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People, Plants & Genes
The Story of Crops and Humanity
Denis J Murphy
426 pages
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52 (48 line & 4 HT)
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246x189mm
978-0-19-920713-8
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Hardback
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19 July 2007
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This item is printed to order and supplied on a firm sale basis. Items which are printed to order are normally despatched and charged within 5-10 days.
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- Written by an experienced lecturer and plant molecular biologist, who has worked extensively on crop improvement and has long-standing interests in the history of agriculture and the applications of modern biotechnology.
- Provides a comprehensive overview of the complex story of human-plant interactions, from the hunter-gatherers of the Palaeolithic Era, through to the 21st century and the molecular genetic manipulation of crops.
- Incorporates the latest genomic studies to explain the history of crop plant domestication.
- Demonstrates how our new understanding of plant genomes is set to usher in a new phase in plant breeding.
This book provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of human-plant interactions and their social consequences from the hunter-gatherers of the Palaeolithic Era to the 21st century molecular manipulation of crops. It links the latest advances in molecular genetics, climate research and archaeology to give a new perspective on the evolution of agriculture and complex human societies across the world. Even today, our technologically advanced societies still rely on plants for basic food needs, not to mention clothing, shelter, medicines and tools. This special relationship has tied together people and
their chosen plants in mutual dependence for well over 50,000 years. Yet despite these millennia of intimate contact, people have only domesticated and cultivated a few dozen of the tens of thousands of potentially available edible plants. This limited domestication process led directly to the evolution of the complex urban-based societies that have dominated much of human development over the past ten millennia. Thanks to the latest genomic studies, we can now begin to explain how, when, and where some of the most important crops came to be domesticated, and the crucial roles of plant genetics, climatic change and social organisation in these processes. Indeed, it was their unique genetic organisations that ultimately determined which plants eventually became crops, rather than any
conscious decisions by their human cultivators. The book is aimed at a wide audience ranging from plant specialists such as geneticists, molecular biologists and agronomists to a more general readership of archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and others who wish to explore the complex processes that have shaped the often crucial relationships between plants and human societies over the past hundred millennia.Readership: The book is primarily aimed at geneticists, molecular biologists, biotechnologists, and plant breeders who require a detailed and up-to-date account of modern crop genetics and genomic research and its significance for agriculture. However, the accessible style should appeal to a wider
readership of agronomists, archaeologists, and even historians, who wish to explore the origins and manipulation of plants by human societies
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Denis J Murphy, Head of Biotechnology Unit, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Glamorgan, UK
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"...but urge you to acquire it for edification and enjoyment. Denis Murphy is a co-evolutionist, raising serious matters currently affecting humankind, and this book should be accessible to all those interested in humanity and crop plants...I hope that this solo effort will encourage you to become a fan of DJM." - J. T. Walker Experimental Agriculture "This book provides a comprehensive overview of the complex story of human-plant interactions, from the hunter-gatherer of the palaeolithic era, through to the 21st century and the genetic manipulation of crops." - CABI "...this book can safely be recommended as much more than just an up-to-date introduction to a topic fundamental to understanding
humanity's past and critical to our species'continued survival. June 2008, Antiquity, Vol. 82, No 316."
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People and Plants: two hundred millennia of coevolution
1: Early human societies and their plants
2: Plant management and agriculture
3: How some people became farmers
Crops and their Genetics: 90 million years of evolution
4: Plant genomes
5: Fluid genomes, uncertain species, and the genetics of crop domestication
6: The domestication of cereal crops
7: The domestication of non-cereal crops
People, Plants, and Farming in Prehistoric Times: ten millennia of climatic and social change
8: People and the emergence of crops
9: Agriculture: a mixed blessing
10: Evolution of agro-urban cultures I: the Near East
11: Evolution of agro-urban cultures II: East and South Asia
12: Evolution of agro-urban cultures III: Africa, Europe and the Americas
People and Plants in Historic Times: globalisation of agriculture and the rise of science
13: Crop management in the Classical and Medieval Periods
14: Agricultural improvement and the rise of crop breeding
15: Imperial Botany and the early scientific breeders
16: Agricultural Improvement in modern times
17: The future of agriculture and humanity
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Chris Park
£19.99 £4.99
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A. Cowie
£16.00
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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