How Plants Communicate with Their Biotic Environment addresses how plants perceive the presence of organisms (other plants, microbes, insects and nematodes) living in their proximity, how they manage to be attractive when these organisms are friendly, and how they defend themselves from foes. Specific chapters delve into ecology and defense mechanisms, allelopathy and the role of allelochemicals in plant defense, plant signaling, and plant communication with microbes and animals, including herbivores. In addition, the book presents discussions on communication and its role in plant pollination. This comprehensive resource presents tactics that can be taken from the lab, to the bench, to the forest. - Gathers, under a common general outline, a comprehensive knowledge issued from distinct scientific communities - Combines three life science disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology, and molecular biology - Addresses a topical subject as the natural biological processes described represent basic knowledge that help develop low input sustainable agriculture - Written by renowned scientists in their field

Plant neurobiology is a newly emerging field of plant sciences. It covers signalling and communication at all levels of biological organization – from molecules up to ecological communities. In this book, plants are presented as intelligent and social organisms with complex forms of communication and information processing. Authors from diverse backgrounds such as molecular and cellular biology, electrophysiology, as well as ecology treat the most important aspects of plant communication, including the plant immune system, abilities of plants to recognize self, signal transduction, receptors, plant neurotransmitters and plant neurophysiology. Further, plants are able to recognize the identity of herbivores and organize the defence responses accordingly. The similarities in animal and plant neuronal/immune systems are discussed too. All these hidden aspects of plant life and behaviour will stimulate further intense investigations in order to understand the communicative plants in their whole complexity.

The news that a flowering weed—mousear cress (Arabidopsis thaliana)—can sense the particular chewing noise of its most common caterpillar predator and adjust its chemical defenses in response led to headlines announcing the discovery of the first “hearing” plant. As plants lack central nervous systems (and, indeed, ears), the mechanisms behind this “hearing” are unquestionably very different from those of our own acoustic sense, but the misleading headlines point to an overlooked truth: plants do in fact perceive environmental cues and respond rapidly to them by changing their chemical, morphological, and behavioral traits. In Plant Sensing and Communication, Richard Karban provides the first comprehensive overview of what is known about how plants perceive their environments, communicate those perceptions, and learn. Facing many of the same challenges as animals, plants have developed many similar capabilities: they sense light, chemicals, mechanical stimulation, temperature, electricity, and sound. Moreover, prior experiences have lasting impacts on sensitivity and response to cues; plants, in essence, have memory. Nor are their senses limited to the processes of an individual plant: plants eavesdrop on the cues and behaviors of neighbors and—for example, through flowers and fruits—exchange information with other types of organisms. Far from inanimate organisms limited by their stationary existence, plants, this book makes unquestionably clear, are in constant and lively discourse.

A guide to the role microbes play in the enhanced production and productivity of agriculture to feed our growing population Phytomicrobiome Interactions and Sustainable Agriculture offers an essential guide to the importance of ‘Phytomicrobiome’ and explores its various components. The authors – noted experts on the topic – explore the key benefits of plant development such as nutrient availability, amelioration of stress and defense to plant disease. Throughout the book, the authors introduce and classify the corresponding Phytomicrobiome components and then present a detailed discussion related to its effect on plant development: controlling factors of this biome, its behaviour under the prevailing climate change condition and beneficial effects. The book covers the newly emerging technical concept of Phytomicrobiome engineering, which is an advanced concept to sustain agricultural productivity in recent climatic scenario. The text is filled with comprehensive, cutting edge data, making it possible to access this ever-growing wealth of information. This important book: Offers a one-stop resource on phytomicrobiome concepts Provides a better understanding of the topic and how it can be employed for understanding plant development Contains a guide to sustaining agriculture using phytomicrobiome engineering Presents information that can lead to enhanced production and productivity to feed our growing population Written for students, researchers and policy makers of plant biology, Phytomicrobiome Interactions and Sustainable Agriculture offers a clear understanding of the importance of microbes in overall plant growth and development.

