Trees have the ability to undergo secondary growth and produce a woody body. This tree-specific growth is affected by the secondary vascular system and the developmental continuum of secondary phloem and xylem. Secondary growth is one of the most important biological processes on earth. Considering its economic and environmental significance, our knowledge of tree growth and development is surprisingly limited. Trees have received little attention as model species in plant science, as most Plant biology questions can be best addressed by using herbaceous model species, such as Arabidopsis. Furthermore, tree biology is difficult to study mainly due to the inherent problems of tree species, including large size, long generation time, large genome size, and recalcitrance to biotechnological manipulations. Despite all of this, one must rely on trees as models to study tree-specific questions, such as secondary growth, which cannot be studied effectively in non-woody model species. Recent advances in genomics technology provide a unique opportunity to overcome these inherent tree-related problems. Several groups, including our own, have been successful in studying the biology of wood formation with a variety of hardwood and softwood species. In this article, 1 first review the current understanding of tree growth and then discuss the recent attempts to fully explore and realize the potential of molecular biology as a tool for enhanced understanding of secondary growth.

Photoautotrophic micropropagation systems do not include sugar in the culture media. This characteristic provides advantages to scale up the micropropagation systems comparing photomixotrophic micropropagation systems. A closed, large-scale photoautotrophic micro-propagation for transplant production system has been developed at Chiba University, Japan. New concepts and technologies were adapted to produce high quality transplants at minimum usage of resources, and as scheduled. Newly developed software for production management was used to enhance the efficiency of the transplant production system. Currently, virus-free transplants of sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) are vegetatively propagated and produced under sterilized conditions in this system. This system can also be used for production of transplants of any other species including horticultural and woody plants with a minimum of modification.

Traditionally, genetic variability is generated by an extensive crossing program, which is complemented by strict selection to identify useful new recombinants. Plant biotechnology offers many opportunities for breeders to solve certain breeding problems at the molecular level. The tissue culture methodology and the genetic modification of economically important monocotyledons have undergone a revolution in the last decade. As the production of transgenic plants is a complex procedure, including the uptake of DNA molecules into the cells, the integration of foreign nucleotide sequences into the host genomic DNA and the expression of new genes in a controlled way, and as there are still many unsolved questions, further development is necessary. The methodology opens up the possibility of introducing novel genes that may induce resistance to diseases and abiotic stresses, allow the modification of dough quality and the dietetic quality of proteins, and increase the levels of micronutrients such as iron, zinc, and vitamins. In the present review, the authors would like to summarise the most important advances in wheat transformation.

A cell culture system of poplar (Populus alba x P.glandulosa) was established to test four different methods for evaluation of cellular stresses. Two different kinds of stresses were given to the cultures by adding either Pb(NO$_3$)$_2$ or paraquat and the cellular responses were monitored during a week period. While fresh weight reduction was observable in two days after the treatment of Pb(NO$_3$)$_2$, such changes were apparent only in later stage in paraquat treated cultures. Cells in paraquat treated cultures in the first 3 days showed no alteration in fresh weight as compared to untreated cultures, but had their MTT reducing activities completely inhibited. Neither Evans blue staining nor ion conductivity of the medium was consistent with fresh weight changes of the cultures. Overall, cell clumps formed during suspension culture appeared to interfere with staining and washing reactions and thus cause the assays unreliable. Among the four methods examined, fresh weight changes and MTT reducing activity appeared to be the most reliable and consistent.

In vitro plant regeneration of inbred breeding line of hot pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) was established using leaf and petiole segments as explants. About 28 days old plants were excised and cultured on MS medium supplemented with TDZ and NAA or in combination with Zeatin. In all of the media compositions tested, combination of TDZ 0.5 mg/L, Zeatin 0.5 mg/L, and NAA 0.1 mg/L was found to be the best medium for shoot bud initiation. Young petiole was the most appropriate explant type for the plant regeneration as well as genetic transformation in hot pepper. In this study, HpMADS1 gene isolated from hot pepper was introduced using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system. Based on the analysis of Southern blot and RT-PCR, HpMADS1 gene was integrated in the hot pepper genome. It has been known that floral organ development is controlled by a group of regulatory factors containing the MADS domain. Morphological characteristics in these transgenic plants, especially flowering habit, however, were not significantly altered, indicating this MADS gene, HpMADS1 may be non-functional in this case.

