Increased interest in the basic biology of plants and microorganisms stems from the fact that crop productivity is directly affected by plant-microbe interactions. In spite of the fact that plants exist in the environment amongst diverse species of microorganisms, only a few ever establish a direct relationship. Emerging awareness concerning the indirect effect of microbial association on plant growth and the possibility of using one microbe against another for controlling pathogenic interactions is at the genesis of new fields of studies. The primary reason for a microbe to associate with. photoautotrophic organisms (plants) is to tap its nutritional requirements, fixed carbon, as a source of energy. By hook or by crook, a microbe must survive. Some have evolved mechanisms to exploit plants to develop a niche for their biotropic demands. When in contact with a living plant, microorganisms may live in a passive association using exudates from the plant, invade it pathogenically or coexist with it in symbiosis. The plant responds to the interloper, either reacting in a hypersensitive manner to contain the invasion of pathogens, or by inducing a set of genes that leads toward symbiosis, or by simply succumbing to the invader. Thus, prior to contact wi th the plant, mic roorganism is able to sense the presence of the host and activate accordingly a set of genes required for the forthcoming interaction, whether symbiotic or pathogenic."

First attempts to isolate plant genes were for those genes that are abun dantly expressed in a particular plant organ at a specific stage of devel opment. However, many important gene products are produced in a very minute quantity and in specialized cell types. Such genes can now be isolated using a variety of approaches, some of which are described in this volume. The rapid progress during the last decade in regeneration of a number of crop plants and the availability of molecular tools to introduce foreign genes in plants is allowing the engineering of specific traits of agri cultural importance. These genes must, however, be regulated in a spatial and temporal manner in order to have desired effects on plant devel opment and productivity. The habitat of plants necessitate adaptive responses with respect to the environmental changes. Starting from germination of the seed, the plant begins to sense environmental cues such as moisture, light, temperature and the presence of pathogens, and begins to respond to them. Little is known about various signal transduction pathways that lead to biochemical and morphogenetic responses, in particular, transition from vegetative to reproductive phase. With the availability of tools to generate specific mutations via transposon tagging, identification and isolation of genes affecting these processes may be facilitated. Transfer of these genes into heterologous environments will allow understanding of the complex processes that control plant development."

This volume examines the molecular basis of all aspects of cell division and cytokinesis in plants. It features 19 chapters contributed by world experts in the specific research fields, providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge on cell division control in plants. The editors are veterans in the field of plant molecular biology and highly respected worldwide.

Research on the interaction between plants and microbes continues to attract increasing attention, both within the field as well as in the scientific community at large. Many of the major scientific journals have recently reviewed various aspects of the field. Several papers dealing with plant-microbe interactions have been featured on the covers of scientific publications in the past several months, and the lay press have recently presented feature articles of this field. An additional sign of the interest in this field is that the International Society of Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions has almost 500 members. This book is a collection of the papers that were given at the Sixth Inlernational Symposium on the Molecular Genetics of Plant-Microbe Interactions which was held in Seattle, Washington in July, 1992. Approximately 650 scientists attended and approximately 50 lectures covering the topics of Agrobacterium-plant interactions, Rhizobium-plant interactions, bacteria-plant interactions, fungal-plant interactions and new aspects of biotechnology were presented. In addition, many sessions were devoted to the plant response to the microbe. Over 400 posters were presented of which the authors of 20 were selected to give an oral presentation. These papers are included in this volume as well. The symposium also included speakers whose research interests are not directly related to plant-microbe interactions but who are at the cutting edge of research areas that impact on the theme of the symposium. These individuals kindly agreed to summarize their talks and their papers are also included.

This volume examines the molecular basis of all aspects of cell division and cytokinesis in plants. It features 19 chapters contributed by world experts in the specific research fields, providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge on cell division control in plants. The editors are veterans in the field of plant molecular biology and highly respected worldwide.

