"Preface Twenty years ago, I wrote the first edition of this book on the fungal cell wall structure and synthesis, a topic in which I have been interested for many years. As occurs in Twenty Years After, second in the saga of The Three Musketeers, by Alexander Dumas, many changes have occurred during this 20-year time period, beginning with those occurring in my own person. The field of cell wall research is no exception, and the main topics of investigation have oscillated from those mainly centered on the determination of the chemical composition of the wall, and the biochemical and physiological aspects of cell wall growth and expansion, to a field dominated, in great part, by molecular biology and its ramifications. This change is obvious, since it is the wave in biology in general. It is positive because it has brought light to many aspects of the behavior of the cell wall, the synthesis of its main components, and the enzymes involved and their regulation. However, it is negative because many important aspects have been left out because they are not fashionable. With this background, I have dared to take the responsibility of writing this second edition, maybe without taking into consideration that I am probably old-fashioned and perhaps without the necessary background to tackle the new ideas on the subject. But, with the courage to engage in an attractive enterprise and my long interest on the fungal cell wall, I expect to cover these deficiencies. Only the readers will judge if I have succeeded or not"-- Provided by publisher.