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Can't see the wood?
BOOK REVIEWS
Can’t see the wood…? Forest Products Biotechnology edited by Alan Bruce and John W. Palfreyman, Taylor & Francis, 1998. UK£49.95 hbk (xi 1 326 pages) ISBN 0 74840 415 5 Biotechnology, as overused and misapplied a rubric as exists today, is the stated theme that interconnects this loose aggregation of reviews relating to trees and their derivative products. To be sure, the reviews are, for the most part, of high quality and the authors are acknowledged experts in their respective fields. However, in attempting to illustrate the full diversity of areas within forestry and the allied forest-products industries that may be potentially impacted by advances in biochemistry and molecular genetics, this volume loses the focus necessary to make it a valued addition to many personal collections. Fortunately, it is likely to become a useful reference resource for corporate and institutional libraries on basis of the quality of its individual reviews. Fully two-thirds of the book discusses microbes that degrade wood and wood byproducts, as well as the use of enzymes derived from these organisms in manufacturing processes. Excellent chapters on biopulping and biobleaching anchor a series of reviews on applications with near-
term commercial potential, including effluent treatment, bioremediation of wood preservatives, the manufacture of wood composites and ethanol production. This is arguably the best section of the book and it is perhaps unfortunate that this was not made the focus for the entire treatise. Four of the nineteen chapters deal with the basic biology of wood decay, while a fifth chapter discusses the commercial production of the fruiting bodies (mushrooms) that arise when certain species of wood-decaying fungi are grown on woody waste materials. Were they grouped together in an organized fashion, these chapters might have presented a logical treatment of this active and interesting research area but they are, unfortunately, intermixed with the other topics in a manner that many readers will find distracting. The chapter on brown- and whiterot fungi is also dated relative to the rapid progress being made toward understanding these remarkable organisms and the mechanisms they employ for the degradation of wood components.
A good brew Yeast Physiology and Biotechnology by Graeme M. Walker, 1998, Wiley. UK£29.95 pbk UK£70.00 hbk (362 pages) ISBN 0 471 96446 8 (pbk) 0 471 96447 6 (hbk)
The past two decades have seen astounding developments in the genetics and molecular biology of man’s longest-serving biotechnology organisms, the yeasts. These have culminated in the determination of the complete genome sequence of the baker’s
404
yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae; that of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is due within the next two years and others have been identified for the future. However, despite this progress and associated biochemical and molecular discoveries, much still remains
Copyright © 1998, Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 0167 – 7799/98/$19.00.
Half of the remaining chapters discuss valuable products, other than wood, that may be extracted from woody plants. Chapters by Pizzi on tannins and Kadir on phytopharmaceuticals provide excellent introductions to fields with large and difficult-to-navigate literature bases. Likewise, a chapter discussing the biological control of forest pests provides one of the most cogent discussions of baculovirus application currently available, although it was surprisingly mute on the use of Bacillus thuringiensis, the biological control agent most widely applied against forest insects. A chapter on transgenic trees, although of minimal use to the journeyman, gives sufficiently clear oversight of the state of affairs in this area of research as to be useful to novices or those with a cursory interest in the field. No doubt chapters from this book will be widely cited as authoritative reviews, and many will become assigned readings for students interested in the possibilities of applying biotechnological processes in the forest-products industries. It is thus unfortunate that the sheer breadth of topics covered is likely to limit access by the many interested researchers who would make up the potential audience for individual chapters. Jeffrey F. D. Dean Warnell School of Forest Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2152, USA.
