Plant-Environment Interactions: From Sensory Plant Biology to Active Plant Behavior

✍ Scribed by Anna Kasprowicz, Daniel Kierzkowski (auth.), Franti¿ek Balu¿ka (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 313
• Series: Signaling and Communication in Plants
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Our image of plants is changing dramatically away from passive entities merely subject to environmental forces and organisms that are designed solely for the accumulation of photosynthate. Plants are revealing themselves to be dynamic and highly sensitive organisms that actively and competitively forage for limited resources, both above and below ground, organisms that accurately gauge their circumstances, use sophisticated cost-benefit analysis, and take clear actions to mitigate and control diverse environmental threats. Moreover, plants are also capable of complex recognition of self and non-self and are territorial in behavior. They are as sophisticated in behavior as animals but their potential has been masked because it operates on time scales many orders of magnitude less than those of animals. Plants are sessile organisms. As such, the only alternative to a rapidly changing environment is rapid adaptation. This book will focus on all these new and exciting aspects of plant biology.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-x
Mechanical Integration of Plant Cells....Pages 1-20
Root Behavior in Response to Aluminum Toxicity....Pages 21-43
Communication and Signaling in the Plant–Fungus Symbiosis: The Mycorrhiza....Pages 45-71
Role of g -Aminobutyrate and g -Hydroxybutyrate in Plant Communication....Pages 73-84
Hemiparasitic Plants: Exploiting Their Host’s Inherent Nature to Talk....Pages 85-100
Host Location and Selection by Holoparasitic Plants....Pages 101-118
Plant Innate Immunity....Pages 119-136
Airborne Induction and Priming of Defenses....Pages 137-152
Chemical Signaling During Induced Leaf Movements....Pages 153-166
Aposematic (Warning) Coloration in Plants....Pages 167-202
Deceptive Behavior in Plants. I. Pollination by Sexual Deception in Orchids: A Host–Parasite Perspective....Pages 203-222
Deceptive Behavior in Plants. II. Food Deception by Plants: From Generalized Systems to Specialized Floral Mimicry....Pages 223-246
Cognition in Plants....Pages 247-266
Memorization of Abiotic Stimuli in Plants: A Complex Role for Calcium....Pages 267-283
Plants and Animals: Convergent Evolution in Action?....Pages 285-301
Back Matter....Pages 303-308

✦ Subjects

Plant Sciences; Plant Ecology; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Physiology; Ecology; Biochemistry, general