Reviews the latest research in a wide range of plant abiotic stress responses including drought, flooding, temperature and salinity.

In 10 chapters, biologists and other scientists from the US, Asia, Saudi Arabia, and Australia explore the inanimate components of the environment associated with climatic, edaphic, and physiographic factors that limit plant growth and survival, specifically plant abiotic stresses caused by flooding, drought, salinity, non-optimal temperatures, and poor soil nutrition, as well as stresses that originate from climate change and its potential impacts on crop production. They emphasize the cellular aspects of plant response whose expression is common across diverse environments. Topics include the stomatal regulation of plant water status, drought tolerance mechanisms and their molecular basis, the rice SUB1A transcription factor, root-associated stress response networks, genes and salinity tolerance, molecular and physiological mechanisms of plant tolerance to toxic metals, genomics, and quantitative trait loci and association mapping. This edition has been updated to reflect research advances in whole genome analysis, and it has a new chapter on the impacts of epigenetics on abiotic stress analysis. Annotation 2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)