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Biotechnological methods are opening new ways in plant breeding. They allow novel strategies for improving crop productivity and quality, especially in the agrofood sector. The molecular mechanisms underlying these biotechnological approaches are presented here. Topics included are: pollen development, pollen tube growth, macrosporogenesis and fertilization and the effects of pesticides on sexual plant reproduction. Fertilization in higher plants is a complex process consisting of two events, the fusion of the egg with one sperm cell resulting in the diploid zygote, and the fusion of embryosac nuclei with another sperm cell, leading to a triploid endosperm. This'double fertilization'is preceded by the pollination process and a long lasting interaction between the dipoid pistil and the haploid pollen tube (progamic phase). Fertilization of flowering plants results in the formation of seeds and fruits, our basic food supply.

Comprising about one hundred plates this atlas documents and describes the processes concerning the sexual reproduction in higher plants. It is dividedinto three parts: - Anther Development - Pistil Development - Progamic Phase and Fertilization. The scanning, transmission electron and light micrographs are all of immaculate quality and - for the viewer's orientation - almost each plate is complemented by a scheme showing a larger area of the plant indicating the site of the section. Together with instructive texts, the often striking images provide a valuable introduction into plant reproductive cell structures for researchers and advanced students of genetics, plantbreeding and cell biology.

In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the importance of reproductive biology to crop production and there has been a tremendous increase in research on reproductive structures of higher plants. Presented here is a wide information of different aspects of micro- and macrosporogenesis, pollen-stigma interaction and recognition, pollen tube growth, cytoskeleton, in vitro and in vivo gamete fusion, and incompatibility. The most advanced techniques employed in studies on reproductive biology of higher plants are described in detail.