Introduction
Multiple biotic and abiotic environmental factors may constitute
stresses that affect plant growth and yield in crop species. Advances
in plant physiology, genetics, and molecular biology have greatly
improved our understanding of plant responses to stresses. This
book details on technologies that have emerged during the past decade
and have been useful in studying the multigenicity of the plant
abiotic stress response. Upstream molecular mechanisms are involved
in the plant response to abiotic stress, above all in the regulation
of timings and amount of specific stress responses. Post-transcriptional
mechanisms based on alternative splicing and RNA processing, as
well as RNA silencing define the actual transcriptome supporting
the stress response. Beyond protein phosphorylation, other post-translational
modifications like ubiquitination and sumoylation regulate the activation
of pre-existing molecules to ensure a prompt response to stress
factors.
The text in this book deals with the importance of -omics
approaches like Genomics, Metabolomics and Proteomics in abiotic
stress tolerance. Large scale analytical approaches provide detailed
information about the structure and complexity of signaling networks,
identify subsets of genes or activities that are correlated to given
stress factors and reveal unexpected or previously uncharacterized
biochemical interactions.
To the best of our knowledge no book on -Omics studies in relation
to Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance is available in the market. This
book should therefore be a valuable asset for the readers.
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