TwentyyearshavegonebysinceJackSokatch?rstpublishedhisoutsta- ingTheBiologyofPseudomonasbackin1986.Thiswasfollowedbytwobooks published by the ASM that contained the presentations of the Pseudomonas meetings held in Chicago in 1989 and Trieste in 1991. The earlier volume of these two was edited by Simon Silver, Al Chakrabarty, Barbara Iglewski, and Sam Kaplan, and the later one by Enrica Galli, Simon Silver, and Bernard Witholt. The time was ripe for a series of books on Pseudomonas because of its importance in human and plant pathogenesis, bio?lms, soil and rhizosphere colonization, etc. Efforts were devoted to produce the ?rst three volumes of the series on the biology of Pseudomonas after a meeting with Kluwer staff members in August 2002 during the XI IUMS conference in Paris (France). In less than a year a group of outstanding scientists in the ?eld, after devoting much of their valuable time, managed to complete their chapters for the three volumes of the series. To ensure the high standard of each chapter, renowned scientists participated in the reviewing process. The three books collected part of the "explosion" of new vital information on the genus Pseudomonas.

"The first three volumes of the Pseudomonas series covered the biology of pseudomonads in a wide context, including the niches they inhabit, the taxonomic relations among members of this group, the molecular biology of gene expression in different niches and under different environmental conditions, the analysis of virulence traits in plants, animals and human pathogens as well as the determinants that make some strains useful for biotechnological applications and promotion of plant growth.

New Insights on Iron Acquisition Mechanisms in Pathogenic Pseudomonas.- Clonal Variations in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.- Pseudomonas aeruginosa Phospholipases and Phospholipids.- In Vivo Functional Genomics of Pseudomonas: PCR-Based Signature-Tagged Mutagenesis.- A Genome-Wide Mutant Library of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.- Biogenesis and Function of Type IV Pili in Pseudomonas Species.- Evolution of Catabolic Pathways in Pseudomonas Through Gene Transfer.- Controlling Regiospecific Oxidation of Aromatics and the Degradation of Chlorinated Aliphatics via Active Site Engineering of Toluene Monooxygenases.- Aromatic Ring Hydroxylating Dioxygenases.- The Pseudomonas Genome Database.