Plant Desiccation Tolerance

Plant desiccation tolerance is found in all phyla of chlorophyll-containing species, from prokaryotes and cryptogams to angiosperms. This volume covers the organismic as well as the cell biological and molecular levels of this phenomenon.

Desiccation tolerance was essential when plants first began to conquer land, roughly 400 million years ago. While most desiccation-tolerant plants belong to basal phylogenetic taxa, this capacity has also evolved among some vascular plant species.In this volume renowned experts treat plant desiccation tolerance at the organismic as well as at the cellular level. The diversity of ecophysiological adaptations and acclimations of cyanobacteria, eukaryotic algae, mosses, and lichens is addressed in several chapters. The particular problems of vascular plants during dehydration/rehydration cycles resulting not only from their hydraulic architectures, but also from severe secondary stresses associated with the desiccated state are discussed. Based on the treatment of desiccation tolerance at the organismic level, a second section of the book is devoted to the cell biological level. It delineates the general concepts of functional genomics, epigenetics, genetics, molecular biology and the sensing and signalling networks of systems biology involved in dehydration/rehydration cycles. This book provides an invaluable compilation of current knowledge, which is a prerequisite for a better understanding of plant desiccation tolerance in natural as well as agro- and forest ecosystems where water is one of the most essential resources.

An up-to-date review of the field Written by experts Richly illustrated Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Until 2004 Ulrich Lüttge taught at the Institute for Botany at the TU Darmstadt. He is an experienced teacher and is concerned with membrane physiology and biochemistry, circadian rhythms among photosynthesis processes as well as the antioxidative defense system of plants Erwin Beck is Emeritus Professor of Plant Physiology. He got his doctoral degree in Plant Systematics from the University of Munich. From1975 until 2007 he was Full Professor of Plant Physiology at the University of Bayreuth. He has authored more than 200 scientific publications and edited several books. He was President of the German Biologists Association, and of the German Botanical Society, and Treasurer of the International Union of Biological Sciences. Since 2008 he chairs the Commission of Biodiversity Research of the German Research Foundation. He received several awards and is Honorary Professor of the Technical University of Loja (Ecuador).

Inhalt

Introduction.- Cyanobacteria: Habitats and Species.- Cyanobacteria: Multiple Stresses, Desiccation Tolerant Photosynthesis and Di-nitrogen Fixation.- Eucaryotic Algae.- Lichens and Bryophytes Habitats and Species.- Ecophysiology of Desiccation/Rehydration Cycles in Mosses and Lichens.- Lichens and Bryophytes Light Stress and Photoinhibition in Desiccation/ Rehydration Cycles: Mechanisms of Photoprotection.- Evolution, Diversity and Habitats of Poikilohydrous Vascular Plants.- Ecophysiology of Homoiochlorophyllous and Poikilochlorophyllous Desiccation-Tolerant Plants.- Hydraulic Architecture of Vascular Plants.- Drought, Desiccation and Oxidative Stress.- Chamaegigas intrepidus DINTER an Aquatic Poikilohydric Angiosperm that is Perfectly Adapted to its Complex and Extreme Environmental Conditions.- Molecular Biology and Physiological Genomics of Dehydration Stress.- Dehydrins: Molecular Biology, Structure and Function.- Understanding Vegetative Desiccation Tolerance using Integrated Functional Genomics Approaches Within a Comparative Evolutionary Framework.- Resurrection Plants: Physiology and Molecular Biology.- Synopsis.