Plant Responses to Drought Stress

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the multiple strategies that plants have developed to cope with drought, one of the most severe environmental stresses. Experts in the field present 17 chapters, each of which focuses on a basic concept as well as the latest findings.

The following major aspects are covered in the book:

· Morphological and anatomical adaptations

· Physiological responses

· Biochemical and molecular responses

· Ecophysiological responses

· Responses to drought under field conditions

The contributions will serve as an invaluable source of information for researchers and advanced students in the fields of plant sciences, agriculture, ecophysiology, biochemistry and molecular biology.

Drought Stress in Plants: An Overview.- Functional significance of morpho-anatomical traits in adaptive strategies against drought.- Xylem cavitation and embolism in plants living in water-limited ecosystems.- Regulation of root water uptake under drought stress conditions.- The response of photosynthesis to soil water stress.- Water use strategies of plants under drought conditions.- Drought effects on nutrient uptake and assimilation in vegetable crops.- Osmotic adjustment under drought conditions.- Antioxidant defenses against drought.- Understanding and exploiting plant hormone biology to enhance crop production under water scarcity.- Genome-wide transcriptional re-programming under drought stress.- Drought response in forest tree species: from the species to the gene.- Contribution of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis to plant drought tolerance. State of the art.- Future environmental constraints of drought and elevated CO₂ will limit yield in N₂ fixing alfalfa.- Promotion of plant drought tolerance by microbes.- Physiology of the yield under drought: lessons from studies with lupin.- Drought in deciduous fruit trees: implications for yield and fruit quality.