Plant Systems Biology
As a fairly new and expansive area of study, plant systems biology has been approached by scientists from fields as varied as plant physiology and astrophysics, creating a wide variety of techniques and methods to further this vital research. In Plant Sys
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M O L E C U L A R B I O L O G Y TM
Series Editor John M. Walker School of Life Sciences University of Hertfordshire Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB, UK
For other titles published in this series, go to www.springer.com/series/7651
Plant Systems Biology
Edited by
Dr. Dmitry A. Belostotsky School of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO, USA
Editor Dmitry A. Belostotsky School of Biological Sciences University of Missouri Kansas City, MO 64110 USA [email protected]
ISSN 1064-3745 e-ISSN 1940-6029 ISBN 978-1-60327-562-0 e-ISBN 978-1-60327-563-7 DOI 10.1007/978-1-60327-563-7 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009921811 # Humana Press, a part of Springer ScienceþBusiness Media, LLC 2009 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Humana Press, c/o Springer ScienceþBusiness Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer ScienceþBusiness Media (www.springer.com)
Dedicated in memory of Dmitry Belostotsky, who passed away just before the publication of the volume. Special thanks are extended to Julia Chekanova for her gracious help during the book’s final weeks.
Foreword Systems biology has been called many things by many people. Rather than making another attempt at an all-encompassing definition, it may be better to take an historical perspective. Back at the dawn of time there was molecular biology, whose goal was to identify individual genes. With a gene in hand, one then searched upstream and downstream for other genes that acted on it or that it targeted. This led to the description of linear pathways with little arrows between each of the genes. Then came genomics with its high-throughput technologies to determine the expression of all genes, proteins, metabolites, etc. The output was usually a long list of cellular components ordered by expression level or some other metric. These were parsed for meaning based on where something was found on the list. What systems biology has brought that is new and different is an emphasis on finding the connections among the parts. From these connections, the hope is that new properties will be identified that were not apparent from just staring at the list of parts. These are called ‘‘emergent properties.’’ But systems biology does not stop there. After the connections are found and networks begin to emerge, the next step is to chara
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