Review -- Crassulacean Acid Metabolism: Now and Then -- Genetics -- Function of Genetic Material: Progressive Insight into Antimicrobial Peptides and their Transcriptional Regulation -- Function of Genetic Material: Assembly Factors of the Photosynthetic Machinery in Cyanobacteria -- Extranuclear Inheritance: Genetics and Biogenesis of Mitochondria -- Extranuclear Inheritance: Virus-Like DNA-Elements in Yeast -- Population Genetics: Evolutionary Features of Asexual Species -- Plant Breeding: Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Crop Plants and its Exploitation in Breeding -- Plant Breeding: Antisense ODN Inhibition in in vitro spike cultures as a powerful Diagnostic Tool in Studies on Cereal Grain Development -- Physiology -- Characean Algae: Still a Valid Model System to Examine Fundamental Principles in Plants -- Receptors for the Five Classical Plant Hormones -- Spatiotemporal Patterns and Distributed Computation-A Formal Link between CO2 Signalling, Diffusion and Stomatal Regulation -- Plant Haemoglobins, Nitrate and Nitric Oxide: Old Players, New Games -- Living in Day-Night Cycles-Specific Diel Leaf Growth Patterns and the Circadian Control of Photomorphogenesis -- Ecology -- Competitive Networks, Indirect Interactions, and Allelopathy: A Microbial Viewpoint on Plant Communities -- Quaternary Palaeoecology: Isotopes as Valuable Aids in Palaeoecological Research -- Competition for Resources in Trees: Physiological Versus Morphological Plasticity -- Explaining Variation in Fine Root Life Span. With one volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences. The present volume includes reviews on genetics, cell biology, physiology, comparative morphology, systematics, ecology, and vegetation science.