This book describes the unique characean experimental system, which provides a simplified model for many aspects of the physiology, transport and electrophysiology of higher plants. The first chapter offers a thorough grounding in the morphology, taxonomy and ecology of Characeae plants. Research on characean detached cells in steady state is summarised in Chapter 2, and Chapter 3 covers characean detached cells subjected to calibrated and mostly abiotic types of stress: touch, wounding, voltage clamp to depolarised and hyperpolarised potential difference levels, osmotic and saline stress. Chapter 4 highlights cytoplasmic streaming, cell-to-cell transport, gravitropism, cell walls and the role of Characeae in phytoremediation. The book is intended for researchers and students using the characean system and will also serve as an invaluable reference resource for electrophysiologists working on higher plants.

This book is devoted to the fascinating superfamily of plant ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters and their variety of transported substrates. It highlights their exciting biological functions, covering aspects ranging from cellular detoxification, through development, to symbiosis and defense. Moreover, it also includes a number of chapters that center on ABC transporters from non-Arabidopsis species. ABC proteins are ubiquitous, membrane-intrinsic transporters that catalyze the primary (ATP-dependent) movement of their substrates through biological membranes. Initially identified as an essential aspect of a vacuolar detoxification process, genetic work in the last decade has revealed an unexpectedly diverse variety of ABC transporter substrates, which include not only xenobiotic conjugates, but also heavy metals, lipids, terpenoids, lignols, alkaloids and organic acids. The discovery that members of the ABCB and ABCG family are involved in the movement of phytohormones has further sparked their exploration and provided a new understanding of the whole family. Accordingly, the trafficking, regulation and structure-function of ABCB-type auxin transporters are especially emphasized in this book.

Bryophytes, which are important constituents of ecosystems globally and often dominate carbon and water dynamics at high latitudes and elevations, were also among the pioneers of terrestrial photosynthesis. Consequently, in addition to their present day ecological value, modern representatives of these groups contain the legacy of adaptations that led to the greening of Earth. This volume brings together experts on bryophyte photosynthesis whose research spans the genome and cell through whole plant and ecosystem function and combines that with historical perspectives on the role of algal, bryophyte and vascular plant ancestors on terrestrialization of the Earth. The eighteen well-illustrated chapters reveal unique physiological approaches to achieving carbon balance and dealing with environmental limitations and stresses that present an alternative, yet successful strategy for land plants.

This book focuses on the mechanistic (microscopic) understanding of radionuclide uptake by plants in contaminated soils and potential use of phytoremediation. The key features concern radionuclide toxicity in plants, how the radioactive materials are absorbed by plants, and how the plants cope with the toxic responses. The respective chapters examine soil classification, natural plant selection, speciation of actinides, kinetic modeling, and case studies on cesium uptake after radiation accidents. Radionuclide contaminants pose serious problems for biological systems, due to their chemical toxicity and radiological effects. The processes by which radionuclides can be incorporated into vegetation can either originate from activity interception by external plant surfaces (either directly from the atmosphere or from resuspended material), or through uptake of radionuclides via the root system. Subsequent transfer of toxic elements to the human food chain is a concrete danger. Therefore, the molecular mechanisms and genetic basis of transport into and within plants needs to be understood for two reasons: The effectiveness of radionuclide uptake into crop plants – so-called transfer coefficient – is a prerequisite for the calculation of dose due to the food path. On the other hand, efficient radionuclide transfer into plants can be made use of for decontamination of land – so-called phytoremediation, the direct use of living, green plants for in situ removal of pollutants from the environment or to reduce their concentrations to harmless levels.

