Plants are able to respond and adapt to changing environmental and endogenous signals by the induction of the synthesis of specific proteins, acting to modify cellular metabolism. Environmental signals include temperature, anaerobiosis and pathogen attack amongst others, whilst endogenous signals include changes in the level of plant growth regulators. In this 1992 text, leading researchers discuss the role that inducible proteins play in cellular metabolism, and the approaches being used to delineate the molecular events leading to their synthesis. Chapters discuss molecular approaches to the study of gene expression, the identification and characterisation of trans-acting transcription factors and attempts to dissect other parts of the signal transduction pathway by the search for pathway mutants. This review volume will be of great value and interest to final year undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in the fields of plant biochemistry and molecular biology.

"...can serve as a guide to graduate students, to researchers and to teachers of advanced courses in plant biology." Moshe Reuveni, Plant Science Bulletin

"Graduate students and researchers in plant physiology and biochemistry will find this work a useful summary and a framework for appreciating the basis of current studies attempting to correlate changes ranging from gene expression, as affected by specific external and internal environmental factors, to the biochemistry and molecular biology of the adaptation of plants as they grow in hostile environments." The Quarterly Review of Biology