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With one volume each year, this review series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences. Starting with this volume, the sections of PROGRESS IN BOTANY have been restructured. The new sections - Genetics - Cell Biology and Physiology - Systematics and Comparative Morphology - Ecology and Vegetation Science - correspond to the subdivision of the field of botany generally used by the scientific community.

With one volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences.The present volume includes reviews on genetics, cell biology, physiology, comparative morphology, systematics, ecology and vegetation science.

With one new volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of botany. The present volume in- cludes reviews on structural botany, taxonomy, geobotany, plant physiology, genetics, and floral ecology.

In the recent years, the looming food scarcity problem has highlighted plant sciences as an emerging discipline committed to devise new strategies for enhanced crop productivity. The major factors causing food scarcity are biotic and abiotic stresses such as plant pathogens, salinity, drought, flooding, nutrient deficiency or toxicity which substantially limit crop productivity world-wide. In this scenario, strategies should be adopted to achieve maximum productivity and economic crop returns. In this book we have mainly focused on physiological, biochemical, molecular and genetic bases of crop development and related approaches that can be used for crop improvement under environmental adversaries. In addition, the adverse effects of different biotic (diseases, pathogens etc.) and abiotic (salinity, drought, high temperatures, metals etc) stresses on crop development and the potential strategies to enhance crop productivity under stressful environments are also discussed.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters.In order to function and survive, plants produce a wide array of chemical compounds not found in other organisms. Photosynthesis requires a large array of pigments, enzymes, and other compounds to function, and these chemicals have multiple practical uses in the human world as well, with applicat

Desiccation tolerance was essential when plants first began to conquer land, roughly 400 million years ago. While most desiccation-tolerant plants belong to basal phylogenetic taxa, this capacity has also evolved among some vascular plant species.In this volume renowned experts treat plant desiccation tolerance at the organismic as well as at the cellular level. The diversity of ecophysiological adaptations and acclimations of cyanobacteria, eukaryotic algae, mosses, and lichens is addressed in several chapters. The particular problems of vascular plants during dehydration/rehydration cycles resulting not only from their hydraulic architectures, but also from severe secondary stresses associated with the desiccated state are discussed. Based on the treatment of desiccation tolerance at the organismic level, a second section of the book is devoted to the cell biological level. It delineates the general concepts of functional genomics, epigenetics, genetics, molecular biology and the sensing and signalling networks of systems biology involved in dehydration/rehydration cycles. This book provides an invaluable compilation of current knowledge, which is a prerequisite for a better understanding of plant desiccation tolerance in natural as well as agro- and forest ecosystems where water is one of the most essential resources.

Millions of trees live and grow all around us, and we all recognize the vital role they play in the world's ecosystems. Publicity campaigns exhort us to plant yet more. Yet until recently comparatively little was known about the root causes of the physical changes that attend their growth. Since trees typically increase in size by three to four orders of magnitude in their journey to maturity, this gap in our knowledge has been a crucial issue to address. Here at last is a synthesis of the current state of our knowledge about both the causes and consequences of ontogenetic changes in key features of tree structure and function.During their ontogeny, trees undergo numerous changes in their physiological function, the structure and mechanical properties of their wood, and overall architecture and allometry. This book examines the central interplay between these changes and tree size and age. It also explores the impact these changes can have, at the level of the individual tree, on the emerging characteristics of forest ecosystems at various stages of their development. The analysis offers an explanation for the importance of discriminating between the varied physical properties arising from the nexus of size and age, as well as highlighting the implications these ontogenetic changes have for commercial forestry and climate change. This important and timely summation of our knowledge base in this area, written by highly respected researchers, will be of huge interest, not only to researchers, but also to forest managers and silviculturists.

With the predicted increase of the human population and the subsequent need for larger food supplies, root health in crop plants could play a major role in providing sustainable highly productive crops that can cope with global climate changes. While the essentiality of roots and their relation to plant performance is broadly recognized, less is known about their role in plant growth and development. “Root Genomics” examines how various new genomic technologies are rapidly being applied to the study of roots, including high-throughput sequencing and genotyping, TILLING, transcription factor analysis, comparative genomics, gene discovery and transcriptional profiling, post-transcriptional events regulating microRNAs, proteome profiling and the use of molecular markers such as SSRs, DArTs, and SNPs for QTL analyses and the identification of superior genes/alleles. The book also covers topics such as the molecular breeding of crops in problematic soils and the responses of roots to a variety of stresses.

