Book excerpt: An overview of the past 50 years of plant microbe research heads 26 papers from the 8th Japan-US Cooperative Science Seminar on "Plant perception of pathogen signals" held in June 1999 in Marina del Ray, CA. Parallels between plant and animal host defense systems is a major theme. Historical topics of interest that continue to draw attention include: growth hormones, fungal and bacterial toxins, the avirulent gene concept, pathogen elicitors and hypersensitive responses, and the avirulence and harpin molecules. A new seminar focus is Hrp delivery system and apoptosis. Keen is at the U. of California, Riverside. Lacks an index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.