Metal toxicity and deficiency are both common abiotic problems faced by plants. While metal contamination around the world is a critical issue, the bioavailability of some essential metals like zinc (Zn) and selenium (Se) can be seriously low in other locations. The list of metals spread in high concentrations in soil, water and air includes several toxic as well as essential elements, such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), aluminum (Al), and selenium (Se). The problems for some metals are geographically confined, while for others, they are widespread. For instance, arsenic is an important toxic metalloid whose contamination in Southeast Asia and other parts of world is well documented. Its threats to human health via food consumption have generated immense interest in understanding plants' responses to arsenic stress. Metals constitute crucial components of key enzymes and proteins in plants. They are important for the proper growth and development of plants. In turn, plants serve as sources of essential elements for humans and animals. Studies of their physiological effects on plants metabolism have led to the identification of crucial genes and proteins controlling metal uptake and transport, as well as the sensing and signaling of metal stresses. Plant-Metal Interactions sheds light on the latest development and research in analytical biology with respect to plant physiology. More importantly, it showcases the positive and negative impacts of metals on crop plants growth and productivity.

This volume offers insight in the identification and selection procedure of marine protected areas in the German exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of the North - and Baltic Seas. EU Member States are obliged to establish a coherent network of protected areas, consisting of sites identified under the EC Habitats and Birds Directives. The goal of this Natura 2000 network is the conservation of biodiversity on land and in the sea. To fill important gaps in knowledge regarding the presence, abundance, and distribution of certain species and habitats in the German North- and Baltic Seas, the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) initiated a detailed research programme, involving researchers from many renowned German marine research institutes. This book contains the main results of the different projects under this research programme, which formed the basis for the identification and selection of the Natura 2000 sites. Information is given on two NATURA 2000 habitats (sandbanks and reefs), and benthic species, fish, birds and marine mammals, as well as on legal aspects and implementation procedures. Last but not least the book introduces the current status of NATURA 2000 in the German EEZ. Target audience are not only scientists, but also policymakers, environmental organisations and other stakeholders, and the book includes many illustrations.

In Loe Bar and the Sandhill Rustic Moth, Adrian Spalding examines the survival of plants and animals on Loe Bar, a shingle beach on the coast of Cornwall, in the context of its history, geomorphology and exposure to the Atlantic environment. He develops these themes within a detailed study of the Sandhill Rustic moth that endures this harsh environment where storm surges, high salinity, high temperatures, strong winds and burial by sand affect the wildlife that occurs there.

Outside Russia very little is known about the terrestrial ecology, vegetation, biogeographical patterns, and biodiversity of the enormously extensive ecosystems of Yakutia, Siberia. These systems are very special in that they function on top of huge layers of permafrost and are exposed to very severe and extreme weather conditions, the range between winter and summer temperatures being more than 100 degrees C. The soils are generally poor, and human use of the vegetation is usually extensive. Main vegetation zones are taiga and tundra, but Yakutia also supports a special land and vegetation form, caused by permafrost, the alas: more or less extensive grasslands around roundish lakes in taiga. All these vegetation types will be described and their ecology and ecophysiological characteristics will be dealt with. Because of the size of Yakutia, covering several climatic zones, and its extreme position on ecological gradients, Yakutia contains very interesting biogeographical patterns, which also will be described. Our analyses are drawn from many years of research in Yakutia and from a vast body of ecological and other literature in Russian publications and in unpublished local reports. The anthropogenic influence on the ecosystems will be dealt with. This includes the main activities of human interference with nature: forestry, extensive reindeer herding, cattle and horse grazing, etc. Also fire and other prominent ecological factors are dealt with. A very important point is also the very high degree of naturalness that is still extant in Yakutia's main vegetation zones.

