Understanding plant responses and adaptations to severe desiccation is key to applying desiccation tolerance research to the improvement of economically important crops. This title brings together a field of international researchers to provide a review of the advances in this field.

"Plant Desiccation Tolerance" will be an indispensable source of information for plant biologists, crop science researchers and professionals.

Section 1. Vegetative Desiccation Tolerance.1. Plant desiccation tolerance: diversity, distribution, and real-world applications - Andrew J. Wood and Matthew A. Jenks.2. Lessons on dehydration tolerance from desiccation tolerant plants - Melvin Oliver.3. Mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in Angiosperm resurrection plants - Jill M. Farrant.4. Desiccation tolerance in lichens - Richard P. Beckett and Farida V. Minibayeva.5. Desiccation tolerance: gene expression, pathways and regulation of gene expression - Dorothea Bartels, Jonathon Phillips, and John Chandler.Section 2. Desiccation Tolerance of Pollen, Spores and Seeds.6. Seed desiccation-tolerance mechanisms - Patricia Berjak, Jill M. Farrant, and Norman W. Pammenter.7. The glassy state in dry seeds and pollen - Olivier Leprince and Julia Buitink.8. DNA structure and seed desiccation tolerance - Ivan Broubriak, Shirley McCready, and Daphne J. Osborne.9. Structural dynamics and desiccation damage in plant reproductive organs - Christina Walters and Karen L. Koster.Section 3. Applications of Desiccation Tolerance Research.10. Desiccation tolerance genes and avenues for crop improvement - Revel Iyer, Sagadevan G. Mundree, Mohamed Suhail Rafudeen, and Jennifer Ann Thompson