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Annual Plant Reviews, Volume 30, Light and Plant Development

ISBN: 978-1-405-14538-1

February 2007

Wiley-Blackwell

344 pages

Description
Living organisms are subject to fluctuating environmental conditions. Whereas most animals are able to move away from unfavourable conditions, plants are sessile and so must cope with whatever comes their way. Of all the environmental cues that challenge the developing plant, light can probably be considered to be the most important. In addition to its key role in plant metabolism, and hence almost all life on Earth, where it drives the process of photosynthesis, light energy also acts to regulate plant growth and development. Light quantity, quality, direction and diurnal and seasonal duration regulate processes from germination, through seedling establishment to the architecture of the mature plant and the transition to reproductive development. These developmental responses of plants to light constitute photomorphogenesis.


This volume is designed to provide the reader with state-of-the-art accounts of our current knowledge of the major classes of higher plant regulatory photoreceptors and the signal transduction networks that comprise plant developmental photobiology. Consideration is also given to the ways in which knowledge of plant photoreceptors and their signalling networks can be exploited, for instance to improve the quality and productivity of commercially-grown plants. The book is directed at researchers and professionals working in plant molecular biology, plant physiology and plant biochemistry.

About the Author
Professor Garry C. Whitelam, Head of Department, School of Biological Sciences, University of Leicester, UK
Dr Karen J. Halliday, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, UK
Features

  • A broad overview of plant regulatory photoreceptors and plant developmental photobiology

  • Two additional chapters consider the exploitation of this knowledge to improve the quality and productivity of commercially grown plants

  • Offers a point of entry to the detailed literature for researchers new to the field