This volume is interesting, but also frustrating. Its major strength is that the authors approach their topics from the point of view of developing countries, where various symbiotic and other microorganisms can be of greatest advantage. It is refreshing to see review chapters written by those less familiar to many in the developed world, revealing literature not easily available to some readers. The extent of information on tree legumes is also good – most such books concentrate on grain and forage species. The frustration lies in the considerable amount of repetition, both within and between chapters, with three on arbuscular mycorrhizas, three on plant growth promoting rhizobia and two on biofilms.

I enjoyed the historical approach on rhizobial taxonomy (Chapter 1). Chapter 2, discussing infection, erred in considering only root hair entry, even though it noted that Aeschynomene (crack entry infection) can be nodulated by rhizobia lacking nod ABC genes, essential for hair infection. Chapter 3 covers some of the same material better. Chapter 4 goes into proteomics and like its predecessors, groups nodules as either determinate or indeterminate, completely ignoring the variations within these groups. Of the mycorrhizal chapters, Chapter 10 is the most comprehensive. Chapter 14 on metal tolerance is useful and Chapter 15 on legume-microbial interactions in stressed environments is good. Major grain legumes (soybean, common bean, cowpea and groundnut (peanut)) are covered in Chapter 18, but other legumes better adapted to saline and dry environments (some noted in Chapter 14) are not covered. The final chapter (20) looks at the potential uses of nodulated legumes for management of plant diseases, but misses out successes such as the use of Desmodium intortum and other legumes to control Striga in Africa. An index would have been useful.