"Frontmatter". In: Plant Genomics and Proteomics

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7
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N T E R A C T I O N S W I T H T H E
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VERVIEW
In nature, plants encounter a wide range of environmental conditions from
which they cannot escape. Therefore, they have a number of mechanisms
with which to counter these slings and arrows of outrageous environment.
The responses must be available at all stages of development. The stresses
can be biotic in the form of pests and diseases or abiotic, with extremes of
temperature or moisture being particularly common. As well as being an
interesting topic in itself, understanding how sessile organisms can cope
with a fluctuating environment has a practical importance in agriculture. Salt
stress is a problem in many parts of the world, especially on irrigated land.
Drought stress is a perennial problem, especially in those parts of the world
where food security is in the balance. Pests and diseases are major factors of
reduced yield and the need for chemical spraying resulting in environmen-
tal pollution. Therefore, an understanding of the processes by which plants
have adapted to overcome these limitations, and the detailed characteriza-
tion of the pathways involved, may enlighten the search for durable disease-
and stress-tolerant plants in agriculture.
Studies on stress-related responses must include a whole range of con-
siderations from plant morphology through to gene expression to draw
meaningful conclusions about the root causes of adaptations. They will need
to be performed in species in which the molecular, physiological, and meta-
bolic data are integrated with phenotypic descriptions. This will allow for
the creation of integrated models that can describe how individual genes and
metabolites work together in a coordinated response to various stresses. 
Plant Genomics and Proteomics, by Christopher A. Cullis
ISBN 0-471-37314-1 Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
1 3 1

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The availability of microarrays has changed the way in which gene
expression in response to various stresses can be assayed. The unraveling of
the complex interactions between plants and microbes will be made easier
with the addition of the information from microbial genomics. The relative
contributions of host and pathogen in determining whether or not an inter-
action will result in disease or elicit a resistance response are starting to be
identified. The addition of proteomics allows the correlation of the expres-
sion data at the functional level and also permits the importance of post-
translational modifications of proteins in any responses to be identified. All
of this new information must be integrated to understand both the common
and unique responses in the wide variety of interactions between the plant
and its environment.
The interactions of plants with their environment is an extensive and
complex subject that cannot be covered in detail here. An inspection of the
projects funded through the Plant Genome Research Program at the National
Science Foundation (http://plantgenome.sdsc.edu/) and the USDA Coop-
erative State Research Education and Extension Service (CSREES) program
gives a good indication of the scope of the subject. Provided here is a glimpse
of how genomics and proteomics are impacting this area of study.