Emerging Plant Growth Regulators in Agriculture: Roles in Stress Tolerance presents current PGR discoveries and advances for agricultural applications, providing a comprehensive reference for those seeking to apply these tools for improved plant health and crop yield. As demand for agricultural crops and improved nutritional requirement continue to escalate in response to increasing population, plant researchers have focused on identifying scientific approaches to minimize the negative impacts of climate change on agriculture crops. Among the various applied approaches, the application of plant growth regulators (PGRs) have gained significant attention for their ability to enhance stress tolerance mechanisms. This book was developed to provide foundational and emerging information to advance the discovery of novel, cost-competitive, specific and effective PGRs for applications in agriculture. - Highlights the latest developments in stress signaling, cross-talk and PGR mechanisms as applied to agriculture and agronomy - Includes case studies and examples to provide real-world insights - Presents resources for future research and field application

The cultivation of rice in Japan has suffered from damage caused by baka nae disease, in which rice seedlings show abnormal growth (elongation) as the result of infection by a plant pathogen. Investigation of the taxonomy of this pathogen led to the commencement of gibberellin (GA) research among Japanese plant pathologists, who later identified it as Gibberella jujikuroi, its other name being Fusarium moniliforme. In 1926, Kurosawa demon strated the occurrence of an active principle in the culture media of fungus that showed the same symptoms as those of the rice disease. In 1938, this finding was followed by the successful isolation of the active principles as crystals from the culture filtrate. This was achieved by the Japanese agri cultural chemists Yabuta and Sumiki, of The University of Tokyo, who named these active principles gibberellins A and B. Following World War II, this discovery attracted the interest of scientists around the world, and research on GA was pursued on a worldwide scale. One of the most outstanding discoveries in GA research after the isolation of GA as the metabolite of the plant pathogen must be the isolation and characterization of GAs from tissues of higher plants by the MacMillan group, West and Phinney, and the Tokyo University group in 1958 and 1959. Thus, GAs have been recognized as one of the most important classes of plant hormones.

"Plant growth regulators consist of organic molecules produced synthetically and used to modulate plant growth. There are several classes of plant growth regulators, including auxin, gibberellin, abscisic acid, cytokinins, salicylic, jasmonic acid and ethylene, as well as more recently investigated brassinosteroids, strigolactones, polyamine, etc. These plant growth regulators have either promoting or inhibitory effects on plant growth and development by means of modification in plant secondary metabolism and gene regulation. Some of plant growth regulators may have safe issues in fields. More attention should be paid in the application of plant growth regulators. Researchers also try to find other regulators to do more field experiments, in order to reduce the amount of organic chemicals (e.g., traditional plant growth regulators) used. This book discusses the function, types, uses and safety of plant growth regulators. The effects of plant growth regulators on horticultural plants are specially introduced in this book. Fly ash and soil mycorrhizal fungi-released glomalin also get a lot of attention in this book"--

This book describes the strategy used for sequencing, assembling and annotating the tomato genome and presents the main characteristics of this sequence with a special focus on repeated sequences and the ancestral polyploidy events. It also includes the chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a major crop plant as well as a model for fruit development, and the availability of the genome sequence has completely changed the paradigm of the species’ genetics and genomics. The book describes the numerous genetic and genomic resources available, the identified genes and quantitative trait locus (QTL) identified, as well as the strong synteny across Solanaceae species. Lastly, it discusses the consequences of the availability of a high-quality genome sequence of the cultivated species for the research community. It is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in the genetics and genomics of tomato and Solanaceae.

The current growing interest of molecular biologists in plant hormone research is undoubtedly the most promising development of recent times. Many papers were presented during the 14th International Conference on Plant Growth Substances illustrating the impact of this new approach on our understanding of hormone-controlled processes. The specific character is the integrated study of plant growth regulation at all levels ranging from single molecules to the entire plant and its functioning in the environment. Hormones play an essential role in the regulation, but not an exclusive one. Other compounds and factors, such as Ca2+, for instance are often of equal relevance, because they may take part in the signal transduction pathway. Moreover, regulation of the regulator by non-hormonal factors is an essential part of any control mechanism. The present volume reflects the change in interest from plant growth substances to plant growth regulation.

