B.C. Loughman - Böcker

The genetic work that has been carried out with volume, and especially in Section V 'Germplasm crop plants indicates that many nutritional charac- resources and creation of genotypes for specific teristics are independently inherited and could be environmental including low input systems', is selected for a breeding program. evident. This can be considered as genuine progress This volume presents the proceedings of the in the direction of an effective use of nutrients by 'Third International Symposium on Genetic plants. Aspects of Plant Mineral Nutrition' held in We look forward to more advances in our un- Braunschweig 1988, and demonstrates the wide derstanding of the mechanisms involved in the acceptance that cultivars respond differently to nutrient efficiency of crop plants and in the nutritional and stress factors. An improved re- development and improvement of screening sponse of cultivars to nutrients and stress con- techniques at the Fourth Symposium to be held in ditions is accessible via screening, selection and Australia in 1991. breeding of the available plant genetic resources and will help to reduce the inputs and to protect the N. EI Bassam environment. M.Dambroth The contribution of the plant breeders in this B.c. Loughman XI N. El Bassam et al. (Eds.), Genetic aspects a/plant mineral nutrition, 1-7. PLSO PN 122 (c) 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

The idea of addressing the problem of the genetic specificity of mineral nutrition at an international level arose four years ago in a proposal for this topic to be included in the program of the II Congress of the Federation of European Societies for Plant Physiology (FESPP) as a separate section. The Organising Committee of the II Congress of FESPP which was held in Santiago de Compostella in 1980 arranged a special session and it was clearly successful. A special scientific meeting where the genetic aspects of plant nutrition in their widest sense could be presented and discussed comprehensively appeared to be necessary and that is how this Symposium came to be organized by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Much progress has already been achieved in this field, and bearing in mind the importance of this problem, particularly at the present moment, it is necessary for us both to acquaint ourselves with what has been achieved so far, and even more to direct attention and effort to the fundamental problems for the future.

The 2nd International Symposium on Structure and Function of Roots or- ganised by the Slovak Academy of Sciences was held in Bratislava in early September 1980 and continued the theme ofits 1971 predecessor at Tatranska Lomnica. The symposium started with 'structural characteristics of roots in relation to the process of growth'. The approach was notable for the way in which it brought together cytologists, electron microscopists and physiologists to discuss pro- blems of common interest and set the scene for a muItidisciplinary approach to the remainder of the Symposium. Metabolie aspects of roots under normal conditions and after being exposed to stress received considerable attention, together with interesting contributions concerned with responses of roots to gravity. The session on water movement provided a useful balance between theoretical papers on the one hand and the resuIts ofthe use ofnew experimental approaches to the problem on the other. The Symposium continued with the examination of factors affecting the transport 01' ions into and across roots, particular attention focussing on metabolie aspects concerned with delivery ofions to the shoot.The problems associated with coordinating the separate functions 01' the root were introduced by a group ofpapers, again supported by contributions in which new experimental methods were described.

Third International Symposium on 'Structure and Function of Roots', NITRA, Czechoslovakia, August 3-7, 1987