An understanding of the mechanisms by which plants perceive environmental cues, both physical and chemical, and transduce the signals that influence specific expression of genes, is an area of intensive scientific research. With the completion of the genome sequence of Arabidopsis it is understood now that a larger number of genes encode for proteins involved in signalling cascades and transcription factors. In this volume, different chapters deal with plant receptors, second messengers like calcium ions, phosphoinositides, salicylic acid and nitrous oxide, calcium binding proteins and kinases. In addition to dealing with the response of plants to light, hormones, pathogens, heat, etc. on cellular activity, work currently going on in apoptosis, cell division, and plastid gene expression is also covered in this book.

Inhalt

1. Differential Perception of Environmental Light by Phytochromes.- 2. Functions and Actions of Arabidopsis Phytochromes.- 3. Signal Transduction in Photomorphogenesis: Intracellular Partitioning of Factors and Photoreceptors.- 4. Molecular Genetic Analysis of Constitutively Photomorphogenic Mutants of Arabidopsis.- 5. Cytosolic pH as a Secondary Messenger During Light Activation of Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxylase in Mesophyll Cells of C4 Plants.- 6. A Role for Ectoapyrases and Extracellular ATP in Plant Growth and Development.- 7. Auxin- and GTP-binding Proteins and Protein Kinases from the Protonema of the Moss Funaria hygrometrica.- 8. Myoinositol Phosphates as Implicated in Metabolic Signaling and Calcium Homeostasis in Plants.- 9. The Phosphoinositide (PI) Pathway and Signaling in Plants.- 10. Phytochrome Signal Transduction in Cucumber Cotyledons.- 11. Calcium, Calmodulin and Phosphoinositides in Leaflet Movements Mediated by Phytochrome: Nyctinastic and Rhythmic Movements.- 12. Calmodulin and Plant Responses to the Environment: Modulation of Plant Tolerance to Toxic Metals by a Plasma Membrane Calcium/ Calmodulin Binding Channel.- 13. Calcium Signaling: Downstream Components in Plants.- 14. Apoplast Calmodulin: The Identification, Functions and Transmembrane Mechanism.- 15. CDPKs in Plant Signaling Networks: Progress in Research on a Groundnut CDPK.- 16. The Function of the Maize CRINKLY4 Receptor-like Kinase in a Growth Factor Like Signaling System.- 17. Novel Calcium/Calmodulin-modulated Proteins: Chimeric Protein Kinase and Small Auxin Up-regulated RNA.- 18. A Novel Ca2+/CaM-regulated Microtubule Motor Protein from Plants: Role in Trichome Morphogenesis and Cell Division.- 19. Progress Towards the Identification of Cytokinin Receptors.- 20. Salicylic Acid- andNitric Oxide-mediated Signal Transduction in Disease Resistance.- 21. Involvement of ROS and Caspase-like Proteases During Cell Death Induction by Plant Pathogens: Signaling in Plant Cell Death.- 22. The Role of HSF in Heat Shock Signal Transduction and Heat Shock Response in Plants.- 23. Towards Understanding the Recognition and Signal Transduction Processes in the Soybean-Phytophthora Sojae Interaction.- 24. Elements of Signal Transduction Involved in Thylakoid Membrane Dynamics.- 25. Novel Aspects in Photosynthesis Gene Regulation.- 26. Regulation of rDNA Transcription in Spinach Plastids by Transcription Factor CDF2.- 27. Plastid Ribosome Biogenesis During the Early Steps of Chloroplast Differentiation: Elements Controlling the Activation of Nuclear Genes Encoding Plastid Ribosomal Proteins.- 28. Mechanism of Regulation of Gene Expression for Chloroplast Proteins.- 29. Functional Analysis of Pea Chloroplast DNA Polymerase and its Accessory Proteins.- 30. Signal Transduction by Mitogen-activated Protein Kinases (MAPKs).