This two-volume book gives a broad coverage of various aspects of plant molecular biology relevant to the improvement of woody plants. The authors provide background information on genetic engineering and molecular marker techniques, and specific examples of species in which sufficient progress has been made.
Woody plants such as trees have a significant economic and climatic influence on global economies and ecologies. This completely revised classic book is an up-to-date synthesis of the intensive research devoted to woody plants published in the second edition, with additional important aspects from the authors' previous book, Growth Control in Woody Plants. Intended primarily as a reference for researchers, the interdisciplinary nature of the book makes it useful to a broad range of scientists and researchers from agroforesters, agronomists, and arborists to plant pathologists and soil scientists. This third edition provides crutial updates to many chapters, including: responses of plants to elevated CO2; the process and regulation of cambial growth; photoinhibition and photoprotection of photosynthesis; nitrogen metabolism and internal recycling, and more. Revised chapters focus on emerging discoveries of the patterns and processes of woody plant physiology.* The only book to provide recommendations for the use of specific management practices and experimental procedures and equipment*Updated coverage of nearly all topics of interest to woody plant physiologists* Extensive revisions of chapters relating to key processes in growth, photosynthesis, and water relations* More than 500 new references * Examples of molecular-level evidence incorporated in discussion of the role of expansion proteins in plant growth; mechanism of ATP production by coupling factor in photosynthesis; the role of cellulose synthase in cell wall construction; structure-function relationships for aquaporin proteins
The application of modern molecular biology techniques is providing new insight into wood formation and the seasonal nature of secondary growth in perennial woody plant species. Extensively illustrated, this new book provides a comprehensive and critical overview of current understanding about the biology of wood formation, with a focus on the development, regulation and biochemistry of cambial growth supplemented by additional considerations of the fundamental factors determining forest productivity, wood quality and heartwood formation.
Trees are a major component of the biosphere and have played an important part in the world's history and culture. With the modern challenges of global warming and dwindling fossil fuel reserves, trees, and in particular their wood, can provide solutions. Unfortunately, too little is known about the biology of these plants, due largely to a lack of
The purpose of this book is to present classical plant development in modern, molecular-genetic terms. The study of plant development is rapidly changing as plant genome projects uncover a multitude of new genes. This book provides a framework for integrating gene discovery and genome analysis into the context of plant development. Molecular Genetics of Plant Development is designed to be used as a text-book for upper-division or graduate courses in plant development. The book will also serve as a reference book for scientists in the field of plant molecular biology or plant molecular genetics. The book is also useful for general development courses in which both animal and plant development are presented.
This book addresses the importance woody plants have in agriculture, forestry, and the environment and how various stresses affect their performance. It reviews physiological and molecular responses of woody plants to major environmental stresses and focuses on the mechanisms involved in imparting resistance to stress. Chapters cover basics of plant physiology including plant structure and plant growth, photosynthesis, respiration, plant growth regulation, abiotic and biotic plant stresses including drought, water logging, nutrient deficiency, salinity, chilling, freezing, heat, oxidative stress, and heavy metal toxicity.
To understand almost any part of the tropical rain forest's fabulously complex web of life, one must first learn to identify a bewildering array of plants. Alwyn Gentry's landmark book, completed just before his tragic death in 1993, is the only field guide to the nearly 250 families of woody plants in the most species-rich region of South America. As a consummate field researcher, Gentry designed this guide to be not just comprehensive, but also easy to use in rigorous field conditions. Unlike many field guides, which rely for their identifications on flowers and fruits that are only present during certain seasons, Gentry's book focuses on characters such as bark, leaves, and odor that are present year-round. His guide is filled with clear illustrations, step-by-step keys to identification, and a wealth of previously unpublished data. All biologists, wildlife managers, conservationists, and government officials concerned with the tropical rain forests will need and use this field guide. Alwyn Gentry was one of the world's foremost experts on the biology of tropical plants. He was senior curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and was a member of Conservation International's interdisciplinary Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) team, which inventories the biodiversity of the most threatened tropical areas. From 1967 to 1993 he collected more than 80,000 plant specimens, many of them new to science.
Woody plants belong to various taxonomic groups, which are heterogeneous in morphology, physiology, and geographic distribution. OtheJWise, they have neither strong evolutionruy relationships nor share a conunon habitat. They are a primaIy source of fiber and timber, and also include many edible fruit species. Their unique phenotypic behavior includes a perennial habit associated with extensive secondary growth. Additional characteristics of woody plants include: developmental juvenility and maturity with respect to growth habit, flowering time, and morphogenetic response in tissue cultures; environmental control of bud dormancy and flowering cycles; variable tolerance to abiotic stresses, wounding and pathogens; and long distance transport of water and IRltrients. Woody plants, particularly tree species, have been the focus of numerous physiological studies to understand their specialized functions, however, only recently they have become the target of molecular studies. Recent advances in our understanding of signal transduction pathways for environmental responses in herbaceous plants, including the identification and cloning of genes for proteins involved in signal transduction. should provide useful leads to undertake parallel studies with woody plants. Molecular mapping techniques, coupled with the availability of cloned genes from herbaceous plants, should provide shortcuts to cloning relevant genes from woody plants. The unique phenotypes of these plants can then be targeted for improvement through genetic engineering.