Tropical crops such as cowpea, yam, plantain, and cassava are heavily underresearched but, in addition to rice, maize, wheat, and potato, are important as primary or secondary food staples in the developing countries. The modern tools of molecular and cellular technology offer the opportunity not only to make substantial gains in knowledge of these crops, but also they overcome some of the obstacles which presently restrain both the genetic improvement and the productivity of these crops in tropical farming systems. Increased nutritional value of these crops, reduced post-harvest...

Tropical crops such as cowpea, yam, plantain, and cassava are heavily underresearched but, in addition to rice, maize, wheat, and potato, are important as primary or secondary food staples in the developing countries. The modern tools of molecular and cellular technology offer the opportunity not only to make substantial gains in knowledge of these crops, but also they overcome some of the obstacles which presently restrain both the genetic improvement and the productivity of these crops in tropical farming systems. Increased nutritional value of these crops, reduced post-harvest...

Interdependence between species is a law of nature. The degree of this interdependence is vividly evident in the plant-microbial world. Indeed, there is no axenic plant in nature and one finds various forms of interac- tions between these two kingdoms ranging from completely innocuous to obligate parasitic. Most of these interactions are poorly understood at the molecular and physiological levels. Only those few cases for which a molecular picture is emerging are discussed in this volume. With the advent of recombinant DNA technology and the realization that some of these interactions are...