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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. This latest volume includes reviews on plant physiology, biochemistry, genetics and genomics, forests, and ecosystems.

Following its predecessors, Plant Roots: The Hidden Half, Fifth Edition is thoroughly updated and reports the major changes that have taken place in root research since the last edition published over 10 years ago. Considered a widely acclaimed book in the field of plant sciences, this edition includes a broad array of topics reflecting progress being made in the subdomains of root biology, featuring chapters on modern topics, while retained chapters are fully updated to demonstrate significant developments made in our understanding of root biology and in fast-evolving research methodologies and techniques. It reviews all root-related processes, from the evolution of roots in past eras to single-cell genomics, allowing readers to grasp an overall view of the state-of-the-art research in this field.Among the 104 contributors to this book are seasoned experts in the field, as well as uprising specialists who have already made a distinguished mark in scientific literature. All of the chapters are extensively referenced featuring specific information on any topic related to the biology of the hidden half of plants. Featuring full color illustrations throughout, this handbook is an essential source of information for both expert and novice root scientists.

This book provides information about plant–environment studies and challenges for plant improvement to achieve food security. Plants face a wide range of environmental challenges, which are expected to become more intense as a result of global climate change. Plant–environment interactions play an important role in the functioning of ecosystems. There are habitats throughout the world that present challenges to crop plants, such as through a lack of water and excessive, or toxic, salts in the soil. Soil properties represent a strong selection pressure for plant diversity and influence the structure of plant communities and participate to the generation and maintenance of biodiversity. Plant communities selected by environment grow by modifying soil physical, chemical, and biological properties, with consequent effects on survival and growth of plants. The complexity of plant–environment interactions has recently been studied by developing a trait-based approach in which responses and effects of plants on environment were quantified and modeled. This fundamental research on plant–environment interaction in ecosystems is essential to transpose knowledges of functional ecology to environmental management. Plants have adapted to an incredible range of environment, and extensive researches on ecological and environmental plant physiology have provided mechanistic understanding of the survival, distribution, productivity, and abundance of plant species across the diverse climates of our planet. Ecophysiological techniques have greatly advanced our understanding of photosynthesis, respiration, plant water relations, and plant responses to abiotic and biotic stresses, from instantaneous to evolutionary timescales. Ecophysiological studies also provide the basis for scaling plant physiological processes from the tissue to the canopy, ecosystem, region, and to a large extent, the entire globe. Given the above, the author proposes to bring forth a comprehensive book, “New Frontiers in Plant-Environment Interactions”, highlighting the various emerging techniques and applications that are currently being used in plant–environment interaction research and its future prospects. The author is sure that this book caters the need of all those who are working or have interest in the above topic.

This book provides a comprehensive summary of the recent advances in the biofortification of plants under climate change and how it affects food security globally. The need for mineral biofortification to eradicate or alleviate malnutrition through sustainable agriculture is also discussed. Biofortification of edible plants is considered the most appropriate approach to alleviate nutritional problems and nutrient deficiencies. In contrast, biofortification focuses on improving the nutritional content of the region's current agricultural biodiversity while preserving its habits and customs. Emphasis is also placed on recent advances and developments in omics, particularly metabolomics and related techniques, to unravel the potential alterations in plants caused by biofortification. The book brings together eminent scientists to present the latest developments in the field. This timely publication addresses practical scenarios of bio-fortified food production and climate change. The book focuses on the methods, techniques, and environmental changes used to enhance and improve agricultural products. This book is one of the first to provide information on the use of modern biotechnologies to modify crops for health benefits. It also examines the mechanisms of the plant responses to genetically induced biofortification, the production and responses of fortified plants under climate change, and their effects on food security. The book will be useful for students and researchers, especially crop scientists, environmental scientists, biotechnologists, botanists, and agronomists, to understand the techniques and mechanisms of biofortification, and responses of biofortified plants under climate change.

The book inculcates a holistic approach to improve crop productivity and quality for ensuring food security and nutrition to all. This warrants to identify various stress conditions prevalent globally and tailor crop adaptability and productivity to the maximum accordingly, employing physio-molecular modern tools and techniques with judicious amalgamation with conventional crop husbandry. As a result, the book chapters encompass diverse environmental factors, internal physio-molecular processes and their modulations with a final goal of expanding area under cultivation by utilization of constraint terrains of poor site quality and augmenting sustainable crop productivity and quality on the face of rapidly changing climate. The book includes role of plant hormones, nano-sensors, nanomaterials etc. in stress tolerance responses, capturing recent advancement in the field of stress tolerance, enlarging scope of coverage by gleaning modern literature and providing glimpses of futuristic scenario of agriculture practices that can render ‘balance staple food rich in nutrition, vitamins and minerals'to teeming billions of global human populations. Thus, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the role of stress environment and understanding stress physiology for developing stress tolerant crops. The book covers current knowledge and future prospects to achieve enhanced food security under stress environment of crops. The renowned contributors elegantly crafted each chapter, suited alike to both classroom texts for graduate students and reference material for researchers. The language and style are simple and lucid with liberal use of illustrations. This book should be on the shelf of university/ personal libraries for inquisitive students and enlightened researchers.

This book collates various aspects of stress tolerance in crop plants. It primarily focuses on the heat and temperature related stress, starting from the severity of the problem on quantity and quality of yield under the threat of global climate change. The content also explores other mechanistic dimensions such as physiochemical and molecular mechanism underlying thermotolerance, signaling mechanism under heat stress, role of heat shock proteins in modulating thermotolerance, omics approach for development of climate smart-crop. Chapters discuss different approaches used in the past to develop heat stress tolerant crop plants, list of developed thermotolerant agriculturally important crop plants, redox homeostasis under heat stress, nutrient uptake and use efficiency in plants under heat stress and much more. The book is a useful compilation for researchers working in the area of abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants, as well as for students of plant physiology and agricultural sciences.