Completing the primary genomic sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana was a major milestone, being the first plant genome and well established as the premiere model species in plant biology. Since working drafts of rice (Oryza sativa L.) genome became available (Yu et al. 2002), it has become the s- ond-best model organism in plants representing monocotyledons. Understanding how the genome sequence comprehensively encodes de- lopmental programs and environmental responses is the next major ch- lenge for all plant genome projects. This requires functional characterization of genes, including identification of regulatory sequences. Several functional genomics approaches were initiated to decode the linear sequence of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, including full-length cDNA collections, microarrays, natural variation, knockout collections, and comparative sequence analysis (Borevitz and Ecker 2004). Genomics provides the ess- tial tools to speed up the research work of the traditional molecular gene- cist, and is now a scientific discipline in its own right (Borevitz and Ecker 2004).

This volume is a compilation of extended abstracts of all papers presented at the 14th International Plant Nutrition Colloquium. Over 500 oral and poster presentations illustrate current knowledge and research emphasis in this subject, providing a comprehensive view of the state of plant nutrition research.

Exactly 35 years after the first Colloquium was held, the Eleventh International Plant Nutrition Colloquium took place from 30 July to 4 August 1989 in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Although impressive progress has been made during the past decades in our understanding of the mechanisms of uptake, distribution and assimilation of nutrients in relation to crop yield and quality, there are still significant gaps in our insight into many fundamental aspects of plant mineral nutrition and related metabolic processes. In spite of improved knowledge of nutrient requirements of crops and improved fertilizer application strategies, the world population remains to be burdened with an enormous shortage of plant products for food, timber, fuel, shelter, and other purposes. The main challenge facing the plant nutrition research community is to at least alleviate the increasing world-wide need for applying scientific knowledge to practical problems in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. It is therefore felt by many scientists that the Plant Nutrition Colloquia, which are intended to bring together scientists and to integrate knowledge and approaches acquired in plant physiology, biochemis try, soil science, agronomy and related disciplines, have indeed made a significant contribution to the advancement of our knowledge and understanding in this vital and interdisciplinary field of agrobiology. About 260 scientists from 40 nations attended the Colloquium in Wageningen.

Plant Nutrition - From Genetic Engineering to Field Practice, the 12th International Colloquium on Plant Nutrition, is the latest in a series which began in 1954. Early meetings were mainly concerned with the practical problems of soil fertility, with soil assessment, fertilizer requirements and methods of analysis. As the colloquia have progressed, the emphasis has slowly changed. The practical problems are still important, but there is increasing emphasis on plant physiology, plant biochemistry, membrane biochemistry, and even on the chemistry of genes which control the proteins which transfer nutrient ions to the inside of cells. The meetings therefore provide a valuable opportunity for each half of the science of plant nutrition to interact with, and learn from the other half. This volume begins with five papers which review current knowledge in important fields: the rhizosphere, molecular biology, electron microscopy, location and function of elements in vivo, and modelling nutrient responses in the field. These themes are continued in groups of shorter papers which follow. In addition, there are sections on nutrient dynamics and partitioning, diagnostic techniques, plant survival strategies, mycorrhizas, and on nutrients such as P, N, S, K, Ca, Mg, and micronutrients. A large section is devoted specifically to boron - reflecting the considerable current interest in this element. In total there are 177 refereed papers providing both a broad overview and a detailed picture of the latest developments in pure and applied plant nutrition.

In the last half century, because of the raising world population and because of the many environmental issues posed by the industrialization, the amount of arable land per person has declined from 0.32 ha in 1961-1963 to 0.21 ha in 1997-1999 and is expected to drop further to 0.16 ha by 2030 and therefore is a severe menace to food security (FAO 2006). At the same time, about 12 million ha of irrigated land in the developing world has lost its productivity due to waterlogging and salinity. Waterlogging is a major problem for plant cultivation in many regions of the world. The reasons are in part due to climatic change that leads to the increased number of precipitations of great intensity, in part to land degradation. Considering India alone, the total area suffering from waterlogging is estimated to be about 3.3 million ha (Bhattacharya 1992), the major causes of waterlogging include super- ous irrigation supplies, seepage losses from canal, impeded sub-surface drainage, and lack of proper land development. In addition, many irrigated areas are s- jected to yield decline because of waterlogging due to inadequate drainage systems. Worldwide, it has been estimated that at least one-tenth of the irrigated cropland suffers from waterlogging.

