Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, Pugnochiuso, Italy, June 22-July 3, 1986

Oxygen (O ) appeared in significant amounts in the Earth's atmosphere over 2. 2 2 billion years ago, largely due to the evolution of photosynthesis by cyanobacteria (Halliwell 2006). The O molecule is a free radical, as it has two impaired electrons 2 that have the same spin quantum number. This spin restriction makes O prefer to 2 accept its electrons one at a time, leading to the generation of the so-called reactive oxygen species (ROS). The chemical nature of these species dictates that they can create damage in cells. This has contributed to the creation of the "oxidative stress" concept; in this view, ROS are unavoidable toxic products of O metabolism and 2 aerobic organisms have evolved antioxidant defences to protect against this tox- ity (Halliwell 1981; Fridovich 1998). Indeed, even in present-day plants, which are full of antioxidants, much of the protein synthetic activity of chloroplasts is used to replace oxidatively damaged D1 and other proteins (Halliwell 2006). Yet, the use of the "oxidative stress" term implies that ROS exert their effects through indiscriminate widespread inactivation of cellular functions. In this context, ROS must not be able to react with lipids, proteins or nucleic acids in order to avoid any damage to vital cellular components. However, genetic evidence has suggested that, in planta, purely physicoche- cal damage may be more limited than previously thought (Foyer and Noctor 2005).

There is a paucity of information on the dynamics of Ascorbic Acid (AA) turnover in relation to germination, metabolism, growth, differentiation and development of a plant and in those undergoing stress of various types. in presowing treatment of seeds etc. The turnover of AA plays an important role during the juvenile phase of growth of a plant and has a significant bearing on its subsequent growth, development and maturation. The beneficial effect of presowing treatment of seed with Ascorbic Acid (AA) + H2 O highlights the validity of the AA-nucleic acid 2 protein metabolism concept of growth and development of plan ts. During the course of the last 30 years, work has been undertaken by the author and his collaborators on the meta bolic drifts of regulatory substances during juvenile, vegetative, reproductive and senescent phases. The most important of these growth regulatory substances was found to be Ascorbic Acid. The dynamiC role of AA turnover is revealed by its control of rates of metabolic processes as well as those of enzymic reactions which paves the way to "New Genetics.""

This book gathers contributions presented during an In- ternational meeting organized by the Laboratory of Photobio- logy of the University of Liege, Belgium, on 8 and 9 August 1983. The general topic of the discussions was protochlorophyl- lide reduction and greening. Among the reasons for choosing this topic were the recent advances in the field. These ad- vances deal with: (1) The characterization of the basic constituents of the photoenzymatic complex responsible for protochlorophylli- de reduction. This complex is known to be ternary, comprising the pigment: protochlorophyllide, NADPH and the enzyme proto- chlorophyllide oxidoreductase. (2) The discovery of short-lived intermediates in the photoreduction process, and in particular, the recent findings resulting from the proqresses of the picosecond and nanosecond spectrometry. (3) The obtention of new data on the components of the plastids, on the changes they undergo during the first steps of greening, and on the distribution of the pigment-protein complexes between the various substructures of the etioplast. (4) The detection of early photoactivities apart from protochlorophyllide reduction. These subjects have ~cen extensively discussed during the meeting and several sections of this book are devoted to the presentation of the new data.

The idea of addressing the problem of the genetic specificity of mineral nutrition at an international level arose four years ago in a proposal for this topic to be included in the program of the II Congress of the Federation of European Societies for Plant Physiology (FESPP) as a separate section. The Organising Committee of the II Congress of FESPP which was held in Santiago de Compostella in 1980 arranged a special session and it was clearly successful. A special scientific meeting where the genetic aspects of plant nutrition in their widest sense could be presented and discussed comprehensively appeared to be necessary and that is how this Symposium came to be organized by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Much progress has already been achieved in this field, and bearing in mind the importance of this problem, particularly at the present moment, it is necessary for us both to acquaint ourselves with what has been achieved so far, and even more to direct attention and effort to the fundamental problems for the future.