This volume will be the only existing single-authored book offering a science-based breeder's manual directed at breeding for water-limited environments. Plant breeding is characterized by the need to integrate information from diverse disciplines towards the development and delivery of a product defines as a new cultivar. Conventional breeding draws information from disciplines such as genetics, plant physiology, plant pathology, entomology, food technology and statistics. Plant breeding for water-limited environments and the development of drought resistant crop cultivars is considered as one of the more difficult areas in plant breeding while at the same time it is becoming a very pressing issue. This volume is unique and timely in that it develops realistic solutions and protocols towards the breeding of drought resistant cultivars by integrating knowledge from environmental science, plant physiology, genetics and molecular biology.

Environmental insults such as extremes of temperature, extremes of water status as well as deteriorating soil conditions pose major threats to agriculture and food security. Employing contemporary tools and techniques from all branches of science, attempts are being made worldwide to understand how plants respond to abiotic stresses with the aim to help manipulate plant performance that will be better suited to withstand these stresses. This book on abiotic stress attempts to search for possible answers to several basic questions related to plant responses towards abiotic stresses. Presented in this book is a holistic view of the general principles of stress perception, signal transduction and regulation of gene expression. Further, chapters analyze not only model systems but extrapolate interpretations obtained from models to crops. Lastly, discusses how stress-tolerant crop or model plants have been or are being raised through plant breeding and genetic engineering approaches. Twenty three chapters, written by international authorities, integrate molecular details with overall plant structure and physiology, in a text-book style, including key references.

During the past decade, there has been tremendous progress in maize biotechnology. This volume provides an overview of our current knowledge of maize molecular genetics, how it is being used to improve the crop, and future possibilities for crop enhancement. Several chapters deal with genetically engineered traits that are currently, or soon will be, in commercial production. Technical approaches for introducing novel genes into the maize genome, the regeneration of plants from transformed cells, and the creation of transgenic lines for field production are covered. Further, the authors describe how molecular genetic techniques are being used to identify genes and characterize their function, and how these procedures are utilized to develop elite maize germplasm. Moreover, molecular biology and physiological studies of corn as a basis for the improvement of its nutritional and food-making properties are included. Finally, the growing use of corn as biomass for energy production is discussed.

Development of transgenic crop plants, their utilization for improved agriculture, health, ecology and environment and their socio-political impacts are currently important fields in education, research and industries and also of interest to policy makers, social activists and regulatory and funding agencies. This work prepared with a class-room approach on this multidisciplinary subject will fill an existing gap and meet the requirements of such a broad section of readers. Volume 2 with 13 chapters contributed by 41 eminent scientists from nine countries deliberates on the utilization of transgenic crops for resistance to herbicides, biotic stress and abiotic stress, manipulation of developmental traits, production of biofuel, biopharmaceuticals and algal bioproducts, amelioration of ecology and environment and fostering functional genomics as well as on regulations and steps for commercialization, patent and IPR issues, and compliance to concerns and compulsions of utilizing transgenic plants.

With one volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences. The present volume includes reviews on genetics, cell biology, physiology, comparative morphology, systematics, ecology, and vegetation science.

Genome of an organism is depicted by genetic linkage mapping and physical mapping. Genome mapping stated with genetic linkage mapping and contributed enormously in genome analysis and its improvement. Physical mapping emerged later and is the prelude to structural and functional genomics. Volume One of Principles and Practices of Plant Genomics introduces the historical background of genome mapping, and delineates modern methods in the field. This volume briefly introduces the historical background and overview on genome mapping. Chapters deliberating on different types of molecular markers, their detection, relative merits, shortcomings and applications; types of mapping populations, methods of their generation, applications; basic concepts and schematic depiction of construction of genetic linkage maps; concepts and strategies of mapping genes controlling qualitative and quantitative traits on framework genetic linkage maps; rationale, methodologies and implications of comparative mapping; principles, strategies, and outcome of map-based cloning; overviews on the recent advances on plant genomics and genome initiatives; and finally computer strategies and software.

