Plant Science 157 (2000) 267
Book review
www.elsevier.com/locate/plantsci
Developmental Biology of Flowering Plants, by Valayamghat Raghavan, Springer-Verlag, Berlin. ISBN 0-387-98781-9); DM 159.00
This book of 354 pages is organized as a general textbook on developmental biology of flowering plants. The literature on this subject is extensive and continues to grow exponentially leading this new area ahead of other aspects of the study of plants. This new topic is today considered to be a modern form of integrative plant biology.and unifies the general principles of development of flowering plants representing structural, physiolog-ical, biochemphysiolog-ical, genetic, and molecular perspec-tives. The aim of this book is provide an up-to-date revision of an undergraduate course in plant development organized by V. Raghavan over the past 20 years at The Ohio State University.
The book is divided into five parts covering all aspects of plant development.
Several aspects of seed germination and growth are covered in part 1: seed to seedling. Part 2 concerns the development of the seedling into an adult plant including mainly the vegetative body or sporophyte: shoot, leaf and root. A specific part is devoted to reproduction. This part is very con-sistent and represents one-third of the total vol-ume. The main aspects of reproduction are covered with floral evocation, formation of floral organs and the homeotic mutants, micro- and megasporogenesis leading to the formation of male and female gametophytes (pollen and the embryo sac). Finally pollen – pistil interactions and
fertilization are analyzed including the latest suc-cessful developments concerning in vitro fertiliza-tion. The last part covered two abnormal developmental patterns induced either by in vitro, culture: somatic and pollen embryogenesis or based on the totipotency of plant cells: callus morphogenesis, and some aspects of crown gall tumors and hairy root disease.
The book is well written and illustrated even if some color schemes would be welcome to facilitate understanding for undergraduate or graduate stu-dents. A list of abbreviations and a useful index allow the reader to locate information easily.
It would be useful to discuss more completely the concept of totipotency and also to include some data related to plant hormones. But there is already a selected list of areas covering largely plant development.
Considering this subject, the book is of interest to a large range of readers from molecular biolo-gists to classical botanists or people involved in plant biotechnology. This book will be a basic guide for anybody who wants to have a view of plant development. Nevertheless, the reader has to be close to the up-to-date literature because of the large increase in knowledge in this major topic and its rapid expected evolution (genome sequencing completion, microarray technology, exploration of new mutant collections, etc).
Christian Dumas
Ecole Normale Supe´rieure,
46 Allee d’Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07,
France
.
