It is our pleasure to present the 53rd volume of the Biotechnology in Agric- ture and Forestry (BAF) series. This is the second issue of the BAF series edited by the new editorial team consisting of Professors Horst Lorz, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, Jack Widholm, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA, and Toshiyuki Nagata, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. This series was originally founded by the late Professor Y. P. S. Bajaj, Delhi, India, in 1986. The current volume is somewhat unique, since in this volume only one plant cell line, the tobacco BY-2 cell line, is handled, while...