Wild Halophytes: Tools for Understanding Salt Tolerance Mechanisms of Plants and for Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change


Book Description

Halophytes, wild plants adapted to highly saline natural environments, represent extremelyuseful—and, at present, underutilised—experimental systems with which to investigate the mechanisms of salt tolerance in plants at the anatomical, physiological, biochemical and molecular levels.They can also provide biotechnological tools for the genetic improvement of salt tolerance in ourconventional crops, such as salt tolerance genes or salt-induced promoters. Furthermore, halophytesmay constitute the basis of sustainable ‘saline agriculture’ through commercial cultivation aftersome breeding to improve agronomic traits. All these issues are relevant in the present context ofclimate emergency, as soil salinity is—together with drought—the most critical environmental factorin reducing crop yield worldwide. In fact, climate change represents the most serious challengefor agricultural production and food security in the near future. Several of the topics mentionedabove—mainly referring to basic studies on salt tolerance mechanisms—are addressed in the articlespublished within this Special Issue.




Elucidation of Abiotic Stress Signaling in Plants


Book Description

Abiotic stresses such as high temperature, low-temperature, drought, and salinity limit crop productivity worldwide. Understanding plant responses to these stresses is essential for rational engineering of crop plants. In Arabidopsis, the signal transduction pathways for abiotic stresses, light, several phytohormones and pathogenesis have been elucidated. A significant portion of plant genomes (most studies are Arabidopsis and rice genome) encodes for proteins involves in signaling such as receptor, sensors, kinases, phosphatases, transcription factors and transporters/channels. Despite decades of physiological and molecular effort, knowledge pertaining to how plants sense and transduce low and high temperature, low-water availability (drought), water-submergence and salinity signals is still a major question before plant biologists. One major constraint hampering our understanding of these signal transduction processes in plants has been the lack or slow pace of application of molecular genomic and genetics knowledge in the form of gene function. In the post-genomic era, one of the major challenges is investigation and understanding of multiple genes and gene families regulating a particular physiological and developmental aspect of plant life cycle. One of the important physiological processes is regulation of stress response, which leads to adaptation or adjustment in response to adverse stimuli. With the holistic understanding of the signaling pathways involving not only one gene family but multiple genes or gene families, plant biologists can lay a foundation for designing and generating future crops that can withstand the higher degree of environmental stresses (especially abiotic stresses, which are the major cause of crop loss throughout the world) without losing crop yield and productivity. Therefore, in this proposed book, we intend to incorporate the contribution from leading plant biologists to elucidate several aspects of stress signaling by functional genomic approaches.




Anatomical Adaptations of Halophytes


Book Description

This book describes important anatomical adaptations in halophytes, based on a large review of relevant literature (since the 17th century) and recent research findings. Scientists involved in the study of plant biology, from a molecular to ecosystemic level, will find information about all major structural strategies of salt tolerant plants. The book starts with an introductory theoretical background, where several aspects related to the definition and classification of halophytes and saline environments are included. Major anatomical adaptations are then grouped around major concepts: succulence, tracheoidioblasts, salt secretion, Kranz anatomy, successive cambia, and bulliform cells. Each of them is treated following a general scheme: introductory considerations, anatomical basis, and ecological implications; a review of relevant literature is then conducted and the text is supported by a large number of figures, especially ink drawings and color micrographs.




Environmental Adaptations and Stress Tolerance of Plants in the Era of Climate Change


Book Description

Climate change is a complex phenomenon with a wide range of impacts on the environment. Biotic and abiotic stress are a result of climate change. Abiotic stress is caused by primary and secondary stresses which are an impediment to plant productivity. Prolonged exposure to these stresses results in altered metabolism and damage to biomolecules. Plants evolve defense mechanisms to withstand these stresses, e.g. synthesis of osmolytes, osmoprotectants, and antioxidants. Stress responsive genes and gene products including expressed proteins are implicated in conferring tolerance to the plant. This volume will provide the reader with a wide spectrum of information, including vital references. It also provides information as to how phytoconstituents, hormones and plant associated microbes help the plants to tolerate the stress. This volume also highlights the use of plant resources for ameliorating soil contaminants such as heavy metals. Dr. Parvaiz is Assistant professor in Botany at A.S. College, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. He has completed his post-graduation in Botany in 2000 from Jamia Hamdard New Delhi India. After his Ph.D from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India in 2007 he joined the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi. He has published more than 20 research papers in peer reviewed journals and 4 book chapters. He has also edited a volume which is in press with Studium Press Pvt. India Ltd., New Delhi, India. Dr. Parvaiz is actively engaged in studying the molecular and physio-biochemical responses of different plants (mulberry, pea, Indian mustard) under environmental stress. Prof. M.N.V. Prasad is a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Hyderabad, India. He received B.Sc. (1973) and M.Sc. (1975) degrees from Andhra University, India, and the Ph.D. degree (1979) in botany from the University of Lucknow, India. Prasad had published 216 articles in peer reviewed journals and 82 book chapters and conference proceedings in the broad area of environmental botany and heavy metal stress in plants. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor for eight books. He is the recipient of Pitamber Pant national Environment Fellowship of 2007 awarded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.




