Photomorphogenesis In Plants And Bacteria: Function And Signal Transduction Mechanisms

Plants as sessile organisms have evolved fascinating capacities to adapt to changes in their natural environment. Arguably, light is by far the most important and variable environmental factor. The quality, quantity, direction and duration of light is monitored by a series of photoreceptors covering spectral information from UVB to near infrared. The response of the plants to light is called photomorphogenesis and it is regulated by the concerted action of photoreceptors. The combined techniques of action spectroscopy and biochemistry allowed one of the important photoreceptors – phytochrome – to be identified in the middle of the last century. An enormous number of physiological studies published in the last century describe the properties of phytochrome and its function and also the physiology of blue and UV-B photoreceptors, unidentified at the time. This knowledge was summarized in the advanced textbook “Photomorphogenesis in Plants” (Kendrick and Kronenberg, eds., 1986, 1994). With the advent of molecular biology, genetics and new molecular, cellular techniques, our knowledge in the field of photomorphogenesis has dramatically increased over the last 15 years.

From the reviews:
"The book is of the highest scientific standard and can be recommended to all researchers in plant photobiology as well as to graduate and postgraduate students."
(Biologia Plantarum 36:4, 1994)

"The editors present a book that has long been awaited. ... This book on ‘Photomorphogenesis in Plants and Bacteria’ is highly recommended ... . It collects contribution from outstanding scientists in this research field. ... The overall presentation of the book is acceptable and most of the figures are reproduced with sufficient quality." (Wolfgang Gärtner, Journal of Plant Physiology, Vol. 165 (3), 2008)