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     

Lam, E., Fukuda, H., Greenberg, J., eds. Programmed cell death in higher plants

‘For everything there is a season . . . a timeto build up and a time to break down . . . a timeto live and a time to die.’ The quotation comes from the work of a Jewish scholar writingunder the pen name Ecclesiastes or The Preacher, several centuriesBC. His words capture the theme of the book under review here:that death is part of life and may be regulated by factors thatinclude time and season. Programmed cell death in higher plantsis a hardback reprint of a special edition of Plant MolecularBiology, devoted to scholarly     

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     

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 cell separation and adhesion. Annual Plant Reviews, Volume 25.

Since the publication of Addicott's book Abscission (1982) andKoslowsky's book Shedding of Plant Parts (1973) no text bookhas appeared charting the subsequent progress in our understandingof the physiological and hormonal control of abscission andadhesion. The present volume is thus very timely and is an excellentexample of how molecular genetics had enhanced plant biologyat both basic and applied levels. While the authors fail totell us who this book is aimed at, there is no question thatit has intrinsic scientific interest and contributes stronglyto improving our understanding through new molecular experimentalmethods. It may also be important in agriculture and horticulture.However, in many chapters, the molecular and genetic informationis too introverted for readers whose interest is not primarilyin molecular genetics. A list of the titles of the chapters alone indicates the widescope of this     

Seasonal dynamics of planktonic food chain in the Oyashio region, western subarctic Pacific

In order to clarify the importance of the microbial food chainin relation to the grazing food chain in the Oyashio region,western subarctic Pacific, the biomass of component organismsin the two food chains was investigated during July and Octoberin 1997, and January, March and May in 1998. Carbon flows withinthe plankton food chains, as established from biomass data combinedwith published experimental data (Shinada et al., 2000), suggestthat primary production is largely channelled through the microbialfood chain throughout the year. The grazing food chain is functionalalong with the microbial food chain only during the spring phytoplanktonbloom.     

Alberts, B., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K. and Walter, P. Molecular biology of the cell. 4th edn.

First edition, 1983; 2nd edition, 1989; 3rd edition, 1994; 4thedition, 2002. Any book that appears in so many editions insuch a relatively short space of time must be doing somethingright. And so it is, for Molecular Biology of the Cell (‘MBoC’as the authors refer to it) is arguably setting the pace—andthe standard—that other textbooks on the subject mustaspire to. Although not familiar with the previous incarnationsof MBoC, I do note that the line-up     

Effect of photoinhibition on algal photosynthesis: a dynamic model

Recent evidence from algal physiology and molecular biologyconfirms that photoinhibition is directly related to D1 proteindamage and recovery, and D1 protein damage leads to a decreasein electron transfer or an increase in turnover time of theelectron transfer chain. In this study, the turnover time ofthe electron transfer chain is defined as a function of therelative concentration of D1 protein in reaction centre II andthe photoinhibition processes due to D1 protein degradationare incorporated into a model of photosynthesis, initiated byDubinsky et al. (Plant Cell Physiol., 27, 1335–1349, 1986)and developed by Sakshaug et al. (Limnol. Oceanogr., 34, 198–205,1989). D1 protein damage is assumed to be both light and D1protein concentration dependent, and to be proportional to thecross-section of PSII (     

Waisel, Y., Eshel, A., Kafkafi, U., eds. Plant roots - the hidden half

Research on plant roots represents an exciting and intriguingfield of science. Undoubtedly, the vast major ity of researcherswithin the field are familiar with the first (1991) and second(1996) editions of this book. Since these editions were published,understanding of root biology has been advanced by using molecularbiology methods and molecular genetic tools which offer novelperspectives for the exploitation and understanding of rootstructure and root processes. The third edition of Plant roots– the hidden half includes revised and expanded informationon topics covered in the previous editions, as well as in     

Delimitation of Epacridaceae: Preliminary Molecular Evidence

Comparative sequence data for the chloroplast encodedrbc L genehas been obtained for species representing the basal lineagesin the proposed phylogeny of Powellet al. (Annals of Botany77:305–315, 1996), with the aim of testing the delimitationof the family and the validity of the supra-generic taxa proposed,and estimating relationships within the family. Cladistic analysesindicate that EpacridaceaesensuPowellet al. (1996) is not monophyletic.Lebetanthus,a monotypic genus from South America commonly placed withinthe family, mostly near the Tasmanian endemicPrionotes, is shownto be closer toGaultheriaand other members of the ericaceoustribe Andromedeae. The hypothetical phylogeny of Powellet al.(1996) is evaluated in the light of this preliminary analysisof relationships within the family. The data do not supportthe recognition of the two subfamilies, Richeoideae and Epacridoideae,of Watson Epacridaceae; Ericales; molecular systematics; molecular systematics; rbc L     

The Lakes Handbook, Volume 1. Limnology and Limnetic Ecology. Edited by O'Sullivan P. E. and Reynolds C. S. (2004) Blackwell Science, Ltd. Oxford, UK. $204.95. ISBN 0-632-04797-6.

There is a lot to like about this book. There is also some disappointment.Because the list of chapter authors was such a stunning collectionof talent, I happily volunteered to read the book for the Journalof Plankton Research. It took less time to read it than thevolume’s five year gestation, but it was not all smoothsledding through 700     

Temperature-dependent development in marine copepods: comments on choices of models

Guerrero et al (1994) promote Tauti's equation, rate = a exp(b temp), as simple to fit by log conversion (which may be formallyinappropriate), empirically adequate, and having ‘appropriatebiological characteristics’. No function is justifiablefrom reductionist theories, but Belehrádek's, rate =a (temp – T₀)^b, with b fixed for the taxon of interest,fits equally well, and singularly distinguishes differencesattributable to temperature adaptation (T₀, often misunderstoodas ‘biological zero’), and to size or other species-dependentproperties (a).     