This book discusses the role of salt in current agricultural approaches, including the low salt tolerance of agricultural crops and trees, impact of saline soils, and salt-resistant plants. Halophytes are extremely salt tolerant plants, which are able to grow and survive under salt at concentrations as high as 5 g/l by maintaining negative water potential. The salt-tolerant microbes inhabiting the rhizospheres of halophytes may contribute to their salt tolerance, and the rhizospheres of halophytic plants provide an ideal opportunity for isolating various groups of salt-tolerant microbes that could enhance the growth of different crops under salinity stress. The book offers an overview of salt-tolerant microbes' ability to increase plant tolerance to salt to facilitate plant growth, the potential of the halophytes' rhizospheres as a reservoir of beneficial salt-tolerant microbes, their future application as bio-inoculants in agriculture and a valuable resource for an alternative way of improving crop tolerance to salinity and promoting saline soil-based agriculture. This special collection of reviews highlights some of the recent advances in applied aspects of plant (halophytes)-microbe interactions and their contribution towards eco-friendly approaches saline soil-based agriculture.

This book provides an up-to-date analysis of the Portuguese forests and forestry sector, including its history, its total economic value, current threats and opportunities and future challenges, namely the need to incorporate more planning and technology in forest management practices. The methodological approach of analysing the forestry sector in terms of its total economic value, and the use of this new perspective to correctly perceive the forest sector and to base development strategies is unique. Also, the use of new methods and technologies in the Portuguese forestry sector will be an opportunity to share these experiences with a wider international audience. For example, fire incidence during the summer has almost no parallel in the Western World, implying that Portuguese forest landscapes function as a "natural lab of wildfires" from which much can be learned globally. Thus, the outcomes of the fire management policies adopted might represent important lessons for Mediterranean basin countries.

Combining an ecosystems approach with new insights at the molecular and biochemical level, this book presents the latest findings on how plants respond, physiologically, to sulfur in their environment. It explores key areas - such as biotic and abiotic interactions, adaptations to fluctuating supply, and sulfur's role in plant metabolic networks - to assess the functions and implications of this essential plant nutrient in a range of natural, semi-natural and anthropogenic environments.Leaders in the field, Hawkesford and de Kok, draw together an international group of experts in plant sulfur nutrition, to collate and integrate new information from molecular biology, ecology and physiology. The result is an important new reference on the relationships between plants and sulfur at all levels - including contributions arising from recent omic' approaches.

This volume provides readers with a comprehensive review of various gene silencing methodologies and its applications. It provides a historical overview of gene silencing mechanisms in plants, vectors, and strategies available for plant gene silencing, practical applications of gene silencing, bioinformatics tools, and other resources. In addition to these review chapters, this book includes methodology for virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in various different plant species, understanding plant stress responses using VIGS, miRNA identification, DNA interference, host-induced gene silencing, use of artificial miRNAs for gene silencing, high throughput RNAi, and more. Written in the highly successful Methods of Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and key tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Thorough and practical, Plant Gene Silencing: Methods and Protocols seeks to aid scientists to further understand functional relevance of target genes using gene silencing methods and use these technologies in commercial plant varieties.

In Plant Metabolism: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers in the field present the latest methods on quantitative analysis of plant metabolism. The methods focus on measurements, analyses and simulations of molecules, fluxes, and ultimately entire metabolic pathways and networks. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials, reagents, or software, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and key tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Plant Metabolism: Methods and Protocols seeks to benefit scientists ranging from plant biology, metabolic engineering, and biotechnology.

This book shares the latest insights into the genetic basis of molecular communication between plants and their microbial consortia. Further, the book highlights the capabilities of the rhizosphere and endosphere, which help manage ecosystem responses to climate change, nutrient cycling and sequestration of carbon; and discusses their application to the development and management of renewable energy sources. In their natural environments, plants are surrounded by a tremendous number of microorganisms. Some microbes directly interact with plants in a mutually beneficial fashion, while others colonize plants solely for their own advantage. In addition, microbes can indirectly affect plants by drastically altering their environments. Understanding the complex nature of the plant-microbe interface (PMI) can pave the way for novel strategies to improve plant productivity in an eco-friendly manner. The PMI approach focuses on understanding the physical, molecular, and chemical interactions between organisms in order to determine their functional roles in biological, physical, chemical and environmental systems. Although several metabolites from plants and microbes have now been fully characterized, their roles in chemical interactions between these associates remain poorly understood, and require further investigation.

