/retailers. For companies with complex supply chains and manufacturing processes, balancing the risks of inventory gluts and shortages is especially difficult and challenging.

The process of supply chain management is a continuously evolving process, ready to deal with the unforeseen situations like the situation created by COVID-19 pandemic forcing countries after countries going for lockdown and bringing the entire business operations including material and men transport to a grinding halt. However, even under these extremely challenging situations, governments fully know that agricultural activities cannot be fully stopped to avoid resurgence of hunger and malnutrition. However, despite the window allowed by the government for running the supply of essential goods including agricultural inputs like seed, agrochemicals and farm machines, manufacturing the agro-inputs including seeds and their distribution to the endpoints has become extremely difficult. A few companies have devised new processes to run seed supply using completely new and innovative approaches, for example, In Bayer’s first-ever e-commerce collaboration in India, the company has tied up with Agro-Star, a Pune-based e-commerce firm in the agricultural segment. Under the partnership, farmers can order Bayer’s seeds and crop protection products for their entire crop lifecycle and receive agronomic advisory through Agro-Stars digital agri-tech platform. Home delivery of agri-inputs can currently be availed by farmers in North, West and Central India, with plans to extend the scope to other geographies in the future. In the current COVID-19 lockdown situation, the partnership has enabled last mile delivery of products for multiple crops directly to farmer’s doorsteps.

The International movement of seed takes place for (i) germplasm for R&D purposes, (ii) experimental lines and hybrids for screening purposes, (iii) basic seed for multiplication purposes, and (iv) commercial varieties and hybrids for marketing (Ranganathan, 2019). Vegetable seed import and export for research purposes is handled by National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi where the importing research organization in India first gets an import permit from NBPGR following due procedures as available on NBPGR website (www.nbpgr.ernet.in). Once the importing research organization, like ICAR institutes, state agricultural universities, private seed companies, etc get the import permit which specifies the list of material to be imported and the seed source, the import permit is sent to the research seed supplying agency who in turn attaches a phytosanitary certificate along with the copy of the import permit to the consignment and sends the same to NBPGR. NBPGR retains part of seed and releases the seed to the indenter after necessary quarantine test and charging quarantine fee. The importing organization is expected to give a brief report about the material to the NBPGR after its evaluation at its farm/lab.

The bulk seed import (vegetable seed for commercial purposes) is handled by Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage, Faridabad, Haryana (www.ppqs.gov.in) with no condition of testing by government system. This exemption of testing is not available for field crop seed. It needs to be clarified that the bulk vegetable seed import has been simplified as per New Seed Policy-1988 which has put the vegetable seeds among others under OGL (open general license) and this provision facilitates the vegetable seed in bulk and the private seed companies have taken advantage of this provision. The Indian private seed companies are importing large quantities of seed of cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, radish, carrot, beet root and even vegetable peas. The bulk vegetable seed import for commercial purposes is done as per following procedure.

Varietal release and notification comes under the purview of the Seeds Act which is intended to provide for regulating the quality of certain notified seeds for sale and for marketing and for the matters connected therewith. Released and notified varieties are offered for seed certification by the seed certification agencies which ensure that the varieties under certification meet certain prescribed field and seed standards failing which they stand to be rejected during the process of seed certification. This ensures seed quality and its availability to the farmers.

Purpose of Release

The purpose of Release of cultivars is to introduce the newly evolved varieties to the public and the farmers in particular for general cultivation in the region for which the variety is released and notified ensuring availability of seed of varieties according to their suitability and adaptation and avoiding mismatch. In other words, release of a cultivar is in the nature of a recommendation to the farmers for its adoption. Therefore, notification of a variety is linked to the release of a variety, though the release process itself does not have statutory cover.

The Seed Act 1966 was passed by the Indian Parliament on 29th December 1966 and it came into force from 2^nd October, 1969. In addition, Seed Regulation Order was also passed in December 1983. The sole objective of Seed Act and Order has been to ensure that the Indian farmers get good quality seeds of important crops. Important provisions and guidelines for the farmers are given below:

The Act is applicable for the seeds notified by the Central Government from time to time.

Seed quality is regulated at two stages viz. seed production and seed certification. For this purpose, seed testing laboratories and seed certification agencies are to be established in each state. Maharashtra has been the first state to implement this act. Now all the states have implemented this act.

New Seed Policy

Ministry of Agriculture, vide Letter No.11-71/88-SD-1 dated September 16,1988, has brought out ‘New Policy on Seed Development’, with the aim of providing to the farmers the best planting materials available in the world so as to increase productivity and thereby increasing farm income and export earnings. The Policy covers the import of seeds of coarse cereals/pulses/oil seeds; vegetable and flower seeds; bulbs/tubers of flowers; cuttings/ saplings/bud/wood etc., of flowers; and seeds & planting material of fruits. The following are the guidelines for the import of above categories of seed/planting material under the Seed Policy

