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Desiccation Tolerance in Vegetative Plant Tissues and Seeds: Protein Synthesis in Relation to Desiccation and a Potential Role for Protection and Repair Mechanisms

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Water and Life

Abstract

While many vascular plants produce specialized structures that are able to withstand desiccation (e.g., seeds, spores, or pollen), few can survive severe water loss in the vegetative state. The vast majority of desiccation-tolerant plants belong to the lower groups of the plant kingdom: algae, lichens, and bryophytes. They are poikilohydric in nature and exhibit a rapid equilibration of their internal water content with the water potential of the environment. A few ferns, and even fewer angiosperms are tolerant of desiccation (Davis 1972; Gaff 1980; Bewley and Krochko 1982); they exhibit modified poikilohydry, however, since most have features (e.g., stomatal complexes) that permit them to reduce their rate of water loss.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, NIG 2 WI, Canada

    J. D. Bewley

  2. USDA/ARS Cropping System Lab, Route 3, Box 215, Lubbock, TX, 94401, USA

    M. J. Oliver

Authors
  1. J. D. Bewley
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  2. M. J. Oliver
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, 97331-2914, Corvallis, OR, USA

    George Nicholls Somero

  2. Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Box 475, 2601, Canberra, Australia

    Charles Barry Osmond

  3. Laboratory of Comparative Biology, University of Milan, Via Balzaretti 9, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Carla Liana Bolis

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Bewley, J.D., Oliver, M.J. (1992). Desiccation Tolerance in Vegetative Plant Tissues and Seeds: Protein Synthesis in Relation to Desiccation and a Potential Role for Protection and Repair Mechanisms. In: Somero, G.N., Osmond, C.B., Bolis, C.L. (eds) Water and Life. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76682-4_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76682-4_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-76684-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-76682-4

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