Asymmetry in Plants

Plants exhibit forms of asymmetry analogous to "handedness" in bilaterally symmetrical animals. This book explores the evolutionary significance and development of asymmetry including the direction of tendril growth or stem coiling found in many climbing plants, spiral phyllotaxy and floral taxy, and contorted petal arrangement.

---

Plants exhibit forms of asymmetry analogous to "handedness" in bilaterally symmetrical animals. This book explores the evolutionary significance and development of asymmetry. Examples of genetic control include the direction of tendril or stem coiling of many climbing plants; the so-called spiral phyllotaxy and floral taxy; and contorted petal arrangement is another kind of left- right symmetry in plants; the direction of contortion is fixed in some but not in other plants. The book will underscore tha all phenomena related to handedness start during embryogenesis itself, with the occurrence of embryo rotation.



Key selling features:








First consolidated book on Plant Handedness



Relates handedness, asymmetry and chirality to the evolution of different organizational levels in plant biology



Emphasizes handedness as a vital governing force in plant functional evolution



Provides a new perspective, hitherto ignored, into plant developemtn and evolution



Describes how an age-old phenomenon can give scope for investigation from a very modern interdisciplinary approach