unknown about the physiology and metabolism of these organisms. If the functions of all these genes are to be understood within the context of yeast biology and biotechnology, the integration of these disciplines becomes imperative. This new volume is therefore very timely and fills a niche that has been unoccupied for several years. As the title indicates, it describes the metabolism and physiology of yeasts, with emphasis on aspects relevant to their biotechnological exploitation; it thus deals with use of yeast in an industrial context as well as in the research laboratory. The book begins with an TIBTECH SEPTEMBER 1998 (VOL 16)
Can’t see the wood…? Forest Products Biotechnology edited by Alan Bruce and John W. Palfreyman, Taylor & Francis, 1998. UK£49.95 hbk (xi 1 326 pages) ISBN 0 74840 415 5 Biotechnology, as overused and misapplied a rubric as exists today, is the stated theme that interconnects this loose aggregation of reviews relating to trees and their derivative products. To be sure, the reviews are, for the most part, of high quality and the authors are acknowledged experts in their respective fields. However, in attempting to illustrate the full diversity of areas within forestry and the allied forest-products industries that may be potentially impacted by advances in biochemistry and molecular genetics, this volume loses the focus necessary to make it a valued addition to many personal collections. Fortunately, it is likely to become a useful reference resource for corporate and institutional libraries on basis of the quality of its individual reviews. Fully two-thirds of the book discusses microbes that degrade wood and wood byproducts, as well as the use of enzymes derived from these organisms in manufacturing processes. Excellent chapters on biopulping and biobleaching anchor a series of reviews on applications with near-
term commercial potential, including effluent treatment, bioremediation of wood preservatives, the manufacture of wood composites and ethanol production. This is arguably the best section of the book and it is perhaps unfortunate that this was not made the focus for the entire treatise. Four of the nineteen chapters deal with the basic biology of wood decay, while a fifth chapter discusses the commercial production of the fruiting bodies (mushrooms) that arise when certain species of wood-decaying fungi are grown on woody waste materials. Were they grouped together in an organized fashion, these chapters might have presented a logical treatment of this active and interesting research area but they are, unfortunately, intermixed with the other topics in a manner that many readers will find distracting. The chapter on brown- and whiterot fungi is also dated relative to the rapid progress being made toward understanding these remarkable organisms and the mechanisms they employ for the degradation of wood components.
A good brew Yeast Physiology and Biotechnology by Graeme M. Walker, 1998, Wiley. UK£29.95 pbk UK£70.00 hbk (362 pages) ISBN 0 471 96446 8 (pbk) 0 471 96447 6 (hbk)
The past two decades have seen astounding developments in the genetics and molecular biology of man’s longest-serving biotechnology organisms, the yeasts. These have culminated in the determination of the complete genome sequence of the baker’s
404
yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae; that of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is due within the next two years and others have been identified for the future. However, despite this progress and associated biochemical and molecular discoveries, much still remains
Copyright © 1998, Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 0167 – 7799/98/$19.00.
Half of the remaining chapters discuss valuable products, other than wood, that may be extracted from woody plants. Chapters by Pizzi on tannins and Kadir on phytopharmaceuticals provide excellent introductions to fields with large and difficult-to-navigate literature bases. Likewise, a chapter discussing the biological control of forest pests provides one of the most cogent discussions of baculovirus application currently available, although it was surprisingly mute on the use of Bacillus thuringiensis, the biological control agent most widely applied against forest insects. A chapter on transgenic trees, although of minimal use to the journeyman, gives sufficiently clear oversight of the state of affairs in this area of research as to be useful to novices or those with a cursory interest in the field. No doubt chapters from this book will be widely cited as authoritative reviews, and many will become assigned readings for students interested in the possibilities of applying biotechnological processes in the forest-products industries. It is thus unfortunate that the sheer breadth of topics covered is likely to limit access by the many interested researchers who would make up the potential audience for individual chapters. Jeffrey F. D. Dean Warnell School of Forest Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2152, USA.
unknown about the physiology and metabolism of these organisms. If the functions of all these genes are to be understood within the context of yeast biology and biotechnology, the integration of these disciplines becomes imperative. This new volume is therefore very timely and fills a niche that has been unoccupied for several years. As the title indicates, it describes the metabolism and physiology of yeasts, with emphasis on aspects relevant to their biotechnological exploitation; it thus deals with use of yeast in an industrial context as well as in the research laboratory. The book begins with an TIBTECH SEPTEMBER 1998 (VOL 16)