Machine generated contents note: Contributors -- Preface -- PART I. INTRODUCTION -- 1 Drying Without Dying -- Peter Alpert and Melvin J. Oliver -- PART II. METHODOLOGY -- 2 Methods for the Study of Water Relations Under Desiccation Stress -- Wendell Q. Sun -- 3 Experimental Aspects of Drying and Recovery -- Norman W. Pammenter, Patricia Berjak, James Wesley-Smith and -- Clare Vander Willigen -- 4 Biochemical and Biophysical Methods for Quantifying Desiccation Phenomena in Seeds and Vegetative Tissues -- Olivier Leprince and Elena A. Golovina -- PART III. BIOLOGY OF DEHYDRATION -- 5 Desiccation Sensitivity in Orthodox and Recalcitrant Seeds in Relation to Development -- Allison R. Kermode and Bill E. Finch-Savage -- 6 Pollen and Spores: Desiccation Tolerance in Pollen and the Spores of Lower Plants and Fungi -- Folkert A. Hoekstra -- 7 Vegetative Tissues: Bryophytes, Vascular Resurrection Plants and Vegetative Propagules -- Michael C.F. Proctor and Valerie C. Pence -- 8 Systematic and Evolutionary Aspects of Desiccation Tolerance in Seeds -- John B. Dickie and Hugh W. Pritchard -- PART IV. MECHANISMS OF DAMAGE AND TOLERANCE -- 9 Desiccation Stress and Damage -- Christina Walters, Jill M. Farrant, Norman W. Pammenter and Patricia Berjak -- 10 Biochemistry and Biophysics of Tolerance Systems -- Julia Buitink, Folkert A. Hoekstra and Olivier Leprince -- 11 Molecular Genetics of Desiccation and Tolerant Systems -- Jonathan R. Phillips, Melvin J. Oliver and Dorothea Bartels -- 12 Rehydration of Dried Systems: Membranes and the Nuclear Genome -- Daphne J. Osborne, Ivan Boubriak and Olivier Leprince -- PART V. RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT -- 13 Damage and Tolerance in Retrospect and Prospect -- Michael Black, Ralph L. Obendorf and Hugh W. Pritchard -- Glossary -- Taxonomic Index -- Subject Index.