Developments in plant molecular biology

Special Section: Plant Molecular Biology

Over the last century, plant biology has made remarkable progress, reflected in its greatly improved journals and textbooks. This article summarizes some historically important developments in the study of plant photoreceptors, especially the redabsorbing phytochromes and blue-absorbing flavoproteins, in phytohormones, in cell and tissue culture and in circadian rhythms. Attention is drawn to t...

Special Section: Plant Molecular Biology

This article provides an overview on recent advances in some of the basic signalling mechanisms that participate in a wide variety of stimulus–response pathways. The mechanisms include calcium-based signalling, G-protein-mediated-signalling and signalling involving inositol phospholipids, with discussion on the role of protein kinases and phosphatases interspersed. As a further defining feature...

Special Section: Plant Molecular Biology

Abiotic stresses elicit complex cellular responses. This complexity made many believe for a long time that tolerance to abiotic stresses cannot be experimentally manipulated. Fortunately, this contention has proven wrong in recent years. Considered once to be an arduous task, genetic engineering for increasing tolerance to abiotic stresses has been achieved to an extent. This change has come du...

Plant Mitochondrial Electron Transfer and Molecular Biology.

Aerobic respiration, a process performed by all plants, involves the controlled oxidation of metabolites containing reduced carbon to produce carbon dioxide and water as the final products (Taiz and Zeiger, 1991). Severa1 types of reduced carbon compounds, including fatty acids, organic acids, and amino acids, can serve as the primary reducing substrates for plant respiration. However, the most...

Recent developments in vascular biology.