In modern scientific investigation the fields of biochemistry, molecular
biology, and morphology comprise an indivisible area of study. The
present book results from the cooperation of a bioehernist and
morphologists: the revision and unified treatment of available data is
the primary object of our work. A comprehensive review of all the
available literature is therefore beyond the scope of this volume. lt is
intended to be a manual to be used in the laboratory, with convenient
guidelines for practical work. Plant microbodies have been treated by B.
GERHARDT in Volume 5 of this series. The discovery of fatty acid
ß-oxidation in animal peroxisomes has proved once more that plant and
animal microbodies are members of the same family of organelles. lt
provided new insights into the physiological meaning of these particles;
our understanding of these "classical" cell organelies is undergoing
continual alteration and development. PETER BöcK Vienna, July 1980
ROBERT KRAMAR MARGIT PAVELKA Acknowledgements We wish to express our
gratitude to Prof. Dr. D. H. FAHIMI and Dr. P. KALMBACH (Heidelberg) for
kindly providing Figure 14, to Prof. Dr. KARIN GoRGAS (Heidelberg) for
allowing the reproduction of Figure 43, to Profs. Dr. L. STOCKINGER and
Dr. E. KAISER for helpful criticism, and to all our colleagues in our
respective institutes. W e are especially grateful to Drs. H. GoLDENBERG
and M. HüTTINGER for continuous discussion, to Mrs. JuTTA SELBMANN for
typing the references, and to Mr. P. KAMPFER and Mr. H. WAGNER for
carefully drawing some of the figures.