Abiotic stress tolerance in plants : toward the improvement of global environment and food

Stresses in plants caused by salt, drought, temperature, oxygen, and toxic compounds are the principal reason for reduction in crop yield. For example, high salinity in soils accounts for large decline in the yield of a wide variety of crops world over; ~1000 million ha of land is affected by soil salinity. Increased sunlight leads to the generation of reactive oxygen species, which damage the plant cells. The threat of global environment change makes it increasingly demanding to generate crop plants that could withstand such harsh conditions. Much progress has been made in the identification and characterization of the mechanisms that allow plants to tolerate abiotic stresses. The understanding of metabolic fluxes and the main constraints responsible for the production of compatible solutes and the identification of many transporters, collectively open the possibility of genetic engineering in crop plants with the concomitant improved stress tolerance. Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants is a new book with focus on how plants adapt to abiotic stress and how genetic engineering could improve the global environment and food supply. Especially, the application of biotechnology in Asia and Africa would be important. Environmental stress impact is not only on current crop species, but is also the paramount barrier to the introduction of crop plants into areas not currently being used for agriculture. Stresses are likely to enhance the severity of problems to be faced by plants in the near future. Stress Signal Transduction: components, pathways and network integration....Pages 3-29 Identification of salt-responsive genes in monocotyledonous plants: from transcriptome to functional....Pages 31-45 Phosphorylation of RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain and plant osmotic-stress responses....Pages 47-57 Trienoic fatty acids and temperature tolerance of higher plants....Pages 61-68 Nitric oxide research in agriculture: bridging the plant and bacterial realms....Pages 71-90 Ultraviolet radiation stress: molecular and physiological adaptations in trees....Pages 91-110 Involvement of aldehyde dehydrogenase in alleviation of post-anoxic injury in rice....Pages 111-119 Genetic engineering stress tolerant plants for phytoremeditation....Pages 123-133 Metabolic engineering of glycinebetaine....Pages 137-151 Induction of biosynthesis of osmoprotectants in higher plants by hydrogen peroxide and its application to agriculture....Pages 153-159 Na + /H + antiporters in plants and cyanobacteria....Pages 163-175 Structural and functional relationship between cation transporters and channels....Pages 177-184 Is cellulose synthesis enhanced by expression of sucrose sysnthesis in poplar....Pages 187-193 Nitrogen metabolism in cyanobacteria under osmotic stress....Pages 195-212 Ultrastructural effects of salinity stress in higher plants....Pages 215-226 Genetic diversity of saline coastal rice (Oryza Sativa L.) landraces of Bangladesh....Pages 229-244 Development of marker-free and gene-exchange vectors, and its application....Pages 245-253 Toward the development of biotechnology in Asia....Pages 255-260

The main objective of this book is to provide state-of-the-art knowledge of recent developments in the understanding of plant response to abiotic stresses in a single volume. Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants contains nine sections; Signal transduction, Temperature stress, Oxidative stresses, Phytoremediation, Osmotic stresses, Ion homeostasis, Nutrition, Structural responses, and Genetic diversity and development of biotechnology. Contributions in each chapter are prepared by leading experts in the respective fields and mirror the advancement in the approach. This book contains important future tasks of the particular fields and supplies extensive bibliographies at the end of each chapter, as well as tables and figures that illustrate the research findings. Each chapter reflects how physiologists, biochemists and molecular biologists have caught up with the newer techniques to understand the basic problems of abiotic stress in plant species. All these make this book highly useful and a must read for students, researchers and professionals in botany, plant environmental stress studies, agriculture, plant physiology, cell biology and molecular biology, in both the academic and industrial sectors.

A state-of-the-art guide to recent developments in the understanding of plant response to abiotic stresses. Each chapter reflects how new techniques have helped physiologists, biochemists and molecular biologists to understand the basic problems of abiotic stress in plant species. The book supplies extensive bibliographies at the end of each chapter, as well as tables and figures that illustrate the research findings. Aims to provide knowledge of developments in the understanding of plant response to abiotic stresses in a single volume. This book is useful for students, researchers and professionals in botany, plant environmental stress studies, agriculture, plant physiology, cell biology and molecular biology, in both the academic and industrial sectors.