Ferns, collectively, represent an ancient species of vascular plant which has a direct connection to the beginning of life on Earth. Today they are valued for their ornamental appeal, environmental benefit or as sources of health benefiting metabolites. Current pteridology, the study of fern, encompasses a wide range of research activities including, but not limited to, plant physiology, stress tolerance, genetics and genomics.
The goal of this book is to compile the most relevant research done with ferns during the last decade. It is organized into four parts: I, Biology and Biotechnology; II, Evolution and Conservation; III, Metabolism and Genetic Resources, and IV, Environment. Each section reveals the utilization of ferns as a tool to explore challenges unique to plant development and adaptation.
This project represents our collective effort to raise the awareness of ferns as a model system to study higher plant functions. Among the distinctive features of our proposed book are: (i) a wide range of topics with contributing researchers from all around the world, and (ii) recent advances of theoretic and applied knowledge with implications to crop species of economic value.

Part I - The fern's gametophyte: born to reproducing

<i>Azolla - </i>a model system for symbiotic nitrogen fixation and evolutionary developmental biology
Meristems of seedless vascular plants-the state-of art
Biotechnology in clone gametophytes: future perspectives of homosporous ferns
Morphogenic events in ferns: single and multicellular explants <i>in vitro
</i>Experimental and practical applications of fern somatic embryogenesis
Biotechnology and apogamy in <i>Dryopteris affinis </i>ssp.<i> affinis</i>: the influence of tissue homogenization, auxins, cytokinins, gibberellic acid and polyamines
Scope of ferns in Horticulturae and Economic development
Part II
Evolution and Classification of Ferns and Lycophytes
Exploring the role of auxin in the evolution of tracheophyte body plans
Fern conservation: Spore, gametophyte and sporophyte <i>ex situ</i> storage, in vitro culture, and cryopreservation
<i>Azolla</i> and Bougainville's voyage around the world
Part III
The power of gametophyte transformation
Generation of transgenic <i>Ceratopteris richardii</i> spores to analyze Ca²⁺ dynamics during gravity-directed polarization
Secondary metabolites of ferns
Current trends in ferns/pteridophytes extracts: from plant to nanoparticles
Part IV
Novel gene of hyperaccumulator ferns in arsenic tolerance, uptake and metabolism: implications for crop improvement
Fern phenology
Desiccation tolerance in ferns: from the unicellular spore to the multi-tissular sporophyte
New insights on atmospheric fern spore dynamics
Ecological significance of brassinosteroids in temperate forest ferns
Ecomorphology of stomata in temperate ferns under contrasting environments
Recent advances in the use of mitochondrial activity of ferns spores for the evaluation of acute toxicity
Update on the assessment of chronic phytotoxicity using fern spore biomarkers
Role of ferns in environmental clean-up.