Dormancy and Developmental Arrest: Experimental Analysis in Plants and Animals discusses the experimentation on states of suspended animation of living organisms. The book presents the range and complexity of interconnected processes involving structural, physiological, and molecular alterations in the organism. The text describes the physiological responses of animals and plants to environmental signals. It discusses the activities of nucleic acid and protein synthesis prior to dormancy state. The text also describes plant embryo development and the regulation of body temperature in dormant states. The book will provide valuable insights for biologists, zoologists, botanists, students, and researchers in the field of biology.

The formation, dispersal and germination of seeds are crucial stages in the life cycles of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants. The unique properties of seeds, particularly their tolerance to desiccation, their mobility, and their ability to schedule their germination to coincide with times when environmental conditions are favorable to their survival as seedlings, have no doubt contributed significantly to the success of seed-bearing plants. Humans are also dependent upon seeds, which constitute the majority of the world’s staple foods (e.g., cereals and legumes). Seeds are an excellent system for studying fundamental developmental processes in plant biology, as they develop from a single fertilized zygote into an embryo and endosperm, in association with the surrounding maternal tissues. As genetic and molecular approaches have become increasingly powerful tools for biological research, seeds have become an attractive system in which to study a wide array of metabolic processes and regulatory systems. Seed Development, Dormancy and Germination provides a comprehensive overview of seed biology from the point of view of the developmental and regulatory processes that are involved in the transition from a developing seed through dormancy and into germination and seedling growth. It examines the complexity of the environmental, physiological, molecular and genetic interactions that occur through the life cycle of seeds, along with the concepts and approaches used to analyze seed dormancy and germination behavior. It also identifies the current challenges and remaining questions for future research. The book is directed at plant developmental biologists, geneticists, plant breeders, seed biologists and graduate students.

The study of plant development using molecular and genetic techniques is rapidly becoming one of the most active areas of research on flowering plants. Developmental Biology of Flowering Plants relates classical developmental work with the outstanding problems of the future in the study of plant development. An important feature of this book is the integration of results from molecular and genetic studies on various aspects of plant development in a cellular and physiological context.

Life evolves in a cyclic environment, and to be successful, organisms must adapt not only to their spatial habitat, but also to their temporal habitat. How do plants and animals determine the time of year so they can anticipate seasonal changes in their habitats? In most cases, day length, or photoperiod, acts as the principal external cue for determining seasonal activity. For organisms not living at the bottom of the ocean or deep in a cave, day follows night, and the length of the day changes predictably throughout the year. These changes in photoperiod provide the most accurate signal for predicting upcoming seasonal conditions. Measuring day length allows plants and animals to anticipate and adapt to seasonal changes in their environments in order to optimally time key developmental events including seasonal growth and flowering of plants, annual bouts of reproduction, dormancy and migration in insects, and the collapse and regrowth of the reproductive system that drives breeding seasons in mammals and birds.Although research on photoperiodic time measurement originally integrated work on plants and animals, recent work has focused more narrowly and separately on plants, invertebrates, or vertebrates. As the fields have become more specialized there has been less interaction across the broader field of photoperiodism. As a result, researchers in each area often needlessly repeat both theoretical and experimental work. For example, understanding that there are genetically distinct morphs among species that, depending on latitude, respond to different critical photoperiods was discovered separately in plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates over the course of 20 years. However, over the past decade, intense work on daily and seasonal rhythms in fruit flies, mustard plants, and hamsters and mice, has led to remarkable progress in understanding the phenomenology, as well as the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms and clocks. This book was developed to further this type of cooperation among scientists from all related disciplines. It brings together leading researchers working on photoperiodic timing of seasonal adaptations in plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. Each of its three sections begins with an introduction by the section editor, and at the end of the book, the section editors present a synthesis of common themes in photoperiodism, as well as discuss similarities and differences in approaches to the study of photoperiodism, and future directions for research on photoperiodic time measurement.

This is the first scholarly reference work to cover all the major scientific themes and facets of the subject of seeds. It outlines the latest fundamental biological knowledge about seeds, together with the principles of agricultural seed processing, storage and sowing, the food and industrial uses of seeds, and the roles of seeds in history, economies and cultures. With contributions from 110 expert authors worldwide, the editors have created 560 authoritative articles, illustrated with plentiful tables, figures, black-and-white and color photographs, suggested further reading matter and 670 supplementary definitions. The contents are alphabetically arranged and cross-referenced to connect related entries.