Completing the primary genomic sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana was a major milestone, being the first plant genome and well established as the premiere model species in plant biology. Since working drafts of rice (Oryza sativa L.) genome became available (Yu et al. 2002), it has become the s- ond-best model organism in plants representing monocotyledons. Understanding how the genome sequence comprehensively encodes de- lopmental programs and environmental responses is the next major ch- lenge for all plant genome projects. This requires functional characterization of genes, including identification of regulatory sequences. Several functional genomics approaches were initiated to decode the linear sequence of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, including full-length cDNA collections, microarrays, natural variation, knockout collections, and comparative sequence analysis (Borevitz and Ecker 2004). Genomics provides the ess- tial tools to speed up the research work of the traditional molecular gene- cist, and is now a scientific discipline in its own right (Borevitz and Ecker 2004).

A review of the latest results in the major areas of the plant sciences in the past 1-2 years Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Until 2004 Ulrich Lüttge taught at the Institute for Botany at the TU Darmstadt. He is an experienced teacher and is concerned with membrane physiology and biochemistry, circadian rhythms among photosynthesis processes as well as the antioxidative defense system of plants

Inhalt
Fascination with Chloroplasts and Chromosome Pairing.- Recombination: Cytoplasmic male sterility and fertility restoration in higher plants.- Function of genetic material: From genomics to functional markers in maize.- Extranuclear inheritance: Gene transfer out of plastids.- Molecular cell biology: Epigenetic gene silencing in plants.- Genetics of phytopathology: Secondary metabolites as virulence determinants of fungal plant pathogens.- Plant Breeding: MADS ways of memorizing winter: vernalization in weed and wheat.- Biotechnology: Engineered male sterility in plant hybrid breeding.- Membrane turnover in plants.- Besides water: Functions of plant membrane intrinsic proteins and aquaporins.- New insight into auxin perception, signal transduction and transport.- New insights into abiotic stress signalling in plants.- Genetically transformed root cultures generation, properties and application in plant sciences.- Molecular chaperonesholding and folding.- Recent progress in floristic research in Korea.- Recent progress in systematics in China.- Structural determinants of leaf light-harvesting capacity and photosynthetic potentials.- Recent trends in plant-ecological modelling: Species dynamics in grassland systems.- Atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment effects on ecosystems experiments and the real world.- Quaternary Palaeoecology: Central and South America, Antarctica and the Pacific Ocean Region.- Biodiversity experiments artificial constructions or heuristic tools?.- Resource allocation in clonal plants.