Import of Seeds of Coarse Cereals/Pulses/Oil Seeds

The import of seeds of coarse cereals/pulses/oil seeds is permitted for a period not exceeding two years by companies that have technical/financial collaboration with companies abroad, provided that the latter agree to supply parental lines/nucleus or breeder seed technology to the Indian firm within two years of first shipment of commercial consignment. The bulk import is permitted by the importer based on the recommendation issued by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC) after considering the trial/evaluation report of the varieties/hybrids, which he intends to import. PPA or any other officer notified for the said purpose issues the import permit based on the recommendation of DAC. However the recommendation of DAC is not required for import of trial material. The quantities of the seed permitted for import for initial trials by the importer, for ICAR multi-location trials & agronomic trials or combined trials (vide Letter No. 11-71/88/S.D.I dated 30^th January 1989 issued by the Ministry of Agriculture) as per Para 4.3.5 of Seed Policy shall be in accordance with Schedule-XII and also the quantities of seeds of parental lines required to be sampled and submitted in sealed condition for accession to gene bank of National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi (vide Letter No. 11-102/88-S.D.I dated 5^th February 1991) as per Para 4.3.8 of Seed Policy. The imported consignment shall be subjected to detailed testing for a period of 30-35 days and the same purpose the consignment will be held under detention in AAI warehouse or any customs bonded warehouse at the cost of importer.

Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act-2001 (PPVFRA-2001) was enacted by government of India in 2001 to create a sui generis system of providing a legal framework as an IPR mechanism to protect the varieties of crop plants in India along with grant of breeders’ and farmers’ rights in the interest of all the stakeholders and also to comply with WTO guidelines to which India is a legal signatory. The salient features of this act are as follows.

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act-2001, Act no. 53 of 2001, (30th october, 2001)

This act is in place to provide for the establishment of an effective system for protection of plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders and to encourage the development of new varieties of plants. It recognizes and protects the rights of the farmers in respect of their contribution made at any time in conserving; improving and making available plant genetic resources for the development of new plant varieties; it encourages accelerated agricultural development in the country; it protects plant breeders’ rights to stimulate investment for research and development, both in the public and private sector, for the development of new plant varieties; it facilitates the growth of the seed industry in the country which will ensure the availability of high quality seeds and planting material to the farmers. To give effect to the aforesaid objectives, it is necessary to undertake measures for the protection of the rights of farmers and plant breeders; as India, has ratified the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights should, inter alia, make provision for giving effect to sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph 3 of article 27 in Part II of the said Agreement relating to protection of plant varieties. Accordingly, this act is in place.

The increasing concerns about dwindling biological resources globally led to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992. This convention for the first time, recognized sovereign rights of States over their biological resources and emphasized that access to genetic resources should be only for environmentally sound purposes and should be subject to national legislations. The access has to be on mutually agreed terms which inter-alia would include recognition of associated Traditional Knowledge of indigenous communities and equitable benefit sharing arrangements.

Taking cognizance of the provisions of the CBD, and to deal with extensive pressure on our biological resources, India has enacted an umbrella legislation called Biological Diversity Act-2002 (No. 18 of 2003), and also notified the Biological Diversity Rules-2004 for guidance and compliance by various stakeholders, including the Union and State Governments, Non-state sectors, and individuals. The Act aims at conservation of biological resources as well as facilitating access to them in a sustainable manner and through a just process. The salient features of this act are as follows (NBA, 2004).

In order to provide for the establishment of an effective system for protection of plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders and to encourage the development of new varieties of plants it has been considered necessary to recognize and protect the rights of the farmers in respect of their contribution made at any time in conserving, improving and making available plant genetic resources for the development of the new plant varieties. Moreover to accelerate agricultural development, it is necessary to protect plants breeders’ rights to stimulate investment for research and development for the development of new plant varieties.

Such protection is likely to facilitate the growth of the seed industry which will ensure the availability of high quality seeds and planting material to the farmers. India having ratified the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of the Intellectual Property Rights has to make provision for giving effect to Agreement. To give effect to the aforesaid objectives the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 has been enacted in India

All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on vegetable crops (VC) was started during the IV five-year plan in 1970-71, to provide a national grid for multi-location testing of the vegetable technologies developed by various research institutes and state agricultural universities. The headquarter of the project was at the Division of Vegetable Crops, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi and the first Project Coordinator (Vegetable Crops) joined the project in July 1971. During 1986, level of the project was elevated to the Project Directorate. Further, in a significant development during 1992, headquarter of the directorate was shifted from IARI, New Delhi to the present day Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR) at Varanasi. In a significant development, in eleventh five-year plan the National Seed Project (Vegetables) was merged with AICRP (VC).

Presently the AICRP Vegetable Crops is a network of 36 regular and 18 voluntary centres. The network is headed by the Project Coordinator and it’s headquarter functions from IIVR (Indian Institute of Vegetable Research), Varanasi, main campus. The AICRP centers are located in different agro-climatic zones of the country. The centers in the network include ICAR institutes, central institutes, state agricultural and traditional universities and a few other public and private research organizations.

The World Vegetable Center (previously called as Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre, AVRDC) with headquarter at Shanhua, Taiwan conducts research, builds networks, and carries out training and promotion activities to raise awareness of the role of vegetables for improved health and global poverty alleviation. Vegetables can alleviate poverty by creating new jobs and new sources of income for farmers and landless laborers, improve health by providing essential micronutrients lacking in diets, enhance learning and working capacities of adults and children through improved diets and health, and improve the sustainability of food production practices by diversifying cropping systems. The Center’s research and development work focuses on breeding improved vegetable lines, developing and promoting safe production practices, reducing postharvest losses, and improving the nutritional value of vegetables (https://avrdc.org). The centre’s mission is Research and Development to realize the potential of vegetables for healthier lives and more resilient livelihoods