- Email: [email protected]
Plant biotechnology and transgenic plants
ARTICLE IN PRESS Book reviews
by a competent author and the editor has worked very hard to harmonise the character, the extension, and the type of presentation of these articles. All these short reviews that I have read are of the best quality. The presentation is clear, concise, and excellent. The schemes (including a small number of colour plates) are very informative and easy to read. However, in some cases the list for further reading does not contain the most important key papers, but rather lists text books that do not contain significantly more information than is presented in the chapter. I can state that this new type of encyclopedia has the advantage that the entries contain much more information than would a lexicon, although the list of relevant topics is fairly complete. However, the accessibility of the information is really difficult. Although in the foreword the editor explains how the reader will find the appropriate location where the message is hidden, very often the reader will find this page only after having browsed through many entries. Let us demonstrate this excursion by an example. The reader might be interested in how ozone acts on plants, which signalling pathway is used, and which biochemical components are involved. I think that this information is important for any scientist who looks for ozone resistance, an important field in applied plant biology. My first trial was to look in the index (as recommended by the editor). The index is only in volume 3 and is really exhaustive as it is 90 pages long. In the index the keyword ozone has 22 subentries, most of them refer to definitions, CFCs, atmospheric depletion, etc. Only the entry ‘‘stress responses’’ seems to be appropriate. However, on this page, now in volume 2, the effect of poly-
1187
amines in stress response is described with a short notice that ‘‘high ozone levels induce a number of biochemical alterations, which are defensive against oxidative stress’’. The next step of this excursion is to visit the chapter on oxidative stress. This is easy to find because at the end of the polyamine chapter the reader finds a reference. Now examing volume 1, there is no headline giving a hint where information on ozone is hidden. The paper with seven pages does not contain any information about ozone at all. The next turn of the hide-and-seek game guides one to the entry ‘‘Plants and the Environment’’, a subchapter on ozone depletion, again in volume 2. Here the stratospheric processes are described in detail (very comprehensively and soundly), but the biological effects are restricted to UV-B action on plants. Browsing to the next potential source we arrive in the chapter ‘‘Plants and Atmospheric Pollution’’. Here again, very good information about acute or chronic injury and effects on biomass by any pollutants including ozone, however, no information about the underlying mechanism. At the end I simply gave up. In conclusion, the individual chapters are excellent, but any reader who looks for specific information needs time for browsing or good luck. The price is high, but the quality of printing is also high. Therefore, the three volumes should be recommended to biotechnology industries and research institutions or libraries. Private persons will be hindered mainly by the price.
Christian Wilhelm Leipzig, Germany
doi:10.1016/j.jplph.2004.05.005
Plant biotechnology and transgenic plants K.-M. Oksman-Caldentey and W.H. Barz (Eds.); Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 2002, 720pp., price USD 195.00, ISBN 0-8247-0794-X This review aims to cover the broad field of modern plant biotechnology. Overall, 27 chapters were written by specialists in the field. The individual articles document well the current status of research in each special area. Every contribution is well written and the relevant literature was considered and critically reviewed. The individual articles cover a wide field including breeding, food quality, carbohydrate production, bioreactors, sig-
nal transduction, environmental and stress adaptation, and tolerance to viral pathogens. In the introductory chapters a number of secondary metabolites and their chemistry are described. Furthermore, their extraction from plants as well as their use as drug and bioactive compounds are explained. Also, industrial production of bioactive compounds is described. A rather interesting chapter deals with strategies for discovering new drugs in plants. The contributions cover a wide spectrum of current techniques and methods used in plant biotechnology. Among others, they include somatic hybridization by protoplast fusion, tools for generating transgenic plants by genetic transformation,
ARTICLE IN PRESS 1188
as well strategies for conducting plant breeding programs. Furthermore, the production of metabolites in bioreactors is described. In addition, the use of plant cells for biotransformation of chemical compounds is reviewed. In this context, the application of hairy root cell cultures is covered. After different technical aspects and methods were introduced, the review deals with current application or future development of plant biotechnology and transgenic plants. The individual contributions may loosely be grouped into the following three general categories: 1. Sustainability and improvement of yield in crop production. 2. Engineering of plants to enhance their nutritional value. 3. Discovery, development, and/or improvement of plants as sources of chemical compounds for industrial use. The individual chapters present comprehensive reviews of their individual fields. The editors of this review have embarked on the rather difficult task of covering plant biotechnology and transgenic plants. During recent years this field has developed and diversified tremendously cover-
doi:10.1016/j.jplph.2004.05.004
Book reviews
ing a rather diverse and complex field. A much longer review would have been necessary to comprehensively accommodate all the current literature. Unfortunately, in this review the focus was not narrowed on a specific selection from this wide field. Rather, an interesting, but not always coherent, selection of topics is presented. The production of secondary metabolites in plants could have been an interesting topic for the review. The introductory chapters deal with this area of research in some depth. However, in spite of those minor shortcomings, the review is a very interesting compilation of current topics of plant biotechnology and transgenic plants. For those readers who follow this line of research, it presents an excellent introduction to selected new areas. However, for those individuals who look for in-depth coverage of selected subject areas, other sources will need to be considered.