This book presents deliberations on molecular and genomic mechanisms underlying the interactions of crop plants to the abiotic stresses caused by heat, cold, drought, flooding, submergence, salinity, acidity, etc., important to develop resistant crop varieties. Knowledge on the advanced genetic and genomic crop improvement strategies including molecular breeding, transgenics, genomic-assisted breeding, and the recently emerging genome editing for developing resistant varieties in fruit crops is imperative for addressing FHNEE (food, health, nutrition, energy, and environment) security. Whole genome sequencing in many of these crops followed by genotyping-by-sequencing has provided precise information regarding the genes conferring resistance useful for gene discovery, allele mining, and shuttle breeding which in turn opened up the scope for'designing'crop genomes with resistance to abiotic stresses. The seven chapters each dedicated to a fruit crop and a fruit crop group inthis volume elucidate different types of abiotic stresses and their effects on and interaction with the crops; enumerate the available genetic diversity with regard to abiotic stress resistance among available cultivars; illuminate the potential gene pools for utilization in interspecific gene transfer; present brief on classical genetics of stress resistance and traditional breeding for transferring them to their cultivated counterparts; depict the success stories of genetic engineering for developing abiotic stress-resistant crop varieties; discuss on molecular mapping of genes and QTLs underlying stress resistance and their marker-assisted introgression into elite varieties; enunciate different genomics-aided techniques including genomic selection, allele mining, gene discovery, and gene pyramiding for developing adaptive crop varieties with higher quantity and quality of yields, and also elaborate some case studies on genome editing focusing on specific genes for generating abiotic stress-resistant crops.

A considerable change in climate at a global level will impact the vegetable cultivation and agriculture as a whole; subsequently affecting the world's food supply. Climate change per se is not necessarily harmful; the problems arise from extreme events that are difficult to predict (erratic rainfall patterns and unpredictable high and low temperatures), and consequently reduce crop productivity. Vegetables are in general more succulent (have 90% water) and are more sensitive to climatic vagaries. Sudden changes in temperature coupled with irregular precipitation at any phase of crop growth can affect the normal growth, flowering, pollination, fruit setting, fruit development and fruit ripening can decrease the yield. The irregular precipitation can also affect the soil salinity and is a major challenge in many vegetable growing areas. To mitigate the harmful impact of climatic change there is a urgent need to develop adequate adaptation strategies for adverse effect of climate change and the preference should be given on development of heat, cold, drought, flood and salinity stress tolerant genotypes along with climate proofing through conventional and non-conventional breeding techniques. Available evidence shows that there is a high probability of increase in the frequency and intensity of climate related natural hazards due to climate change and hence increases the potential threat due to climate change related natural disasters in the world. This book (Volume- I) will be basically useful for the researchers and postgraduate students with current challenges and mitigation strategies for increasing vegetable production under a changing climate.

This book explores the impact of soil water deficiency on various aspects of physiological processes in plants. The book explains the effects under soil water deficit condition such as lowering of plant water content, disturbance in carbon metabolism such in photosynthesis, photorespiration and respiration as well as effects of soil water deficit on nitrogen metabolism. The book also educates the readers about, mineral nutrition under soil water deficit condition and roles of different nutrient to overcome water deficit. Changes in growth and development pattern of plant under soil water deficit condition and effects on growth and development are elaborated. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, scientists in botany and agriculture. Also the book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture, forestry, ecology, soil science, and environmental sciences. National and international agricultural scientists, policy makers willalso find this to be a useful read.The in depth description of the major physiological issues in plants under soil water deficit that are presented in this book will help breeders tailoring crops for desirable physiological survival traits in the face of increasing soil water deficit. This book is an impactful addition to the library of any faculty members, researchers, agricultural policy planner, post graduate or student studying in plant physiology, biochemistry, microbiology and other subjects related to crop husbandry.

This book provides an overview of the recent advancements for plant scientists with a research focus on phytohormones and their responses (nature, occurrence, and functions) in plant cells.This book focuses on the role of phytohormones in biosynthesis, plant sexual reproduction, seed germination and fruit development and ripening. It further highlights the roles of different phytohormones on signaling pathways as well as on photoperiodism/Gravitropism/Thigmotropism.The volume also explores the role of phytohormones in gene expression and plant melatonin and serotonin and covers how plant hormones react in case of stress/defence response (metals/metalloids/pathogen). Last but not least, this volume also discusses phytohormones in the context of new regulatory molecules such as Nitric oxide, hydrogen sulfide, melatonin.

Plants experience stress due to environmental changes, either in biotic or abiotic form, during their life cycle. Non-heritable modifications in morphological, physiological or biochemical characteristics tend to reduce or decrease growth and productivity, and sometimes lead to death.This book presents an exhaustive overview of the specific effects and modifications that could occur in this regard, and will serve to consolidate the ideas to promote standardization of plant adaptation to these changes in the environment. This book returns to the facts of both biotic and abiotic stress, detailing an essential aspect of plant life in the context of stress response.The text is a comprehensive, current reference that effectively addresses issues and concerns related to plant stress in natural environments. Although many reference books about abiotic stress and other environmental stresses have been published, they all exist in relative isolation from one another, covering only one specific topic. This book is, rather, a comprehensive review of all aspects of the responses of plants to changes in the environment.

Climate Change and Plants: Biodiversity, Growth and Interactions Evidence is raised daily of the varying climate and its impression on both plants and animals. Climatic changes influence all agriculture factors, which can potentially adversely affect their productivity. Plant activities are intimately associated with climate and concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Climate Change and Plants: Biodiversity, Growth and Interactions examines how plant growth characters influence and is influenced by climate change both in past and present scenarios. This book covers cutting-edge research of key determinants of plant growth in response to atmospheric CO2 enhancement and global warming. Features Discourses numerous areas of sustainable development goals projected by the UN as part of the 2030 agenda Highlights appropriate approaches for maintaining better plant growth under changing climatic conditions Presents diversity of techniques used across plant science Is designed to cater to the needs of researchers, technologists, policymakers and undergraduate and postgraduate students studying sustainable crop production and protection Addresses plant responses to atmospheric CO2 increases

This book discusses the recent advancements in the role of various biomolecules in regulating root growth and development. Rhizobiology is a dynamic sub discipline of plant science which collates investigations from various aspects like physiology, biochemistry, genetic analysis and plant–microbe interactions. The physiology and molecular mechanisms of root development have undergone significant advancements in the last couple of decades. Apart from the already known conventional phytohormones (IAA, GA, cytokinin, ethylene and ABA), certain novel biomolecules have been considered as potential growth regulators or hormones regulating plant growth and development. Root phenotyping and plasticity analysis with respect to the specific functional mutants of each biomolecule shall provide substantial information on the molecular pathways of root signaling.Special emphasis provides insights on the tolerance and modulatory mechanisms of root physiology in response to light burst, ROS generation, agravitrophic response, abiotic stress and biotic interactions.Root Apex Cognition: From Neuronal Molecules to Root-Fungal Networks and Suberin in Monocotyledonous Crop Plants: Structure and Function in Response to Abiotic Stresses” are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.Chapters “Root Apex Cognition: From Neuronal Molecules to Root-Fungal Networks and Suberin in Monocotyledonous Crop Plants: Structure and Function in Response to Abiotic Stresses” are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book presents the state-of-the-art in plant ecophysiology. With a particular focus on adaptation to a changing environment, it discusses ecophysiology and adaptive mechanisms of plants under climate change. Over the centuries, the incidence of various abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, extreme temperatures, atmospheric pollution, metal toxicity due to climate change have regularly affected plants and, and some estimates suggest that environmental stresses may reduce the crop yield by up to 70%. This in turn adversely affects the food security. As sessile organisms, plants are frequently exposed to various environmental adversities. As such, both plant physiology and plant ecophysiology begin with the study of responses to the environment. Provides essential insights, this book can be used for courses such as Plant Physiology, Environmental Science, Crop Production and Agricultural Botany.Volume 1 provides up-to-date information on the impactof climate change on plants, the general consequences and plant responses to various environmental stresses.

