216 Plato’s Plant. On the Mathematical Structure of Simple Plants and Canopies. Feike Schielving. 1998. 360 pp. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. US$ 93.50. ISBN 90-5782-003-X. The aim of this book is to analyse interactions between plants and environment based on mathematical analytical models. Simulation growth models for different crops have been available for a long time, e.g., AFRCWHEAT, SIRIUS and CERES, and they have been used for research purposes and practical applications. Construction of these models, which can be validated against experimental data and used for practical decision making, is not the theme of this book. The author attempts to build a mathematical model of an ‘ideal’ Plato’s Plant and to investigate it analytically. The book consists of 6 chapters. In Chapter 1 the interaction of light and nitrogen in a canopy is considered. Precise conditions for an optimal nitrogen distribution are derived which allow the computation of a nitrogen distribution maximising the canopy photosynthesis. The author specifies the optimisation concepts in a strict framework and by analysing their implications shows that even simple canopies can have a complex formal structure. In Chapter 2 the author moves from a canopy model to a model of a monostand and a model of competition between plants. He uses a game theory to formulate a competition model and investigates an evolutionary stable strategy for nitrogen distribution in a plant. In Chapter 3 systems of ordinary differential equations are used to formulate the dynamic growth of an individual plant, the ideal Plato’s Plant (plants and canopies in previous chapters are viewed as static structures). Chapter 4 introduces Plato’s Plant with a control, which maximises the production of seed mass. On the basis of Pontryagin’s principal of optimal control, Plato’s Plant balances the growth of shoots and roots during the vegetative phase. The switch between vegetative growth and seed production could be a sudden or gradual one depending on the description of mass grain rate functions. In Chapter 5 shoot/root balance is considered in a more mechanistic way. A plant is formalised as a “platonian container” growing on sucrose and nitrogen, where partitioning to the shoot and root is controlled by a ‘hormone’. In the last section a population growth model is constructed in which the interaction between individual plant growth and local environment is taken into account
The book is very technical, it contains mathematical formulae on almost every page, which limits the readership to those who have a good mathematical background. This book may be useful for research scientists specialising in mathematical biology or for advanced students of mathematics as an example of the application of mathematical principals. M.A. Semenov IACR – Long Ashton Research Station Bristol, U.K.
Methods in Molecular Biology, Vol. 111: Plant Cell Culture Protocols. Edited by R.D. Hall, 1999. 421 pp, Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey. US $89.50. ISBN 0-986-03549-2 and Vol. 112: 2-D Proteome Analysis Protocols. Edited by A.J. Link. 1999. 601 pp. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey. US $79.50. ISBN 0-896-03524-7 Advances in methodology and instrumentation have occurred so rapidly in recent years that the production of laboratory handbooks has become a major, and no doubt highly profitable, field of science publishing. The Methods in Molecular Biology series edited by John Walker for Humana Press have been the most successful operation of this type, with about 20 new volumes appearing each year. These two new volumes are typical of the series as a whole, despite their very different subjects. Each comprises a number of concise chapters describing specific methods, with the chapters being divided into a brief introduction, lists of materials and equipment, detailed methods, notes and references. The aim is to provide protocols in sufficient detail to allow the reader to use them directly in the laboratory. The notes are particularly useful, as they allow the authors to expand on important points, to provide examples and to point out possible problems and alternative approaches. Although some previous volumes have appeared in a soft spiral bound format to allow easy use in the laboratory, both of these volumes have hard bindings with laminated covers. Plant cell and tissue culture, the subject of Volume 111, is a well established discipline, but is particularly topical at the moment in relation to the production of GM crops and food. The volume provides a valuable update on the technology, with an emphasis