Plant Desiccation Tolerance

About this book

Desiccation tolerance was essential when plants first began to conquer land, roughly 400 million years ago. While most desiccation-tolerant plants belong to basal phylogenetic taxa, this capacity has also evolved among some vascular plant species. In Plant Desiccation Tolerance renowned experts treat plant desiccation tolerance at the organismic as well as at the cellular level. The diversity of ecophysiological adaptations and acclimations of cyanobacteria, eukaryotic algae, mosses, and lichens is addressed in several chapters.

The particular problems of vascular plants during dehydration/rehydration cycles resulting not only from their hydraulic architectures, but also from severe secondary stresses associated with the desiccated state are discussed. Based on the treatment of desiccation tolerance at the organismic level, a second section of Plant Desiccation Tolerance is devoted to the cell biological level. It delineates the general concepts of functional genomics, epigenetics, genetics, molecular biology and the sensing and signalling networks of systems biology involved in dehydration/rehydration cycles.

Plant Desiccation Tolerance provides an invaluable compilation of current knowledge, which is a prerequisite for a better understanding of plant desiccation tolerance in natural as well as agro- and forest ecosystems where water is one of the most essential resources.

Contents

Part I Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction D. Bartels, E. Beck and U. Lüttge

Part II The Organismic Level
Chapter 2 Cyanobacteria : Habitats and Species B. Budel
Chapter 3 Cyanobacteria: Multiple Stresses, Desiccation Tolerant Photosynthesis and Di-nitrogen Fixation U. Lüttge
Chapter 4 Eucaryotic Algae B. Budel
Chapter 5 Lichens and Bryophytes - Habitats and Species M. Lakatos
Chapter 6 Ecophysiology of Desiccation/Rehydration Cycles in Mosses and Lichens T. G. Green, L. G. Sancho and A. Pintado
Chapter 7 Lichens and Bryophytes - Light Stress and Photoinhibition in Desiccation/ Rehydration Cycles: Mechanisms of Photoprotection U. Heber and U. Lüttge
Chapter 8 Evolution, Diversity and Habitats of Poikilohydrous Vascular Plants St. Porembski
Chapter 9 Ecophysiology of Homoiochlorophyllous and Poikilochlorophyllous Desiccation-Tolerant Plants Z. Tuba and H. K. Lichtenthaler
Chapter 10 Hydraulic Architecture of Vascular Plants E. Steudle
Chapter 11 Drought, Desiccation and Oxidative Stress R. Scheibe and E. Beck
Chapter 12 Chamaegigas intrepidus DINTER - an Aquatic Poikilohydric Angiosperm that is Perfectly Adapted to its Complex and Extreme Environmental Conditions W. Hartung and H. Heilmeier

Part III The Cell Biological Level
Chapter 13 Molecular Biology and Physiological Genomics of Dehydration Stress Ruth Grene, C. Vasquez-Robinet and H. J. Bohnert
Chapter 14 Dehydrins: Molecular Biology, Structure and Function S. K. Eriksson and Pia Harryson
Chapter 15 Understanding Vegetative Desiccation Tolerance Using Integrated Functional Genomics Approaches Within a Comparative Evolutionary Framework J. C. Cushman and M. J. Oliver
Chapter 16 Resurrection Plants: Physiology and Molecular Biology D. Bartels and S. S. Hussain
Chapter 17 Synopsis D. Bartels, E. Beck and U. Lüttge

Subject Index

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