Established investigators from around the world describe in step-by-step detail their best techniques for the study of plant hormones and their regulatory activities. These state-of-the-art methods include contemporary approaches to identifying the biosynthetic pathways of plant hormones, monitoring their levels, characterizing the receptors with which they interact, and analyzing the signaling systems by which they exert their effects. Comprehensive and fully detailed for reproducible laboratory success, Plant Hormone Protocols offers plant biologists an indispensable compendium of today's most powerful methods and strategies to studying plant hormones, their regulation, and their activities.

Given the rapid increase in our understanding of plant hormone biology, this second edition of a comprehensive review could not have come at a better time. In its chapters, expert researchers explore the latest approaches to understanding plant hormone action.

Plant tissue culture (PTC) technology has gained unassailable success for its various commercial and research applications in plant sciences. Plant growth regulators (PGRs) are an essential part of any plant tissue culture intervention for propagation or modification of plants. A wide range of PGRs are available, including aromatic compounds that show cytokinin activities, promote cell division and micro-propagation, viz. kinetin, N6-benzyladenine and topolins. Topolins are naturally occurring aromatic compounds that have gained popularity as an effective alternative for other frequently used cytokinins in in vitro culture of plants. Among them, meta-topolin [6-(3-hydroxybenzlyamino) purine] is the most popular and its use in plant tissue culture has amplified swiftly. During the last few decades, there have been numerous reports highlighting the effectiveness of meta-topolin in micropropagation and alleviation of various physiological disorders, rooting and acclimatization of tissue culture raised plants.

Plant hormones play a crucial role in controlling the way in which plants grow and develop. While metabolism provides the power and building blocks for plant life, it is the hormones that regulate the speed of growth of the individual parts and integrate them to produce the form that we recognize as a plant. This book is a description of these natural chemicals: how they are synthesized and metabolized, how they act at both the organismal and molecular levels, how we measure them, a description of some of the roles they play in regulating plant growth and development, and the prospects for the genetic engineering of hormone levels or responses in crop plants. This is an updated revision of the third edition of the highly acclaimed text. Thirty-three chapters, including two totally new chapters plus four chapter updates, written by a group of fifty-five international experts, provide the latest information on Plant Hormones, particularly with reference to such new topics as signal transduction, brassinosteroids, responses to disease, and expansins. The book is not a conference proceedings but a selected collection of carefully integrated and illustrated reviews describing our knowledge of plant hormones and the experimental work that is the foundation of this information. The Revised 3rd Edition adds important information that has emerged since the original publication of the 3rd edition. This includes information on the receptors for auxin, gibberellin, abscisic acid and jasmonates, in addition to new chapters on strigolactones, the branching hormones, and florigen, the flowering hormone.

In a convenient, single-source reference, this book examines plant growth substances and their relationship to a wide range of physiological processes, ranging from seed germination through the death of the plant. If offers a clear illustration of the pragmatic uses of plant substances in agriculture and demonstrates how basic laboratory research has translated into increased production and profit for the grower. This work begins by building a solid foundation in the subject, which contains historical aspects and fundamental concepts, and provides a methodology for extraction, purification, and quantification of plant growth substances. This forms the basis for understanding the ensuing chapters that explore the many processes involving plant growth substances, including: * seed germination * seedling growth * rooting * dormancy * juvenility * maturity * senescence * flowering * abscission * fruit set * fruit growth * fruit development * premature drop * ripening * promotion of fruit drop * tuberization * photsynthesis * weed control. Providing a detailed examination of plant growth substances and their relationships to specific physiological plant processes, Plant Growth Substances gives students, researchers, and professionals a much needed reference.

During recent years, research has greatly expanded our understanding of the sophisticated molecular network of responses which enable plants to develop, survive and propagate under a wide range of conditions. In Plant Signal Transduction: Methods and Protocols, an international panel of experts provide well-established methods vital to analyzing plant signal transduction on the molecular level. Featuring experimental procedures on several of the most popular model organisms, the volume focuses on in planta analyses and the proteins involved in signal transduction in order to aid with the establishment of laboratory techniques or the modification of the protocols for other plants. As part of the highly successful Methods in Molecular BiologyTM series, the chapters include brief introductions to the subject, lists of necessary materials, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on trouble-shooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Comprehensive and cutting-edge, Plant Signal Transduction: Methods and Protocols will benefit plant scientists wishing to improve their experimental approaches and delve further into this exciting and important field of study

This is the first of the set of three volumes in the Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, New Series, that will cover the area of the hormonal regulation of plant growth and development. The overall plan for the set assumes that this area of plant physiology is sufficiently mature for a review of current knowledge to be organized in terms of unifying principles and processes. Reviews in the past have generally treated each class of hormone individually, but this set of volumes is subdivided according to the properties common to all classes. Such an organization permits the examination of the hypothesis that differing classes of hormones, acting according to common principles, are determinants of processes and phases in plant development. Also in keeping with this theme, a plant hormone is defined as a compound with the properties held in common by the native members of the recognized classes of hormone. Current knowledge of the hormonal regulation of plant development is grouped so that the three volumes consider advancing levels of organizational complexity, viz: molecular and subcellular; cells, tissues, organs, and the plant as an organized whole; and the plant in relation to its environment. The present volume treats the molecular and subcellular aspects of hormones and the processes they regulate. Although it deals with chemically distinct classes of hormone, this volume stresses properties and modes of studying them, that are common to all classes.