This book presents various aspects of salt and drought stress signaling in crops, combining physiological, biochemical, and molecular studies. Salt and drought stress are two major constraints on crop production worldwide. Plants possess several mechanisms to cope with the adverse effects of salt and drought. Among these mechanisms, stress signaling is very important, because it integrates and regulates nuclear gene expression and other cellular activities, which can help to restore cellular homeostasis. Accordingly, understanding the signaling cascades will help plant biologists to grasp the tolerance mechanisms that allow breeders to develop tolerant crop varieties. This book is an essential resource for researchers and graduate students working on salt and drought stress physiology and plant breeding.

Growth, reproduction, and geographical distribution of plants are profoundly influenced by their physiological ecology: the interaction with the surrounding physical, chemical, and biological environments. This textbook highlights mechanisms that underlie plant physiological ecology at the levels of physiology, biochemistry, biophysics, and molecular biology. At the same time, the integrative power of physiological ecology is well suited to assess the costs, benefits, and consequences of modifying plants for human needs and to evaluate the role of plants in natural and managed ecosystems. Plant Physiological Ecology, Third Edition is significantly updated, with many full color illustrations, and begins with the primary processes of carbon metabolism and transport, plant water relations, and energy balance. After considering individual leaves and whole plants, these physiological processes are then scaled up to the level of the canopy. Subsequent chapters discuss mineral nutrition and the ways in which plants cope with nutrient‑deficient or toxic soils. The book then looks at patterns of growth and allocation, life‑history traits, and interactions between plants and other organisms. Later chapters deal with traits that affect decomposition of plant material and with the consequences of plant physiological ecology at ecosystem and global levels. Plant Physiological Ecology, Third Edition features several boxed entries that extend the discussions of selected issues, a glossary, and numerous references to the primary and review literature. This significant new text is suitable for use in plant ecology courses, as well as classes ranging from plant physiology to plant molecular biology.

Microbes are ubiquitous in nature. Among microbes, fungal communities play an important role in agriculture, the environment, and medicine. Vast fungal diversity has been associated with plant systems, namely epiphytic fungi, endophytic fungi, and rhizospheric fungi. These fungi associated with plant systems play an important role in plant growth, crop yield, and soil health. Rhizospheric fungi, present in rhizospheric zones, get their nutrients from root exudates released by plant root systems, which help with their growth, development, and microbe activity. Endophytic fungi typically enter plant hosts through naturally occurring wounds that are the result of plant growth, through root hairs, or at epidermal conjunctions. Phyllospheric fungi may survive or proliferate on leaves depending on material influences in leaf diffuseness or exudates.The diverse nature of these fungal communities is a key component of soil-plant systems, where they are engaged in anetwork of interactions endophytically, phyllospherically, as well as in the rhizosphere, and thus have emerged as a promising tool for sustainable agriculture. These fungal communities promote plant growth directly and indirectly by using plant growth promoting (PGP) attributes. These PGP fungi can be used as biofertilizers and biocontrol agents in place of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for a more eco-friendly method of promoting sustainable agriculture and environments.This first volume of a two-volume set covers the biodiversity of plant-associated fungal communities and their role in plant growth promotion, the mitigation of abiotic stress, and soil fertility for sustainable agriculture. This book should be useful to those working in the biological sciences, especially for microbiologists, microbial biotechnologists, biochemists, and researchers and scientists of fungal biotechnology.

Abiotic stresses such as drought (water deficit), extreme temperatures (cold, frost and heat), salinity (sodicity) and mineral (metal and metalloid) toxicity limit productivity of crop plants worldwide and are big threats to global food security. With worsening climate change scenarios, these stresses will further increase in intensity and frequency. Improving tolerance to abiotic stresses, therefore, has become a major objective in crop breeding programs. A lot of research has been conducted on the regulatory mechanisms, signaling pathways governing these abiotic stresses, and cross talk among them in various model and non-model species. Also, various ‘omics'platforms have been utilized to unravel the candidate genes underpinning various abiotic stresses, which have increased our understanding of the tolerance mechanisms at structural, physiological, transcriptional and molecular level. Further, a wealth of information has been generated on the role of chromatinassembly and its remodeling under stress and on the epigenetic dynamics via histones modifications.The book consolidates outlooks, perspectives and updates on the research conducted by scientists in the abovementioned areas. The information covered in this book will therefore interest workers in all areas of plant sciences. The results presented on multiple crops will be useful to scientists in building strategies to counter these stresses in plants. In addition, students who are beginners in the areas of abiotic stress tolerance will find this book handy to clear their concepts and to get an update on the research conducted in various crops at one place

Major portion of the planet earth is covered by seas and oceans representing 96.5% of the planet's water, playing a detrimental role in sustaining the plant including crop diversity and productivity for human consumption. Water resources contain both soluble and transition metals, which are easily absorbed by plants through roots as a first point of contact and subsequently play important physiological and biological functions in plants. Transition metals such as copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) contribute to the plant productivity by playing key functional roles in the photosynthesis. In addition, to their major role in regulating the plant productivity, they also play an important role by acting as homeostatic regulators in uni-parentally inherited chloroplasts and maintains the flow of the electron transfer. It is worthwhile to mention that they play a critical role as transporters, which acts as electron balancing units for managing the electrostatic potential across the membranes. In contrast, some metals such as Cd, As play a significant role in inducing the stress mechanism and influencing either directly or in-directly Haber-Weiss reactions either through the production of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) or through the membrane damage thus leading to leakage of membrane transporters. However, besides playing a detrimental role as transporters in plant system, excessive accumulation of these metals due to the increasing contamination in the marginal soil and water are posing important threats to the plant system. Realizing the toxic effects of the metals, several physiological evidences have been laid for the credence of the metal toxicity and their concurrent effect on plant productivity. Increasing effects of the metals as toxicants can have three adverse effects on the populations: population can move, persist via local adaptation or phenotypic plasticity, or die. Next generation sequencing studies have revolutionized our abilities todetect the changes in expression profiles across an array of genes, which can in-turn help to develop early markers of metal induced stress. Plant Metallomics and Functional Omics: A System-Wide Perspective focuses on the applications of the system wide understanding of the biological and functional interplay occurring at the juncture of the metalloid induced stress and toxicity. The main goal of this book is to familiarize the readers with the most up-to-date information on metal-induced physiological changes in plant species.

