Intercellular communication in plants. Annual Plant Reviews Vol 16 * Fleming AJ. (ed). 2005. Oxford/Boca Raton: Blackwell Publishing/CRC Press. {pound}105.00 (hardback). 280 pp

Volume 16 of the Annual Plant Reviews series, compiled by AndrewJ. Fleming, focuses on intercellular communication in plants.This is an extremely interesting book that extensively coversten topics related to cell–cell or long-distance communicationin plants. The chapters are written in a clear style and theycompile the most relevant and up-to-date information in a mannerunderstandable for anybody seriously interested in short- andlong-distance intercellular communication. Moreover, besidesblack-and white illustrations and photographs found in all chapters,there are also six separate colour plates. I highly recommendthis book     

Plant ecology. * Schulze ED, Beck E, Muller-Hohenstein K. 2005. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer. $89{middle dot}95 (hardback). 702 pp.

This book (a translation fromSchulze et al., 2002) is one of the most comprehensive textbooksof plant ecology so far. The authors aim to ‘for the firsttime bring together and clearly organize the large subdisciplinesof plant ecology’ and, to a large extent they have succeeded.The book is well written, and its more than 500 illustrationsare beautifully laid out and well chosen to help the readerunderstand the theory. It is clearly suitable not only     

Plant growth and climate change

‘Climate change’ is an all-embracing subject: increasingcarbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, due to the insatiableappetite of our burgeoning Homo sapiens (or perhaps better H.carbonovorum) populations for energy from fossil carbon reserves,is the main driver. The consequent global warming may lead tovery complex     

Aquatic Food Webs: An Ecosystem Approach. Edited by Belgrano A., Scharler U. M., Dunne J. and Ulanowicz R. E. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. 272 pp. ISBN 0198564821 (hardback). {pound}85.00.

Communicating editor: K.J. Flynn This well-produced and useful book is split into three sectionscontaining in total some 15 chapters authored by a range ofexperts in their respective areas. The book starts with a section on ‘structure and function’and a chapter (Elser and Hessen) concerning the importance ofstoichiometry in food webs; this is like most of the book wellwritten. However, the relative importance of such automaticlinks in multinutrient models may be called into question consideringthe contents of subsequent chapters which point out the significanceof the development of antigrazing mechanisms (which may oftenbe associated with changes in stoichiometry in phototrophs).Chapter 2 (Melián et al.) considers spatial structureand dynamics in marine food webs; this is a brief and, to mymind, the least satisfying of the chapters. Chapter 3 (Christianet al.) looks at the     

Flowering and its manipulation. Annual Plant Reviews, Volume 20

Flowering is at the heart of plant biology. As the organ forsexual reproduction, the flower is the site of genetic recombinationand the source of genetic diversity and, through seed production,the site of multiplication and dispersal. Grains produced throughthe flowering process provide the components of staple dietsfor most of the world's population. Flowering has also had aprominent position in the molecular and genetic revolution inthe last two decades where models of flower development, suchas Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum, have provided leading insightsinto the mechanisms controlling development, morphogenesis,differentiation and     

UV Effects in Aquatic Organisms and Ecosystems. Edited by Helbling, E. W. and Zagarese, H. (2003) The Royal Society of Chemistry, Springer Verlag, Cambridge, UK. $290.00. ISBN 0-854-04301-2.

All Earthly events can be eventually blamed on the Sun. Is itnot? There is no doubt that solar radiation is a fundamental forcein nature. At least two earlier books have dealt with the premisethat solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) penetrating our wateryplanet profoundly impacts both the living as well as the non-livingcomponents (Calkins, 1982; De Mora et al., 2000). Today, inan     

Floral biology, pollination and fertilisation in temperate zone fruit species and grape. * Kozma P, Nyeki J, Soltesz M, Szabo Z. 2003. * Budapest: Akademiai Kiado. $98 (hardback).621 pp.

The primary focus of this book is to discuss the floral biologyof the fruit crops including apple, grape, Ribes, Rubus, strawberry,the stone fruits and several     

Proteomics for Biological Discovery * Edited by T.D. Veenstra and John R. Yates

An understanding of the roles and interactions of proteins withincells is vital to our understanding of biology. Proteomics hascome a long way, and covers many areas now, since the inventionof 2 dimensional gel electrophoresis in the 1970s, or the coiningof the term proteomics in the 1990s. As more people move intothis important area, there is a need for guides to aid thesemoves. Proteomics for Biological Discovery aims to serve assuch a guide. The format of this multi-author book is well laidout, with fifteen chapters in three main parts: I. Foundationsof Proteomics; II. Functional Proteomics; and III. Novel Approachesin Proteomics. The editors have selected a strong team of respectedexperts in the various proteomics niches to write the fifteenconstituent chapters. The chapters are, for the most part, self-contained,and there is no     

New frontiers in bryology - physiology, molecular biology and functional genomics. * Wood AJ, Oliver MJ, Cove DJ, eds. 2004. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. {pound}63 (hardback). 203 pp.

