Phytochrome Properties And Biological Action

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Phytochrome Properties and Biological Action held in Chichester, U.K., July 22-27, 1990

Phytochrome detection and isolation; The properties of phytochrome; Phytochrome controlled responses; Mode of action of phytochrome; Some practical exercises.

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It is perhaps not surprising that plants have evolved a mechanism to sense the light environment about them and to modify growth for optimal use of the available `life-giving' light. Green plants, and ultimately all forms of life, depend on the energy of sunlight fixed during photosynthesis. Unlike animals that use behaviour to find food, sedentary plants use physiology to optimize their growth and development for light absorption. By appreciating the quality, quantity, direction and duration of light, plants can control such complex processes as germination, growth and flowering. To perceive the light environment several receptor pigments have evolved, including the red/far-red reversible phytochrome and the blue/UV-absorbing photoreceptors (Part 1). The quantification of light (Part 2) and importance of instrumentation for photomorphogenesis research are introduced in Part 3. Isolation and characterization of phytochrome is a classic example of how photobiological techniques can predict the nature of an unknown photoreceptor. Current knowledge of the phytochrome photoreceptor family is given in Part 4 and that of blue/UV receptors in Part 5. Part 6 deals with the coaction of photoreceptors. The light environment and its perception is addressed in Part 7. Molecular and genetic approaches and the photoregulation of gene expression compose Part 8. Part 9 contains further selected topics: photomodulation of growth phototropism, photobiology of stomatal movements, photomovement, photocontrol of flavonoid biosynthesis, photobiology of fungi and photobiology of ferns. The 28 chapters written by leading experts from Europe, Israel, Japan and the USA, provide an advanced treatise on the exciting and rapidly developing field of plant photomorphogenesis.

This volume contains the lectures given at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Biophysics of Photoreceptors and Photomovements in Microorganisms" held in Tir renia (Pisa), Italy, in September 1990. The Institute was sponsored and mainly funded by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO; the Physical Science Committee and the Institute of Biophysics of National Research Council of Italy also supported the School and substantially contributed to its success. It is our pleasant duty to thank these institu tions. Scientists from very different backgrounds contributed to the understanding of this fast developing field of research, which has seen considerable progress during the last years. The areas of expertise ranged from behavioral sciences, supported by sophi sticated techniques such as image analysis or laser light scattering, to spectroscopy, ap plied, in different time domains, to the study of the primary photoreactions, to electro physiology, biochemistry or molecular biology, with the aim of analyzing the various steps of the transduction chains and how they control the motor apparatus of the cells. The organisms studied covered a wide range, from bacteria to algae, fungi and other eukaryotes. Thus, the ASI represented a successful opportunity for carrying on and imple menting an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the biophysical basis of photore ception and photosensory transduction in aneural organisms, with special attention to the basic phenomena and the underlying molecular events. We hope that this book has caught the spirit in which the ASI was conceived.

The second edition of this best-selling handbook is bigger, more comprehensive, and now completely current. In addition to thorough updates to the discussions featured in the first edition, this edition includes 66 new chapters that reflect recent developments, new applications, and emerging areas of interest. Within the handbook's 145 critically r

Summarizing research progress achieved in 32 areas of cell biology covered in this series, this volume places special emphasis on the following topics: recognition in parasitic and symbiotic systems - the molecular biology and genetics of susceptibility and resistance of plants and animals to pathogens, parasites and symbionts - the cell to cell recognition and differentiation - the most challenging problems in developmental biology of plants and animals - the plasticity in cell to cell communication which plays a major role in cell differentiation and function.