Book Reviews

The series Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation, edited by Hennig and Reinert, consists of several volumes that treat specialist topics in developmental biology. The present volume focuses attention in the first three chapters on the development of protoplasts after isolation and after fusion. Here an extended number of cellular and environmental factors are indicated that play an important role in the isolation of protoplasts, fusion, development of fusion products and regeneration processes. It is clearly explained how these factors are responsible for the occurrence of protoclonal variation and for the production of hybrid or cybrid varieties. The possible fates of nuclei, chromosomes, plastids and mitochondria in the fusants are described adequately. The fourth and last chapter of the book reviews advances in the molecular biology of plant cell transformation by plant gene vectors such as Ti- and Riplasmids and the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV), It seems that the book’s title forms the main link between this chapter and the preceding ones, however, the content of this chapter is worth reading.