Molecular Analysis Of Plant Adaptation To The Environment

Adverse environmental factors can impose stress on plants and influence the expression of the full genetic potential for growth and reproduction. The capability of plants to develop plastic response reactions, to adapt to environmental stress situations, is unique in the biological world. A goal of the research described in this volume is to increase crop productivity, particular in regions where the environment imposes stress. An understanding of the principles involved in plant adaptation to environmental stress will enable optimisation of practices to improve agronomic production and minimise damaging environmental impact. The aim of this volume is to link the rapidly advancing and increasingly specialist field of molecular biology with plant physiology at the ecosystem level. The book includes chapters focused on some principle methods and a series of up-to-date review chapters on plant adaptation to a variety of specific stresses. The utilisation of newly available genome information is emphasised. Of particular importance is the desire to highlight the current potential of such approaches, and how diverse disciplines can interact and complement one another. The book is aimed at both the specialist and the advanced student.

The Proceedings of an International Workshop sponsored by the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research held December 11-13, 2002 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Plants face a wide range of environmental challenges, which are expected to become more intense as a result of global climate change. Plant–soil interactions play an important role in the functioning of ecosystems. Soil properties represent a strong selection pressure for plant diversity and influence the structure of plant communities and biodiversity. The complexity of plant–soil interactions has recently been studied by developing a trait-based approach in which responses and effects of plants on soil environment are quantified and modelled. This fundamental research on plant–soil interaction in ecosystems is essential to transpose knowledge of functional ecology to environmental management.Frontiers in Plant-Soil Interaction: Molecular Insights into Plant Adaptation will address topics that provide advances in understanding plant responses to soil conditions through the integration of genetic, molecular, and plant-level studies of diverse biotic and abiotic stresses under field and laboratory conditions. This book will be beneficial to students and researchers working on stress physiology and stress proteins, genomics, proteomics, genetic engineering and other fields of plant-soil interactions. Frontiers in Plant-Soil Interaction will also help scientists explore new horizons in their area of research. Brings together global leaders working in the area of plant–environment interactions and shares their research findings Presents current and future scenarios for the management of stressors Illustrates the central role for plant-soil interactions in applying basic research to address current and future challenges to humans

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

Plants are forced to adapt for a variety of reasons— protection, reproductive viability, and environmental and climatic changes. Computational tools and molecular advances have provided researchers with significant new insights into the molecular basis of plant adaptation. Molecular Mechanisms in Plant Adaptation provides a comprehensive overview of a wide variety of these different mechanisms underlying adaptation to these challenges to plant survival. Molecular Mechanisms in Plant Adaptation opens with a chapter that explores the latest technological advances used in plant adaptation research, providing readers with an overview of high-throughput technologies and their applications. The chapters that follow cover the latest developments on using natural variation to dissect genetic, epigenetic and metabolic responses of plant adaptation. Subsequent chapters describe plant responses to biotic and abiotic stressors and adaptive reproductive strategies. Emerging topics such as secondary metabolism, small RNA mediated regulation as well as cell type specific responses to stresses are given special precedence. The book ends with chapters introducing computational approaches to study adaptation and focusing on how to apply laboratory findings to field studies and breeding programs. Molecular Mechanisms in Plant Adaptation interest plant molecular biologists and physiologists, plant stress biologists, plant geneticists and advanced plant biology students.

The problems engendered by the conflicting imperatives of development and ecology show no sign of ending, and every day more locations are added to the list of landscapes poisoned by human activity. This vital book, featuring an international set of authors, is a key reference for researchers and environmental managers, as well as anyone involved in the mining industry or landscape remediation. The comprehensive coverage of current approaches to phytoremediation begins by examining the problem. It looks at natural and human-induced toxins, and their effects on natural vegetation as well as agricultural crops. Particular attention is paid to the two largest challenges to remediation – heavy metals, and the salt stress that is impeding agricultural productivity worldwide. The text moves on to focus on the efficacy of different plant species in removing toxic pollutants from the environment. Along with analysis of a number of case studies, this section includes new and updated information on the mechanism of toxin-tolerance in plants.

This two-volume set highlights the various innovative and emerging techniques and molecular applications that are currently being used in plant abiotic stress physiology. Volume 1: Responses and Adaptations focuses on the responses and adaptations of plants to stress factors at the cellular and molecular levels and offers a variety of advanced management strategies and technologies. Volume 2: Molecular Advancements introduces a range of state-of-the-art molecular advances for the mitigation of abiotic stress in plants. With contributions from specialists in the field, Volume 1 first discusses the physiology and defense mechanisms of plants and the various kinds of stress, such as from challenging environments, climate change, and nutritional deficiencies. It goes on to discuss trailblazing management techniques that include genetics approaches for improving abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants along with CRISPR/CAS-mediated genome editing technologies. Volume 2 discusses how plants have developed diverse physiological and molecular adjustments to safeguard themselves under challenging conditions and how emerging new technologies can utilize these plant adaptations to enhance plant resistance. These include using plant-environment interactions to develop crop species that are resilient to climate change, applying genomics and phenomics approaches from the study of abiotic stress tolerance and more. Agriculture today faces countless challenges to meet the rising need for sustainable food supplies and guarantees of high-quality nourishment for a quickly increasing population. To ensure sufficient food production, it is necessary to address the difficult environmental circumstances that are causing cellular oxidative stress in plants due to abiotic factors, which play a defining role in shaping yield of crop plants. These two volumes help to meet these challenges by providing a rich source of information on plant abiotic stress physiology and effective management techniques.