This book discusses innovative methods for mining information from images of plants, especially leaves, and highlights the diagnostic features that can be implemented in fully automatic systems for identifying plant species. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, it explores the problem of plant species identification, covering both the concepts of taxonomy and morphology. It then provides an overview of morphometrics, including the historical background and the main steps in the morphometric analysis of leaves together with a number of applications. The core of the book focuses on novel diagnostic methods for plant species identification developed from a computer scientist's perspective. It then concludes with a chapter on the characterization of botanists' visions, which highlights important cognitive aspects that can be implemented in a computer system to more accurately replicate the human expert's fixation process. The book not only represents an authoritative guide to advanced computational tools for plant identification, but provides experts in botany, computer science and pattern recognition with new ideas and challenges. As such it is expected to foster both closer collaborations and further technological developments in the emerging field of automatic plant identification.

Phytoplasma III is the last of three books in the series covering all the aspects of phytoplasma-associated diseases. Phytoplasmas are a major limiting factor in the quality and productivity of many ornamental, horticultural and economically important agriculture crops worldwide, and losses due to phytoplasma diseases have disastrous consequences for farming communities. As there is no effective cure for these diseases, management strategies focus-on exclusion, minimizing their spread by insect vectors and propagation materials, and developing host plant resistance. This book provides an update on genomics, effectors and pathogenicity factors toward a better understanding of phytoplasma-host metabolic interactions. It offers a comprehensive overview of biological, serological and molecular characterization of the phytoplasmas, including recently developed approaches in diagnostics, such as transcriptomics studies, which have paved the way for analyzing the gene expression pattern in phytoplasmas on infection and revealed the up-regulation of genes associated with hormonal response, transcription factors, and signaling genes. Although phytoplasmas remain the most poorly characterized pathogens, recent studies have identified virulence factors that induce typical disease symptoms and have characterized the unique reductive evolution of the genome. Reviewing the advances in cultivation in axenic media together with the perspectives for future research to reduce the global incidence of these pathogens and the associated agricultural losses, the book is a valuable resource for plant pathologists, researchers in agriculture and PhD students.

A multiplicity of biotrophic micro-organisms interact with plants in nature, forming symbiotic relationships that range from mutualism to antagonism. Microorganisms that have adopted biotrophy as a lifestyle are able to colonize the plant and often to cross the plant cell boundaries by forming intracellular structures that are the site of nutrient uptake/exchange. To establish themselves within plant tissues, both mutualistic and pathogenic biotrophs need to overcome the plant defense response through an exchange of molecular signals. Our knowledge of the nature of these signals and their function in the interaction has rapidly increased over the last few years. This volume focuses on the genetic, molecular and cellular components involved in the communication between partners of well-known symbioses, but also reports on the advances for less studied systems.

Nature endows us with a treasure chest of Green Gold full of amazing 'redox-active' substances which interfere with numerous biological processes in our own body, in animals, bacteria, fungi and plants. Whilst such natural products are all around and also in us, we still do not fully understand how these compounds actually work. This book attempts to resolve some of the mysteries and riddles associated with such products. Written by more than thirty international experts from academia and industry, it places a focus on modern developments in this field and considers such natural products from various angles, from their isolation and characterization all along to product development and commercialization. Throughout, the reader will be confronted with modern approaches which enable the efficient identification and isolation of new natural products, help to elucidate their mode(s) of action and permit practical uses in Medicine, Cosmetics, Agriculture, Industry and as functional foods.