An International Symposium, Qiryat Anavim, Israel, January 9-12, 1984

Unlike the situation in the major cereals, the yields of Vicia faba have not been markedly increased during the last half century. There is no single cause for this but among those that have been important is the lack of cytogenetic understanding in relation to breeding performance. Since as a consequence, little genetic variation has been available to agronomists conclusions, probably unwarranted, have been drawn about the limited prospects for the faba bean. Against such a background it has been difficult to justify the investment of research resources in the crop. The central theme of this book is that with the establishment of cytogenetic studies in Vicia faba understanding of its genetic system will develop in relation to breeding improvement and thereafter some at least, of the impediments to yield increase can steadily though not dramatically, be removed. We have distinguished between longer and shorter papers and only the former include Abstracts. The latter amplify themes in the longer papers or were written to develop particular topics at the request of the editors. G.P. Chapman S.A. Tarawali Wye College, April, 1984 VIII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the various contributors to this publication for the readiness with which they have met our various req~ests. Our thanks are due to the staff of the Centre for European Agricultural Studies for facilitating arrangements for the Seminar and to Mr. Peter Abott and Carl Zeiss (Oberkochen) Ltd. for the display of microscopes.

The Annual Beltsville Symposium provides a forum for interaction among scientists involved in research that has vital impact on agriculture and on the agricultural sciences. The 10th Symposium in the series, Biotechnology for Solving Agricultural Problems, focuses on the use of a revolutionary new set of tools, biotechnology, and attempts to define the set in terms of its applications in agriculture. Biotechnology has already contributed to the genetic improvement of agricultural products. Procedures that were impossible to test or to implement in the past because of technological limitations are now routinely used by many scientists. Four areas that have benefitted from advances in biotechnology are covered in the symposium proceedings. These areas include genetic manipulation, nutrition, health and disease, and natural resource management. The 31 invited speakers have identified programs of basic and applied research on plants, animals, and insects that fall within these broad areas. Their research strategies included such techniques as germline modification, gene mapping, monoclonal antibody production, and gene transposition. These strategies have tapped new well springs of information and technologies ranging from the regulation of gene expression (and with it, the regulation of development, growth, disease resistance, and nutrient metabolism) to degradation of pesticides and toxic wastes. The applications of biotechnology to agricultural research have opened virgin vistas with enormous potential. The new biotechnological techniques and those that will evolve with their use will contribute markedly to the capacity of the agricultural sciences to advance the well-being of the human race.

The contributions of plant genetics to the production of higher yielding crops of superior quality are well documented. These successes have been realized through the application of plant breeding techniques to a diverse array of genetically controlled traits. Such highly effective breeding procedures will continue to be the primary method employed for the development of new crop cultivars; however, new techniques in cell and molecular biology will provide additional approaches for genetic modification. There has been considerable speculation recently concerning the potential impact of new techniques in cell and molecular biology on plant improvement. These genetic engineering techniques should offer unique opportunities to alter the genetic makeup of crops if applied to existing breeding procedures. Many questions must be answered in order to identify specific applications of these new technologies. This search for applications will require input from plant scientists working on various aspects of crop improvement. This volume is intended to assess the interrelationships between conventional plant breeding and genetic engineering.

The last 10 years have witnessed an explosion in our understanding of plant h- mones. The often vague models of hormone action developedover decadeshave been replaced in short order by detailed molecular models that include receptors and in many cases downstream signal transduction components. Given the rapid progress in understanding the mechanism of action of plant growth regulators, a technical review of hormone methodology is timely. Our book focuses on genetic, biochemical, ana- tical and chemical biological approaches for understanding and dissecting plant h- mone action. The greatest strides in plant hormone biology have come, by and large, from the use of genetic methods to identify receptors and we dedicate a chapter to general genetic methods of analysis using the model system Arabidopsis thaliana. A cluster of chapters focuses on biochemical methods for documenting interactions betweenhormonesand their receptors. Theimportance of these assays is tremendous; receptor-ligand interactions in animal model systems have been the cornerstones of pharmacological and medicinal chemical assays that have enabled identification of selective and non-selective agonists and antagonists that can be used to further probe and dissect questions of receptor function. This is likely to be a major new frontier in plant hormone research.

