From the PrefaceThis book attempts to delineate some of the more recent efforts at utilizing biotechnology in industry. For convenience, this book is divided into the following five sections: (1) Industrial Applications, (2) Polysaccharides and Lignins, (3) Spider Silks, (4) Protein-Based Systems, and (5) Miscellaneous Biotechnological Polymers. The division is intended for the convenience of the reader and not to depict any basic demarcation in biotechnology, which already spans much of our modern technology and appears poised to embark on a course aimed at extending its boundaries even further. One of the newest trends in science is the mimicking of nature using solutions provided in nature (such as elasticity) to produce materials with distinctive properties. The papers in this book are extensions of presentations given March 15-16, 1994, in San Diego, at the 207th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society during a symposium on "Industrial Biotechnological Polymers." This symposium was sponsored by the Biotechnology Secretariat and cosponsored by the A.C.S. Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering. The editors believe this book will make a lasting contribution to the field of biotechnological polymers.