Since the concept of allelopathy was introduced almost 100 years ago, research has led to an understanding that plants are involved in complex communicative interactions. They use a battery of different signals that convey plant-relevant information within plant individuals as well as between plants of the same species or different species. The 13 chapters of this volume discuss all these topics from an ecological perspective. Communication between plants allows them to share physiological and ecological information relevant for their survival and ?tness. It is obvious that in these very early days of ecological plant communication research we are illuminating only the ‘tip of iceberg’ of the communicative nature of higher plants. Nevertheless, knowledge on the identity and informative value of volatiles used by plants for communication is increasing with breath-taking speed. Among the most spectacular examples are sit- tions where plant emitters warn neighbours about a danger, increasing their innate immunity, or when herbivore-attacked plants attract the enemies of the herbivores (‘cry for help’ and ‘plant bodyguards’ concepts). It is becoming obvious that plants use not only volatile signals but also diverse water soluble molecules, in the case of plant roots, to safeguard their evolutionary success and accomplish self/non-self kin rec- nition. Importantly, as with all the examples of biocommunication, irrespective of whether signals and signs are transmitted via physical or chemical pathways, plant communication is a rule-governed and sign-mediated process.

Major portion of the planet earth is covered by seas and oceans representing 96.5% of the planet’s water, playing a detrimental role in sustaining the plant including crop diversity and productivity for human consumption. Water resources contain both soluble and transition metals, which are easily absorbed by plants through roots as a first point of contact and subsequently play important physiological and biological functions in plants. Transition metals such as copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) contribute to the plant productivity by playing key functional roles in the photosynthesis. In addition, to their major role in regulating the plant productivity, they also play an important role by acting as homeostatic regulators in uni-parentally inherited chloroplasts and maintains the flow of the electron transfer. It is worthwhile to mention that they play a critical role as transporters, which acts as electron balancing units for managing the electrostatic potential across the membranes. In contrast, some metals such as Cd, As play a significant role in inducing the stress mechanism and influencing either directly or in-directly Haber-Weiss reactions either through the production of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) or through the membrane damage thus leading to leakage of membrane transporters. However, besides playing a detrimental role as transporters in plant system, excessive accumulation of these metals due to the increasing contamination in the marginal soil and water are posing important threats to the plant system. Realizing the toxic effects of the metals, several physiological evidences have been laid for the credence of the metal toxicity and their concurrent effect on plant productivity. Increasing effects of the metals as toxicants can have three adverse effects on the populations: population can move, persist via local adaptation or phenotypic plasticity, or die. Next generation sequencing studies have revolutionized our abilities to detect the changes in expression profiles across an array of genes, which can in-turn help to develop early markers of metal induced stress. Plant Metallomics and Functional Omics: A System-Wide Perspective focuses on the applications of the system wide understanding of the biological and functional interplay occurring at the juncture of the metalloid induced stress and toxicity. The main goal of this book is to familiarize the readers with the most up-to-date information on metal-induced physiological changes in plant species.

Advances in Botanical Research: Past, Current and Future Topics, Volume 100 in the Advances in Botanical Research series, celebrates a remarkable achievement as 100 volumes have now been published, with several others being prepared. New chapters in this monumental release include Editorial activities for Advances in Botanical Research, Revisiting ABR editing in the period 2006-2012: An exciting experience with Jean-Claude Kader, A tribute to the scientific contributions of Pierre Gadal and his laboratory, Evolution of Bacterial Phototrophy, Algae for Global Sustainability, Genomics of cyanobacteria: New insights and lessons for shaping our future, An overview of the root-knot-nematode compatible interaction, and more. - Celebrates the 100th volume of a series that has covered multiple aspects of plant biology in the last 50 years - Includes impressive developments of plant physiology topics and techniques - Covers plant genomics, a newly developing section of plant sciences