These volumes contain an excellent, up-to-date review of the rapidly developing field of photosynthesis research. They comprise the proceedings of the Ninth International Congress on Photosynthesis, held in Nagoya, Japan, in 1992, which was the first in the series to be held in Asia. The Congress was attended by over 1000 active participants from 43 countries, who contributed plenary lectures, symposium talks, posters and discussions. The volumes contain most of these contributions, in the form of review papers and short communications, assembled in 26 chapters, which cover a wide variety of subjects, such as: fundamental aspects, excitation energy transfer, primary reactions, bioenergetic processes, carbon metabolism, and its metabolic and genetic regulations; applied aspects, herbicides and artificial photosynthesis, and environmental aspects, photosynthesis under stress conditions and global climate change. Research in Photosynthesis is therefore an important document, containing the latest high-level information about photosynthesis in its broadest sense. The four volumes are a valuable reference source. Furthermore, the volumes are important for background study for those enetering this exciting and promising field of investigation.

Thi s book is a general introduction into in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence and contains the contributions of the first International Ch 1 orophyll Fluorescence Sympos i urn he 1 din the Phys i kzentrum Bad Honnef, F. R. G. from June 6 to 8, 1988. This Symposium was made possible by a generous support from the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation, Hanau, which is gratefully acknmvledged. The book not only comprises all aspects of the applications of chlorophyll fluorescence in photosynthesis, stress physiol ogy, hydrobiology and remote sensing, but also gives access to measuring techni ques, data acqui si ti on and earl i er 1 iterature references. Thus it is far more than just a common proceedings book, it is a general introduction to all forms of application of the non-destructive in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence including the newest results. In a first chapter the inverse correlation between in vivo chlorophyll fl uorescence and photosynthet i c quantum convers i on and CO? -ass i mi 1 at ion is outlined, the origin and life-time of the chlorophyll fluOrescence at room and liquid nitrogen temperatures are given as well as the induction kinetics (Kautsky effect) and the methodo 1 ogi ca 1 approaches to regi ster different forms of chlorophyll-fluorescence signatures."

The period following the second world war has witnessed an expanding commitment to incr~ased food production in tropical countries. Public and private initiatives at the national and international levels have led to the creation of programs geared specifically towards the improvement of food crops in tropical conditions. Examples of this increased commitment are the network of international agricultural research centers and numerous bilateral aid projects. As a consequence, crop improvement has become a truly worldwide endeavor, relying on an international network of institutions and collaborators. This holds also for Phaseolus beans. Following the discovery of the Americas, Phaseolus beans became distributed on all six continents. Yet, until not so long ago, most of the research on Phaseolus improvement took place in developed countries. In recognition of the nutritional importance of Phaseolus beans in developing countries, this has changed considerably in the last years, principally perhaps through the activities of the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) and the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR). Consequently, the scope of the research on Phaseolus has broadened considerably and the number of Phaseolus researchers is larger than ever before.

Forty years ago, when PLANT AND SOIL first appeared, Europe was still recovering from the devastating effects of World War II. During the war years, work in many centres of agricultural research had come to a virtual standstill. Buildings and equipment were destroyed, scientists were often forced to terminate their research and teaching activities and funds allocated to such work were diverted to other, at that time, more pressing needs. During the first post-war years reconstruction was undertaken with great zeal and in that light the founding of the new journal PLANT AND SOIL must be viewed. In the pre-war period most agricultural science journals were still primarily national ones and consequently many articles were published in languages mastered by only a limited number of potential readers. In small countries whose languages are not widely understood, the desire arose to publish research findings in one of the major languages. It is therefore understandable that in the early years of the journal's existence, large portions of PLANT AND SOIL were filled with articles from the Scandinavian countries and The Nether lands. Originally, rather frequent use was made of the opportunity to publish also in German and French, but with the advance of English as a major language of communication, a decline was noticeable in the number of German and French manuscripts submitted. As a consequence the Edi torial Board has recently decided to terminate the publishing of articles in these languages."

