"The book...is, in fact, a short text on the many practical problems...associated with translating the explosion in basic biotechnological research into the next Green Revolution," explains Economic Botany. The book is "a concise and accurate narrative, that also manages to be interesting and personal...a splendid little book." Biotechnology states, "Because of the clarity with which it is written, this thin volume makes a major contribution to improving public understanding of genetic engineering's potential for enlarging the world's food supply...and can be profitably read by practically anyone interested in application of molecular biology to improvement of productivity in agriculture."

Cell Culture and Somatic Cell Genetics of Plants, Volume 5: Phytochemicals in Plant Cell Cultures provides comprehensive coverage of the wide variety of laboratory procedures used in plant cell culture, fundamental aspects of cell growth and nutrition, and plant regeneration and variability. This book consists of five main topics—phenylpropanoids, naphthoquinones, and anthraquinones; mevalonates; alkaloids; glucosinolates, polyacetylenes, and lipids; and biologically active compounds. This publication specifically discusses the coumarins in crown gall tumors, natural occurrence of bufadienolides, and accumulation of protoberberine alkaloids. The flavor production in tissue cultures of allium species and callus cultures derived from carrot root explants is also reviewed. This volume is valuable to experienced researchers and those newly entering the field of plant cell and tissue culture.

Advances in Gene Technology: Molecular Genetics of Plants and Animals contains the proceedings of the Miami Winter Symposium held in January 1983 in Miami, Florida. The papers explore advances in the molecular genetics of plants and animals and cover a wide range of topics such as genetic manipulation of plants; plant cell cultures, regeneration, and somatic cell fusion; and nitrogen fixation. Practical applications of gene technology with plants are also discussed. Comprised of 84 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of how plants manufacture from carbon dioxide and water all of their substances, paying particular attention to the path of carbon in photosynthesis. The organization of the plant genome is then considered, along with techniques for cell culture, regeneration, and somatic cell fusion; vector systems; and nitrogen fixation. Some chapters focus on gene transfer by protoplast fusion; somatic cell genetic systems in corn; regulation of transcription of the nitrogen fixation operons; and leghemoglobin and nodulin genes of soybean. The final section is devoted to practical applications of gene technology to plants and to technology frontiers in animal biology, in particular embryonic development and vaccines and diagnostic methods for animal diseases. This book should be of value to molecular geneticists.

V. 1. Laboratory procedures and their applications.--v. 2. Cell growth, nutrition, cytodifferentiation, and cryopreservation.--v. 3. Plant regeneration and genetic variability.--v. 4. Cell culture in phytochemistry.--v. 5. Phytoche micals in plant cell cultures.--v. 6. Molecular biology of plant nuclear genes. --v. 7A. The molecular biology of plastids.--v. 7B. The photosynthetic apparatus: molecular biology and operation.--v. 8. Scale-up and automation in plant propagation.

Plant Improvement and Somatic Cell Genetics includes all but one of the papers presented at two symposia held during the XIII International Botanical Congress in Sydney, Australia, on August 21-28, 1981. ""Frontiers in Plant Breeding"" and ""Cell Culture and Somatic Cell Genetics in Plant Biology"" highlight the ways in which plant breeding techniques can improve crops. The book explores the potentials as well as the limitations of plant breeding, and cellular and molecular techniques in plant improvement. Comprised of 14 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the potential applications of exotic germplasm for tomato and cereal crop improvement. It continues with a discussion of multiline breeding, breeding of crop plants that can tolerate soil stresses, combining genomes by means of conventional methods, use of embryo culture in interspecific hybridization, use of haploids in plant improvement, and somaclonal variation and somatic hybridization as new techniques for plant improvement. The reader is also introduced to plant cell culture, as well as somatic cell genetics of cereals and grasses, somatic cell fusion for inducing cytoplasmic exchange, uses of cell culture mutants, genetic transformation of plant cells by experimental procedures in the context of plant genetic engineering, and use of molecular biology techniques for recognition and modification of crop plant genotypes. This book will be a useful resource for scientists and plant breeders interested in applying somatic cell genetics for crop improvement.

This work deals with basic plant physiology and cytology, and addresses the practical exploitation of plants, both as crops and as sources of useful compounds produced as secondary metabolites. Covers problems of commercial exploitation, socio-legal aspects of genetic engineering of crop plants, and of the difficulties of marketing natural compunds produced by cells under artificial conditions.

The Molecular Biology of Plastids ...