This book highlights modern strategies and methods to improve oilseed crops in the era of climate change, presenting the latest advances in plant molecular breeding and genomics-driven breeding. Spectacular achievements in the fields of molecular breeding, transgenics and genomics in the last three decades have facilitated revolutionary changes in oilseed- crop-improvement strategies and techniques. Since the genome sequencing of rice, as the first crop plant, in 2002, the genomes of about one dozen oilseed crops have been sequenced and more are to follow. This has made it possible to decipher the exact nucleotide sequence and chromosomal positions of agroeconomic genes. Most importantly, comparative genomics and genotyping-by-sequencing have opened up new vistas for exploring available biodiversity, particularly of wild crop relatives, for identifying useful donor genes.

This book explores the role of in silico deployment in connection with modulation techniques for improving sustainability and competitiveness in the agri-food sector; pharmacokinetics and molecular docking studies of plant-derived natural compounds; and their potential anti-neurodegenerative activity. It also investigates biochemical pathways for bacterial metabolite synthesis, fungal diversity and plant-fungi interaction in plant diseases, methods for predicting disease-resistant candidate genes in plants, and genes-to-metabolites and metabolites-to-genes approaches for predicting biosynthetic pathways in microbes for natural product discovery. The respective chapters elaborate on the use of in situ methods to study biochemical pathways for bacterial metabolite synthesis; tools for plant metabolites in defence; plant secondary metabolites in defence; plant growth metabolites; characterisation of plant metabolites; and identification of plant derivedmetabolites in the context of plant defence. The book offers an unprecedented resource, highlighting state-of-the-art research work that will greatly benefit researchers and students alike, not only in the field of agriculture but also in many disciplines in the life sciences and plant sciences.

The book offers an integrated overview of plant–pathogen interactions. It discusses all the steps in the pathway, from the microbe–host-cell interface and the plant's recognition of the microbe to the plant's defense response and biochemical alterations to achieve tolerance / resistance. It also sheds light on the classes of pathogens (bacteria, fungus and viruses); effector molecules, such as PAMPs; receptor molecules like PRRs and NBS-LRR proteins; signaling components like MAPKs; regulatory molecules, such as phytohormones and miRNA; transcription factors, such as WRKY; defense-related proteins such as PR-proteins; and defensive metabolites like secondary metabolites. In addition, it examines the role of post-genomics, high-throughput technology (transcriptomics and proteomics) in studying pathogen outbreaks causing crop losses in a number of plants. Providing a comprehensive picture of plant-pathogen interaction, the updated information included in this book is valuable for all those involved in crop improvement.

After decades of dominance of genetics and genomics, the importance of structural biology is growing exponentially in the field of plant biology. The main objectives of this new book series is to “demystify” structural biology for plant researchers and to provide important insights into the basic molecular mechanisms underlying plant development through the diverse approaches utilized by structural biologists. The book series starts with a theme dedicated to hormonal signaling that has benefited from the application of structural biology. “Plant Structural Biology: Hormonal Regulations” provides up-to-date knowledge of the structural aspects of hormonal signal recognition, signal transduction, hormonal control of downstream regulatory pathways and hormonal crosstalk. The most distinctive features of this book as well as future titles is/will be to provide overview of cutting-edge research in the field of plant structural biology, and to serve as a compendium of various approaches that could be applied to problems being solved in modern plant biology. Last but not least, we hope this book will facilitate and broaden the community of (not only) plant scientists who are interested in structural biology approaches and tools. For these reasons, the style of this series is concise and general, in order to avoiding unnecessary details. Explanatory boxes describing the basics of specific approaches (e.g. X-ray crystallography, NMR, SAXS, molecular dynamics simulations, etc.) are included.

World's population is projected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100. To meet the food demands of the exponentially increasing population, a massive food production is necessary. Agricultural production on land and aquatic systems pose negative impacts on the earth's ecosystems. Combined effects of climate change, land degradation, cropland losses, water scarcity and species infestations are major causes for loss of agricultural yields up to 25%. Therefore, the world needs a paradigm shift in agriculture development for sustainable food production and security through green revolution and eco-friendly approaches. Hence, agriculture practices must be sustained by the ability of farm land to produce food to satisfy human needs indefinitely as well as having sustainable impacts on the broader environment. The real agricultural challenges of the future as well as for today differ according to their geopolitical and socioeconomic contexts. Therefore, sustainable agriculture must be inclusive and have adaptability and flexibility over time to respond to demands for food production. Considering all these points, this book has been prepared to address and insights to generate awareness of food security and focuses on perspectives of sustainable food production and security towards human society. The book facilitates to describes the classical and recent advancement of technologies and strategies by sustainable way through plant and animal origin including, breeding, pest management, tissue culture, transgenic techniques, bio and phytoremediation, environmental stress and resistance, plant growth enhancing microbes, bio-fertilizer and integrated approaches of food nutrition. Chapters provide a new dimension to discuss the issues, challenges and strategies of agricultural sustainability in a comprehensive manner. It aims at educating the students, advanced and budding researchers to develop novel approaches for sustainability with environmentally sound practices.

In the present era, rapid industrialization and urbanization has resulted in unwanted physiological, chemical, and biological changes in the environment that have harmful effects on crop quality and productivity. This situation is further worsened by the growing demand for food due to an ever increasing population. This forces plant scientists and agronomists to look forward for alternative strategies to enhance crop production and produce safer, healthier foods. Biotic and abiotic stresses are major constraints to crop productivity and have become an important challenge to agricultural scientists and agronomists due to the fact that both stress factors considerably reduce agriculture production worldwide per year. Silicon has various effects on plant growth and development, as well as crop yields. It increases photosynthetic activity, creates better disease resistance, reduces heavy metal toxicity, improves nutrient imbalance, and enhances drought tolerance. Silicon in Plants: Advances and Future Prospects presents the beneficial effects of silicon in improving productivity in plants and enhancing the capacity of plants to resist stresses from environmental factors. It compiles recent advances made worldwide in different leading laboratories concerning the role of silicon in plant biology in order to make these outcomes easily accessible to academicians, researchers, industrialists, and students. Nineteen chapters summarize information regarding the role of silicon in plants, their growth and development, physiological and molecular responses, and responses against the various abiotic stresses.

