Perspectives in Plant Cell Recognition presents a review of recent advances in understanding the cellular, molecular and genetic mechanisms governing cell-cell interactions in plants. In the case of the interaction between different cells of the same plant, most progress has been made in the study of gametes during sexual reproduction and the volume begins by considering this topic. Exciting progress in the study of associations between somatic cells crucial to coordinated tissue development is also reported. Interactions between plant cells and cells of other organisms are then represented by consideration of plant pathogenesis and examples of mutual symbiosis; the study of both of these areas has yielded significant information about this category of interaction. In particular, the Rhizobium/legume symbiosis has been studied extensively and the genes controlling the specificity of the interaction and involved in creating a harmonious mutualism have been cloned and their products identified.