Book dossier

Drought Tolerance in Higher Plants

by E. Belhassen

Understanding how plants tolerate drought, with the objective of plant breeding, is a difficult challenge. Before considering the variability of drought and adaptation strategies, interdisciplinary approaches are necessary to identify mechanisms acting from the molecule to the species level leading to drought adaptation. Coordinating results obtained at different levels of perception into a comprehensive analysis allows the identification of the emergent properties of drought tolerance. In this book which is especially targeted at post-graduate students, teachers and scientists, 11 reviews present the state of the art on this subject. After defining drought and tolerance in the wild and in crops, responses and adaptations to drought are analysed at different levels of organisation (molecule, cell, organ and whole plant). The strategies and difficulties of drought tolerance breeding are described and the possibilities of improvement using new tools are proposed. This book is the first compilation of Genetics (and Plant Breeding), Physiology and Molecular Biology reviews and recent developments on drought tolerance in higher plants. Resulting from the INTERDROUGHT 1995 meeting Montpellier (France), its objectives are to promote communication between researchers in different fields, and to facilitate integration of the understanding of drought tolerance.