How Plants Communicate with their Biotic Environment (eBook)

How Plants Communicate with Their Biotic Environment addresses how plants perceive the presence of organisms (other plants, microbes, insects and nematodes) living in their proximity, how they manage to be attractive when these organisms are friendly, and how they defend themselves from foes. Specific chapters delve into ecology and defense mechanisms, allelopathy and the role of allelochemicals in plant defense, plant signaling, and plant communication with microbes and animals, including herbivores. In addition, the book presents discussions on communication and its role in plant pollination. This comprehensive resource presents tactics that can be taken from the lab, to the bench, to the forest. - Gathers, under a common general outline, a comprehensive knowledge issued from distinct scientific communities - Combines three life science disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology, and molecular biology - Addresses a topical subject as the natural biological processes described represent basic knowledge that help develop low input sustainable agriculture - Written by renowned scientists in their field

After studying in Paris, Guillaume B‚card got his PhD at Laval University (Canada) and did a four-year post-doc in a USDA laboratory in Philadelphia (USA). He was then recruited by the University of Toulouse (France) in 1993 as a biology professor. He is studying an ancient and widespread plant symbiosis that occurs between plant roots and certain soil fungi called arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. This symbiosis enhances mineral and water nutrition of plants and their resistance to environmental stress. With his research team he has contributed in recent years to the discover of the molecular signals and ancestral mechanisms involved in the recognition between the plant and the fungus. He is also involved through industrial collaboration in the promotion of the agronomic use of mycorrhizae to reduce requirements of irrigation, chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

---

How Plants Communicate with Their Biotic Environment addresses how plants perceive the presence of organisms (other plants, microbes, insects and nematodes) living in their proximity, how they manage to be attractive when these organisms are friendly, and how they defend themselves from foes. Specific chapters delve into ecology and defense mechanisms, allelopathy and the role of allelochemicals in plant defense, plant signaling, and plant communication with microbes and animals, including herbivores. In addition, the book presents discussions on communication and its role in plant pollination. This comprehensive resource presents tactics that can be taken from the lab, to the bench, to the forest. - Gathers, under a common general outline, a comprehensive knowledge issued from distinct scientific communities- Combines three life science disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology, and molecular biology- Addresses a topical subject as the natural biological processes described represent basic knowledge that help develop low input sustainable agriculture- Written by renowned scientists in their field