Plant–Pathogen Interactions. Annual Plant Reviews Vol. 11
Talbot NC. ed. 2004.
Oxford/Boca Raton: Blackwell Publishing/CRS Press £89·50 (hardback). 248 pp.
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The chapters provide an excellent overview of key genetic and metabolic factors involved in the course of infection and disease development as well as in plant defence and resistance mechanisms; consequently, the main emphasis lies on interactions at the molecular and cellular level. Without doubt, these topics have emerged as key aspects in the understanding of plant diseases in recent years and much research has concentrated on them. They are also of high practical importance, since they constitute the basis for breeding of crop plants for improved resistance. In comparison, ecological factors influencing population development and hence final disease severity are only treated in a few instances in the present text (in most detail for the Pseudomonas syringae–bean pathosystem). On the other hand, some interesting questions reaching beyond plant pathology are discussed, e.g. the possible role of the tobacco mosaic virus as a prototype for constructing nanotechnical devices.
Despite the comprehensive title, this book is not an introductory text into general aspects of plant–pathogen interactions, but rather highlights the most current research. Specifically, it gives the mycologist a good overview of the current status of research in plant virology resp. bacteriology and vice versa. While the molecular biologist will find a vast source of new information, the ecological and epidemiological side of plant pathology are less well covered. In summary, the book can be highly recommended to researchers and postgraduate students actually working on genetic and metabolic aspects of plant diseases.
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