ABSTRACT
Historically, plant breeding, classical plant genetics, and plant cytogenetics have established many fundamental rules of inheritance for both plants and animals. Similarly, contemporary work on plants is making leading contributions in genetic engineering, transformation, gene expression, somatic cell hybridization, and the use of sophisticated culture procedures to clone, develop, and propagate cells and plants, as well as adding to our knowledge of concepts applicable to plants and animals. Two basic biological processes essential to both classical and molecular plant research are cell division and chromosomal DNA replication. Should either of these two processes fail to function all experiments, whether classical or molecular, also would fail. Yet, despite their importance, too little is known about cell division and chromosomal DNA replication in higher plants. The objective of this chapter, and indeed, of the entire book, is to encourage more research in these fields.