Plant hormones play a crucial role in controlling the way in which plants growand develop. Whilemetabolism providesthepowerand buildingblocks for plant life, it is the hormones that regulate the speed of growth of the individual parts and integrate these parts to produce the form that we recognize as a plant. In addition, theyplayacontrolling role inthe processes of reproduction. This book is a description ofthese natural chemicals: how they are synthesizedand metabolized; howthey work; whatwe knowoftheir molecular biology; how we measure them; and a description ofsome ofthe roles they play in regulating plant growth and development. Emphasis has also been placed on the new findings on plant hormones deriving from the expanding use ofmolecular biology as a tool to understand these fascinating regulatory molecules. Even at the present time, when the role of genes in regulating all aspects of growth and development is considered of prime importance, it is still clear that the path of development is nonetheless very much under hormonal control, either via changes in hormone levels in response to changes in gene transcription, or with the hormones themselves as regulators ofgene transcription. This is not a conference proceedings, but a selected collection ofnewly written, integrated, illustrated reviews describing our knowledge of plant hormones, and the experimental work that is the foundation of this knowledge.

Since the first edition of our book "Tissue Culture in Fores try" in 1982 we have witnessed remarkable advances in cell and tissue culture technologies with woody perennials. In addition to forest biologists in government, industry, and universities, we now have molecular biologists, genetic engineers, and biochemists using cell and tissue cultures of woody species routinely. There fore, the time has come for an update of the earlier edition. In our present effort to cover new developments we have expanded to three volumes: 1. General principles and Biotechnology 2. Specific Principles and Methods: Growth and Development 3. Case Histories: Gymnosperms, Angiosperms and Palms The scientific barriers to progress in tree improvement are not so much lack of foreign gene expression in plants but our current inabili ty to regenerate plants in true-to-type fashion on a mas sive and economic scale. To achieve this in the form of an appro pr iate biotechnology, cell and tissue culture will increasing ly require a better understanding of basic principles in chemistry and physics that determine structural and functional relationships among molecules and macromolecules (proteins, RNA, DNA) within cells and tissues. These principles and their relationship with the culture medium and its physical environment, principles of clonal propagation, and genetic variation and ultrastructure are discussed in volume one.

Ethylene is a simple gaseous phytohormone with multiple roles in regulation of metabolism at cellular, molecular, and whole plant level. It influences performance of plants under optimal and stressful environments by interacting with other signaling molecules. Understanding the ethylene biosynthesis and action through the plant's life can contribute to improve the knowledge of plant functionality and use of this plant hormone may drive adaptation and defense of plants from the adverse environmental conditions. The action of ethylene depends on its concentration in cell and the sensitivity of plants to the hormone. In recent years, research on ethylene has been focused, due to its dual action, on the regulation of plant processes at physiological and molecular level. The involvement of ethylene in the regulation of transcription needs to be widely explored involving the interaction with other key molecular regulators. The aim of the current research topic was to explore and update our understanding on its regulatory role in plant developmental mechanisms at cellular or whole plant level under optimal and changing environmental conditions. The present edited volume includes original research papers and review articles describing ethylene’s regulatory role in plant development during plant ontogeny and also explains how it interacts with biotic and abiotic stress factors. This comprehensive collection of researches provide evidence that ethylene is essential in different physiological processes and does not always work alone, but in coordinated manner with other plant hormones. This research topic is also a source of tips for further works that should be addressed for the biology and molecular effects on plants.

Plant hormones play a crucial role in controlling the way in which plants grow and develop. While metabolism provides the power and building blocks for plant life, it is the hormones that regulate the speed of growth of the individual parts and integrate them to produce the form that we recognize as a plant. This book is a description of these natural chemicals: how they are synthesized and metabolized, how they act at both the organismal and molecular levels, how we measure them, a description of some of the roles they play in regulating plant growth and development, and the prospects for the genetic engineering of hormone levels or responses in crop plants. This is an updated revision of the third edition of the highly acclaimed text. Thirty-three chapters, including two totally new chapters plus four chapter updates, written by a group of fifty-five international experts, provide the latest information on Plant Hormones, particularly with reference to such new topics as signal transduction, brassinosteroids, responses to disease, and expansins. The book is not a conference proceedings but a selected collection of carefully integrated and illustrated reviews describing our knowledge of plant hormones and the experimental work that is the foundation of this information. The Revised 3rd Edition adds important information that has emerged since the original publication of the 3rd edition. This includes information on the receptors for auxin, gibberellin, abscisic acid and jasmonates, in addition to new chapters on strigolactones, the branching hormones, and florigen, the flowering hormone.