The moss Physcomitrella patens is now often used as a model system in plant molecular biology. ts short life cycle, easy to culture, transformant analysis and allele replacement make it an excellent material for studying plant molecular biology. Some gene targetings have succeeded and the function of these genes has been proved. Tagged mutant library has been established for the further researches of Physcomitrella patens. The ESTs datebase on Physcomitrella patens which contains almost 67 000 ESTs has been established.

The pentose phosphate pathway in plant is a very important metabolic pathway which supplies the major sources of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) and the ribulose 5-phosphate, ribose 5-phosphate and erythrose 5-phosphate involved in synthesis of nucleotides, aromatic amino acids and fatty acids in non-photosynthetic tissues. This paper mainly reviews the advances of research on plant pentose phosphate pathway and its key enzymes: glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase. Its possible functions involved in plant development or responding to environmental stresses are discussed.

Biotechnology has a great application potential in varietal improvement of tall fescue, red fescue and meadow fescue, which are commonly grown as cool-season perennial forage and turf grasses in the temperate region. During the past thirty years, obvious progresses have been made in fields of tissue culture, long-term preservation of embryogenic cultures and genetic transformation of these fescues. Various regeneration systems have been established and successful transformations by several methods have been achieved. However, some problems also exist in tissue culture and transgenic improvement of the three grasses.

Seed dormancy and germination are complex adaptive traits of plants influenced by a large number of genes and environmental factors. The use of quantitative genetics（QTL analysis ）and mutant approaches has allowed further genetic studies on seed dormancy and germination characteristics. Recently, following the rapid development of molecular biology, researches on this field are deepening into molecular level. Molecular biology techniques, especially gene expression, genome and proteome analyses based on two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, are useful approaches for the analysis of mechanism of seed dormancy and germination. This paper briefly summaried the advances on the application of molecular biology technology in studies of seed dormancy and germination.

The authers reviewed recent advances in the study of the structure and development of locomotory apparatus and cytoskeleton in the spermatozoid of ferns. The spermatozoids develop from non-motile cells within the antheridia of ferns. Their differentiation process involves the synthesis and assembly of cytoskeleton and motile apparatus. The locomotory apparatus that emerges during the spermiogenesis consists of the multilayered structure (MLS), basal bodies, flagella and accessory structures. Basal bodies are the structures developed from bicentriole, the branched blepharoplast and blepharoplast, respectively, depending on the specific group of ferns concerned.Basal bodies, together with flagella and spline of the MLS, formed three distinct and unique microtubule arrays. The posttranslational modifications in tubulin provide considerable stability to those arrays. Centrin is a major constituent of locomotory apparatus, though it’s function is unclear. Some studies suggest that it is needed in the formation of the cytoskeleton and the locomotory apparatus.

The present status of bryophytes molecular systematics is introduced in this paper,through applications of isozyme analytic technology and three molecular biology methods (random amplification polymorphic DNA （RAPD）、restriction fragment length polymorphism （RFLP）、DNA sequencing). Some questions were proposed in study of bryophyte molecular systematics.

Ultrastructural changes in the fiber of Phyllostachys edulis (Carr.) H. De Lehaie culms during the developmental process were investigated with transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The results suggested that mitochondrion, rough endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi bodies, lomasomes and cortical microtubules were correlative to the formation of primary wall and secondary wall of earlier stage. In the earlier stage of secondary wall formation, chromatin agglutination, swelling and disintegration of organelles, and multivesicular bodies, etc. appeared in fiber cytoplasm. Fiber nucleus with the chromatin agglutination would keep for a long time, which implied that secondary wall formation stage of fiber in Phyllostachys edulis culms was a programmed cell death. Along with the further development of fiber, secondary wall continued thickening: the thickening level obviously increased in the former 4 years, and then gradually decreased. During the secondary wall formation,polylaminate structures of wall appeared in the fiber, with the persistence of plasmodesmata and transfer vesicles between fiber and its surrounding cells. The persistence of nucleus and plasmodesmata indicated the characteristic of long-lived cell of fiber.