Abiotic Stress in Plants


Book Description

World population is growing at an alarming rate and is anticipated to reach about six billion by the end of year 2050. On the other hand, agricultural productivity is not increasing at a required rate to keep up with the food demand. The reasons for this are water shortages, depleting soil fertility and mainly various abiotic stresses. The fast pace at which developments and novel findings that are recently taking place in the cutting edge areas of molecular biology and basic genetics, have reinforced and augmented the efficiency of science outputs in dealing with plant abiotic stresses. In depth understanding of the stresses and their effects on plants is of paramount importance to evolve effective strategies to counter them. This book is broadly dived into sections on the stresses, their mechanisms and tolerance, genetics and adaptation, and focuses on the mechanic aspects in addition to touching some adaptation features. The chief objective of the book hence is to deliver state of the art information for comprehending the nature of abiotic stress in plants. We attempted here to present a judicious mixture of outlooks in order to interest workers in all areas of plant sciences.




Saline Agriculture


Book Description




Physiological and Biotechnological Aspects of Extremophiles


Book Description

Physiological and Biotechnological Aspects of Extremophiles highlights the current and topical areas of research in this rapidly growing field. Expert authors from around the world provide the latest insights into the mechanisms of these fascinating organisms use to survive.The vast majority of extremophiles are microbes which include archaea, bacteria and some eukaryotes. These microbes live under chemical and physical extremes that are usually lethal to cellular molecules, yet they manage to survive and even thrive. Extremophiles have important practical uses. They are a valuable source of industrially important enzymes and recent research has revealed novel mechanisms and biomolecular structures with a broad range of potential applications in biotechnology, biomining, and bioremediation.Aimed at research scientists, students, microbiologists, and biotechnologists, this book is an essential reading for scientists working with extremophiles and a recommended reference text for anyone interested in the microbiology, bioprospecting, biomining, biofuels, and extremozymes of these organisms. - Shows the implications of the physiological adaptations of microbes from extreme habitats that are largely contributed by their biomolecules from basic to applied research - Provides in-depth knowledge of genomic plasticity and proteome of different extremophiles - Gives detailed and comprehensive insight about use of genetic engineering as well as genome editing for industrial applications




Handbook of Halophytes


Book Description

Highlights the potential of biosaline agriculture in a changing environment Covers all important topics related to halophyte biology including biochemistry, genetics and genomics Provides information on potential use of halophytes Each topic is explained in detail and examined from various angles More than 100 contributions by international experts







Salinity Responses and Tolerance in Plants, Volume 1


Book Description

Soil salinity is a key abiotic-stress and poses serious threats to crop yields and quality of produce. Owing to the underlying complexity, conventional breeding programs have met with limited success. Even genetic engineering approaches, via transferring/overexpressing a single ‘direct action gene’ per event did not yield optimal results. Nevertheless, the biotechnological advents in last decade coupled with the availability of genomic sequences of major crops and model plants have opened new vistas for understanding salinity-responses and improving salinity tolerance in important glycophytic crops. Our goal is to summarize these findings for those who wish to understand and target the molecular mechanisms for producing salt-tolerant and high-yielding crops. Through this 2-volume book series, we critically assess the potential venues for imparting salt stress tolerance to major crops in the post-genomic era. Accordingly, perspectives on improving crop salinity tolerance by targeting the sensory, ion-transport and signaling mechanisms are presented here in volume 1. Volume 2 will focus on the potency of post-genomic era tools that include RNAi, genomic intervention, genome editing and systems biology approaches for producing salt tolerant crops.