Cover illustration: For centuries, flax (Linum usitatissimum) was used by mankind as a valuable crop for textile production because of the presence of long and strong cellulose fibres in its stem. Flax seeds are also a very interesting by-product of flax culture because of the diversity of their storage compounds. (Top) Longitudinal cross-sections of 10 d and 40 d after flowering flax embryos stained for protein (blue) and polysaccharides (red) detection. (Top middle) Successive development stages of flax flower-fruit (capsule) used to harvest flax seeds at different developmental stages. (Middle) cDNA-AFLP gel fragment used to identify genes specifically expressed during flax seed development. (Lower) In situ hybridization pictures confirming flax seed-specific expression of a CAAT-box transcription factor. (See Laurent Gutierrez et al., pp. 1919–1932.)
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