The polyembryonic materials of coffee were selected by eye survey and in vitro cultured in this study. Observation of morphological characters was performed on polyembryonies and generated seedlings. The results showed that polyembryony existed in different multiploid coffee materials,the twin embryos rate varied in different materials from 1.06‰ to 4.46‰ among them, the twin embryos rate in 4X materials was higher than that in 2X materials. The shape and position of the embryos in seeds and growth characters of the seedlings with polyembryony in all the materials tested were very different. In general, the generated seedlings from big embryo grew normally and those from small embryo were weak, abnomrmal or died during growth.

Epidermal and anatomical characters of Viburnum mongolicum leaves were observed by the light and scanning electron microscopes. Comparing with Viburnum opulus, the differentiation of leaf construction, the distribution and density of stomata, trichome and glandular hairs， the characteristics of cutin and cuticular ornamentation were studied as well. The results showed that there is close relationship between leave morphological and anatomical structures of V. mongolicum and its ecological adaptability to dry, cool and shadow environments in the northern China. V. mongolicum defoliate later than V. opulus do. Its leaves possess a good capacity of dust adsorption. Therefore, this species has a potential prospect of utilization in landscapes and pollution resistances in north China.

Arabidopsis thaliana is a model plant in research of genetics, molecular biology and developmental biology. Several culture problems, however, exist in many laboratories of our country. We developed some indoor culture techniques of Arabidopsis for the laboratories. The modified protocol provided an appropriate indoor conditions for Arabidopsis growth and development. It emphasized culture medium, air humidity, temperature and photoperiod.

Mitogen-activated protein kinases(MAPKs) are the serine/threonine protein kinases in eukaryotes, they are phosphorylated by MAPKK and become activated, and then transfer signals by phosphorylating the serine or threonine residue of the substrate protein. MAPKs are components of the MAPK cascades which involved in the transduction of extracellular signals to intracellular targets and regulation of special genes’ expression. Distinct MAPK cascades are regulated by different extracellular stimuli and are implicated in a wide variety of biological processes. In this paper , the curren advances in studies on MAPKs and MAPK cascades are reviewed, including the structure characteristic, action machanism, biological function of MAPK and the regulation of MAPK cascades.

Two-component systems, consisting of a histidine (His) protein kinase that senses a signal input and a response regulator that mediates the output, are involved in various signal transduction pathways in many prokaryotes, fungi, slime molds, and plants. While in plants, there also exist more complex signaling systems that include a hybrid His kinase, a phosphorelay intermediate and a response regulator, which is referred to as multiple step two component systems. Recent studies indicated that two-component systems play important roles in signal transduction in response to environmental stimuli and growth regulators (such as ethylene, cytokinin), light and osmotic stress.

ABA has commonly been regarded as a signal which can transmit drought information when plants suffer drought stress. During the transduction of drought signal , the changes of guard cells following perceived ABA , which cause the closure of stomata, and the expression of genes induced by ABA are the complex course. In this review, we summarize the ABA signal transduction.

Plants have evolved the capacity to respond to wide range of environmental signals, one of the most important of which is light. Plants formed a precise system of reception and transduction of light signal in order to grow and develop optimally. Recent advances in light receptors, elements involved in light signal transduction were introduced in this paper.

The woody plants of 106 families，308 genera and 1240 species from Henan province were analysed and researched in the paper. The results showed that the diversities of spcecies， life forms， ecological properties and garden applications are rich and perfect.The standards of each kind of garden woody plants were given. Plants of 85 families， 219 genera and 641 species，2 subspecies， 24 varieties and 1 form were preliminarily selected to be ornamental trees，which may provide a scientific basis in selecting of species for the afforestation of city garden and all the other landscape sites of Henan province and its near areas. The foreground and the advice were given for the exploitation and utilization of woody plant resource of Henan province.