Annals of Botany 2005 95(5):887-888; doi:10.1093/aob/mci095
© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions{at}oupjournals.org
Abiotic stresses in plants.
Sanità di Toppi L, Pawlik-Skowro
ska B, eds. 2003. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. £67 (hardback). 233 pp
David W. Lawlor
Abiotic stress has a very high
profile in the plant sciences at the moment. The problem of
feeding many more people (perhaps 4 to even 6 billion by the
end of the century) may have a potential solution in the form
of molecular biological manipulation. This, it is frequently
claimed, will give plants able to produce large amounts of biomass
and edible material with minimal resources under what are, currently,
very adverse conditions. Well, is it true? I looked to this
book to find out more about abiotic stresses in relation to
molecular biology and other aspects of plant growth and production.
On offer, under the guidance of two editors, are eight review
chapters, each by multiple authors addressing particular stresses.
The approach is strongly molecular biological but with the aim
of considerable integration with physiology. Individual chapters
differ rather in structure, aims and detail. Chapter 1 (22 pp,
134 references) ‘Plant tolerance to heat stress: current
strategies and new emergent insights’, deals with heat
sensors at the membrane level, heat shock proteins, compatible
solutes, and active oxygen detoxifying systems, with a short
general overview and summary. Chapter 2 (28 pp, 187 references)
discusses ‘Chilling and freezing stresses in plants: cellular
responses and molecular strategies for adaptation’ and
analyses signal transduction pathways, the
CBF/DREB1 regulatory
pathway, the role of ABA,
LEA proteins and osmolytes. Chapter
3 (16 pp, 112 references), "Salt tolerance: placing advances
in molecular genetics into a physiological and agronomic context",
ranges from osmolyte production, through ion homeostasis, ROS
scavenging, salt and water transport to the role of aquaporins
(it also has ‘Conclusive remarks’ which may be a
conclusion but are not at all conclusive!). The fourth chapter
‘Unravelling the genetic basis of drought tolerance in
crops’ (51 pp, 339 references) takes almost a ‘crop-down’
approach with major sections on yield components, separate sections
on physiological and on molecular mechanisms conferring tolerance
to drought, then molecular approaches for dissecting the molecular
basis of drought tolerance–including QTL analysis, identification
of candidate genes for drought-related traits and an assessment
of the potential of genetic engineering. Chapter 5 (8 pp, 50
references), ‘Anoxia: the role of carbohydrates in cereal
germination’, deals briefly with some aspects of enzymology
and gene expression. Chapter 6 (23 pp, 220 references), ‘Response
to heavy metals in plants: a molecular approach’ considers
phytochelatins and gene expression, regulation by metal ions,
and non-protein chelators: it focuses substantially on algae.
Chapter 7 (47 pp, 389 references), ‘Plant responses to
elevated carbon dioxide’, deals with methodology, grassland
systems (particularly and separately lichens and mosses), trees
and forests, horticultural plant responses, effects on soils
and ‘Ipogeous’ growth (page 186), with very wide
ranging, mainly physiological analyses. Finally, chapter 8 (24
pp, 97 references) treats ‘Ozone: a novel plant "pathogen"’
(sic) by considering ozone in the environment, its effects on
plants, and the occurrence of varieties of species sensitive
to it. Mechanisms of protection against ozone are also analysed.
The book is a review of primary science literature and its contents speak volumes: it has no particular focus in its rather limited space; generally lacks in-depth, structured analysis; repeats many reviews and papers uncritically; figures are few and not particularly enlightening. Chapter 4 is the exception and I recommend it, but chapter 7 shows all the worst features and cannot be recommended, given the substantial review literature already available. There is great detail in most chapters with many references listed: this could be useful but the titles are not given so it is difficult to see their relevance. One problem is that much is just listing—with inadequate analysis. The book is only of use to researchers, and just possibly teachers interested in the science—others would have to wade through too much to glean information. More experienced readers will, I am sure, find useful parts, as I did, but the good bits were more than offset by my irritation at the lack of concepts. A neophyte researcher in the subject would be helped to get literature, but I am sure that such a tender plant would soon suffer multiple-stresses associated with uncontrolled information overload lacking structure. Incidentally, I suspect a neophyte would not know from the book that the environment per se does not constitute ‘abiotic stress’—external conditions are neutral. It is the ability of plant mechanisms to operate in an environment that determines whether the conditions are ‘stressful’.
The text is not well checked or proofread—many distinctly odd, non-English words and structures occur: what is "instauration" in relation to membrane lipids (abstract of chapter 1, and elsewhere)? Some things amused me – (page 63) ‘The increased availability of mutants with altered responses to salinity in arabidopsis and other agriculturally important species is generating ...’ strengthens my suspicion that molecular biologists do take their model species too seriously. Editorial control was not strong, one suspects. My hopes for an objective assessment of where molecular biology has got towards its promise of rapid and vast improvements in agricultural crops were largely not fulfilled, again with the honourable exception of chapter 4.
This book will possibly be useful to libraries serving specialist research groups: at the price, and given what is already available, wider readership is unlikely.
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