This book brings together recent advances in the area of abiotic stress tolerance in various vegetables, fruit crops, plantation crops and tuber crops. The main challenges to improving the productivity of horticultural crops are the different types of abiotic stresses generally caused by climate change at the regional and global level. Heat, drought, cold and salinity are the major abiotic stresses that adversely affect growth and productivity and can trigger a series of morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular changes in various horticultural crops. To date, there are no books covering horticultural crop-specific abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms and their management. Addressing that gap, the book is divided into 2 sections, the first of which highlights recent advances in the general aspects of abiotic stress tolerance like the role of hormones, reactive oxygen species, seed treatments, molecular mechanisms of heat tolerance and heavy metal toxicity, while the second focuses on the abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms of various vegetables, fruit crops, plantation crops and tuber crops. It includes comprehensive discussions of fruit crops like mango, grapes, banana, litchi and arid zone fruits; vegetables crops like tomato, capsicum, onion and tuber crops; and plantation crops like coconut, areca nut, oil palm and black pepper. Among the strategies for plant stress survival, examples of both avoidance and tolerance relevant to particular crops are examined in detail, supported by selected comprehensive case studies of progress. As such, the book offers a valuable resource suited for scientists and graduate students working in the fields of crop improvement, genetic engineering, and the abiotic stress tolerance of horticultural crops.

The interactions between the plant, soil, and microbes are very complex in nature and may be antagonistic, mutualistic, or synergistic, depending upon the types of microorganisms and their association with the plant and soil. The multi-trophictactics are involved in these types of interactions to nourish the plants in various habitats and conditions. Understanding the mechanisms of these interactions is highly desired to utilize the knowledge in such an eco-friendly and sustainable way, which may not only resolve the upcoming food security issues but also make the environment green by reducing the chemical inputs. Plant, Soil and Microbes: Mechanisms and Molecular Interactions, along with the recently published Plant, Soil and Microbes: Implications in Crop Science, provide detailed accounts of the exquisite and delicate balance between the three critical components of agronomy. Specifically, these two titles focus on the basis of nutrient exchange between the microorganisms and thehost plants, the mechanism of disease protection and the recent molecular details emerged from studying this multitropic interaction. Together they provide a solid foundation for the students, teachers, and researchers interested in soil microbiology, plant pathology, ecology and agronomy.

Plants are subjected to a variety of abiotic stresses such as drought, temperature, salinity, air pollution, heavy metals, UV radiations, etc. To survive under these harsh conditions plants are equipped with different resistance mechanisms which vary from species to species. Due to the environmental fluctuations agricultural and horticultural crops are often exposed to different environmental stresses leading to decreased yield and problems in the growth and development of the crops. Drought stress has been found to decrease the yield to an alarming rate of some important crops throughout the globe. During last few decades, lots of physiological and molecular works have been conducted under water stress in crop plants. Water Stress and Crop Plants: A Sustainable Approach presents an up-to-date in-depth coverage of drought and flooding stress in plants, including the types, causes and consequences on plant growth and development. It discusses the physiobiochemical, molecular and omic approaches, and responses of crop plants towards water stress. Topics include nutritional stress, oxidative stress, hormonal regulation, transgenic approaches, mitigation of water stress, approaches to sustainability, and modern tools and techniques to alleviate the water stress on crop yields. This practical book offers pragmatic guidance for scientists and researchers in plant biology, and agribusinesses and biotechnology companies dealing with agronomy and environment, to mitigate the negative effects of stress and improve yield under stress. The broad coverage also makes this a valuable guide enabling students to understand the physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms of environmental stress in plants.

The world population is estimated to reach to more than 10 billion by the year 2050. These projections pose a challenging situation for the agricultural scientists to increase crops productivity to meet the growing food demands. The unavailability and/or inaccessibility to appropriate gene pools with desired traits required to carry out genetic improvement of various crop species make this task formidable for the plant breeders. Incidentally, most of the desired genes reside in the wild genetic relatives of the crop species. Therefore, exploration and characterization of wild genetic resources of important crop species is vital for the efficient utilization of these gene pools for sustainable genetic improvements to assure food security. Further, understanding the myriad complexities of genic and genomic interactions among species, more particularly of wild relatives of crop species and/or phylogenetically distant germplasm, can provide the necessary inputs to increase the effectiveness of genetic improvement through traditional and/or genetic engineering methods. This book provides comprehensive and latest insights on the evolutionary genesis of diversity, access and its utilization in the evolution of various crop species. A comprehensive account of various crops, origin, exploitation of the primary, secondary and tertiary gene pools through breeding, biosystematical, cytogenetical and molecular phylogenetical relationships, and genetic enhancement through biotechnological interventions among others have been provided as the necessary underpinnings to consolidate information on the effective and sustainable utilization of the related genetic resources. The book stresses upon the importance of wild germplasm exploration, characterization and exploitation in the assimilation of important crop species. The book is especially intended for students and scientists working on the genetic improvement of crop species. Plant Breeders, Geneticists, Taxonomists, Molecular Biologists and Plant Biotechnologists working on crop species are going to find this book very useful.

Drought is one of the most severe constraints to crop productivity worldwide, and thus it has become a major concern for global food security. Due to an increasing world population, droughts could lead to serious food shortages by 2050. The situation may worsen due to predicated climatic changes that may increase the frequency, duration and severity of droughts. Hence, there is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the complex mechanisms associated with drought tolerance and to develop modern crop varieties that are more resilient to drought. Identification of the genes responsible for drought tolerance in plants will contribute to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that could enable crop plants to respond to drought. The discovery of novel drought related genes, the analysis of their expression patterns in response to drought, and determination of the functions these genes play in drought adaptation will provide a base to develop effective strategies to enhance the drought tolerance of crop plants. Plant breeding efforts to increase crop yields in dry environments have been slow to date mainly due to our poor understanding of the molecular and genetic mechanisms involved in how plants respond to drought. In addition, when it comes to combining favourable alleles, there are practical obstacles to developing superior high yielding genotypes fit for drought prone environments. Drought Tolerance in Plants, Vol 2: Molecular and Genetic Perspectives combines novel topical findings, regarding the major molecular and genetic events associated with drought tolerance, with contemporary crop improvement approaches. This volume is unique as it makes available for its readers not only extensive reports of existing facts and data, but also practical knowledge and overviews of state-of-the-art technologies, across the biological fields, from plant breeding using classical and molecular genetic information, to the modern omic technologies, that are now being used in drought tolerance research to breed drought-related traits into modern crop varieties. This book is useful for teachers and researchers in the fields of plant breeding, molecular biology and biotechnology.

