Cover photograph (Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.): Dead plant foliage. Effects like those shown here are observed upon treatment of plants with the herbicide paraquat. Many soil microbes, among them Streptomyces coelicolor, display an intrinsic resistance to paraquat. (For an article in this issue analyzing the genetic basis of paraquat resistance in S. coelicolor, see page 6756.)