Plant stress caused by drought and salinity are among the major constraints on crop production and food security worldwide. Breeding programs to improve crop yield in dry and saline environments have progressed slowly due to our limited understanding of the underlying physiological, biochemical, developmental, and genetic mechanisms that determine plant responses to these forms of stress, as well as to technical difficulties in combining favourable alleles to create the improved high yielding genotypes needed for these environments.'Advances in Molecular Breeding toward Drought and Salt Tolerant Crops'seeks to integrate the most recent findings about key biological determinants of plant stress tolerance with modern crop improvement strategies. This volume is unique because is provides exceptionally wide coverage of current knowledge and expertise being applied in drought and salt tolerance research, spanning the scientific hierarchy from physiology, biochemistry, development, and genetics, to the newest technologies being used to manipulate drought and salinity associated traits for germplasm improvement. This book will be an invaluable reference for educators and researchers in agronomy and horticulture, crop breeding, molecular genetics, and biotechnology.

Rice has been chosen as the model cereal for functional genomics by the international scientific community not only because it is a major global food crop but also because of its small genome, the ease with which it can be transformed, its well understood genetics with detailed genome physical maps and dense molecular markers, and the existence of great similarities in gene sequence, gene structure, gene order and gene function among all the cereals and grasses. Genes identified in rice as being important agronomically are also important in other cereals, and any understanding of rice genes is directly applicable to other cereals. Rice Functional Genomics - Challenges, Progress and Prospects covers the whole spectrum of rice functional genomics. The contributed chapters reflect the collective wisdom of more than 70 leading scientists working in this emerging and fascinating area of science. In addition to overviews of the current status of genome sequencing and annotation, various chapters describe the tools and resources being developed worldwide such as expressed sequence tags (ESTs), full-length cDNAs, gene expression profiles (transcriptome, proteome and metabolome), chemical- and radiation-induced mutants, TILLING resources, insertional knockout mutants (T-DNA, transposon and retrotransposon) and activation tags. Exploitation of naturally occurring alleles, Oryza map alignments, gene targeting by homologous recombination and gene silencing by RNAi as well as the application of functional genomics tools for crop improvement and the power of comparative genomics are covered in separate chapters. Various bioinformatics tools and resources pertinent to rice functional genomics are also described and discussed. It is hoped that scientists involved in all aspects of rice research will find this book useful as it spans the divide between molecular biology and plant improvement.

After division, plant cells are able to increase their volume enormously by cell expansion, making the expanding cell a crucial player in the production of biomass. The study of plant cell expansion involves many different disciplines and technical approaches, and this book is the first attempt to bring this diversity together to present a multifaceted view of the most up-to-date knowledge. Included are data ranging from biophysical measurements and chemical analysis to molecular biological approaches and microscopy.

Genetic engineering is a powerful tool for crop improvement. The status of crop biotechnology before 2001 was reviewed in Transgenic Crops I-III, but recent advances in plant cell and molecular biology have prompted the need for new volumes. Following Transgenic Crops IV (2007) on cereals, vegetables, root crops, herbs, and spices, and Transgenic Crops V (2007) on fruits, trees, and beverage crops, this volume, Transgenic Crops VI, contains the following sections: Oils and Fibers, Medicinal Crops, Ornamental Crops, Forages and Grains, Regulatory and Intellectual Property of Genetically Manipulated Plants. It is an invaluable reference for plant breeders, researchers and graduate students in the fields of plant biotechnology, agronomy, horticulture, forestry, genetics, and both plant cell and molecular biology.

Genomics research has great potential to revolutionize the discipline of plant breeding. This two-volume set provides a critical assessment of genomics tools and approaches for crop breeding. Volume 1, entitled'Genomics Approaches and Platforms', illustrates state-of-the-art genomics approaches and platforms presently available for crop improvement. Volume 2, entitled'Genomics Applications in Crops', compiles crop-specific studies that summarize both the achievements and limitations of genomics research for crop improvement. We hope that these two volumes, while providing new ideas and opportunities to those working in crop breeding, will help graduate students and teachers to develop a better understanding of the applications of crop genomics to plant research and breeding

A continuous development in plant biotechnology including gene technology has been observable during the past 20 years. Different methods elaborated with model plants were also applied to forest trees on a larger scale. Whereas in the beginning the meaning of the term “plant biotechnology” embraced a wide variety of meanings like, e. g., regeneration of plantlets via tissue culture, embryo rescue, somatic embryogenesis and gene transfer, the focus of this term has changed more and more. Nowadays, it is the transfer of genes which comes into mind when plant biotechnology is discussed, including of course the evaluation of all challenges and risks related to gene transfer methods. Compared with annual plants, especially in the field of agriculture, the work and the progress with transgenic trees is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, but often unnoticed by the scientific community, there are a few countries which already allow the commercial use of a restricted number of transgenic tree clones after different critical steps of approval. This and the ongoing improvement in transgenic research in trees led to the idea of preparing a summary of the present state of the art from different points of view. With the help of a number of authors directly or indirectly involved in tree transgenesis, this book was produced.

