Book Reviews

This is the fourth volume in the series Cell Culture and Somatic Cell Genetics of Plants', entitled Cell Culture in Phytochemistry. Two important events form the base for this volume, and the next: volume 5, entitled Phytochemistry in Cell Culture. These events are the realization of industrial plant cell culture for the production of phytochemicals, and a molecular biological approach to understanding the regulation of product synthesis. The new volume is divided into three parts, part I is the Introduction. Part II (Accumulation of phytochemicals) contains the following chapters: Physiology of the accumulation of secondary metabolites with special reference to alkaloids; The compartmentation of secondary metabolites in plant cell cultures; Regulation of synthesis of phenolics and cell growth and accumulation of secondary metabolites. Part III (Special techniques) contains a wide variety oflaboratory techniques such as cell cloning, selection of mutants, elicitation, immobilization, cryopreservation, plant regeneration, two-phase cultures, continuous culture and the use of immunoassays in the detection of plant cell products.