Plant Tropisms [Hardcover]

Tropisms, the defined vectorial stimuli, such as gravity, light, touch, humidity gradients, ions, oxygen, and temperature, which provide guidance for plant organ growth, is a rapidly growing and changing field. The last few years have witnessed a true renaissance in the analysis of tropisms. As such the conception of tropisms has changed from being seen as a group of simple laboratory curiosities to their recognition as important tools/phenotypes with which to decipher basic cell biological processes that are essential to plant growth and development. Plant Tropisms will provide a comprehensive, yet integrated volume of the current state of knowledge on the molecular and cell biological processes that govern plant tropisms.Contributors.

Preface.

1. Mechanisms of Gravity Perception in Higher Plants: Aline H. Valster and Elison B. Blancaflor.

1.1 Introduction.

1.2 Identification and characterization of gravity perception sites in plant organs.

1.2.1 Roots.

1.2.2 Hypocotyls and inflorescence stems (dicotyledons).

1.2.3 Cereal pulvini (monocotyledons).

1.3 The Starch-statolith hypothesis.

1.3.1 A variety of plant organs utilize sedimenting amyloplasts to sense gravity.

1.3.2 Amyloplast sedimentation is influenced by the environment and developmental stage of the plant.

1.4 The gravitational pressure model for gravity sensing.

1.5 The cytoskeleton in gravity perception.

1.6 Concluding remarks and future prospects.

1.7 Acknowledgment.

1.8 Literature Cited.

2. Signal Transduction in Gravitropism: Benjamin R. Harrison, Miyo T. Morita, Patrick H. Masson and Masao Tasaka.

2.1 Introduction.

2.2 Gravity signal transduction in roots al“…