Cold stress is one of the prevalent environmental stresses affecting crop productivity
particularly in temperate regions. Numerous plant types of tropical or subtropical origin are
injured or killed by non-freezing low temperature and display a range of symptoms of chilling
injury such as chlorosis necrosis or growth retardation. In contrast chilling tolerant
species thrive well at such temperatures. To thrive under cold stress conditions plants have
evolved complex mechanisms to identify peripheral signals that allow them to counter varying
environmental conditions. These mechanisms include stress perception signal transduction
transcriptional activation of stress-responsive target genes and synthesis of stress-related
proteins and other molecules which help plants to strive through adverse environmental
conditions. Conventional breeding methods have met with limited success in improving the cold
tolerance of important crop plants through inter-specific or inter-generic hybridization. A
better understanding of physiological biochemical and molecular responses and tolerance
mechanisms and discovery of novel stress-responsive pathways and genes may contribute to
efficient engineering strategies that enhance cold stress tolerance. It is therefore imperative
to accelerate the efforts to unravel the biochemical physiological and molecular mechanisms
underlying cold stress tolerance in plants.Through this new book we intend to integrate the
contributions from plant scientists targeting cold stress tolerance mechanisms using
physiological biochemical molecular structural and systems biology approaches. It is hoped
that this collection will serve as a reference source for those who are interested in or are
actively engaged in cold stress research.
