The 19 papers include discussions of constructing an integrated genetic and physical map of rice, commonalities and contrasts in the organization of the maize and sorghum nuclear genomes, prospects for comparative genome analyses among mammals, genome analysis in farm animals, sense suppression of p

This volume brings together the disciplines of plant and animal genome research, and serves as an opportunity for scientists from both fields to compare results, problems and prospects.

This volume brings together the disciplines of plant and animal genome research, and serves as an opportunity for scientists from both fields to compare results, problems and prospects.

Research in animals and plants is frequently 'departmentalized' and funded according to Kingdoms by granting bodies. The use of transgenes to address biological questions in all Kingdoms led us to propose to the Royal Society that fundamental and strategic studies in animals and plants involving trans genes should be presented in one meeting, rather than, as so often happens, in different scientific societies. The two-day Discussion Meeting held inJuly 1992, and reported here provided insights into how trans genes are being exploited to discover new knowledge in animals and plants. The papers were presented by leading investigators in the biological sciences, and the book reflects an experiment in interdisciplinarity which was declared a successful venture by the large crowd of participants and delegates. The transgenic area is one of high scientific interest and sporadic, yet intense biotechnological euphoria. This is dramatically illustrated among the following papers which show how genetic maps of animals and plants produce new knowledge of disease incidence in humans, and how the design of transgenes can result in biodegradable plastic in higher plants, human pharmaceutical proteins in livestock, or bacterial proteins in cotton crops to protect against insect damage.

This volume brings together the disciplines of plant and animal genome research, and serves as an opportunity for scientists from both fields to compare results, problems and prospects.

hurdle will be in the latter area. The technological hurdles will be formi dable but will not limit what happens: once the basic ideas are available, the technology will be developed. The unique part of biotechnology will be to imagine what the possibilities are. There was a discussion in several of the groups on the problems of intro ducing a novel science into a social and economic context. What biotech nologists are learning on this matter is not novel, although that does not make it any less important or difficult. People in the development of elec tronics and computers, in the pharmaceutical industry, and in many other types of industry that have grown from university research have had to face these problems in the past. It is the old situation of having to reinvent the wheel again and again. There is one aspect on which biotechnology seems to have handled this inherent difficulty better than some of our predecessor technologies: the people in the biotechnology companies by and large take a rather academic approach to free communication with one another at meetings such as this and open publication of many of their basic findings in the literature. This seems unique and certainly is different from the experience of the recent Silicone Valley Industry, which in other ways tries to emulate an academic environment, but not in open and free publication."

This book identifies targets for plant transformation by molecular biology for two crops of major importance in European agriculture - wheat and oilseed rape - and the potentially important protein crop faba beans. Modern techniques have enabled researchers to identify, isolate and modify plant genes, and much effort is now being devoted to improving these techniques and to adapting them to crop plants. By these means, it should prove possible to make defined changes to plants of commercial value, to improve their yield, quality and resistance to stresses, pests and diseases. This volume results from a report prepared for the Genetics and Biotechnology Division of the Commission of the European Communities by Dr Austin and his colleagues at the Plant Breeding Institute, where some of the work is being carried out. It therefore provides an authoritative account of the area for research workers and students.