Rhythmic behaviour is quintessential to life itself. This book reviews recent progress in assessing underlying mechanisms controlling plant circadian and ultradian oscillations, and their physiological implications for growth, development, and adaptive responses to the environment. It focuses on mechanisms and theoretical concepts at the level of the cell to the entire plant. Written by a diverse group of leading researchers, it will surely spark the interest of readers from many branches of science: from physicists and chemists wishing to learn about multi-faceted rhythms in plant biology, to biologists dealing with state-of-the-art modelling of such rhythmic phenomena.

Klappentext

This book reviews recent progress in assessing underlying mechanisms controlling plant circadian and ultradian oscillations, and their physiological implications for growth, development, and adaptive responses to the environment. It focuses on mechanisms and theoretical concepts at the level of the cell to the entire plant. Written by a diverse group of leading researchers, this book will spark the interest of readers from many branches of science.

Zusammenfassung

Rhythmic behaviour is quintessential to life itself. Advances in plant molecular biology, micro/nanotechnology and applied mathematics provide new tools for understanding how environmental signals and internal clocks regulate rhythmic gene expression and development, and how these signals are translated into physiological responses at various levels of structural organisation.

This book reviews recent progress in assessing underlying mechanisms controlling plant circadian and ultradian oscillations, and their physiological implications for growth, development, and adaptive responses to the environment. It focuses on mechanisms and theoretical concepts at the level of the cell to the entire plant. Written by a diverse group of leading researchers, it will surely spark the interest of readers from many branches of science: from physicists and chemists wishing to learn about multi-faceted rhythms in plant biology, to biologists dealing with state-of-the-art modelling of such rhythmic phenomena.

Inhalt
Physiological Implications of Oscillatory Processes in Plants.- Rhythmic Leaf Movements: Physiological and Molecular Aspects.- The Pollen Tube Oscillator: Integrating Biophysics and Biochemistry into Cellular Growth and Morphogenesis.- Ultradian Growth Oscillations in Organs: Physiological Signal or Noise?.- Nutation in Plants.- Stomata Oscillations.- Oscillations in Plant Transpiration.- Membrane Transport and Ca2+ Oscillations in Guard Cells.- Calcium Oscillations in Guard Cell Adaptive Responses to the Environment.- Circadian Rhythms in Stomata: Physiological and Molecular Aspects.- Rhythms, Clocks and Development.- How Plants Identify the Season by Using a Circadian Clock.- Rhythmic Stem Extension Growth and Leaf Movements as Markers of Plant Behaviour: the Integral Output from Endogenous and Environmental Signals.- Rhythms and Morphogenesis.- Molecular Aspects of the Arabidopsis Circadian Clock.- Theoretical Aspects of Rhythmical Plant Behaviour.- Rhythms, Clocks and Deterministic Chaos in Unicellular Organisms.- Modelling Ca2+ Oscillations in Plants.- Noise-Induced Phenomena and Complex Rhythms: Theoretical Considerations, Modelling and Experimental.- Modelling Oscillations of Membrane Potential Difference.