During the past decade the biological sciences have experienced a period of unprecedented progress and nowhere is the excitement of this new era more apparent than in the field of plant physiology. Innovations such as the recombinant DNA techniques are providing new tools for understanding now environmental signals and hormones regulate gene expression and development. Special attention has been given to the molecular basis of cell cycle regulation of plant growth and development and plant biotechnology.
Physiology studies the function of an organism, encompassing the dynamic processes of growth, metabolism, reproduction and interaction with other organisms. Modern physiology combines a wide spectrum of techniques such as molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, genetics and biophysics to obtain insights into the functioning of an organism. Understanding the functioning of a plant organism in its native environment at the whole plant level requires information about the integration of processes, which can only be achieved by physiological research.
The multiplicity of Publications which now characterizes every field of scientific activity has made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the individual research worker, teacher, or advanced student to keep abreast, in a systematic manner, of significant developments in a major discipline, particularly in those sectors which lie outside his immediate field of specialization.
The availability of the full genome sequences of different organisms including plants, in combination with novel technologies from the areas of genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, provides an enormous resource. The contents of the book will be highly informative to teachers, researchers and students alive. |