Roots represent half of the plant body and arguably the more interesting half. Despite its obvious importance for the whole plant, until recently our knowledge of the root apparatus was very limited, mostly due to the inadequacy of the techniques available. Recent advances in the visualization and measurement of roots have resulted in significant progress in our understanding of root architecture, growth and behaviour. In this book international experts highlight the most advanced techniques, both lab and field methods, and discuss them in detail. "Measuring Roots" combines academic and practical aspects of this topic, making it a universal handbook for all researchers and others interested in root-measuring methods. "

Phosphorus (P) is a finite resource which is essential for life. It is a limiting nutrient in many ecosystems but also a pollutant which can affect biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems and change the ecology of water bodies. This book collects the latest information on biological processes in soil P cycling, which to date have remained much less understood than physico-chemical processes. The methods section presents spectroscopic techniques and the characterization of microbial P forms, as well as the use of tracers, molecular approaches and modeling of soil-plant systems. The section on processes deals with mycorrhizal symbioses, microbial P solubilization, soil macrofauna, phosphatase enzymes and rhizosphere processes. On the system level, P cycling is examined for grasslands, arctic and alpine soils, forest plantations, tropical forests, and dryland regions. Further, P management with respect to animal production and cropping, and the interactions between global change and P cycling, are treated.

This book continues as volume 2 of a multi-compendium on Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants. It covers edible fruits/seeds used fresh or processed, as vegetables, spices, stimulants, pulses, edible oils and beverages. It encompasses species from the following families: Clusiaceae, Combretaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Dilleniaceae, Ebenaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Ericaceae and Fabaceae. This work will be of significant interest to scientists, researchers, medical practitioners, pharmacologists, ethnobotanists, horticulturists, food nutritionists, agriculturists, botanists, herbalogists, conservationists, teachers, lecturers, students and the general public. Topics covered include: taxonomy (botanical name and synonyms); common English and vernacular names; origin and distribution; agro-ecological requirements; edible plant part and uses; botany; nutritive and medicinal/pharmacological properties, medicinal uses and current research findings; non-edible uses; and selected/cited references.

Due to their sessile lifestyle, plants need to efficiently adapt to changing environmental conditions during their life cycle. Nutrient acquisition from the soil has to be able to adapt to considerable fluctuations in concentrations to ensure adequate distribution between tissues, cells and organelles. The storage and retrieval of nutrients, metabolites or toxic substances in vacuoles plays an important part in cellular homeostasis in plants. The long-range transport and maintenance of turgor is critically dependent on the availability of water and rate of evaporation, while at the same time photosynthetic products have to be transported to all plant parts. As a result plants contain a large number of ATP-dependent pumps and secondary transporters that, in order to adapt to the changing environment, need to be regulated by a complex network of sensing and signaling mechanisms. Plants share many basic elements of signal transduction with animals, but also contain plant-specific signaling molecules and mechanisms. In this volume, the role of transporters and pumps in the regulation of movement, long-range transport and compartmentalization of water, solutes, nutrients and classical signaling molecules is highlighted, and the function, regulation and membrane-transporter interaction and their roles in plant signaling controlling plant physiology and development are discussed.

Plant-animal interactions have become a focus of ecological research, with the processes of herbivory being of special interest. This volume examines the interactions of leaf-cutting ants with the rainforest vegetation on Barro Colorado Islands in Central America. It is the synthesis of field research on multiple scales extending over a period of several years. This work can serve as a model study summarizing and extending knowledge about herbivorous insect-plant relationships, and the resulting consequences on structural and functional features of tropical ecosystems. The text is an invaluable reference for researchers and land managers working in the fields of plant-animal interactions, herbivory, community ecology and biodiversity.