Abiotic stresses such as high temperature, low-temperature, drought, and salinity limit crop productivity worldwide. Understanding plant responses to these stresses is essential for rational engineering of crop plants. In Arabidopsis, the signal transduction pathways for abiotic stresses, light, several phytohormones and pathogenesis have been elucidated. A significant portion of plant genomes (most studies are Arabidopsis and rice genome) encodes for proteins involves in signaling such as receptor, sensors, kinases, phosphatases, transcription factors and transporters/channels. Despite decades of physiological and molecular effort, knowledge pertaining to how plants sense and transduce low and high temperature, low-water availability (drought), water-submergence and salinity signals is still a major question before plant biologists. One major constraint hampering our understanding of these signal transduction processes in plants has been the lack or slow pace of application of molecular genomic and genetics knowledge in the form of gene function. In the post-genomic era, one of the major challenges is investigation and understanding of multiple genes and gene families regulating a particular physiological and developmental aspect of plant life cycle. One of the important physiological processes is regulation of stress response, which leads to adaptation or adjustment in response to adverse stimuli. With the holistic understanding of the signaling pathways involving not only one gene family but multiple genes or gene families, plant biologists can lay a foundation for designing and generating future crops that can withstand the higher degree of environmental stresses (especially abiotic stresses, which are the major cause of crop loss throughout the world) without losing crop yield and productivity. Therefore, in this proposed book, we intend to incorporate the contribution from leading plant biologists to elucidate several aspects of stress signaling by functional genomic approaches.

​Abiotic stresses such as high temperature, low-temperature, drought, and salinity limit crop productivity worldwide. Understanding plant responses to these stresses is essential for rational engineering of crop plants. In Arabidopsis, the signal transduction pathways for abiotic stresses, light, several phytohormones and pathogenesis have been elucidated. A significant portion of plant genomes (most studies are Arabidopsis and rice genome) encodes for proteins involves in signaling such as receptor, sensors, kinases, phosphatases, transcription factors and transporters/channels. Despite decades of physiological and molecular effort, knowledge pertaining to how plants sense and transduce low and high temperature, low-water availability (drought), water-submergence and salinity signals is still a major question before plant biologists. One major constraint hampering our understanding of these signal transduction processes in plants has been the lack or slow pace of application of molecular genomic and genetics knowledge in the form of gene function. In the post-genomic era, one of the major challenges is investigation and understanding of multiple genes and gene families regulating a particular physiological and developmental aspect of plant life cycle. One of the important physiological processes is regulation of stress response, which leads to adaptation or adjustment in response to adverse stimuli. With the holistic understanding of the signaling pathways involving not only one gene family but multiple genes or gene families, plant biologists can lay a foundation for designing and generating future crops that can withstand the higher degree of environmental stresses (especially abiotic stresses, which are the major cause of crop loss throughout the world) without losing crop yield and productivity.

In this book, authors who are experts in their fields describe current advances on commercial crops and key enabling technologies that will underpin future advances in biotechnology. They discuss state of the art discoveries as well as future challenges. Tremendous progress has been made in introducing novel genes and traits into plant genomes since the first creation of transgenic plants thirty years ago, and the first commercialization of genetically modified maize in 1996. Consequently, cultivation of biotech crops with useful traits has increased more than 100-fold from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to over 175 million hectares globally in 2013. This achievement has been made possible by continued advances in understanding the basic molecular biology of regulatory sequences to modulate gene expression, enhancement of protein synthesis and new technologies for transformation of crop plants.This book has three sections that encompass knowledge on genetically modified (GM) food crops that are currently used by consumers, those that are anticipated to reach the market place in the near future and enabling technologies that will facilitate the development of next generation GM crops. Section I focuses only on genetically modified maize and soybean (3 chapters each), while Section II discusses the GM food crops rice, wheat, sorghum, vegetables and sugar cane. Section III covers exciting recent developments in several novel enabling technologies, including gene targeting, minichromosomes, and in planta transient expression systems.

Identification of desirable genotypes with traits of interest is discernible for making genetic improvement of crop plants. In this direction, screening of a large number of germplasm for desirable traits and transfer of identified traits into agronomic backgrounds through recombination breeding is the common breeding approach. Although visual screening is easier for qualitative traits, its use is not much effective for quantitative traits and also for those, which are difficult to score visually. Therefore, it is imperative to phenotype the germplasm accessions and breeding materials precisely using high throughput phenomics tools for challenging and complex traits under natural, controlled and harsh environmental conditions. Realizing the importance of phenotyping data towards identification and utilization of a germplasm as donors, global scientific community has exerted increased focus on advancing phenomics in crop plants leading to development of a number of techniques and methodologies for screening of agronomic, physiological, and biochemical traits. These technologies have now become much advanced and entered the era of digital science. This book provides exhaustive information on various aspects related to phenotyping of crop plants and offers a most comprehensive reference on the developments made in traditional and high throughput phenotyping of agricultural crops.

The continual change in climatic conditions induces a series of adaptations in plants to suit the unfavorable conditions for sustainable agriculture. For sustainable agriculture, it is important to unravel the precise mechanism(s) that disturb the homeostatic equilibrium at cellular and molecular level and also to enhance understanding to build strategies for the tolerance of plants. Osmolytes have long been identified as pivotal abiotic stress busters because of their role in plants in overcoming extremely harsh environmental conditions. This edited compilation attempts to put forth the scattered knowledge on osmolytes and their role in abiotic stress tolerance together and disseminate as a package to deal with the problems of lower productivity under stressful environment. It will enhance the understanding on osmolytes function and bioengineering of plants for abiotic stress tolerance.The book covers very interesting topics dealing with various osmolytes and the mechanistic approach for abiotic stress tolerance to pave the path of agricultural scientists, breeders for developing high yielding sustainable transgenic crops.

