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TEXBOT 4: Long-Distance Signalling

The fourth in our series 'Treatise in Experimental Botany' (TEXBOT4) draws together seven short review articles dealing with Long-Distance Signalling in Plants. All were recently published in the Journal of Experimental Botany (JXB) and are reprinted here as a collection which we hope will be of interest to students, teachers, and specialist and non-specialist researchers in the field. (Print copies of the TEXBOTs are available free of charge on application to the JXB office.) TEXBOT4 contains articles which illustrate well the publishing niche occupied by JXB, as many of our papers now make good use of the new technologies to provide increased understanding of the regulation of plant growth and functioning.

All of the papers show the additional levels of understanding that are required if we are to understand how whole plants operate. Co-ordination between activities in different organs is an important component of the plant.s response to environmental stress. If we are to understand this and perhaps eventually manipulate plant behaviour for agricultural gain we will need to exploit new technologies in the context of whole-plant biology. We hope that these papers illustrate both the importance and the sophistication of some of the plant.s long-distance signalling processes.