The last ten years have witnessed a monumental increase in our understanding of plant hormones. A decade ago, scientists were forced to rely on vague ideas about hormone action; today, these have been replaced by detailed molecular models. Given the rapid increase in our understanding of plant hormone biology, this comprehensive review could not have come at a better time. In Plant Hormones: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition, expert researchers explore the most current genetic, biochemical, analytical and chemical biological approaches for understanding plant hormone action, providing a concise overview of methods and reagents needed to dissect plant signalling pathways using chemical genetic methods.
Chapters address such topics as genetic methods of analysis using the model system Arabidopsis thaliana, biochemical methods for documenting interactions between hormones and receptors, the use of high-throughput sequencing technologies for microRNA analysis, and analytical approaches for measuring endogenous plant hormone levels, including LC-MS and GC-MS based methods. Composed in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biologya" series format, each chapter contains a brief introduction, step-by-step methods, a list of necessary materials, and a Notes section which shares tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.
Innovative and cutting edge, Plant Hormones: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition is an essential guide for all plant scientists who are facing the complex and challenging questions that will determine the future of this vital field.
Preface
Contributors
1. Using reverse genetics to develop small knockout collections for specific biological questions. - J. Northey and P. McCourt
2. Visualizing auxin transport routes in Arabidopsis leaf primordia. - D. Marcos and T. Berleth
3. Bioinformatic analysis of hormone microarray data. - G.W. Bassel and N.J. Provart
4. Measurement of plant hormones by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. - S.J. Owen and S.R. Abrams
5. Measurement of abscisic acid and gibberellins by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. - M. Okamoto, A Hanada, Y Kamiya, S Yamaguchi and E Nambara
6. Pull-down assays for plant hormone research. - S. Kepinski
7. Binding assays for brassinosteroid receptors. - A. Ca#o-Delgado and Z-Y Wang
8. Binding assays for abscisic acid receptors. - F.A. Razem and R.D. Hill
9. Cytokinin sensing systems using microorganisms. - M. Higuchi, T. Kakimoto and T. Mizuno
10. Hormone-binding assay using living bacteria expressing eukaryotic receptors. - G.A. Romanov and S.N. Lomin
11. Discovery of plant microRNAs and short-interfering RNAs by deep parallel sequencing. - P. Chellappan and H. Jin
12. The use of chemical genomics to investigate pathways intersecting auxin-dependent responses and endomembrane trafficking in Arabidopsis thaliana. - L. Norambuena, G.R. Hicks and N.V. Raikhel
From the reviews of the second edition: "This book introduces several approaches essential for plant hormone biology at the forefront of research. ! This book has been published at an apt time for plant hormone biologists, especially for PhD students and advanced researchers in this field, to move the field to a higher stage and to lead them towards wider and more advanced technical approaches to hormone analyses, to encourage them to accumulate more specific genomic information and to apply more sophisticated analytical tools." (Tomokazu Koshiba, Annals of Botany, Vol. 105 (4), April, 2010)