Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a vital crop for millions, serving as a staple food and a key resource for industries ranging from starch production to bioethanol. Known for its adaptability to poor soils and unpredictable rainfall, cassava has earned its place as a "future crop" in the face of climate change. However, its sensitivity to cold stress has limited its potential in temperate regions, leaving a gap in understanding how this resilient plant can thrive in colder climates.
This book brings together the latest research on cassava's response to cold stress, exploring its physiological, genetic, and metabolic mechanisms. Drawing on insights from agronomy and biotechnology, it examines the possibilities of developing cold-tolerant cultivars using the genetic diversity found in international germplasm banks. The authors also discuss practical strategies to scale up cassava production in new regions, offering hope for expanded cultivation and industrial use.
Ideal for researchers, plant breeders, and policymakers, Underlying Mechanisms of Cassava Cold Tolerance highlights the untapped potential of this crop. By addressing one of its greatest challenges, this book opens the door to a more sustainable and food-secure future.
Cassava growth and development basic characteristics and relationship
with cold stress.- Cassava cold tolerance from seasonally low temperatures
in higher latitudes and relatively constant low temperatures in highland
environments.- Management practices of plant materials to support cassava
production in cooler climates and potential for further adaptation.- Advances
in understanding cold tolerance regulatory mechanisms in cassava.- Effects of
photoperiod on cassava growth and development and genotype environment
interaction Implications for adapting new varieties to cold climates.-
Mechanisms and approaches towards enhanced cold tolerance in cassava.- Cell
signaling during cold stress in cassava.- Global Gene Expression Analysis in
cold stressed cassava plants.- Agronomic and physiological Responses of
cassava cultivars to cold stress.- Ability of cassava plants to endure
seasonal low but non freezing temperatures.- Strategies to improve cold
tolerance in cassava accessions.- Up and Downregulation of novel candidate
genes to cold stress in cassava.- Effect of cold stress on cassava amino acid
and carbohydrate metabolisms and antioxidant responses.- Effect of
photoperiod prior to cold acclimation on freezing tolerance and cassava
secondary metabolism.- Toward Engineering Cold Stress Tolerance in cassava.-
Advances and challenges in uncovering cold tolerance regulatory mechanisms in
cassava.- Physiological and Molecular Mechanism Involved in Cold Stress
Tolerance in cassava.- Recent insights into cell responses to cold stress in
cassava.- Modelling cassava production to undergoing climate change
Challenges and strategies.
Prof. Dr. Virgilio Gavicho Uarrota is from Mozambique, is an agronomic engineer at Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique) with an MSc in Biotechnology and a PhD in Plant Genetic Resources from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil). Dr. Uarrota is currently an Assistant Professor at Universidad de OHiggins. Lecturer of Plant Physiology, Seed Production, Horticulture I, Plant Propagation and Nursery Management, and Statistics for Agronomic and Environmental Engineering at the Institute of Agri-Food, Animal and Environmental Sciences (ICA3). He took up his third postdoctoral position in the Department of Postharvest and Industrialization, Faculty of Agronomy, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Quillota, Chile. His first postdoctoral position was in biotechnology and biosciences with focus on bioinformatics and chemometrics, and his second postdoctoral position was in crop production with research line in physiology of crop plants. He has over 8years of experience in teaching mathematics, biology, and physics and more than 13years of research experience in plant biochemistry, metabolomics, and chemometrics. Dr. Virgilio Uarrota has participated as collaborator professor in plant biochemistry, crop production physiology, and physiology and biochemistry of seed development, and applied multivariate statistics at Universidad Tecnica de Manabí (Ecuador), Ecophysiology, Plant Propagation and seedling nursery and Biotechnological tools applied to agronomy. Dr. Uarrota has received the Twas-Associateship Scheme Project as visiting researcher (2013 and 2017) at Unisa and at the International Centre of Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). He is a reviewer of many international journals, and has authored and co-authored over 40 research papers in high impact factor international journals, and more than 8 books and chapters with Springer, CRC, and Burleigh Dodds publishing. He has co-supervised 1 MSc student and participated in more than 10 examination committees of PhD and MSc students. Dr. Uarrota has delivered many short courses in data mining and an introduction to multivariate statistics, and he is an editorial board member of the journal Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and International Journal of Food Science and Biotechnology. He is also Guest Editor of Horticulturae Journal and Frontiers in Plant Science. Dr Uarrota is also a section Editor of Revista Agropecuaria Catarinense Journal and Supervisor of 04 Graduate thesis in Agronomy at Universidad de OHiggins.