The present volume "Excitation Energy and Electron Transfer in Pho. tosynthesis" is dedicated to a colleague and dear friend Warren L. But ler. I first met Warren when he visited the University of Illinois at Ur bana during the early sixties; he left an indelible impression on me as a person with warmth and enthusiasm. Initially, he was someone I looked to for guidance, but later we also became friends. Whenever I passed through Los Angeles, I always telephoned Warren and often end ed up taking a plane to San Diego to stay with two wonderful people, Warren and his wife Lila. His invitations could never be refused. Below I reproduce the words of Herbert Stern on Warren L. Butler's life; these words express my sentiments as well as those of many of Warren's friends: ''A lifetime of acedemic creativity criss-crossed by streaks of highbrow and lowbrow fun. There is no summary to this adventure be cause we can neither make nor proclaim an end. Warren has bequeathed us his garden of academic treasures. It is ours to keep and tend. There is lots of joy in our many recollections of Warren's life and sorrow's foil can only brighten the brightness that the joy radiates."

Plant hormone research is the favorite topic of physiologists. Past three decades have witnessed that this subject has received much attention. The inquisitive nature of human mind has pumped much in literature on this subject and this volume is the product of such minds. In the following pages various hormonal-controlled physiological processes like, flowering, seed dormancy and germination, enzyme secretion, senes cence, ion transport, fruit ripening, root growth and development, thig momorphogenesis and tendril thigmonasty have been included. The volume also contains a review paper on 'Growth Regulating Activity of Penicillin in Higher Plants' and has been presented for the first time. The vast contents of each review paper have been written by erudite scholars who have admirably carried out their evangelic task to make the text up TO date. This volume, I am sure, would stimulate the appetite of researchers of peripheral disciplines of botany and agricultural sciences and they will continue to enjoy the fun and adventures of plant hormone research. Save one. my most outstanding debts are due to the rich array of the contributors and other plant physiologists specially to Prof. Thomas Gaspar (Belgium), Prof. E. E. Goldschmidt (Isreal), Prof. H. Greppin (Switzerland), Dr. K. Gurumurti (India), Prof. M. A. Hall (U. K. ), Prof. H. Harada (Japan), Dr. M. Kaminek (Czechoslovakia), Dr. J. L. Karm oker (BangIa Desh), Prof. Peter B. Kaufman (U. S. A. ), Dr. V. I. Kefeli . / (U. S. S. R. ), Dr. M. Kutaoek (Czechoslovakia), Prof. S."

The Second International Congress on Photosynthesis Research took place in Stresa, Italy during June 24-29, 1971; two centuries after the discovery of Photosynthesis by Joseph Priestley in 1971. This important anniversary was celebrated at the Congress by a learned account of Priestley's life and fundamental discoveries given by Professor Robin HILL, F. R. S. Professor HILL's lecture opens the first of the three volumes which contains the contributions presented at the Congress. The manuscripts have been distributed into three volumes. Volume I con tains contributions in the areas of primary reactions and electron transport; Volume II ion transport and photophosphorylation, and Volume III carbon assimilation, regulatory phenomena, developmental aspects, and from the two special sessions of the Congress devoted to evolution and photorespiration. It is realized that this division is necessarily somewhat arbitrary since many contributions relate to more than one of the above mentioned titles. However, the large number of contributions (over 3000 typed pages) made it impossible to publish the proceedings in less than three volumes. The printing of these volumes and the organization of the Congress were made possible by a contribution from the Consigio Nazionale delle Ricerche of Italy. The generous support of the Istituto Lombardo Acca demia di Scienze e Lettere to the publication of these proceedings is gratefully acknowledged. The editors wish to express their appreciation to all the scientists who contributed the results of the investigations, for their coopera tion; and to Drs."