Gerd Weber Plant Breeding and Biotechnology University of Hohenheim D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany E-mail address: [email protected]
by a competent author and the editor has worked very hard to harmonise the character, the extension, and the type of presentation of these articles. All these short reviews that I have read are of the best quality. The presentation is clear, concise, and excellent. The schemes (including a small number of colour plates) are very informative and easy to read. However, in some cases the list for further reading does not contain the most important key papers, but rather lists text books that do not contain significantly more information than is presented in the chapter. I can state that this new type of encyclopedia has the advantage that the entries contain much more information than would a lexicon, although the list of relevant topics is fairly complete. However, the accessibility of the information is really difficult. Although in the foreword the editor explains how the reader will find the appropriate location where the message is hidden, very often the reader will find this page only after having browsed through many entries. Let us demonstrate this excursion by an example. The reader might be interested in how ozone acts on plants, which signalling pathway is used, and which biochemical components are involved. I think that this information is important for any scientist who looks for ozone resistance, an important field in applied plant biology. My first trial was to look in the index (as recommended by the editor). The index is only in volume 3 and is really exhaustive as it is 90 pages long. In the index the keyword ozone has 22 subentries, most of them refer to definitions, CFCs, atmospheric depletion, etc. Only the entry ‘‘stress responses’’ seems to be appropriate. However, on this page, now in volume 2, the effect of poly-
1187
amines in stress response is described with a short notice that ‘‘high ozone levels induce a number of biochemical alterations, which are defensive against oxidative stress’’. The next step of this excursion is to visit the chapter on oxidative stress. This is easy to find because at the end of the polyamine chapter the reader finds a reference. Now examing volume 1, there is no headline giving a hint where information on ozone is hidden. The paper with seven pages does not contain any information about ozone at all. The next turn of the hide-and-seek game guides one to the entry ‘‘Plants and the Environment’’, a subchapter on ozone depletion, again in volume 2. Here the stratospheric processes are described in detail (very comprehensively and soundly), but the biological effects are restricted to UV-B action on plants. Browsing to the next potential source we arrive in the chapter ‘‘Plants and Atmospheric Pollution’’. Here again, very good information about acute or chronic injury and effects on biomass by any pollutants including ozone, however, no information about the underlying mechanism. At the end I simply gave up. In conclusion, the individual chapters are excellent, but any reader who looks for specific information needs time for browsing or good luck. The price is high, but the quality of printing is also high. Therefore, the three volumes should be recommended to biotechnology industries and research institutions or libraries. Private persons will be hindered mainly by the price.
Christian Wilhelm Leipzig, Germany
doi:10.1016/j.jplph.2004.05.005
Plant biotechnology and transgenic plants K.-M. Oksman-Caldentey and W.H. Barz (Eds.); Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 2002, 720pp., price USD 195.00, ISBN 0-8247-0794-X This review aims to cover the broad field of modern plant biotechnology. Overall, 27 chapters were written by specialists in the field. The individual articles document well the current status of research in each special area. Every contribution is well written and the relevant literature was considered and critically reviewed. The individual articles cover a wide field including breeding, food quality, carbohydrate production, bioreactors, sig-
nal transduction, environmental and stress adaptation, and tolerance to viral pathogens. In the introductory chapters a number of secondary metabolites and their chemistry are described. Furthermore, their extraction from plants as well as their use as drug and bioactive compounds are explained. Also, industrial production of bioactive compounds is described. A rather interesting chapter deals with strategies for discovering new drugs in plants. The contributions cover a wide spectrum of current techniques and methods used in plant biotechnology. Among others, they include somatic hybridization by protoplast fusion, tools for generating transgenic plants by genetic transformation,
ARTICLE IN PRESS 1188
as well strategies for conducting plant breeding programs. Furthermore, the production of metabolites in bioreactors is described. In addition, the use of plant cells for biotransformation of chemical compounds is reviewed. In this context, the application of hairy root cell cultures is covered. After different technical aspects and methods were introduced, the review deals with current application or future development of plant biotechnology and transgenic plants. The individual contributions may loosely be grouped into the following three general categories: 1. Sustainability and improvement of yield in crop production. 2. Engineering of plants to enhance their nutritional value. 3. Discovery, development, and/or improvement of plants as sources of chemical compounds for industrial use. The individual chapters present comprehensive reviews of their individual fields. The editors of this review have embarked on the rather difficult task of covering plant biotechnology and transgenic plants. During recent years this field has developed and diversified tremendously cover-
doi:10.1016/j.jplph.2004.05.004
Book reviews
ing a rather diverse and complex field. A much longer review would have been necessary to comprehensively accommodate all the current literature. Unfortunately, in this review the focus was not narrowed on a specific selection from this wide field. Rather, an interesting, but not always coherent, selection of topics is presented. The production of secondary metabolites in plants could have been an interesting topic for the review. The introductory chapters deal with this area of research in some depth. However, in spite of those minor shortcomings, the review is a very interesting compilation of current topics of plant biotechnology and transgenic plants. For those readers who follow this line of research, it presents an excellent introduction to selected new areas. However, for those individuals who look for in-depth coverage of selected subject areas, other sources will need to be considered.
Gerd Weber Plant Breeding and Biotechnology University of Hohenheim D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany E-mail address: [email protected]