Plant Reproductive Ecology. by J. Lovett Doust; L. Lovett DoustReview by: Jonathan SilvertownNew Phytologist, Vol. 112, No. 1 (May, 1989), p. 170Published by: Wiley on behalf of the New Phytologist TrustStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2556769 .

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170 Reviews

biological aspects, particularly an exploration of the use of monoclonal antibodies from Brewin's group.

Section II is concerned with 'Recognition in Plant- Pathogen Interactions' (although two papers on mycor- rhizal mutualism also appear) and is principally concerned with recognition of plant by the pathogen. Molecular biology has been a little slower to penetrate this area with the notable exception of work on another prokaryotic infection of plants, i.e. Agrobacterium. Several papers in this section report detailed studies on Agrobacterium virulence genes but particularly interesting work on a molecular genetic approach to early attachment events was reported hy Matthyse.

However, as Noel Keen's review article points out, progress in exploring the molecular mechanism involved in recognition between fungi and plants has been slow to come and, despite good recent work from several groups where pathogenicity genes have been cloned, we are still a long way from cloning genes responsible for early rec- ognition events and the majority of the fungal work in this workshop is still at the level of observational cell biology. Particularly in the case of the VA mycorrhizal relation- ships, it is difficult to see where the breakthroughs are going to come given the recalcitrance of these fungi to culture.

One of the common models for higher plant resistance to fungal and bacterial pathogens proposes that host re- sistance (R) genes, utilized by the plant breeder, are, in effect, genes for recognition of the pathogen and that effective recognition then triggers a cascade response resulting in expression of resistance. One might have wished to have seen some speculative contribution on the various approaches currently being adopted to clone R genes and identify their products. Rather, most attention was given to work on fungal elicitors of phytoalexins and regulation of associated response genes. Whilst it is useful to have several such papers contained in one volume, much of the work is fairly well-established. There is little evidence from the papers contained in this section of any real breakthrough in understanding the primary rec- ognition events at the plant-pathogen interface.

Section IV is entitled 'Recognition in Biological Crop Pest Control'. Interesting though the papers are, one cannot help thinking that this section is somewhat out of place, there being little evidence offered in any of the papers that recognition is involved in some of the control effects reported and even less that fundamental research on recognition mechanisms has guided practical controls.

Finally, Section V attempts to summarize the state of the art in the most important areas and to develop concluding recommendation for future work, to pinpoint the gaps in our knowledge, etc. These are fairly short papers and of mixed value since not all the authors were equally free in their speculation.

In conclision then, a very interesting compilation of papers covering, a variety of aspects of plant-microbe interaction. Not all of them would meet the purist's definition of recognition and some of the papers seem misplaced. However, the volume will be of great value to those seeking up-to-date views on certain areas of Rhizobium biology, Agrobacterium, elicitors and phyto- alexin induction. Certainly, the importance of molecular genetics in this area is amply demonstrated.

J. A. CALLOW

Plant Reproductive Ecology. Edited by J. LOVETT

DOUST and L. LOVETT DOUST. 24 x 16 cm.

Pp. x-+ 344, with numerous text figures. OUP, USA: Oxford University Press. 1988. Price ?38.00. ISBN 0 19 505175 0.

The avowed objective of the editors of this volume is to assist at the birth of 'An emerging synthesis' in evol- utionary biology. Sounds familiar? Yes of course, E. 0. Wilson's Sociobiology was subtitled 'A new synthesis' and the objective of this volume is to apply the principles of sociobiology to plants, in what will inevitably be called 'sociobotany'. It must only be a matter of time before someone writes a book with that title but, in the mean time, this is the second book in this area to use the title Plant Reproductive Ecology, the author of the first being Mary F. Willson (Wiley, 1983). Indeed M. F. Willson and not E. 0. Wilson is the name which perpetually reappears in the chapters of this book. The reason for this is that the principles of sociobiology as expounded by E. 0. Wilson for animals have only limited application to plants and much of this application is still highly speculative.

The most interesting developments in this field come not from the parallels between animals and plants, but from the peculiarities of the latter. In a review of the apportionment of maternal resources among seeds, Haig and Westoby analyse relationships between parent and offspring and between the various ovular tissues and the embryo on the basis of inclusive fitness. There have been several attempts to explain the evolution of double fertilization in angiosperms and the peculiar genetic constitution of endosperm on this basis.

In the context of another peculiarity of plants, modular construction, P. A. Cox looks at the advantages of different sexual strategies. Species vary in whether the sexes occur on different individuals (dioecy), on different branches of the same individual, in different flowers within the same inflorescence, or occur together in the same flower. Cox suggests that the advantages of separating or combining the sexes should be analysed separately at each of the levels in the modular hierarchy: individual, branch, inflor- escence, flower, to seek explanations for the observed patterns. The relationship between other aspects of plant reproduction and plant morphology are considered in a chapter by Don Waller.

The essence of sociobiology (sensu E. 0. Wilson) is the application of the concept of inclusive fitness to studies of animal social behaviour. The lack of any plant equivalent to an animal society severely limits how far 'sociobotany' can go. Since the only 'social' aspect of a plant's existence involves sex, only the half of this book covering breeding systems has any direct relevance for sociobiology. The remainder of the book deals with 'Ecological forces' acting on plant reproduction, and the influence of competition, herbivory, seed dispersal and pollination. A trio of chapters on reproductive strategies in algae, bryophytes and pteridophytes are welcome as a finale to the book and reaffirm the editors' belief that progress is to be made through synthesis and, dare I say it, cross-fertilization.

JONATHAN SILVERTOWN

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