Understanding the responses of plant tissues to stress and the potential for manipulating these responses is of key importance to plant scientists, especially those involved in crop production and storage of fresh produce. This is particularly important in a world responding to the challenges of climate change. As the editor states in the Preface, recent advances in biochemical and molecular techniques mean that we can now start to understand responses to stress in terms of specific genes. This book seeks to provide an update on the recent progress in knowledge on aspects of plant perception, signalling and adaptation to a wide rate of stresses, including drought, salinity, heat and cold soil pH extremes.

The book is arranged in a very clear and accessible format; with descriptive abstracts and clear sub-titles in each chapter. Within each topic the principles and current models are well explained and are illustrated very effectively by diagrams throughout. Up-to-date review of the literature has been provided. Although it is inevitable that a book of this type will start to go ‘out-of-date’ within a few years, due to the clarity of presentation it will be a very valuable resource for scientists and tertiary scientists for many years to come.