A well-structured and comprehensive summary of the strategies and several case studies for applying molecular plant genomics in the fields of plant ecotoxicology and plant ecology. With an increasing number of plant genome projects now being completed, there arises the need to develop plant functional genomics. The book concentrates on ecological functions and relates molecular stress responses and signalling pathways to environmental interactions. This paves the way for uncovering new mechanisms of plant fitness, population dynamics and evolution, and new possibilities for plant breeding and sustainable agriculture. Topics covered include: definition and up-scaling of molecular ecotoxicology; signalling substances, enzymes and genes involved in defence against pathogens, xenobiotics, ozone, UV-B and further environmental stressors; and manipulation of plant signal transduction by soil bacteria.

The idea for this book arose in 1993, after the Free State of Bavaria through its Bayrisches Staatsministerium rur Landesentwicklung und Umweltfragen (Bavarian Ministry of Regional Development and the Environment) decided to discontinue both the Bavarian project management (PBWU) for forest decline research and the multidisciplinary field research on the Wank Mountain in the Alps near Garmisch. Forest decline through the action of ozone and other photooxidants was a main topic of the supported re search in the Alps and will be a topic of new investigations in the Bavarian Forest. Many interesting results were obtained, but the researchers involved have not had sufficient time to allow reliable conclusions to be drawn. It was therefore decided to ask inter national experts for contributions in order to summarize the best available evidence of a possible link between ozone and forest decline - a topic which has been studied in the USA since the late 1950s and in Europe since the early 1980s. The original idea of Waldsterben as an irreversible large-scale dieback of forests in Germany was soon recognized to be wrong (Forschungsbeirat 1989). However, the new criteria used for the official German and European damage inventories (loss or yel lowing of needles or leaves, tree morphology) indicate that per sistently high percentages of damaged spruce and pine remain, and there is an increasing percentage of damaged beech and oak, with a high proportion of biotic disease (Forschungsbeirat 1989; UN-ECE 1995).

The idea for this book arose in 1993, after the Free State of Bavaria through its Bayrisches Staatsministerium rur Landesentwicklung und Umweltfragen (Bavarian Ministry of Regional Development and the Environment) decided to discontinue both the Bavarian project management (PBWU) for forest decline research and the multidisciplinary field research on the Wank Mountain in the Alps near Garmisch. Forest decline through the action of ozone and other photooxidants was a main topic of the supported re search in the Alps and will be a topic of new investigations in the Bavarian Forest. Many interesting results were obtained, but the researchers involved have not had sufficient time to allow reliable conclusions to be drawn. It was therefore decided to ask inter national experts for contributions in order to summarize the best available evidence of a possible link between ozone and forest decline - a topic which has been studied in the USA since the late 1950s and in Europe since the early 1980s. The original idea of Waldsterben as an irreversible large-scale dieback of forests in Germany was soon recognized to be wrong (Forschungsbeirat 1989). However, the new criteria used for the official German and European damage inventories (loss or yel lowing of needles or leaves, tree morphology) indicate that per sistently high percentages of damaged spruce and pine remain, and there is an increasing percentage of damaged beech and oak, with a high proportion of biotic disease (Forschungsbeirat 1989; UN-ECE 1995).

Die Biochemie beschaftigt sich mit der Struktur und Funktion der flir Lebensvorgange wichtigen Moleklile. Diese Moleklile werden in reiner Form dargestellt, chemisch und physikalisch-chemisch charakterisiert und wieder zu funktionellen Strukturen zusammengefligt (Rekonstitution). So wurde auf den Gebieten der in Wasser los lichen Proteine und Enzyme und der Molekularbiologie von Nukleinsauren ein hoher Wissensstand er- reicht. tiber die Wasser-unloslichen Proteine und die Lipid/Protein- Wechselwirkungen von biologischen Membranen ist dagegen erst relativ wenig bekannt, obwohl sich viele zentrale Lebensvorgange an Membranen abspielen. Die vorliegende Einflihrung ist aus einer Vorlesung hervorgegangen. Das Ziel war, eine erste Verbindung zwischen dem Stoff der biochemi- schen Grundvorlesung und der Membranbiochemie zu schaffen. 2. Membrantypen und Membranisoliemng 8 Membranen mit einer Dicke von etwa 60 bis 120 R (1 R = 10- cm) fin- den sich in allen pro- und eukaryotischen Zellen, aber auch bei man- chen Viren, wie Influenza-, Herpes- und Leukamieviren. Diese Viren erhalten ihre Membranen bei der Abschnurung aus der Wirtszelle.