"The path of carbon in photosynthesis"for Progress in Botany: 50 years of Calvin-Benson cycle - 30 years of Kelly-Latzko reviews While writing this Foreword and trying to focus my thoughts on the bioch- istry of photosynthesis, a handsome slim hardcover booklet of 104 pages bound in dark blue linen is in front of me on my desk: "The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis" J. A. Bassham and M. Calvin,1957 I acquired it in the month of my oral Ph. D. -exams,April 1960,to get prepared with the Nobel-laureate's text. In 2004 in his last swan-song review for Progress in Botany Grahame J. Kelly celebrated "The Calvin cycle's golden jubilee"in an overview of 50 years of carbon flowing for the progress in botany. He had met Erwin Latzko in 1970 in another then foremost and now historic place of the biochemistry of photosynthesis, the laboratory of Martin Gibbs at Brandeis University, Massachusetts. Four years later Latzko and Kelly (1974) published their first joint review on photosynthetic carbon metabolism,starting off a long flow of articles on the flow of carbon in the series Progress in Botany. Most faithfully they produced regular accounts of the progress in Progress in Botany every second year, and when Erwin Latzko decided to retire after the 1996 review Grahame Kelly carried on alone.

The book is a fundamental reference source on reaction wood for wood scientists and technologists, plant biologists, silviculturists, forest ecologists, and anyone involved in the growing of trees and the processing of wood. It brings together our current understanding of all aspects of reaction wood, and is the first book to discuss both compression wood and tension wood. Trees produce reaction wood to maintain the vertical orientation of their stems and the optimum angle of each branch. They achieve this by laying down fibre cell walls in which differences in physical and chemical structure from those of normal fibres are expressed as differential stresses across the stem or branch. This process, while of obvious value for the survival of the tree, causes serious problems for the utilisation of timber. Timber derived from trees containing significant amounts of reaction wood is subject to dimensional instability on drying, causing twisting, bending and splitting. It is also difficult to work as timber, and for the pulp and paper industry the cost of removing the increased amount of lignin in compression wood is substantial. This has both practical and economic consequences for industry. Understanding the factors controlling reaction wood formation and its effect on wood structure is therefore fundamental to our understanding of the adaptation of trees to their environment and to the sustainable use of wood. The topics covered include: -Morphology, anatomy and ultrastructure of reaction wood -Cell-wall polymers in reaction wood and their biosynthesis -Changes in tree proteomes during reaction wood formation -The biomechanical action and biological functions of reaction wood - Physical and mechanical properties of reaction wood from the scale of cell walls to planks -The detection and characterisation of compression wood -Effects of reaction wood on the performance of wood and wood-based products - Commercial implications of reaction wood and the influence of forest management on its formation

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 conditions The 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.

Research and publications on the potato crop have burgeoned since the first edition of this book was published in 1978. However, the warm reception of the first edition suggested that it had a useful part to play in promoting the scientific basis for understanding and improving the yield and quality of the crop. Since the first edition was out of print and a second reprint would not have taken into account the contributions made by research over the intervening years, it became obvious that a complete revision was necessary. There was, in particular, a need to take account of the rapid extension of interest in the crop into climates and farming systems with which it has not been traditionally associa,ted. Those involved with the crop will be sadly aware that a number of contributors to the first edition are no longer with us. Their contribution to our knowledge of the crop will however be a permanent legacy of their achievement. I would like to thank all those who have contributed to the book for their willingness to cooperate in the difficult task of bringing their particular subject up to date. This is even more noteworthy for the pressure of time appears to be almost an order of magnitude higher than it was when the first edition was tackled.