To select the section with shoot formation ability, the calli and shoot formation from three sections (first leaf including cotyledonary node, hypocotyl and cotyledon explants) of 5-days-seedlings of soybean were induced on MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/L BAP, 3% sucrose, and 0.3% gelrite for one month. The first leaf section exhibited the highest shoot formation rate (51%), followed the hypocotyl section (10%) and the cotyledon section (0%). The shoot formation rates and shoot number of the four excised sections (whole first leaf, a half of the first leaf, a third of the first leaf and only node) of the first leaf were also investigated on the same medium. A half of the first leaf explant and the third of the first leaf explant had higher shoot formation rates (76-80%) and numbers (3-4 / explants) than those in other two explants. Effects of six cytokinins (kinetin, zeatin, BAP, 2iP, PBA, and TDZ) on shoot formation were determined, using the half of the first leaf explants. Zeatin (1.0 mg/L) exhibited the highest in shoot formation rate (94%) and numbers (8 / explant). In addition, the combined effects of three cytokinins (zeatin, BAP, and TDZ; 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 mg/L, respectively) and an auxin (IAA; 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 mg/L) were determined. The combination (1:1, v/v) of zeatin (1.0 mg/L) and IAA (1.0 mg/L) exhibited the highest in shoot formation rate (96%) and numbers (16 / explant), twice more than zeatin (1.0 mg/L) alone. The shoot cuttings were transferred and cultivated on the rooting media supplemented with only auxin, IBA at various concentrations. The highest root formation (8 / shoot) was achieved on the medium supplemented with 1.5 mg/L. After 4 weeks of cultivation, the plantlets with an extensive root system were transplanted in pots with a soil mixture of vermiculite and fine sand. Transferred to field, about 75% of the plantlets survived.

In order to establish efficient plant regeneration from embryogenic suspension cultures of soybean, Glycine max L, we examined the effects of auxin type and concentration, cytokinin type and concentration, and amino acid type and concentration on the growth of embryogenic clumps from induced callus, and the effect of desiccation of mature somatic embryos obtained from these clumps on the frequency of somatic embryo germination. Embryogenic callus was induced from the edge of the cotyledons cultured on MS medium containing 6% sucrose, 40 mg/L 2,4-D, 0.2% gelrite and pH 5.7. The growth of embryogenic clumps was best in early staged, embryogenic callus that was placed in suspension culture of MS medium containing 5 mg/L 2,4-D and 0.5 mg/L asparagine. Single somatic embryos were isolated from the clumps and plated on the same medium for maturation. When the mature single somatic embryos were desiccated for 96 h, somatic embryo germination came up to approximately 90%. The plantlets germinated after embryos desiccation for 2 weeks were transfered to MS medium containing 3% sucrose,0.2% gelrite and pH 5.7.

The kinetics of Ti-transformed Salvia miltiorrhiza cell cultures was studied in 250-$m\ell$ shake flasks by using B5 medium with addition of 30 gfL of sucrose. In the cell cultures, the maximum cell mass obtained was 11.5 g DW/L on day 15. The highest amount of phenolic compounds - rosmarinic acid (RA) and lithospermic acid B (LAB) reached 871.3 mg/L (day 15) and 121.3 mg/L (day 13), respectively. The total tanshinone production, i.e., intracellular plus extracellular cryptotanshinone, tanshinone 1, and tanshinone IIA, was 5.3 mg/L on day 13. For the cultivations in 2.4-L stirred bioreactors, the residual sugar level and medium conductivity were a little higher in a small turbine impeller reactor ($T_s$) than those in a large turbine impeller reactor ($T_L$), while a higher cell density was obtained in the $T_L$. For the production of tanshinones and phenolics, better results were obtained in the $T_L$ than in the $T_s$. In the $T_L$, similar or even a little higher production titers of tanshinones and phenolic compounds were achieved compared to those in the flasks. The results suggest that the shake flask results could be successfully scaled up to the $T_L$ reactor. Such a large impeller reactor like $T_L$ may be better than a small impeller one for the large-scale production of the valuable metabolites by the suspension cultures of Ti transformed S.miltiorrhiza cells. This is considered due to the beneficial culture environment in the $T_L$, such as low shear rates as estimated theoretically.