For centuries biologists have been extremely interested in the structure of desert plants as examples of natural selection to harsh environmental conditions. Indeed, desert plants are frequently used as examples in many biology classes and textbooks to illustrate natural selection, but this has led to an unfortunate litany of errors and misconceptions about desert plant adaptations.
This new synthesis focuses on plants of lowland tropical and subtropical arid deserts. Readers will be surprised to discover that many features commonly ascribed to desert plants are rareley observed in the most common species. Instead, the typical structural adaptations of nonsucculent warm desert plants are now viewed as ways to maximize photosynthetic rate.

This is the third book chronicling the scientific activities of the European Society for Photobiology (ESP). It contains 56 chapters, written by authors from 16 countries, based on presentations at the 3rd Congress of the European Society for Photobiology held in Budapest, Hungary on the 27th August - 2nd September 1989. The science of photobiology, which can simply be defined as the study of the effects of light on living matter, covers so many subject areas that no single book can hope to do justice to them all. This multidisciplinary nature of photobiology is reflected by the material covered in this volume, which contains chapters on such diverse themes as motile photoresponses in bacteria, cancer therapy and photosynthesis. Interestingly, the emphasis placed on various subject areas differs quite markedly from the preceding volume ('Light in Biology & Medicine, volume 1, eds. R. Douglas, J. Moan & F. Dall'Acqua, Plenum Press, 1988). It is hoped that by highlighting different areas of photobiology these and future pUblications emanating from the ESP will, in time, produce a comprehensive record of photobiological research, . not only in Europe but throughout the world. Unlike many conference proceedings all the chapters con tained within this book have been subjected to rigorous peer review and several potential contributions were rejected during the editing process. Furthermore, most manuscripts underwent extensive editing to try and produce chapters of a uniform format and standard."

Molecular biology, particularly molecular genetics, is among the newest and most powerful approach in modern photosynthesis research. Development of molecular biology techniques has provided new methods to solve old problems in many biological disciplines. Molecular biology has its greatest potential for contribution when applied in combination with other disciplines, to focus not just on genes and molecules, but on the complex interaction between them and the biochemical pathways in the whole organism. Photosynthesis is surely the best studied research area in plant biology, making this field the foremost candidate for successfully employing molecular genetic techniques. Already, the success of molecular biology in photosynthesis has been nothing short of spectacular. Work performed over the last few years, much of which is sum marized in this volume, stands in evidence. Techniques such as site-specific mutagenesis have helped us in examining the roles of individual protein domains in the function of multiunit complexes such as the enzyme ribulose-l,5-bisphos phate carboxylase/oxygenase (RUBISCO) and the oxygen evolving photo system (the photosystem II). The techniques of molecular biology have been very important in advancing the state of knowledge of the reaction center from the photosynthetic bacteria whose structure has been elegantly deduced by H. Michel and 1. Deisenhofer from the X-ray studies of its crystals."

Taking readers out of the laboratory and into the humid tropical forests, this comprehensive volume explores the most recent advances occurring in tropical plant ecophysiology. Drawing on the knowledge of leading practitioners in the field, this book synthesizes a broad range of information on the ways in which tropical plants adapt to their environment and demonstrate unique physiological processes. This book is arranged into four sections which cover resource acquisition, species interactions, ecophysiological patterns within and among tropical forest communities, and the ecophysiology of forest regeneration. These sections describe plant function in relation to ecology across a wide spectrum of tropical forest species and growth forms. How do different species harvest and utilize resources from heterogeneous tropical environments? How do patterns of functional diversity reflect the overwhelming taxonomic and morphological diversity of tropical forest plants? Such fundamental questions are examined in rich detail. To illuminate the discussions further, every chapter in this book features an agenda for future research, extensive cross referencing, timely references, and the integration of ecophysiology and the demography of tropical species where the data exist. Tropical Forest Plant Ecophysiology provides plant scientists, botanists, researchers, and graduate students with important insights into the behavior of tropical plants. Biologists and foresters interested in tropical ecology and plant physiological ecologists will also benefit from this authoritative and timely resource.

