Photomovement

This volume emphasizes the involvement of all facets of biology in the analysis of environmentally controlled movement responses. This includes biophysics, biochemistry, molecular biology and as an integral part of any approach to a closer understanding, physiology. The initial euphoria about molecular biology as the final solution for any problem has dwindled and the field agrees now that only the combined efforts of all facets of biology will at some day answer the question posed more than hundred years ago: "How can plants see?". One conclusion can be drawn from the current knowledge as summarized in this volume. The answer will most likely not be the same for all systems.

Photomovement: past and future. Triggering of photomovement - molecular basis. Action spectroscopy of photomovement. Light responses in purple photosynthetic bacteria. Color-sensitive vision by halobacteria. Photoactive yellow protein, a pPhotoreceptor from purple bacteria. Light reception and signal modulation during photoorietation of flagellate green algae. Algal eyes and their rhodopsin photoreceptors. Electrical events in photomovement of green flagellated algae. Rhodopsin-like-proteins:light detection pigments in leptolyngbya, euglena, ochromonas, pelvetia. Phototaxis of Euglena gracilis - flavins and pterins. Yellow-light sensing phototaxis in cryptomonad algae. Photo-stimulation effects on diatom motility. Photomovement of microorganisms in benthic and soil microenviroments. Phytochrome as an algal photoreceptor. Keeping in tune with time: entrainment of circadian rhythms. Photomovement in ciliates. Electrophysiology and light responses in stentor and blepharisma. Genetic analysis of phototaxis in dictyostelium. Photomovement and photomorphogenesis in physarum polycephalum: targeting of cytoskeleton and gene expression by light. Genetics of phycomyces and its responses to light. Phototropism in phycomyces. Phototropism in higher plants. Role of the microtubular cytoskeleton in coleoptile phototropism. Solar navigation by plants. Light-controlled chloroplast movement.