Plants use resources, i.e. carbon, nutrients, water and energy, either for growth or to defend themselves from biotic and abiotic stresses. This volume provides a timely understanding of resource allocation and its regulation in plants, linking the molecular with biochemical and physiological-level processes. Ecological scenarios covered include competitors, pathogens, herbivores, mycorrhizae, soil microorganisms, carbon dioxide/ozone regimes, nitrogen and light availabilities. The validity of the "Growth-Differentiation Balance Hypothesis" is examined and novel theoretical concepts and approaches to modelling plant resource allocation are discussed. The results presented can be applied in plant breeding and engineering, as well as in resource-efficient stand management in agriculture and forestry.

Originally published in 1954, this collection of the posthumous papers of the eminent plant physiologist Frederick Frost Blackman includes six papers that were unpublished at the time of his death, all of which address the topic of plant respiration. The data was collected over the course of one year from experiments performed on the effect of oxygen on the respiration of apples, and the text begins with an introduction by the noted botanist George Edward Briggs. This book will be of value to anyone interested in Blackman's work or in the history of botany and plant physiology.

Plant-driven volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions play a major role in atmospheric chemistry, including ozone and photochemical smog formation in the troposphere, and they extend the atmospheric lifetime of the key greenhouse gas, methane. Furthermore, condensation of photo-oxidation products of BVOCs leads to formation of secondary organic aerosols with profound implications for the earth's solar radiation budget and climate. Trees represent the plant life form that most contributes to BVOC emissions, which gives global forests a unique role in regulating atmospheric chemistry. Written by leading experts in the field, the focus is on recent advancements in understanding the controls on plant-driven BVOC emissions, including efforts to quantitatively predict emissions using computer models, particularly on elicitation of emissions under biotic and abiotic stresses, molecular mechanisms of volatile synthesis and emission and the role of emissions in plant stress tolerance.

The past two decades have seen rapid advances in the technology used to produce pot plants. Glasshouses designed and orientated to give maxi mum light transmission, fully automatic heating and ventilating systems, carbon dioxide enrichment of the atmosphere, controlled photoperiods using automatic blackouts and incandescent lamps which enable plants such as chrysanthemum to be flowered at any time of the year, mist propagation techniques, chemical growth regulators which control the height of plants, automatic watering and feeding systems, etc.: these are only some of the developments which have transformed pot plant culture. There have also been many changes in the composts and systems used to grow the plants. Mineral soils, which formed the basis of the John Innes composts, are now either too expensive or too difficult to obtain in suitable quality and sufficient quantity. Consequently the grower has been forced to seek other materials such as peat, perlite, vermiculite, plastic foam, shredded bark, etc. New types of fertilizers, new methods of heat sterilization and new chemical sterilizing agents are also being used.

The entire range of the developmental processes in plants is regulated by a shift in the hormonal concentration, tissue sensitivity and their interaction with the factors operating around them. Out of the recognized hormones, attention has largely been focused on five - Auxins, Gibberellins, Cytokinin, Abscisic acid and Ethylene. However, the information about the most recent group of phytohormone (Brassinosteroids) has been incorporated in this book. This volume includes a selection of newly written, integrated, illustrated reviews describing our knowledge of Brassinosteroids and aims to describe them at the present time. Various chapters incorporate both theoretical and practical aspects and may serve as baseline information for future researches through which significant developments are possible. This book will be useful to the students, teachers and researchers, both in universities and research institutes, especially in relation to biological and agricultural sciences.

This third edition of the book has been completely re-written, providing a wider scope and enhanced coverage. It covers the general principles of the natural occurrence, pollution sources, chemical analysis, soil chemical behaviour and soil-plant-animal relationships of heavy metals and metalloids, followed by a detailed coverage of 21 individual elements, including: antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gold, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, silver, thallium, tin, tungsten, uranium, vanadium and zinc. The book is highly relevant for those involved in environmental science, soil science, geochemistry, agronomy, environmental health, and environmental engineering, including specialists responsible for the management and clean-up of contaminated land.