The discovery of the plant hormone ethylene was stunning—ethylene is a simple gas! Our expanding knowledge of the multiplicity of ethylene's roles in plant development, physiology, and metabolism makes the study of this plant hormone increasingly compelling. Elucidation of the genetic regulation of ethylene biosynthesis, characterization of ethylene receptors and analysis of the pathway of ethylene signal transduction, coupled with the identifi- tion of components in the cascade and target genes, have provided insight into how this simple molecule can drive such a diversity of divergent processes. These scientific advances will lead to new technologies that will further enable researchers to harness the powers of ethylene for the benefit of agriculture. In Ethylene Action in Plants, classic and emerging roles of ethylene in plant developmental processes are integrated through recent advances ch- acterizing ethylene receptors, promoters and antagonists, and biological and environmental factors that mediate ethylene responses. The book's editor, Dr. Nafees Khan, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, an expert on ethylene with an impressive number of publications on the interactions between ethylene, photosynthesis, and growth of Brassica spp, brought together a highly qualified group of international experts to provide state-- the-art information. To simply list the topics included does not do justice to the book's contents, as the articles are not just a compilation of the literature relevant to the topic.

With one volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences.The present volume includes reviews on genetics, cell biology, physiology, comparative morphology, systematics, ecology, and vegetation science.

In order to keep track of all the compounds and pathogens affecting plant metabolism and development, you would need to spend all your waking hours combing periodicals and the Internet in dozens of languages, as new toxins via pollutants and migratory or mutant pathogens are being discovered every day. Plant Toxicology, Fourth Edition start

The third edition of a standard resource, this book offers a state-of-the-art, multi-disciplinary presentation of plant roots. It examines structure and development, assemblage of root systems, metabolism and growth, stressful environments, and interactions at the rhizosphere. Reflecting the explosion of advances and emerging technologies in the fi

Photosynthesis: Physiology and Metabolism is the we have concentrated on the acquisition and ninth volume in theseries Advances in Photosynthesis metabolism of carbon. However, a full understanding (Series Editor, Govindjee). Several volumes in this of reactions involved in the conversion of to series have dealt with molecular and biophysical sugars requires an integrated view of metabolism. aspects of photosynthesis in the bacteria, algae and We have, therefore, commissioned international cyanobacteria, focussing largely on what have been authorities to write chapters on, for example, traditionally, though inaccurately, termed the ‘light interactionsbetween carbon and nitrogen metabolism, reactions'(Volume 1, The Molecular Biology of on respiration in photosynthetic tissues and on the Cyanobacteria;Volume2,AnoxygenicPhotosynthetic control of gene expression by metabolism. Photo- Bacteria, Volume 3, Biophysical Techniques in synthetic carbon assimilation is also one of the most Photosynthesis and Volume 7, The Molecular Biology rapid metabolic processes that occurs in plant cells, of the Chloroplasts and Mitochondria in Chlamy- and therefore has to be considered in relation to domonas). Volume 4 dealt with Oxygenic Photo- transport, whether it be the initial uptake of carbon, synthesis: The Light Reactions, and volume 5 with intracellular transport between organelles, inter- Photosynthesis and the Environment, whereas the cellular transport, as occurs in plants, or transport structure and function of lipids in photosynthesis of photosynthates through and out of the leaf. All was covered in Volume 6 of this series: Lipids in these aspects of transport are also covered in the Photosynthesis: Structure, Function and Genetics, book.

This book presents comprehensive coverage of differentiated plant responses to changing environments. It focuses on how multiple and combined stress factors influence plant survival. It examines the latest data on the capacity of roots to alter growth patterns due to disturbances in physical and/or chemical soil constraints, water supply, and other

Emphasizing the unpredictable nature of plant behaviour under stress and in relation to complex interactions of biological pathways, this work covers the versatility of plants in adapting to environmental change. It analyzes environmentally triggered adaptions in developmental programmes of plants that lead to permanent, heritable DNA modifications.