The density property for complex manifolds - examples and applications

The density property for complex manifolds is a way of saying the manifold has a large group of holomorphic automorphisms. It allows
in the case of Stein manifolds to approximate local injective maps by (global) automorphisms.We will explain the last statement more precisely. Then we survey the numerous
applications of it. Also we survey examples of Stein manifolds known to have that property.

Exposé dans les cadres du rencontre Journées de la géométrie affine à  Grenoble,
Grenoble, 9-10 mai 2011