This is a comprehensive methods book packed with detailed protocols on methods in plant transformation. There are a total of 37 chapters organised into eight sections, including four sections with detailed transformation methodologies for specific plant types (lower plants, rice, other monocots and dicots, respectively). The transformation protocols cover a range of organisms, including Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the major monocot crops rice, wheat, barley and oil palm and dicots, including plum, grapevine, cotton, Impatiens and Torenia.

A further four sections encompass a range of associated technologies, approaches and example applications. These include protocols for selection of transformants, targeted gene silencing and mutation, molecular pharming (production of biopharmaceuticals) and a curious single chapter section on Arabidopsis field trials. It is a pity that a more extensive treatise on field trialling genetically modified crops was not included, as this is an on-going and topical area worthy of an update.

The layout of the chapters follows a well-tested formula for this Methods and Protocols series: a brief introduction, detailed materials and step by step methods sections, and perhaps uniquely, a notes section with hands-on tips, and a list of references which are adequate without being comprehensive. The protocols are easy to follow, usually contain all the critical detail and are therefore an effective laboratory guide.

This volume is a second edition and also follows on from a previous volume in the same series (Methods in Molecular Biology 478) targeted specifically at wheat, barley and oats, edited by H. D. Jones and P. R. Shewry and published in 2009. This current volume represents a useful companion volume with updates in some areas and many unique topics. It is a worthy purchase for any plant biotechnology laboratory.