Plant Cell and Tissue Culture [antikvár]

Preface For many years I performed tissue culture in large scientific institutions that had a great deal of infrastructure. When I set up a tissue laboratory outside such an infrastructure, however, I found there was a shortage of easily accessible information about the basic needs, reagents, and techniques for establishing such a facility. Much had to be done by trial and error or gleaned from original papers. Consequently, I felt that a methods book covering a wide variety of techniques from basic culture to the most sophisticated cell analysis would be a very valuable addition to scientific literature. In the interim, several useful books did appear, but none entirely fitted the bill and some are now rather dated. Then, in 1984, the first of the Methods in Molecular Biology volumes from Humana Press was published with its step-by-step recipe approach. This format appealed to me, and so I contacted John Walker, the series editor, about including cell culture in this series. The result was that we embarked upon a single volume covering both plant and animal cell culture. Such was the richness of the material, however, that this project soon divided itself into separate volumes on animal cell (Volume 5) and plant cell (Volume 6) culture. In this volume (Volume 6), therefore, we have aimed to describe a range of basic techniques and culture conditions appropriate to plant cells. Because of the diversity of cell types, species, and culture methods, much of the volume is devoted to the culture of particular cell types and to the regeneration of these cells into whole plants. The importance of genetic modification of plants, both for agricultural and research purposes, has also led us to include many chapters describing techniques for DNA transfer and for isolation of plant mutants via somatic cell genetics. The economic importance of plant products is also acknowledged by a section describing large-scale culture methods and possible ways of automating these cell culture processes. Finally, we have listed, in the appendix, the formulas for the mos t commonly used plant cell media. John Walker and I hope this volume comprehensively covers the exciting developments in these fields, as well as the more basic needs for setting up a plant cell culture laboratory. Editors of books always have many debts of gratitude. First, I would like to thank those who taught me tissue culture and particularly somatic cell genetics. The principle influence was Dr. Cliff Stanners, who at that