Jonathan B. L. Bard - Böcker

The aim of the series is to present relatively short accounts of areas of developmental and cell biology where sufficient information has accumulated to allow a considered distillation of the cells. This book studies the developmental biology of fern gametophytes, from their beginning through growth and maturation to their reproductive strategies. The books are intended to interest and instruct advanced undergraduates and graduate students and to make an important contribution to teaching cell and developmental biology. At the same time, they should be of value to biologists who, while not working directly in the area of a particular volume's subject matter, wish to keep abreast of developments relative to their particular interests.

During animal development the descendants of a single cell form many different tissues and organs in appropriate positions within an embryo. To do this they must recognise their position, and this book examines our knowledge of how this is done. It starts by considering how much spatial pattern is already laid down when the egg forms inside the mother, and ends just before the formation of visible organs. Within these limits it considers evidence obtained by a variety of techniques, both experimental and biochemical, and from the embryos of many different animal groups. This breadth of coverage and the amount of detail afforded, particularly to the experimental studies, distinguish it from competing works and will make it a very valuable review. Moreover, in the final chapter the author analyses this evidence in ways which will be new to most readers, and which call into question current ideas about spatial determination.

Many of the 14,000 genes of Drosophila are involved in the development of imaginal discs. These hollow sacs of cells make adult structures during metamorphosis, and their study is crucial to comprehending how a larva becomes a fully-functioning fly. This book examines the genetic circuitry of the well-known 'fruit fly', tackling questions of cell assemblage and pattern formation, of the hows and the whys behind the development of the fly. After an initial examination of the proximity versus pedigree imperatives, the book delves into bristle pattern formation and disc development, with entire chapters devoted to the leg, wing, and eye. Extensive appendices include a glossary of protein domains, catalogues of well-studied genes, and an outline of signaling pathways. More than 30 wiring diagrams among over 60 detailed schematics clarify the text. No student or practising scientist engaged in the study of Drosophila genetics should be without this comprehensive reference.

'I had the good fortune to behold for the first time that fantastic ending of the growing axon. In my sections of the spinal cord of the three day chick embryo, this ending appeared as a concentration of protoplasm of conical form, endowed with amoeboid movements. It could be compared with a living battering ram, soft and flexible, which advances, pushing aside mechanically the obstacles which it finds in its path, until it reaches the region of its peripheral termination. This curious terminal club, I christened the growth cone.' (Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Recollections of My Life, 1937). In Neuronal Growth Cones, Phillip Gordon-Weeks presents the molecular biology of the behavior of growth cones. The book covers the basic morphology and behavior of growth cones, motility and neurite extension via the growth cone cytoskeleton, pathfinding, intracellular signalling, and synaptogenesis. It is the first detailed, critical analysis of all aspects of growth cone biology.

The central thesis of this book is that Volvox and its unicellular and colonial relatives provide a wholly unrivalled opportunity to explore the proximate and ultimate causes underlying the evolution, from unicellular ancestors, of multicellular organisms with fully differentiated cell types. A major portion of the book is devoted to reviewing what is known about the genetic, cellular and molecular basis of development in the most extensively studied species of Volvox: V. cateri, which exhibits a complete division of labour between mortal somatic cells and immortal germ cells. However, this topic has been put in context by first considering the ecological conditions and cytological preconditions that appear to have fostered the evolution of organisms of progressively increasing size and with progressively increasing tendency to produce terminally differentiated somatic cells. The book concludes by raising the question of whether the germensoma dichotomy may have evolved by similar or different genetic pathways in different species of Volvox. Biologists and phycologists interested in development, genetics and cellular evolution will find this a fascinating work.

Plants are an advantageous group for the consideration of the development of biological form. Plants share most aspects of cell biology with other organisms, yet their embryonic development continues throughout their life, their cells do not move relative to each other and their structure is relatively simple. The chapters in this book are centred around the structure of tissues and its purpose is to try and predict what should be looked for at a molecular level so as to account for observable forms. Each chapter deals with a defined problem such as the role of hormones as correlative agents, tissue polarization, apical meristems and cell lineages. The final chapter develops an alternative approach to the problem of the specification of biological form, that of 'epigenetic selection'. The chapters are centred around the structure of tissues, an intermediate and neglected level between overt morphology and biochemistry, and will be of great interest to all those engaged in attempting to understand the principles behind plant development.

