Book Review 15
Review
Title: Plant Cold Hardiness: From the Laboratory to the Field
Author(s):
Editor(s): Lawrence V. Gusta, Michael E. Wisniewski, and Karen K. Tanino
Publisher: CABI
ISBN 13: 9781845935139
Published: 2009
Pages: 317
Cost: $145.75
Rating (1-5): 4
Submitted By: Noaman, Maher Mohammed
Date posted: January 28, 2010
The book is a excellent for researchers and students alike.
Plant Cold Hardiness: From the Laboratory to the Field is more of a proceedings than a book. It is a collection of invited and volunteered research papers on plant cold hardiness that were presented at the eighth International Plant Cold Hardiness Seminar (8IPCHS) hosted by the University of Saskatchewan, SK, Canada from 3 to 9 Aug. 2007. One hundred and five attendees representing 22 countries were present in this conference. The theme of the conference was "From the Laboratory to the Field." The compilation of the chapters in the book corresponds to many of the topics that were presented during the conference. About 90 research papers were presented during the course of the conference. The book integrates the most advanced basic and applied research on plant cold hardiness. The audience and speakers of the conference included molecular biologists, plant physiologists, plant breeders, plant ecologists, microbiologists, agronomists, administrators, policymakers, and representatives of multinational companies.
The conference provided a better understanding of plant stresses under field conditions compared to those plants tested and/or evaluated in a greenhouse, laboratory, or growth chamber. It also helped researchers to be aware of new technologies to study freezing mechanism(s) and physiology in plants.
The book is divided into eight parts; Part 1 focuses on freezing progress that included researches on freezing behavior, low-temperature damage and ice nucleation, and other physiological effects of cooling on plant’s functions.
The second and fourth parts delineate molecular basis for the acquisition of freezing tolerance. It included research on plant cold-shock proteins, cold responsive genes, plasma membrane, and plant freezing tolerance.
The third part focuses on the linkage between developmental arrest and cold hardiness, while the fifth part spotlights on the impact of global climate change on plants, which included evolution studies on plant cold hardiness. The sixth part talks about bridging the gap between lab work and field experimentation results. Part 7 and 8 focus on photosynthesis and signaling and cold hardiness in forest trees.
This book, Plant Cold Hardiness: From the Laboratory to the Field, illustrates the perception of cold hardiness and its causes and mechanisms. Generally, the book is an excellent reference for those who work in academia and research, and can be utilized by graduate students as a valuable textbook.