This book is a collection of papersfrom the major researchers involved in physiological, molecularand genomic research on bryophytes, mainly, although not exclusively,using the moss Physcomitrella patens. This is a growing areaof research and the book aims to provide ‘... a synopsisof the outstanding basic research being conducted using mossesas a model multi-cellular eukaryote’. Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) are an importantand often neglected group     

Handbook of Plant Science

At a bookshelf-bending 4·5 kg, a bank-balance-denting£250, edited by a highly distinguished plant scientist,and released in the publisher's bicentenary year, you are entitledto expect something really special from this Handbook of PlantScience (HoPS). However, on reading in the front matter thatHoPS ‘re-publishes a selection of recent and topical articlesfrom Wiley's landmark [internet-based] Encyclopedia of LifeSciences (ELS)’ I wondered if there really could be anythingspecial about this hard-copy collection. However, I was initiallyreassured by the Preface, which explains that the EditorialAdvisory Board (all from the John Innes Centre, UK) commissionednew peer-reviewed articles for HoPS to fill in gaps in the existingplant-related ELS articles. So, something new and thereforespecial was in prospect after all. In view of the enormity of present-day plant science, an editorialdecision was taken     

Plant Epigenetics. Annual Plant Reviews, Volume 19

Recently there have been remarkable advances in our understandingof epigenetic mechanisms in plants. Given the rapid increasein publication of scientific papers involved in plant epigenetics,a book that provides comprehensive coverage of recent knowledgeis earnestly     

Vegetable Plant Part Relationships. II. A Quantitative Hypothesis for Shoot/Storage Root Development

A simple quantitative formulation of the concept of the controlof partitioning of assimilated carbon by the behaviour of plantcomponents as competing sinks is developed. An equation, In s = + In r—t, relating shoot (s) and storage root (r) d. wts, and the lengthof growth period (t), is constructed by considering possiblefates of imported assimilates into different plant parts. Thevalues of the equations' parameters depend on the relative sinkactivities of the plant parts, tissue respiration rates andinitial weights of plant components. The equation closely fitteddata collected from a number of carrot and beet experimentsin which planting density had been varied. Estimates of shootand storage root maintenance respiration rates, derived fromthe parameter , were of the correct order of magnitude. Othersets of experimental data are also discussed in the light ofpredictions of the theory and possible uses and extensions ofthis approach to assimilate partitioning are briefly discussed. Daucus carota L., Beta vulgaris, carrot, red beet, partition of assimilated carbon, maintenance respiration, storage root     

Systematic botany of flowering plants, 2nd edn. * Spichiger R-E, Savolainen V, Figeat M, Jeanmond D. eds. 2004. * Enfield, New Hampshire: Science Publishers, Inc. $58(softback). 413 pp. plus CD-ROM.

Spichiger et al. introduce a studentwithout too much botanical knowledge to the diversity of floweringplants in this text, which is a translation from the Frenchof the second edition, published in 2002. Five brief introductorychapters lead to the main part of the book, short and well-illustratedaccounts of 113 families. There is also a glossary and an identificationkey to tropical families; a taxon index and a CD-ROM completethe book. The CD-ROM includes 350 photographs of the familiesdescribed, separate lists of medicinal and non-medicinal usesof plants     

Advances in pectin and pectinase research. * Voragen F, Schols H and Visser R. eds. 2003. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. {euro}145 (hardback). 491 pp.

Two indisputable features distinguish plants from animals –one is the chloroplast, the other the cell wall. This volumeis directed to the newest information we have on the cell wall,the major polysaccharide component, pectin, and the ways thatpectins can be changed. A summary of 36 papers presented at the Second InternationalSymposium on Pectins and Pectinases (2001), this book describesaspects of synthesis, chemical constitution, properties andimmunological identification of pectins with the molecular genetics,structure and function     

An Extension of the Logistic Model of Plant Growth

The kinetics of growth of Dactylis glomerata L. were studiedunder controlled temperature and nutritional conditions at threelevels of irradiance (35·55 and 85 W m^–s). Thedry weights of the root and shoot parts of the plants were measuredeach week between the fourth and eleventh weeks after sowing. The growth kinetics were found to be dependent on the levelof irradiance, but no significant differences in the root: totaldry weight ratio were observed. To characterize the effect of illuminance, the experimentalgrowth curves were analysed initially using the logistic model,the adequacy of which is discussed. An extension of the logisticmodel is proposed, represented by the kinetic equation dM/dt= kM, with < 1 and where M is the dry weight of the plant.It is shown that this relationship allows a distinction to bemade between two kinds of plant material according to theirfunctions in the growth process. Dactylis glomerata L., illuminance, growth curves, kinetic analyses, logistic model, shoot:root ratio, partition of assimilates     

The ecology of seeds. * Fenner M, Thompson K. 2005. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {pound}26 (softback) {pound}55 (hardback) 260 pp.

This volume is a timely updateand considerable expansion of the small book Seed Ecology, publishedby the first author twenty years ago, and long out of print. Is it useful to separate a particular branch of study such as‘seed ecology’ from the wider field of plant ecology?Aren't seeds just a particular packaged form of the sporophyte,at a certain stage in its life cycle? While some may ask thosequestions, a major strength of this book is the care that theauthors take throughout to set their review in the context ofcurrent ecological