Book Reviews

The book reflects the more general trend in botanical research today to come to a synthesis of knowledge on a particular process, the various aspects of which are studied by specialists of different disciplines. Ion transport in multicellular plants is such a process, built up from sub-processes on the molecular and sub-cellular level, which are subject of investigation of biophysicists, biochemists, and physiologists. The book presents the whole spectrum of ion transport in plants from the molecular to the whole-plant level. Its chapters are written by acknowledged experts and concern general principles, membranes, mitochondria, chloroplasts, algal cells, storage tissues, excised roots, long distance transport in roots, whole plants, halophytes, salt glands, and stomata. The multi-author character of the book means of course, that the synthesis of knowledge is not presented as such to the reader but that he more easily gets access to specialistic views and literature on subjects, of which – it is true – excellent review articles exist but usually written for people with a specialistic knowledge only. Relevant discussions of the structural counterparts of the various transport processes, such as membranes, various organelles, plasmodesms, vascular bundles, etc., of course have not been omitted and have been included in this treatise. In this respect, especially the contribution of U. Liittge on “salt glands” is well balanced: physiology and morphology of the subject both get ample attention.