Dieter Volkmann - Böcker

he biological sciences are dominated by the idea that cells are the functionally autonomous, physically separated, discrete units of life. TThis concept was propounded in the 19th century by discoveries of the cellular structuring of both plants and animals. Moreover, the ap­ parent autonomy of unicellular eukaryotes, as well as the cellular basis of the mammalian brain (an organ whose anatomy for a long while defied attempts to validate the idea of the cellular nature of its neurons), seemed to provide the final conclusive evidence for the completeness of *cell theory', a theory which has persisted in an almost dogmatic form up to the present day. However, it is very obvious that there are numerous observations which indicate that it is not the cells which serve as the basic units of biological life but that this property falls to some other, subcellular assemblage. To deal with this intricate problem concerning the fundamental unit of living matter, we proposed the so-called Cell Body concept which, in fact, devel­ ops an exceedingly original idea proposed by Julius Sachs at the end of the 19th century. In the case of eukaryotic cells, DNA-enriched nuclei are intimately associated with a microtubular cytoskeleton. In this configuration—as a Cell Body—these two items comprise the fundamental functional and struc­ tural unit of eukaryotic living matter. The Cell Body seems to be inherent to all cells in all organisms.

he biological sciences are dominated by the idea that cells are the functionally autonomous, physically separated, discrete units of life. TThis concept was propounded in the 19th century by discoveries of the cellular structuring of both plants and animals. Moreover, the ap­ parent autonomy of unicellular eukaryotes, as well as the cellular basis of the mammalian brain (an organ whose anatomy for a long while defied attempts to validate the idea of the cellular nature of its neurons), seemed to provide the final conclusive evidence for the completeness of *cell theory', a theory which has persisted in an almost dogmatic form up to the present day. However, it is very obvious that there are numerous observations which indicate that it is not the cells which serve as the basic units of biological life but that this property falls to some other, subcellular assemblage. To deal with this intricate problem concerning the fundamental unit of living matter, we proposed the so-called Cell Body concept which, in fact, devel­ ops an exceedingly original idea proposed by Julius Sachs at the end of the 19th century. In the case of eukaryotic cells, DNA-enriched nuclei are intimately associated with a microtubular cytoskeleton. In this configuration—as a Cell Body—these two items comprise the fundamental functional and struc­ tural unit of eukaryotic living matter. The Cell Body seems to be inherent to all cells in all organisms.

Plant neurobiology is a newly emerging field of plant sciences. It covers signalling and communication at all levels of biological organization – from molecules up to ecological communities. In this book, plants are presented as intelligent and social organisms with complex forms of communication and information processing. Authors from diverse backgrounds such as molecular and cellular biology, electrophysiology, as well as ecology treat the most important aspects of plant communication, including the plant immune system, abilities of plants to recognize self, signal transduction, receptors, plant neurotransmitters and plant neurophysiology. Further, plants are able to recognize the identity of herbivores and organize the defence responses accordingly. The similarities in animal and plant neuronal/immune systems are discussed too. All these hidden aspects of plant life and behaviour will stimulate further intense investigations in order to understand the communicative plants in their whole complexity.