PLANT TISSUE CULTURE AND APPLIED PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY A Kumar and S Roy Plant biotechnology, especially genetic transformation, represents one of powerful tools for the improvement of various important crops through introduction of foreign genes into the plant genome. The present book aims at bringing out concise account of applications of plant biotechnology and role of plant tissue culture in it. The book has 4 sections. The first section deals with recent developments in use of Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer in some of the recalcitrant plant species like Mulberry, Oil palm, Cork oak and Neem using plant tissue culture. Two candidate genes have the potential to control plant height from the oil palm ESTs database. Some of the recent most successful strategies in cork oak propagation are summarized and factors involved in the control of oak somatic embryogenesis which includes data on cryopreservation, transformation and genetic fidelity strategies are presented. Somaclonal variants can appear among regenerants after in vitro tissue culture and there is special chapter on detecting them using molecular marker techniques to check DNA methylation variation. A review of in vitro flowering provides a model system for studying and conducting in vitro breeding. Cryopreservation techniques to various types of medicinal plant cultures including isolated roots, cultures of undifferentiated cells, embryogenic tissues and shoot tips of in vitro plants are presented in detail. Second section of the book deals with abiotic stress of salinity and biotic stress of plant nematode interaction at molecular level and determine genes involved in it. There is specific section on plant microbe interaction. The genetic framework underlying light and circadian developmental control in perennial fruit species has been devised by in silico analyses of sequence and motif conservation, expression profiling and candidate gene mapping. This book is unique in several respects, most important being the attempt to provide examples of genetic modification of recalcitrant tree species, providing insight in to fundamental as well as applied aspects of plant tissue culture and elaborating on various examples of applied plant biotechnology. The book is aimed towards students teachers and researchers of botany, plant biotechnology, horticulture, agriculture, forestry and engineering institutions and industry. e-mail : aavishkarbooks@hotmail.com