Conservation of Tropical Plant Species

Preface.- Introduction.- Tropical Biodiversity: Need for conservation.- Section I: Conservation.- Conservation of tropical plant genetic resources - In situ approach.- Collecting the wild relatives of crops in the tropics.- Seed banks for future generations.- Pollen cryobanking for tropical plant species.- In vitro genebanks for preserving tropical biodiversity.- Cryopreservation.- Biospecimen science for the In Vitro conservation of tropical plants.- Section II: Current status.- Conservation of Fruit Genetic Resources.- Conservation of orchids the gems of the tropics.- Conservation of oil palm and coconut genetic resources.- Current status of conserving tropical leguminous food crops.- Tropical and Subtropical Root and Tuber Crops.- Cereals.- Diversity & Conservation of Tropical Forestry Species in Southeast Asia.- The In Vitro Conservation of Plants Native to the Brazilian Amazon and Atlantic Forests.- Ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources of major vegetables.- Spices and tree borne oil seed crops.- Conservation of medicinal plants in the tropics.- Section III: Future perspectives.- Global challenges for agricultural plant biodiversity and international collaboration.- Major research challenges+ Directions for future research.

Normah M. Noor, Ph.D., received her B.A. in Biology from Macalester College (Minnesota), her M.S. in Crop Science from Michigan State University and her PhD in Seed Science from Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (Agriculture University of Malaysia). She is a Professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia) as well as Director of its Institute of Systems Biology. Her groundbreaking work leading to the development of a technique for the cryopreservation of embryonic axes of rubber represented seminal work in the cryopreservation of recalcitrant seeds.  Her research on cryopreservation and conservation of tropical fruit species, particularly of Garcinia, Citrus and Nephelium, has led to the development of techniques for the long-term conservation and micropropagation of these economically (and traditionally) important species.    H.F.Chin Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus at University Putra Malaysia and Honorary Fellow of Bioversity International. He obtained four agricultural Sciences degrees from the University of Melbourne, His main interest is in seed conservation and storage, in particular recalcitrant seeds. He served in National and International seed committees such as the National Seed Council, Malaysia,  Advisory Committee on Seed Storage of the International Board of Plant Genetic Resources (1981-1992), Chairman of Seed Storage Committee of International Seed Testing Association(1986-1992). Has served 51 years in his career in teaching and research    Barbara M. Reed Ph.D. received her Bachelor of Science in Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Master of Science in Botany and Plant Pathology and Ph.D. in Botany at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Reed is a research scientist with USDA-ARS since 1989.The program goals of her research project encompass development of improved and broadly applicable methods for tissue culture of the temperate fruit, nut and specialty crop germplasm; development of low temperature or other