Biotechnology is in many aspects shaping our life and affecting our meansof production, and job creation. Progress in the applications of biotechnologydepends on a wide base of basic as well as applied sciences. The output of biotechnology has already proved itself in many diverse fields from health to biominingand from agriculture to enzyme "breeding". It is therefore difficult to follow all thecurrent as well as the potential applications of biotechnology. The objectives of the Biotechnology Annual Review series is to attempt to provide readers with the needed indepth knowledge, in the form of chapters, byreviewing specific topics in biotechnology in each issue. The philosophy behindthis series is to encourage good reviews to make it easier for readers to keep intouch with progress and applications of biotechnology. We also encourage reviewing topics that are related to regulatory affairs, social impact of biotechnology, biodiversity, biosafety, public acceptance and patent issues.