Annual Plant Reviews, Volume 30, Light and Plant Development (PDF)

Living organisms are subject to fluctuating environmental
conditions. Whereas most animals are able to move away from
unfavourable conditions, plants are sessile and so must cope with
whatever comes their way. Of all the environmental cues that
challenge the developing plant, light can probably be considered to
be the most important. In addition to its key role in plant
metabolism, and hence almost all life on Earth, where it drives the
process of photosynthesis, light energy also acts to regulate plant
growth and development. Light quantity, quality, direction and
diurnal and seasonal duration regulate processes from germination,
through seedling establishment to the architecture of the mature
plant and the transition to reproductive development. These
developmental responses of plants to light constitute
photomorphogenesis.

This volume is designed to provide the reader with
state-of-the-art accounts of our current knowledge of the major
classes of higher plant regulatory photoreceptors and the signal
transduction networks that comprise plant developmental
photobiology. Consideration is also given to the ways in which
knowledge of plant photoreceptors and their signalling networks can
be exploited, for instance to improve the quality and productivity
of commercially-grown plants. The book is directed at researchers
and professionals working in plant molecular biology, plant
physiology and plant biochemistry.