This is the second volume since the reintroduction of the Recent Advances in Phytochemistry
(RAP) series an annual journal supported by the Phytochemical Society of North America. Topics
appropriate for RAP include the biosynthesis of natural products and regulation of metabolism
the ecology of specialized metabolites and the evolution of their pathways and the effects of
natural products or plants on human health. Research appropriate for RAP involves genomics
proteomics metabolomics natural product structural determination and new technology
development medicinal chemistry and metabolic engineering or any of the myriad of fields that
are now closely associated with what may be called traditional phytochemistry and plant
biochemistry. The advent of post-genomics-based ways of thinking of systems biology of
synthetic biology of comparative genomics proteomics transcriptomics metabolomics and
especially of the introduction and establishment of a mentality that leads to support of large
collaborative projects has opened up many new doors to scientists interested and versed in the
(bio)chemistry of plants. The goal of RAP is to highlight these developments. Two main types of
articles are printed in RAP: Perspectives and Communications. Perspectives in RAP are expected
to synthesize results from the primary literature and perhaps from new novel results and place
these in perspective relative to the broader field. These articles may be similar to review
articles but also are intended to present important ideas and hypotheses and may present
proposals for interesting directions in the field. It is the hope of the Editorial Board that
these articles will be of great value to a large audience. Communications are intended to
represent new advances in the field that will be of interest to a large audience. Articles of
both types are typically solicited from the Society membership based on the content of the
annual meeting talks but in keeping with the title Recent Advances in Phytochemistry the
editorial board reserves the right to solicit additional Perspectives and or Communications
from non-attendees as well (e.g. where an editorial board member has knowledge of an
interesting recent advancement that would be of general interest to the society membership).
All submissions to RAP go through a rigorous peer review process overseen by the Editorial
Board which includes external review. RAP is indexed with Springer published journals. All RAP
papers are available not only in the published volume form but also electronically through
Springer's online literature services. This marks a significant change from past volumes of RAP
and it is the hope of the Editorial Board that this will lead to broader dissemination of the
contents of and greater interest in RAP. This 42nd volume of RAP includes a total of seven
articles many but not all based on talks presented at the 50th annual meeting of the PSNA.
As was seen in RAP volume 41 These seven Perspectives give a very good picture of the breadth
of plant (bio)chemistry research in North America which is also indicative of the state of the
field worldwide. Each of these articles describes the integration of several different
approaches to ask and then answer interesting questions regarding the function of interesting
plant metabolites either in the plant itself or in interactions with the environment (natural
setting or human health application). Many of these Perspectives have a strong ecological
focus. McCormick et al. review the discovery of the biosynthetic pathway leading to production
of trichothecene mycotoxins such as the T-2 toxin in plant pathogenic and other fungi. These
compounds play very important roles in plant-pathogen interaction and are very significant
from a human health perspective. In a complementary paper Duringer et al. describe recent
technological advances in monitoring mycotoxins such as ergovaline and lysergic acid in forage
crops using state of the art and highly sensitive mass spectrometric means. Gross reviews the
current understanding of how infochemicals mediate interactions between plants and insects and
highlights how such knowledge can be used to mitigate crop losses by pests. Two Perspectives
discuss how recent technological advances are making an impact on our understanding of the role
of plant hormones in plant growth and development. Gouthu et al. outline highly sensitive
methods for measurement of plant hormones in tissues such as developing grape berry. In
contrast McDowell and Gang outline how new transcriptional profiling techniques are shedding
light on old questions such as how rhizome development is regulated by different plant growth
regulators. The last two Perspectives outline the role of biotechnology in modern plant
biochemistry research. Makhzoum et al. review the long history of use of hairy roots and
provide perspective on future utility of this tissue type in continuing to uncover mecha