Cytokinesis is the division of the cell body that follows the sorting and transport of chromosomes. This book traces the history of some of the major ideas in the field and gives an account of our current knowledge of animal cytokinesis. It contains descriptions of division in different kinds of cells and the proposed explanations of the mechanisms underlying the visible events. Experiments devised to test cell division theories are described and explained. The forces necessary for cytokinesis now appear to originate from the interaction of linear polymers and motor molecules that have roles in force production, motion and shape change that occur in other phases of the biology of the cell. The localization of the force-producing division mechanism to a restricted linear part of the subsurface is caused by the mitotic apparatus, the same cytoskeletal structure that ensures orderly mitosis.

Development of the shapes of living organisms and their parts is a field of science in which there are no generally accepted theoretical principles. What form these principles are likely to take, when they emerge, is a subject in which there is a wide gulf of disagreement between physical scientists and experimental biologists. This book contains both an extensive philosophical commentary on this dichotomy in views and an exposition of the type of theory most favoured by physical scientists. In this theory living form is a manifestation of the dynamics of chemical change and physical transport or other physics of spatial communication. The reaction-diffusion theory, as initiated by Turing in 1952 and since elaborated by Prigogine and by Gierer and Meinhardt among others, is discussed in detail at a level that requires a good knowledge of a first course in calculus, but no more than that.

This description of a model system for cell differentiation and organogenesis is written by one of the foremost researchers in the area. The main emphasis is on the mammalian kidney, but the book also deals with the development of the transien excretory organs. It includes discussions of induction, proliferation, early cytodifferentiation and morphogenesis and organogenesis. This authoritative account will be valuable to developmental biologists and also to scientists working in paediatric nephrology. As it gives the background of normal development and of control systems, it will also be of use to nephrologists working on abnormalities in the urinary tract.

This description of a model system for cell differentiation and organogenesis is written by one of the foremost researchers in the area. The main emphasis is on the mammalian kidney, but the book also deals with the development of the transien excretory organs. It includes discussions of induction, proliferation, early cytodifferentiation and morphogenesis and organogenesis. This authoritative account will be valuable to developmental biologists and also to scientists working in paediatric nephrology. As it gives the background of normal development and of control systems, it will also be of use to nephrologists working on abnormalities in the urinary tract.

Development of the shapes of living organisms and their parts is a field of science in which there are no generally accepted theoretical principles. What form these principles are likely to take, when they emerge, is a subject in which there is a wide gulf of disagreement between physical scientists and experimental biologists. This book contains both an extensive philosophical commentary on this dichotomy in views and an exposition of the type of theory most favoured by physical scientists. In this theory living form is a manifestation of the dynamics of chemical change and physical transport or other physics of spatial communication. The reaction-diffusion theory, as initiated by Turing in 1952 and since elaborated by Prigogine and by Gierer and Meinhardt among others, is discussed in detail at a level that requires a good knowledge of a first course in calculus, but no more than that.

The last ten years have shown a dramatic revolution in our understanding of early animal development. This new edition of the successful first edition describes the result of this revolution and explains how the body plan of an embryo emerges from the newly fertilised egg. The book starts with a critical discussion of embryological concepts and explains in simple terms the mathematics of cell states, morphogen gradients and threshold responses. The experimental evidence on the mechanism of regional specification in Xenopus, molluscs, annelids, ascidians as well as Caenorhabditis, the mouse, the chick and Drosophila is then discussed. The whole chapter devoted to the exciting developments in Drosophila provides a clear guide to the subject, including a new table outlining the developmentally important genes. The emphasis throughout is on conceptual clarity and unity: bringing together the mathematical models, embryological experiments and molecular biology into a single, comprehensive coherent account.

This book presents a completely novel approach to the understanding of ageing, which many believe is an unsolved problem in biology. It explains why ageing exists in animals, and reviews our understanding of it at the biological level. This includes a discussion of the origins and evolution of ageing. The book is not a review of research on ageing, but instead draws on material from a wide range of disciplines, including the very extensive biomedical information about age-related diseases in humans. Understanding Ageing argues that much research needs to be done on the cellular and molecular aspects of ageing, if the origins of these diseases are to be understood, and their prevention made possible. This thought-provoking book will appeal to all students and researchers who are interested in ageing, whether they are working in the clinical or basic research sphere.