Plants have evolved with a complex array of signaling molecules to facilitate their growth and development and their interactions with the environment. A vast number of different peptide molecules form an important but until recently often overlooked component amongst these signaling molecules. Plant peptide signals are involved in regulating meristem growth and organogenesis, modulating plant growth and homeostatic responses. They also have important roles as signals of imminent danger or pathogen attack. This volume focuses on the roles of various peptide signaling molecules in development, defence and homeostasis. As it is likely that further plant peptide signaling molecules remain to be discovered, the last section takes a practical look at methods to identify new peptides and characterise their functions.

This book provides a convincing argument for the view that whole cells and whole plants growing in competitive wild conditions show aspects of plant behaviour that can be accurately described as 'intelligent'. Trewavas argues that behaviour, like intelligence, must be assessed within the constraints of the anatomical and physiological framework of the organism in question. The fact that plants do not have centralized nervous systems for example, does not exclude intelligent behaviour. Outside the human dimension, culture is thought largely absent and fitness is the biological property of value. Thus, solving environmental problems that threaten to reduce fitness is another way of viewing intelligent behaviour and has a similar meaning to adaptively variable behaviour. The capacity to solve these problems might be considered to vary in different organisms, but variation does not mean absence. By extending these ideas into a book that allows a critical and amplified discussion, the author hopes to raise an awareness of the concept of purposive behaviour in plants.

This comprehensive book highlights the importance of Cyanidioschyzon merolae (C. merolae), an ultrasmall unicellular red alga, as a model eukaryote organism. The chapters introduce recent studies on C. merolae, from culture, synchronization and isolation methods of nucleic acids, proteins and organelles for molecular biological and cytological analyses, as well as its application in genetic engineering of environmental-stress-tolerant crops and oil production. In addition to discussing recent advances based on the complete genome information and molecular biological techniques such as genetic modifications and bioinformatics, the book includes visualization aids demonstrating that both classical and recent imaging techniques of fluorescent and electron microscopy can be applied to analyses of C. merolae. This publication offers a definitive resource for both beginners and professionals studying C. merolae, particularly in the field of molecular biology, evolutionary biology, morphology, biochemistry and cell biology, as well as those interested in its applications in medical sciences and agriculture.

Seaweeds, also known as macroalgae, are among the most important primary producers and act as ecological engineers on rocky coasts of the world's oceans. In addition to their extreme ecological importance they are also of high economic relevance. Complementing available textbooks with its more research-oriented approach, this volume contains 22 chapters by renowned experts, grouped in five parts. In Part I fundamental processes and acclimation strategies of seaweeds towards the abiotic environment are covered. Part II focuses on the multitude of biotic interactions in seaweed communities, and in Part III the reader is introduced to the structure and function of the main seaweed systems of the world. The chapters of Part IV highlight and discuss the effects of global and local environmental changes on seaweeds and their communities. In the final Part V a comprehensive overview of developments in seaweed aquaculture, industrial applications and the overall economic importance of seaweeds is provided. Summarizing the advances in seaweed biology achieved within the last few decades, this book also identifies gaps in the present knowledge and needs for future research.

A symposium entitled "The New Frontiers and Future Perspectives of Plant Bio chemistry" was held in Nagoya, Japan, September 1-3, 1981 in honor of Professor lkuzo Uritani. Recognizing his planned retirement from Nagoya University in March, 1982, the meeting was organized by Professor Uritani's Japanese colleagues and included a nurober of foreign scientists, many whom were his close friends. This volume is a compilation of the principal papers contributed for the occasion and is dedicated to Professor Uritani as an expression of the high esteem in which he is held for his outstanding achievements in the field of plant biochemistry and plant disease physiology, as well as to convey our warm personal affection and friendship. The subjects covered in the volume are diverse, reflecting the honoree's broad research interests, but at the same time articles written by experts in each field pro vide a clear picture of the current frontiers and perspectives of plant biochernistry research. The continuing development of new experimental strategies has spurred rapid and broad research advances in this field of science, and the many interesting concepts now at hand hold promise of further unique progress in the years ahead. lt is hoped that this volume will serve as a stimulating text for scientists in this field."