This book provides an up-to-date overview of redox signaling in plant cells and its key role in responses to different stresses. The chapters, which are original works or reviews, focus on redox signaling states; cellular tolerance under different biotic and abiotic stresses; cellular redox homeostasis as a central modulator; redox homeostasis and reactive oxygen species (ROS); redox balance in chloroplasts and mitochondria; oxidative stress and its role in peroxisome homeostasis; glutathione-related enzyme systems and metabolism under metal stress; and abiotic stress-induced redox changes and programmed cell death. The book is an invaluable source of information for plant scientists and students interested in redox state chemistry and cellular tolerance in plants.

Plants depend on physiological mechanisms to combat adverse environmental conditions, such as pathogen attack, wounding, drought, cold, freezing, salt, UV, intense light, heavy metals and SO2. Many of these cause excess production of active oxygen species in plant cells. Plants have evolved complex defense systems against such oxidative stress. The

This detailed volume presents a wide range of techniques for plant mitochondrial analysis, ranging from tried-and-tested work horse techniques to the latest innovations. Within its pages, it explores subjects such as affinity-based isolation of mitochondria with magnetic beads, mitochondrial quality assessment protocols, measurement of uptake and release of specific metabolites, mitochondrial protein identification and visualization, as well as gene splicing and editing, and much more. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Plant Mitochondria: Methods and Protocols provides a highly useful set of methodologies for the plant mitochondrial community to help discover more interesting aspects of plant mitochondria in the years to come.

Molecular Biology of Plants presents the formal scientific presentations delivered on the symposium on plant molecular biology, held at the University of Minnesota in 1976. The topics in this book are organized around the central dogma of molecular biology. Section I describes the organization and replication of DNA in plant chromosomes, including chloroplast genomes; Section II discusses molecular aspects of transcription and translation, ribosomal RNA gene systems and hormonal control of protein synthesis. Section III examines plant viruses and bacterial agents, in particular the crown gall system, viroids, and the replication of plant RNA viruses. Each of these specific topics contributes to an integrated knowledge of plant molecular biology. The book will be of interest to geneticists, cell biologists, plant breeders, plant physiologists, plant pathologists, and biochemists.

In the two decades since the last comprehensive work on plant peroxisomes appeared, the scientific approaches employed in the study of plant biology have changed beyond all recognition. The accelerating pace of plant research in the post-genomic era is leading us to appreciate that peroxisomes have many important roles in plant cells, including reserve mobilisation, nitrogen assimilation, defence against stress, and metabolism of plant hormones, which are vital for productivity and normal plant development. Many plant scientists are finding, and will no doubt continue to find, that their own area of research is connected in some way to peroxisomes. Written by the leading experts in the field, this book surveys peroxisomal metabolic pathways, protein targeting and biogenesis of the organelle and prospects for the manipulation of peroxisomal function for biotechnological purposes. It aims to draw together the current state of the art as a convenient starting point for anyone, student or researcher, who wishes to know about plant peroxisomes.

Plants, unlike animals, are sessile. This demands that adverse changes in their environment are quickly recognized, distinguished and responded to with suitable reactions. Drought, heat, cold and salinity are among the major abiotic stresses that adversely affect plant growth and productivity. In general, abiotic stress often causes a series of morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular changes that unfavorably affect plant growth, development and productivity. Drought, salinity, extreme temperatures (cold and heat) and oxidative stress are often interrelated; these conditions singularly or in combination induce cellular damage. To cope with abiotic stresses, of paramount significance is to understand plant responses to abiotic stresses that disturb the homeostatic equilibrium at cellular and molecular level in order to identify a common mechanism for multiple stress tolerance. This multi authored edited compilation attempts to put forth an all-inclusive biochemical and molecular picture in a systems approach wherein mechanism and adaptation aspects of abiotic stress are dealt with. The chief objective of the book hence is to deliver state of the art information for comprehending the effects of abiotic stress in plants at the cellular level.

This book summarizes the latest research results on the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plants, particularly in many abiotic stresses, and their regulation. Redox homeostasis refers to maintaining a balance of oxidised and reduced state of biomolecules in a biological system for all-round sustenance. In a living system, redox reactions contribute to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which act as signalling molecules for developmental as well as stress-response processes in plants. It is presumed that, being sessile and an aerobe requiring oxygen for mitochondrial energy production, as well as producing oxygen during photosynthesis, the redox homeostasis process is more complex and regulated in plants than in animals. Any imbalance in the homeostasis is mainly compensated for by the production of various ROS molecules, which, though they can cause severe oxidative damage in excess, can also ideally act as signalling molecules.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.

The entire range of the developmental process in plants is regulated by a shift in the hormonal concentration, tissue sensitivity and their interaction with the factors operating around the plants. Phytohormones play a crucial role in regulating the direction of plant in a coordinated fashion in association with metabolism that provides energy and the building blocks to generate the form that we recognize as a plant. Out of the recognized hormones, attention has largely been focused on Auxins, Gibberellins, Cytokinins, Abscisic acid, Ethylene and more recently on Brassinosteroids. In this book we are providing the information about a brassinosteroids that again confirm its status as phytohormones because it has significant impact on various aspects of the plant life and its ubiquitous distribution throughout the plant kingdom. Brassinosteroids are generating a significant impact on plant growth and development, photosynthesis, transpiration, ion uptake and transport, induces specific changes in leaf anatomy and chloroplast structure. This book is not an encyclopedia of reviews but includes a selected collection of newly written, integrated, illustrated reviews describing our knowledge of brassinosteroids. The aim of this book is to tell all about brassinosteroids, by the present time. The various chapters incorporate both theoretical and practical aspects and may serve as baseline information for future researches through which significant development is possible. It is intended that this book will be useful to the students, teachers and researchers, both in universities and research institutes, especially in relation to biological and agricultural sciences.

The first compilation of a wealth of knowledge on tobacco BY-2 cells, often cited as the HeLa cell line of higher plants. Basic issues of cell cycle progression, cytokinesis, cell organization and factors that are involved in these processes are covered in detail. Since the tobacco cell line is used as a tool for research in molecular and cellular biology, several chapters on such studies are also included. Further, changes of primary and secondary metabolites during culture and factors that affect these processes are treated. Last but not least, the so far unpublished historical background of the BY-2 cell line is described. This volume is a must for any scientist working in the field of plant biology.