The 12th International Symposium on Plant Lipids was held at the University of Toronto, Canada, from July 7th to 12th, 1996. The conference was attended by over 200 scientists from university, government and corporate laboratories from 24 different countries. The topics covered in the symposium ranged from basic physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of plant lipids to transformation and genetic engineering of crop plants. Oil seed plants were a particular focus of the symposium. There were 62 oral and 96 posters presentations. A special lecture in memory of the founder of this series of symposium, Terry Galliard, was presented by John Shanklin. This Proceedings Book has been dedicated to Grattan Roughan for his important contributions to our knowledge of plant lipid metabolism. This volume contains manuscripts submitted from most of the presentations at the symposium. It provides a useful summary of the major fields of plant lipid studies and our present state of knowledge. The papers are arranged in eight sections covering the major areas in the field of plant physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of plant lipids. We would like to thank Valerie Imperial, Rajesh Khetarpal and Mary Williams for their invaluable help in organizing and running the meetings and excursions. John P. Williams, Mobashsher U. Khan and Nora W. Lem Toronto, Canada, October 1996 xvii DEDICATION This volume is dedicated to Grattan Roughan.