Research on the interaction between plants and microbes continues to attract increasing attention, both within the field as well as in the scientific community at large. Many of the major scientific journals have recently reviewed various aspects of the field. Several papers dealing with plant-microbe interactions have been featured on the covers of scientific publications in the past several months, and the lay press have recently presented feature articles of this field. An additional sign of the interest in this field is that the International Society of Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions has almost 500 members. This book is a collection of the papers that were given at the Sixth Inlernational Symposium on the Molecular Genetics of Plant-Microbe Interactions which was held in Seattle, Washington in July, 1992. Approximately 650 scientists attended and approximately 50 lectures covering the topics of Agrobacterium-plant interactions, Rhizobium-plant interactions, bacteria-plant interactions, fungal-plant interactions and new aspects of biotechnology were presented. In addition, many sessions were devoted to the plant response to the microbe. Over 400 posters were presented of which the authors of 20 were selected to give an oral presentation. These papers are included in this volume as well. The symposium also included speakers whose research interests are not directly related to plant-microbe interactions but who are at the cutting edge of research areas that impact on the theme of the symposium. These individuals kindly agreed to summarize their talks and their papers are also included.

Research on the interaction between plants and microbes has attracted considerable attention in recent years. The use of modem genetic techniques has now made possible a detailed analysis both of plant and of microbial genes involved in phytopathogenic and beneficial interactions. At the biochemical level, signal molecules and their receptors, either of plant or of microbial origins, have been detected which act in signal transduction pathways or as co-regulators of gene expression. We begin to understand the molecular basis of classical concepts such as gene-for-gene relationships, hypersensitive response, induced resistance, to name just a few. We realize, and will soon exploit, the tremendous potential of the results of this research for practical application, in particular to protect crop plants against diseases and to increase crop yield and quality. This exclung field of research, which is also of truly interdisciplinary nature, is expanding rapidly. A Symposium series has been devoted to it which began in 1982. Recently, the 5th International Symposium on the Molecular Genetics of Plant-Microbe Interactions was held in Interlaken, Switzerland. It brought together 640 scientists from almost 30 different countries who reported their latest research progress in 47 lectures, 10 short oral presentations, and on over 400 high-quality posters. This book presents a collection of papers that comprehensively reflect the major areas under study, explain novel experimental approaches currently in use, highlight significant advances made over the last one or two years but also emphasize the obstacles still ahead of us.

Increased interest in the basic biology of plants and microorganisms stems from the fact that crop productivity is directly affected by plant-microbe interactions. In spite of the fact that plants exist in the environment amongst diverse species of microorganisms, only a few ever establish a direct relationship. Emerging awareness concerning the indirect effect of microbial association on plant growth and the possibility of using one microbe against another for controlling pathogenic interactions is at the genesis of new fields of studies. The primary reason for a microbe to associate with. photoautotrophic organisms (plants) is to tap its nutritional requirements, fixed carbon, as a source of energy. By hook or by crook, a microbe must survive. Some have evolved mechanisms to exploit plants to develop a niche for their biotropic demands. When in contact with a living plant, microorganisms may live in a passive association using exudates from the plant, invade it pathogenically or coexist with it in symbiosis. The plant responds to the interloper, either reacting in a hypersensitive manner to contain the invasion of pathogens, or by inducing a set of genes that leads toward symbiosis, or by simply succumbing to the invader. Thus, prior to contact wi th the plant, mic roorganism is able to sense the presence of the host and activate accordingly a set of genes required for the forthcoming interaction, whether symbiotic or pathogenic."

Soybean is one of the world s leading sources of seed oil and seed protein and is grown extensively, particularly in the Americas and Asia. Indeed, soybean is the lowest-cost producer of vegetable oil, since the oil is a coproduct of its protein-rich meal. Major advances have recently been made in our understanding of soybean genetics and of the application of new technologies to soybean improvement. Thus it is now possible, using molecular methods, to alter the protein and oil composition of soybean, as well as produce other foreign proteins in the plant. Further progress should permit the improvement of nitrogen fixation and other desirable traits. This book focuses on recent progress in our understanding of the genetics and molecular biology of soybean and provides a broad review of the subject, from genome diversity to transformation and integration of desired genes using current technologies. It is aimed at workers in legume agronomy, plant genetics, breeding and biotechnology."