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Breeding for Water Use Efficiency

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Plant Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Abstract

Among environmental factors, drought is the principal factor that limits global agricultural production. Many global agricultural regions are already suffering serious problems with water shortage and this scenario suggests that greater efforts are required in the development of alternatives for sustainable agriculture, such as the selection of cultivars that are efficient in the use of water. Water use efficiency (WUE) is the most important component of drought adaptation. In this chapter, WUE will be emphasized because of its greater importance and the possibility of obtaining genotypes that respond to environmental improvement or to the availability of water when it occurs. For this purpose the following topics will be addressed: germplasm, genetic variability, relationship between characteristics, inheritance and maternal effect, oxidative stress, stress induction, selection strategies and breeding methods, and biotechnology applied to the breeding of WUE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Estadual Paulista, Sao Paulo, Brazil

    Marcelo de Almeida Silva & Claudiana Moura dos Santos

  2. Universidade de São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

    Carlos Alberto Labate, Simone Guidetti-Gonzalez, Janaina de Santana Borges & Leonardo Cesar Ferreira

  3. Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Rodrigo Oliveira DeLima & Roberto Fritsche-Neto

Authors
  1. Marcelo de Almeida Silva
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  2. Claudiana Moura dos Santos
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  3. Carlos Alberto Labate
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  4. Simone Guidetti-Gonzalez
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  5. Janaina de Santana Borges
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  6. Leonardo Cesar Ferreira
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  7. Rodrigo Oliveira DeLima
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  8. Roberto Fritsche-Neto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcelo de Almeida Silva .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Departamento de Fitotecnia, University of Viçosa, Av. PH Rolfs s/n, Viçosa, 36570-000, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Roberto Fritsche-Neto

  2. , Departamento de Fitotecnia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Av. PH Rolfs s/n, Viçosa, 36570-000, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Aluízio Borém

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de Almeida Silva, M. et al. (2012). Breeding for Water Use Efficiency. In: Fritsche-Neto, R., Borém, A. (eds) Plant Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30553-5_6

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