Plant tolerance to abiotic stresses in agriculture : role of genetic engineering ; [proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Plant Tolerance to Abiotic Stresses in Agriculture: Role of Genetic Engineering, Mragowo, Poland, 13-18 June 1999

Environmental stresses represent the most limiting factors for agricultural productivity worldwide. These stresses impact not only current crop species, they are also significant barriers to the introduction of crop plants into areas that are not currently being used for agriculture. Stresses associated with temperature, salinity and drought, singly or in combination, are likely to enhance the severity of problems to which plants will be exposed in the coming decades. The present book brings together contributions from many laboratories around the world to discuss and compare our current knowledge of the role stress genes play in plant stress tolerance. In addition, strategies are discussed to introduce these genes and the processes that they encode into economically important crops, and the effect this will have on plant productivity. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Functional Specialization of Plant Class A and B HSFs....Pages 3-28 The Arabidopsis TCH Genes: Regulated in Expression by Mechanotransduction?....Pages 29-37 The Regulation of GABA Accumulation by Heat Stress in Arabidopsis ....Pages 39-52 GABA Increases the Rate of Nitrate Uptake and Utilization in Arabidopsis Roots....Pages 53-63 Front Matter....Pages 65-65 MAP Kinases in Plant Signal Transduction: VersatileTools for Signaling Stress, Cell Cycle, and More....Pages 67-79 The Second Stage of Plant Acclimation to Low Temperatures: the Forgotten Step in Frost Hardening?....Pages 81-94 Genetic Engineering of Biosynthesis of Glycinebetaine Enhances Tolerance to Various Stress....Pages 95-104 Front Matter....Pages 105-105 Salt Tolerance at the Whole-Plant Level....Pages 107-123 Plant homologues to the yeast halotolerance gene HAL3....Pages 125-129 Novel Determinants of Salinity Tolerance....Pages 131-138 Progress and Prospects in Engineering Crops for Osmoprotectant Synthesis....Pages 139-154 Front Matter....Pages 155-155 PLANT AP2/EREBP AND bZIP TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS: STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION....Pages 157-180 Role of Arabidopsis MYB transcription factors in osmotic stress....Pages 181-194 Gene Expression during Dehydration in the Resurrection Plant Craterostigma plantagineum....Pages 195-199 Some Physiological and Molecular Insights into the Mechanisms of Desiccation Tolerance in the Resurrection Plant Xerophyta viscosa Baker....Pages 201-222 Targets of modifying plant growth and development by ABA-mediated signaling....Pages 223-232 Front Matter....Pages 233-233 Positional Cloning of A Plant Salt Tolerance Gene....Pages 235-253 Regulation of Ion Homestasis in Plants and Fungi....Pages 255-267 Adh as a Model for Analysis of the Integration of Stress Response Regulation in Plants....Pages 269-284 Sense and Sensibility: Inositol Phospholipids as Mediators of Abiotic Stress Responses....Pages 285-296 Front Matter....Pages 297-297 Manipulation of Glutathione and Ascorbate Metabolism in Plants....Pages 299-314 Cadmium Toxicity in Leaf Peroxisomes from Pea Plants: Effect on the Activated Oxygen Metabolism Protrelytic Activity....Pages 315-328 Metal-Chelate Reductases and ‘Plant MT’s’....Pages 329-341 Evolutionary Responses to Zinc and Copper Stress in Bladder Campion, Silene Vulgaris (Moench.) Garcke....Pages 343-360