Microbiology may be described as one of the younger sciences with its history, as a precise subject, only dating as far back as Pasteur in the mid 1800s and his revelation both of the role of microorganisms in nature and their importance to human welfare. Medical scientists rapidly took up the challenge, with their area of microbiology flourishing and expanding almost in complete isolation from the rest of biology. We now know, of course, that microorganisms have always played an important, if not essential role, in the biosphere with fermented foods and beverages, plant and animal diseases and nutrient cycling foremost in their sphere of activities. Within the last twenty years, microbiology has received two enormous boosts with the developments in microbial genetics and genetic engineering probably being the most influential, and the greater awareness of pollution and environmental sustainability following a close second. In 1990, your editor had the privilege and pleasure of being elected as President of The Association of Applied Biologists in the United King dom and, as the topic for his three-day Presidential Conference, chose 'The exploitation of microorganisms in applied biology'. This meeting stimu lated great interest in a wide range of subject areas, from weed control to nematology, from plant breeding to plant pathology, from mushrooms to mycorrhiza. The proceedings of this meeting were published in Aspects of Applied Biology, No. 24, 1990."

Microbiology may be described as one of the younger sciences with its history, as a precise subject, only dating as far back as Pasteur in the mid 1800s and his revelation both of the role of microorganisms in nature and their importance to human welfare. Medical scientists rapidly took up the challenge, with their area of microbiology flourishing and expanding almost in complete isolation from the rest of biology. We now know, of course, that microorganisms have always played an important, if not essential role, in the biosphere with fermented foods and beverages, plant and animal diseases and nutrient cycling foremost in their sphere of activities. Within the last twenty years, microbiology has received two enormous boosts with the developments in microbial genetics and genetic engineering probably being the most influential, and the greater awareness of pollution and environmental sustainability following a close second. In 1990, your editor had the privilege and pleasure of being elected as President of The Association of Applied Biologists in the United King dom and, as the topic for his three-day Presidential Conference, chose 'The exploitation of microorganisms in applied biology'. This meeting stimu lated great interest in a wide range of subject areas, from weed control to nematology, from plant breeding to plant pathology, from mushrooms to mycorrhiza. The proceedings of this meeting were published in Aspects of Applied Biology, No. 24, 1990."

The accumulation of literature dealing with the structure and function of synapses presents the synaptologist with a formidable problem. The diverse interests now en- compassed by synaptology, and the many facets of neurobiology mirrored in these interests, make the task of reviewing synaptic organization a major one. Selection must be made and, if the reader is not to be misled, biases must be exposed. My frame of reference is the presynaptic terminal, that is, the enlarged termination of the axon (Figs. 1 and 2). This includes the specialized presynaptic membrane run- ning alongside the cleft region and associated with the dense projections and presyn- tic vesicular grid (Figs. 1 and 8). Within the cytoplasm of the terminal are the synaptic and coated vesicles, mitochondria, the micromamentous presynaptic network and possibly microtubules. My approach to the presynaptic terminal will rely principally on mor- phological concepts, although biochemical features of the composition of the ju- tional region are essential for a basic understanding of synaptic organization and ref- erence to these will also be made.