A recent volume of this series (Signals and Signal Transduction Pathways in Plants (K. Palme, ed.) Plant Molecular Biology 26, 1237-1679) described the relay races by which signals are transported in plants from the sites of stimuli to the gene expression machinery of the cell. Part of this machinery, the transcription apparatus, has been well studied in the last two decades, and many important mechanisms controlling gene expression at the transcriptional level have been elucidated. However, control of gene expression is by no means complete once the RNA has been produced. Important regulatory devices determine the maturation and usage of mRNA and the fate of its translation product. Post-transcriptional regulation is especially important for generating a fast response to environmental and intracellular signals. This book summarizes recent progress in the area of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in plants. 18 chapters of the book address problems of RNA processing and stability, regulation of translation, protein folding and degradation, as well as intracellular and cell-to-cell transport of proteins and nucleic acids. Several chapters are devoted to the processes taking place in plant organelles.

Electrical Manipulation of Cells provides an authoritative and up-to-date review of the field, covering all the major techniques in a single source. The book features broad coverage that ranges from the mechanisms of action of external electrical fields on biological material to the ways in which electrical stimuli are employed to manipulate cells. Bringing together the work of leading international authorities, the book covers membrane breakdown, gene delivery, electroporation, electrostimulation, cell movement, hybridoma production, plant protoplasts, electrorotation and stimulation, and electromagnetic stimulation. For each topic, the authors discuss the relevance of the approach to the current state of the art of biotechnology. Electrical Manipulation of Cells is an unmatched source of information for anyone involved in the manipulation of cells, particularly biotechnologists, cell biology, microbiologists, biophysicists and plant scientists. For researchers, the book provides technical material that ccan be employed in their own work. Students will gain thorough appreciation of the applications of this important technique.

This volume contains the papers, presented during a conference, organized jointly by the "Opzoekingsstation van Gorsem" and the "Limburgs Universitair Centrum", Belgium from 22 to 27 August 1982. For this third meeting, the chosen topic was the effect of different stresses on photosynthesis. Most of the research in this field is realized on water stress and temperature stress; this situation is refllected in the conference programme. However, the imp- tance of the other factors such as light, CO , salinity, anaerobiosis, was 2 also emphasized especially during the important discussion sessions. We express our gratitude to Drs. J. Gale, P. Jarvis, G.H. Krause, P.E. Kriedemann and P.S. Nobel for their excellent leadership during the discussion sessions. Particular thanks are also due to Dr. H.~i. Woolhouse who gave us an excellent inaugural address and whose erudition largely contributed to the interest of the discussions. For the first time in our experience of editors, we decided to use camera ready copies in order to publish more rapidly the proceedings and at a lower price. For a lot of reasons (among other things the bad choice of type of letter to be used and the choice of instructions to authors which were not perfectly followed by the authors), the technical presentation of this book will appear as non homogeneous; we accepted this lack of homogeneity with the hope tbat the publication time would be shorter in spite of the fact that, some authors delivered their manuscript with delay.

Photosynthesis--the capture of light energy by living organisms -is a simple enough concept, but its investigation draws on the resources of disciplines from all fields of science. The aim of this text is to provide a clear, stimulating and essentially affordable coverage for undergraduate students of biology. The activity of science is debate and practical experiment; its product is a body of propositions which at any given time reflects the judgment and prejudices of those taking part. The value of a proposition is related to the conceivable alternatives, and writing it down without its context creates the false impression that science progresses by compilation of an increasing list of absolute truths. It does not; the facts and figures pres ented in the following pages have no intrinsic value unless they can be used by the reader to support an argument or point of view. In short, the reader is urged to respond 'So what?' to every item. Secondly, ideas-like other foods-should be date-stamped; science is inseparable from its history. I have set out time-charts to represent the evolution of our understanding in certain areas. I have assumed that the reader is pursuing a course with a content of biochemistry, microbiology and plant science, or has access to basic texts. I have assumed also that common methods such as spectrophotometry, chromatography and electrophoresis, as well as the techniques of mol ecular biology, will be either part of the same course or in active use nearby."