Stefano Mancuso – författare

This second edition of a well-received book focuses on rhythmic behaviour in plants, which regulates all developmental and adaptive responses and can thus be regarded as quintessential to life itself. The chapters provide a timely update on recent advances in this field and comprehensively summarize the current state of knowledge concerning the molecular and physiological mechanisms behind circadian and ultradian oscillations in plants, their physiological implications for growth and development and adaptive responses to a dynamic environment. Written by a diverse group of leading researchers, the book will spark the interest of readers from many branches of science: from physicists and chemists wishing to learn about the multi-faceted rhythms in plants, to biologists and ecologists involved in the state-of-the-art modelling of complex rhythmic phenomena.

Plant neurobiology is a newly emerging field of plant sciences. It covers signalling and communication at all levels of biological organization – from molecules up to ecological communities. In this book, plants are presented as intelligent and social organisms with complex forms of communication and information processing.

Authors from diverse backgrounds such as molecular and cellular biology, electrophysiology, as well as ecology treat the most important aspects of plant communication, including the plant immune system, abilities of plants to recognize self, signal transduction, receptors, plant neurotransmitters and plant neurophysiology. Further, plants are able to recognize the identity of herbivores and organize the defence responses accordingly. The similarities in animal and plant neuronal/immune systems are discussed too. All these hidden aspects of plant life and behaviour will stimulate further intense investigations in order to understand the communicative plants in their whole complexity.

Rhythmic behaviour is quintessential to life itself. Advances in plant molecular biology, micro/nanotechnology and applied mathematics provide new tools for understanding how environmental signals and internal clocks regulate rhythmic gene expression and development, and how these signals are translated into physiological responses at various levels of structural organisation.

This book reviews recent progress in assessing underlying mechanisms controlling plant circadian and ultradian oscillations, and their physiological implications for growth, development, and adaptive responses to the environment. It focuses on mechanisms and theoretical concepts at the level of the cell to the entire plant. Written by a diverse group of leading researchers, it will surely spark the interest of readers from many branches of science: from physicists and chemists wishing to learn about multi-faceted rhythms in plant biology, to biologists dealing with state-of-the-art modelling of such rhythmic phenomena.