PlantOmics: The Omics of Plant Science provides a comprehensive account of the latest trends and developments of omics technologies or approaches and their applications in plant science. Thirty chapters written by 90 experts from 15 countries are included in this state-of-the-art book. Each chapter describes one topic/omics such as: omics in model plants, spectroscopy for plants, next generation sequencing, functional genomics, cyto-metagenomics, epigenomics, miRNAomics, proteomics, metabolomics, glycomics, lipidomics, secretomics, phenomics, cytomics, physiomics, signalomics, thiolomics, organelle omics, micro morphomics, microbiomics, cryobionomics, nanotechnology, pharmacogenomics, and computational systems biology for plants. It provides up to date information, technologies, and their applications that can be adopted and applied easily for deeper understanding plant biology and therefore will be helpful in developingthe strategy for generating cost-effective superior plants for various purposes. In the last chapter, the editors have proposed several new areas in plant omics that may be explored in order to develop an integrated meta-omics strategy to ensure the world and earth's health and related issues. This book will be a valuable resource to students and researchers in the field of cutting-edge plant omics.

Abiotic and biotic stresses adversely affect plant growth and productivity. The phytohormones regulate key physiological events under normal and stressful conditions for plant development. Accumulative research efforts have discovered important roles of phytohormones and their interactions in regulation of plant adaptation to numerous stressors. Intensive molecular studies have elucidated various plant hormonal pathways; each of which consist of many signaling components that link a specific hormone perception to the regulation of downstream genes. Signal transduction pathways of auxin, abscisic acid, cytokinins, gibberellins and ethylene have been thoroughly investigated. More recently, emerging signaling pathways of brassinosteroids, jasmonates, salicylic acid and strigolactones offer an exciting gateway for understanding their multiple roles in plant physiological processes. At the molecular level, phytohormonal crosstalks can be antagonistic or synergistic or additive in actions. Additionally, the signal transduction component(s) of one hormonal pathway may interplay with the signaling component(s) of other hormonal pathway(s). Together these and other research findings have revolutionized the concept of phytohormonal studies in plants. Importantly, genetic engineering now enables plant biologists to manipulate the signaling pathways of plant hormones for development of crop varieties with improved yield and stress tolerance. This book, written by internationally recognized scholars from various countries, represents the state-of-the-art understanding of plant hormones'biology, signal transduction and implications. Aimed at a wide range of readers, including researchers, students, teachers and many others who have interests in this flourishing research field, every section is concluded with biotechnological strategies to modulate hormone contents or signal transduction pathways and crosstalk that enable us to develop crops in asustainable manner. Given the important physiological implications of plant hormones in stressful environments, our book is finalized with chapters on phytohormonal crosstalks under abiotic and biotic stresses.

​​Abiotic stress has a detrimental impact on the living organisms in a specific environment and constitutes a major constraint to global agricultural production. The adverse environmental conditions that plants encounter during their life cycle not only disturb their metabolic reactions, but also hamper their growth and development on cellular and whole plant levels. These conditions are of great concern, particularly for those countries whose economies primarily rely on agriculture. Under abiotic stresses, plants amalgamate multiple external stress cues to bring about a coordinated response and establish mechanisms to mitigate such stresses by triggering a cascade of events leading to enhanced tolerance. Physiological Mechanisms and Adaptation Strategies in Plants under Changing Environment, Volume 2 displays the ways by which plants utilize and integrate many common signals and subsequent pathways to cope with less favourable environmental conditions. The book also describes the use of contemporary tools for the improvement of plants under such stressed environments. Concise yet comprehensive, Physiological Mechanisms and Adaptation Strategies in Plants under Changing Environment, Volume 2 is an indispensable resource for researchers, students, environmentalists and many others in this burgeoning area of research.

A fully revised review of the latest research in molecular basis of plant abiotic stress response and adaptation Abiotic stressors are non-living environmental stressors that can have a negative impact on a plants ability to grow and thrive in a given environment. Stressors can range from temperature stress (both extreme heat and extreme cold) water stress, aridity, salinity among others. This book explores the full gamut of plant abiotic stressors and plants molecular responses and adaptations to adverse environmental conditions. The new edition of Plant Abiotic Stress provides up-to-date coverage of the latest research advances in plant abiotic stress adaptation, with special emphasis on the associated and integrative aspects of physiology, signaling, and molecular-genetics. Since the last edition, major advances in whole genome analysis have revealed previously unknown linkages between genes, genomes, and phenotypes, and new biological and –omics approaches have elucidated previously unknown cellular mechanisms underlying stress tolerance. Chapters are organized by topic, but highlight processes that are integrative among diverse stress responses. As with the first edition, Plant Abiotic Stress will have broad appeal to scientists in fields of applied agriculture, ecology, plant sciences, and biology.

The global population is growing at an alarming rate and is anticipated to reach about 9.6 billion by the end of 2050. Addressing the problem of food scarcity for budding population vis-à-vis environmental changes is the main challenge plant biologists face in the contemporary era. Plant growth and productivity are scarce in many areas of the world due to a wide range of environmental stresses. The productive land is dwindling progressively by various natural and anthropogenic means that lead to enormous crop losses worldwide. Plants often experience these stresses and have the ability to withstand them. However, when the stress exceeds the normal tolerance level, plants accumulate organic osmolytes, osmoprotectants, cryoprotectants and antioxidant enzymes, which helps them tolerate these stresses and assist in their acclimatization towards the particular ambiance needed for maintaining their growth and development. Physiological Mechanisms and AdaptationStrategies in Plants Under Changing Environment, Volume 1 discuss drought and temperature stresses and their mitigation through different means. This volume illuminates how plants that are bombarded by diverse and changing environmental stimuli, undergo appropriate physiological alterations that enable their survival. The information covered in the book is also useful in building apposite strategies to counter abiotic and biotic stresses in plants. Written by a diverse group of internationally renowned scholars, Physiological Mechanisms and Adaptation Strategies in Plants Under Changing Environment, Volume 1 is a concise yet comprehensive resource that will be beneficial for the researchers, students, environmentalists and soil scientists of this field.

Desert truffles are found in every known desert, irrespective of the habitat – cool or hot, loamy or acidic, sandy or heavy soil – the only common condition seems to be a limited supply of water. In contrast to ‘true'truffles, desert truffles have evolved over time in different families, mainly within the order Pezizales. While in some arid areas, desert truffles have been traditionally used as food, in most regions interest has only recently been increasing, and truffles are now treasured for their nutritional value, as an income source and for research.This volume gives a comprehensive overview of the phylogeny, biology, mycorrhizal association, and distribution of desert truffles, their use, biochemical and medicinal properties, as well as their domestication and cultivation.