Capability of intensity discrimination in multiple receptor model of insect taste

A simple model in which one CNS taste neuron integrates inputsfrom multiple peripheral receptors is introduced in order toinvestigate the mechanism of acute intensity taste discriminationin flies. Information theory is applied to evaluate the acuteability of discrimination provided by the model. The presentanalysis is carried out under two statistical conditions concerningthe uncertainty of receptor response. Based on experimentaldata obtained by Smith et al. (1983), we estimate the mutualinformation entropy of the model. The numerical results obtainedhere indicate that the uncertainty observed in a single receptorresponse is dramatically reduced by the central integration.Furthermore, each of the eleven stimulus intensity levels experimentallyapplied by Smith et al., can be discriminated completely byintegrating the responses of the realistic number of receptors(33–212). Such a great improvement of the differentialsensitivity in the model resolves the discrepancy between thelow differential sensitivity of single sugar receptors (Smithet al., 1983) and the high sensitivity obtained in the feedingbehavior (Dethier and Rhoades, 1954; Dethier and Bowdan, 1984)of the blowfly.     

'ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis (ASCA): a new tool for analyzing designed metabolomics data'

Smilde et al. Bioinformatics (2005), 21(13); 3043–3048 The above paper by Smilde et al. inappropriately quotes results     

Beware of mis-assembled genomes

With hundreds of genomes now in GenBank, researchers might beforgiven for assuming that genome sequence data are correct,at least at a large scale. Certainly there might be errors atsome small rate, perhaps 1 in 50 000 or 100 000 bases (Schmutz et al., 2004;Read et al., 2002), but at a large scale thesegenomes are put together correctly, are not they? Well, notalways. We have been looking at the assemblies of large genomes forseveral years now, and for every ‘draft’ genomewe look at, we find hundreds—and sometimes thousands—ofmis-assemblies. These include regions where a genome is incorrectlyre-arranged as well as places where large chunks of DNA sequenceare simply     

Taste receptor stimulation and feeding behaviour in the puffer, Fugu pardalis I. Effect of single chemicals

In electrophysiological experimentation, various chemicals areeffective in stimulating the lip chemoreceptors of the puffer,Fugu pardalis (Hidaka et al., 1975; Kiyohara et al., 1975a).Their effects as feeding stimulants on this fish were studiedby offering the lip stimulants in starch pellets. The starchpellet by itself was not taken by the fish but it was acceptedwhen stimulants such as clam extracts were addded to it. Sucrose,ineffective as a lip chemoreceptor stimulant, had no effecton feeding behaviour. NaCl, to which the lip chemoreceptorsshow a low sensitivity, did not affect the feeding responsewhen added at 2 M to clam extracts. HCl and quinine inhibitedthe response of the fish to the clam extracts. Alanine and otheramino acids, which were effective on the lip chemoreceptors,were accepted. AMP, IMP, UMP and ADP were not accepted in spiteof their marked stimulatory effectiveness on the lip chemoreceptors.Sodium salts of fumaric, malic and succinic acids were not accepted.     

Estimation of ammonium regeneration efficiencies associated with bacterivory in pelagic food webs via a 15N tracer method

Phagotrophic protists are major components of pelagic food webs,both as consumers of bacterial and phytoplankton cells, andas regenerators of inorganic nutrients. In this study, we estimatedthe efficiency of ammonium regeneration by protists feedingon bacteria within natural plank-tonic assemblages, using a¹⁵N tracer method, in which the excretion of ¹⁵N-labeled ammoniumdue to grazing on ¹⁵N pre-labeled bacteria was followed overtime. We tested this approach in experiments based on the additionof heat-killed ¹⁵N-labeled bacteria to laboratory cultures andto samples of coastal seawater. During two experiments, variationin abundance of bacterivores and bacterioplankton resulted innon-constant grazing rates. Deterministic computer models thatused abundance of bacteria and protists as variables were developedto estimate best-fit values of grazing mortality (g, h^–1)and of ammonium regeneration efficiency (R_E, fraction of theinitial ¹⁵N label in added bacteria which is released as ammonium).Estimated ammonium R_E were 0.30–0.35 for one trophic linksystems with both a monospecific culture and a mixed speciesassemblage of bacterivorous flagellates. R_E was higher for multi-trophicstep food webs: 0.60 for 5 µm pre-screened coastal seawaterand 0.90 for whole coastal seawater.     

CORRIGENDUM: AIDS and Glycosylation

The authors regret that in this Mini Review a paper by Massanet al. (1990) (J. Immunol., 144, 4628–4632) was citedout of context. In this paper isolates of HIV-1 from peripheralblood mononuclear cells of seropositive individuals (and notmolecular clones as cited) were investigated for their macrophagetropism in vitro.     

Ayala, F.J., Fitch, W.M. and Clegg, M.T. Variation and evolution in plants and microorganisms: toward a new synthesis 50 years after Stebbins

In January 2000, an impressive cohort of evolutionary biologistsconvened in Irvine, California, to celebrate the 50th anniversaryof the publication of G. Ledyard Stebbins’ Variation andevolution in plants. The brief introductory appreciation ofStebbins by Peter Raven describes Variation as ‘the mostimportant book on plant evolution of the 20th century’(p. 5). This strongly worded claim is not entirely without justification.Among the ‘New Synthesists’, Stebbins achieved forbotanists what Theodosius Dobzhansky (later to be a colleagueof Stebbins at UC Davis) had previously achieved for geneticists,Ernst Mayr for zoologists and G. G. Simpson for palaeontologists.Admittedly, the