Manipulation of plant architecture is regarded as a new and promising issue in plant biotechnology. Given the important role of the cytoskeleton during plant growth and development, microtubules provide an important target for biotechnological applications aiming to change plant architecture.This book introduces some microtubule-mediated key processes that are important for plant life and amenable to manipulation by either genetic, pharmacological or morphological rationales. In the...

The aim of this volume is to merge classical concepts of plant cell biology with the recent findings of molecular studies and real-world applications in a form attractive not only to specialists in the realm of fundamental research, but also to breeders and plant producers. Four sections deal with the control of development, the control of stress tolerance, the control of metabolic activity, and novel additions to the toolbox of modern plant cell biology in an exemplary and comprehensive m...

From Old Town to the Union Station, Historic Photos of Tacoma is a photographic history collected from the areas top archives. With around 200 photographs, many of which have never been published, this beautiful coffee table book shows the historical growth from the mid 1800's to the late 1900's of ?The City of Destiny? in stunning black and white photography. The book follows life, government, events and people important to Tacoma and the building of this unique city. Spanning over two ce...

The C4 pathway of photosynthesis was discovered and characterized, more than four decades ago. Interest in C4 pathway has been sustained and has recently been boosted with the discovery of single-cell C4 photosynthesis and the successful introduction of key C4-cycle enzymes in important crops, such as rice. Further, cold-tolerant C4 plants are at the verge of intense exploitation as energy crops. Rapid and multidisciplinary progress in our understanding of C4 plants warrants a comprehensiv...

In the last half century, because of the raising world population and because of the many environmental issues posed by the industrialization, the amount of arable land per person has declined from 0.32 ha in 1961–1963 to 0.21 ha in 1997–1999 and is expected to drop further to 0.16 ha by 2030 and therefore is a severe menace to food security (FAO 2006). At the same time, about 12 million ha of irrigated land in the developing world has lost its productivity due to waterlogging and salinity...

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...

This book provides a general introduction as well as a selected survey of key advances in the fascinating field of plant cell and tissue culture as a tool in biotechnology. After a detailed description of the various basic techniques employed in leading laboratories worldwide, follows an extended account of important applications in, for example, plant propagation, secondary metabolite production and gene technology. Additionally, some chapters are devoted to historical developments in thi...

With today’s ever growing economic and ecological problems, wood as a raw material takes on increasing significance as the most important renewable source of energy and as industrial feedstock for numerous products. Its chemical and anatomical structure and the excellent properties that result allow wood to be processed into the most diverse products; from logs to furniture and veneers, and from wood chippings to wooden composites and paper. The aim of this book is to review advances in re...

To comprehend the organizational principle of cellular functions at diff erent levels, an integrative approach with large-scale experiments, the so-called ‘omics’ data including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, is needed. Omics aims at the collective characterization and quantifi cation of pools of biological molecules that translate into the structure, function, and dynamics of an organism or organisms. Currently, omics is an essential tool to understand the molecu...

Reproductive Biology of Plants is a comparative account of reproduction in viruses, bacteria, cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, lichens, bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms, each chapter written by an expert in the field. Special emphasis is placed on the truly comparative approach illustrating the vast range from simplicity to complexity in structure and function with respect to the various organisms.