Why a New Handbook on Root Methods? Uptake of water and nutrients is a key process in agricultural and natural ecosystems. Plant roots play a vital role in the supply of resources for growth, and yet we have a relatively poor understanding of how they function in the natural soil environment. Dr. B6hm began the Preface of his standard text on root research methods (B6hm 1979) with the comment:'Root research under natural jield conditions is a step-child of science. The reason for this is primarily methodological. The known methods are tedious, time-consuming and the accuracy of their results is of ten not very great'. Although improvements have been made recently for some methods, working on roots is stiH tedious and time-consuming. Compared to some other disci­ plines, a root researcher requires a considerable budget for his or her work. It is for this reason that in root research careful planning, the choice of appro­ priate methods and also a clear idea of which root characteristic should be observed in relation to the goal of the research question are fundamental. Con­ sequently, it is recommended to make use of'root experience'developed else­ where as much as possible.

Our view of plants is changing dramatically. Rather than being only slowly responding organisms, their signaling is often very fast and signals, both of endogenous and exogenous origin, spread throughout plant bodies rapidly. Higher plants coordinate and integrate their tissues and organs via sophisticated sensory systems, which sensitively screen both internal and external factors, feeding them information through both chemical and electrical systemic long-distance communication channels. This revolution in our understanding of higher plants started some twenty years ago with the discovery of systemin and rapid advances continue to be made. This volume captures the current ‘state of the art'of this exciting topic in plant sciences.

This book will shed light on the effect of salt stress on plants development, proteomics, genomics, genetic engineering, and plant adaptations, among other topics. Understanding the molecular basis will be helpful in developing selection strategies for improving salinity tolerance. The book will cover around 25 chapters with contributors from all over the world.

The decade since the publication of the third edition of this volume has been an era of great progress in biology in general and the plant sciences in particular. This is especially true with the advancements brought on by the sequencing of whole genomes of model organisms and the development of'omics'techniques. This fourth edition of Plant Root

Climate change is expected to have a drastic impact on agronomic conditions including temperature, precipitation, soil nutrients, and the incidence of disease pests, to name a few. To face this looming threat, significant progress in developing new breeding strategies has been made over the last few decades. The second volume of Genomics and Breeding for Climate-Resilient Crops describes various genomic and breeding approaches for the genetic improvement of the major target traits. Topics covered include: flowering time; root traits; cold, heat and drought tolerance; water use efficiency; flooding and submergence tolerance; disease and insect resistance; nutrient use efficiency; nitrogen fixation; carbon sequestration; and greenhouse gas emissions.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the multiple strategies that plants have developed to cope with drought, one of the most severe environmental stresses. Experts in the field present 17 chapters, each of which focuses on a basic concept as well as the latest findings. The following major aspects are covered in the book:· Morphological and anatomical adaptations· Physiological responses· Biochemical and molecular responses· Ecophysiological responses· Responses to drought under field conditionsThe contributions will serve as an invaluable source of information for researchers and advanced students in the fields of plant sciences, agriculture, ecophysiology, biochemistry and molecular biology.

The 13th International Conference on Plant Growth Substances was held from the 17th to the 26th July, 1988 in Calgary, Alberta Canada under the auspices of the IPGSA (International Plant Growth Substances Association) and the University of Calgary. Over 550 participants from allover the world attended, along with 70 Associates and 25 University of Calgary graduate students who assisted in audiovisual presentations when not attending the scientific sessions. Fine weather prevailed, as was usual for summer on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies, and participants arriving early visited the famous Calgary Stampede. A hosted buffet opened the Conference on Sunday evening. On Wednesday evening, following an afternoon field trip into the mountains of the Kananaskis Valley, the IPGSA traditional banquet became a western barbecue on Richards'Ghost River Ranch in the foothills of the Rockies, with folk and country and western music provided by the Great Western Orchestra. The fine Alberta weather continued through the weekend, and the Conference ended with a field trip to Sun­ shine Meadows, a World Heritage Site in Banff National Park.

Climate change is a complex phenomenon with a wide range of impacts on the environment. Biotic and abiotic stress are a result of climate change. Abiotic stress is caused by primary and secondary stresses which are an impediment to plant productivity. Prolonged exposure to these stresses results in altered metabolism and damage to biomolecules. Plants evolve defense mechanisms to withstand these stresses, e.g. synthesis of osmolytes, osmoprotectants, and antioxidants. Stress responsive genes and gene products including expressed proteins are implicated in conferring tolerance to the plant. This volume will provide the reader with a wide spectrum of information, including vital references. It also provides information as to how phytoconstituents, hormones and plant associated microbes help the plants to tolerate the stress. This volume also highlights the use of plant resources for ameliorating soil contaminants such as heavy metals. Dr. Parvaiz is Assistant professorin Botany at A.S. College, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. He has completed his post-graduation in Botany in 2000 from Jamia Hamdard New Delhi India. After his Ph.D from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India in 2007 he joined the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi. He has published more than 20 research papers in peer reviewed journals and 4 book chapters. He has also edited a volume which is in press with Studium Press Pvt. India Ltd., New Delhi, India. Dr. Parvaiz is actively engaged in studying the molecular and physio-biochemical responses of different plants (mulberry, pea, Indian mustard) under environmental stress. Prof. M.N.V. Prasad is a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Hyderabad, India. He received B.Sc. (1973) and M.Sc. (1975) degrees from Andhra University, India, and the Ph.D. degree (1979) in botany from the University of Lucknow, India. Prasad had published 216 articles in peer reviewed journals and 82 book chapters and conference proceedings in the broad area of environmental botany and heavy metal stress in plants. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor for eight books. He is the recipient of Pitamber Pant national Environment Fellowship of 2007 awarded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

Plants are sessile and prone to multiple stresses in the changing environmental conditions. Of the several strategies adopted by plants to counteract the adverse effects of abiotic stress, phytohormones provide signals to allow plants to survive under stress conditions. They are one of the key systems integrating metabolic and developmental events in the whole plant and the response of plants to external factors and are essential for many processes throughout the life of a plant and influence the yield and quality of crops. The book ‘Phytohormones and Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants'summarizes the current body of knowledge on crosstalk between plant stresses under the influence of phytohormones, and provides state-of-the-art knowledge of recent developments in understanding the role of phytohormones and abiotic stress tolerance in plants. This book presents information on how modulation in phytohormone levels affect regulation of biochemical and molecular mechanisms.