Boron is one of the essential micro nutrients for higher plants growth and development, and more and more studies have been conducted to establish boron as an essential element in animals and humans. This book reviews all aspects of boron research in recent years and is based on the Third International Symposium on all Aspects of Plant and Animal Boron Nutrition which was held in Wuhan, P.R. China in 2005. This includes B sorption mechanisms in soils, deficiency and toxicity of B, B fertilizer application and basic research on the physiology and molecular biology of plant B nutrition, and nutritional function of B in animals and humans. This book is aimed at scientists, Masters or Ph. D. students focusing on boron research field, as well as providing managers involved in agricultural production with an important reference to recent developments in boron nutrition research.

Phospholipidshavelongbeenknownfortheirkeyroleinmaintainingthebilayer structureofmembranesandinphysicallyseparatingthecytosolfromorganelles andtheextracellularspace. Inthepastdecade,acompletelynovelandunexpected functionemerged,full?llingacrucialroleincellsignaling. Itwasthediscoveryin animalcells,thatagonist-activatedcellsurfacereceptorsledtotheactivationofa phospholipase C (PLC), to hydrolyze the minor lipid, phosphatidylinositol 4- bisphosphateintotwosecondmessengers,inositol1,4,5-trisphosphate(InsP)and 3 2+ diacylglycerol(DAG). WhileInsP diffusesintothecytosol,whereitreleasesCa 3 2+ from an intracellular store by activating a ligand-gated Ca -channel, DAG remainsinthemembranetorecruitandactivatemembersoftheproteinkinase Cfamily. Overtheyears,avarietyofotherlipidbased-signalingcascadesweredisc- ered. Theseinclude,phospholipaseA,generatinglyso-phospholipidsandfreefatty acids(tobeconvertedintoprostaglandinsandleukotrienes),phospholipaseD,to generatethelipidsecondmessenger,phosphatidicacid(PA),andphosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), generating a distinct set of polyphosphoinositides (PPI) ph- phorylated at the D3-position of the inositol ring, all with separate signaling functions. Sphingolipids,representinganotherimportantgroupofsignalinglipids, alsocameacross. Themajorityoftheselipid-basedsignalingpathwayshavebeendiscoveredin plantcellstoo. Moreover,theyhavebeenfoundtobeactivatedinresponsetoa widevarietyofbioticandabioticstresssignals,butalsotobebasicallyinvolvedin plantgrowthanddevelopment. Whilemanyoftheenzymes,lipids,andtheirtargets involved arewell conserved, major differences with the mammalian paradigms havealsoemerged. Thisbookhighlightsthecurrentstatusofplantlipidsignaling. Allchaptershave beenwrittenbyexpertsinthe?eldandcoverinformationforbothbeginnersand advancedlipidologists. PartIincludesphospholipases(Chaps. 1-3),partII,lipid kinases (Chaps. 4-7), part III, lipid phosphatases (Chaps. 8-9), part IV, ix x Preface inositolphosphates and PPI metabolism (Chaps. 10-13), part V, PA signaling (Chaps. 14-17),andpartVI,additionallipidsignals,e. g. oxylipins,NAPEand sphingolipids(Chaps18-20). Ithasbeenagreatpleasuretobetheeditorofthis bookandtobeawitnessofthislipid-signalingadventure. Amsterdam,June2009 TeunMunnik Contents PartI Phospholipases PhospholipaseAinPlantSignalTransduction...3 Gu..ntherF. E. Scherer TheEmergingRolesofPhospholipaseCinPlantGrowth andDevelopment...23 PeterE. DowdandSimonGilroy PlantPhospholipaseD...39 WenhuaZhang,XiaoboWan,YueyunHong,WeiqiLi,andXueminWang PartII Kinases Phosphatidylinositol4-PhosphateisRequiredforTip GrowthinArabidopsisthaliana ...65 AmyL. SzumlanskiandErikNielsen PIP-KinasesasKeyRegulatorsofPlantFunction ...79 TillIschebeckandIngoHeilmann PlantPhosphatidylinositol3-Kinase...95 YureeLee,TeunMunnik,andYoungsookLee DiacylglycerolKinase...107 StevenA. AriszandTeunMunnik xi xii Contents PartIII Phosphatases SignalingandthePolyphosphoinositidePhosphatasesfromPlants ...117 GlendaE. Gillaspy PhosphatidicAcidPhosphatasesinSeedPlants...131 YukiNakamuraandHiroyukiOhta PartIV PPIMetabolism InsP inPlantCells ...145 3 YangJuIm,BrianQPhillippy,andImaraYPerera InositolPolyphosphatesandKinases...161 JillStevenson-PaulikandBrianQ. Phillippy PhosphoinositidesandPlantCellWallSynthesis ...175 RuiqinZhong,RyanL. McCarthy,andZheng-HuaYe ImagingLipidsinLivingPlants ...185 JoopE. M. VermeerandTeunMunnik PartV PASignaling PhosphatidicAcid:AnElectrostatic/Hydrogen-BondSwitch?...2 03 EdgarEduardKooijmanandChristaTesterink NitricOxideandPhosphatidicAcidSignalinginPlants...223 AyelenM. Diste'fano,M. LucianaLanteri,ArjentenHave, CarlosGarc?'a-Mata,LorenzoLamattina,andAnaM. Laxalt 3-Phosphoinositide-DependentProteinKinaseisaSwitchboard fromSignalingLipidstoProteinPhosphorylationCascades...243 ChristineZalejskiandLa'szlo'Bo..gre PartVI AdditionalLipidSignals DiacylglycerolPyrophosphate,ANovelPlantSignalingLipid...263 EmmanuelleJeannette,SophieParadis,andChristineZalejski OxylipinSignalingandPlantGrowth...277 AlinaMosblech,IvoFeussner,andIngoHeilmann Contents xiii FattyAcidAmideHydrolaseandtheMetabolismof N-AcylethanolamineLipidMediatorsinPlants...293 KentD. ChapmanandElisonB. Blanca?or SphingolipidSignalinginPlants...307 LouiseV. MichaelsonandJohnathanA. Napier Index ...323 Contributors Steven A. Arisz Section Plant Physiology, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences,UniversityofAmsterdam,SciencePark904,NL-1098XH,Amsterdam, TheNetherlands ElisonB. Blanca?or SamuelRobertsNobleFoundation,PlantBiologyDivision, Ardmore,OK73401,USA,eblanca?or@noble.

This is a brand new edition of an essential work on Bayesian networks and decision graphs. It is an introduction to probabilistic graphical models including Bayesian networks and influence diagrams. The reader is guided through the two types of frameworks with examples and exercises, which also give instruction on how to build these models. Structured in two parts, the first section focuses on probabilistic graphical models, while the second part deals with decision graphs, and in addition to the frameworks described in the previous edition, it also introduces Markov decision process and partially ordered decision problems.

Echinostomes are medically- and veterinary-important parasitic flatworms that invade humans, domestic animals and wildlife and also parasitize in their larval stages numerous invertebrate and cold-blooded vertebrate hosts. The interest in echinostomes in parasitology and general biology comes from several areas: (1) Human infections; (2) Experimental models; (3) Animal infections; (4) Systematics. The application of novel techniques is moving the echinostomes to the frontline of parasitology in fields such as systematics, immunobiology in vertebrate and invertebrate organisms and proteomics among others. The Biology of Echinostomes demonstrates the application of new techniques to a group of trematodes that may serve to obtain information of great value in parasitology and general biology. The book includes basic topics, such as biology and systematics, as well as more novel topics, such as immunobiology, proteomics, and genomics of echinostomes. The authors of each chapter emphasize their content with: (i) the most novel information obtained; (ii) analysis of this information in a more general context (i.e. general parasitology); and (iii) future perspectives in view of the information presented. The subjects are analyzed from a modern point of view, considering aspects such as applications of novel techniques and an analysis of host-parasite interactions.