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lar system (chs.2-8), rather than proceeding from early to late events in all
systems. Each user must decide for himself whether he likes this idea. Chapters
1 (43 pp.) and 9 (12 pp.) serve to integrate the book by concentrating
on aspects and theories common to all systems. These chapters on the whole
fulfil their role admirably and provide real insight.
Ch.l deals briefly with the principles of cellular and molecular biology,
asexual reproduction and growth, sexual reproduction, and embryonic development
in animals and plants. Each of the chapters 2-5 deals sequentially with
normal development (from gametogenesis to adult) , classical and modern experimental
approaches, and gene activity at the molecular level. Noteworthy
features are sections on specification of synapses in ch.4, and on teratogenesis,
the development of immunity, and the development of behaviour in
ch.5. Chapters 4 and 5 have appendices to help in understanding developmental
anatomy in the laboratory. In the chapters 2-8 comparisons between systems
are made wherever appropriate.
The book is on the whole very readable but in places somewhat cryptic or
perhaps too difficult and condensed for beginning students. There are occasional
inaccuracies, sometimes apparently due to unfamiliarity with the recent
literature. This reviewer rather missed a discussion of lens regeneration
in urodeles, a paradigm of cell transformation. He also found the definition
of "field" unsatisfactory and that of "morphogenesis" rather inadequate;
no proper definition of "positional information" is given.
All chapters have adequate reading lists, but since author names are hardly
ever mentioned in the text it must sometimes be difficult for the student
to know what to select. The book is very well illustrated with line drawings
and a wealth of photographic material, much of it specially prepared for the
book. The explanatory captions are extensive but a few are less than adequate
(fig. 5. 29 refers to amphibian limb regeneration, not to the mammalian limb
bud!)
3.
P.GRANT. 1978. BIOLOGY OF DEVELOPING SYSTEMS
Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, etc. XVI, 720 pp., 457 figs., 26 tabs.,
combined subject and taxonomic index. £ 8.7 5
Contents: ch.l. Developmental systems; Part I DEVELOPMENTAL INFORMATION,
ch. 2. Organization of developmental information in cells, ch. 3, Retrieval
and exchange of developmental information; Part II. GROWTH, ch.4. Growth
of single cells, ch.5. Cell division: multiplicative growth, ch.6. Organismic
growth; Part III. MORPHOGENESIS, ch. 7. Macromolecular assembly: the
ontogeny of cell organelles, ch.8. Morphogenesis in single cells, ch.9.
Acquisition of multicellularity , ch.lO. Cell surface in morphogenesis,
ch.ll. The egg as a developmental system, ch.l2. Organogenesis: behavior
of cell sheets, ch.l3. Information flow in early embryonic development,
ch.l4. Asexual buds, ch.l5. Regeneration: a developmental reprise, ch.l6.
Morphogenesis of patterns; Part IV. DIFFERENTIATION, ch.l7. Totipotency,
determination, and differentiation, ch.l8. The immune system: a model of
differentiation, ch.l9. The larva and metamorphosis; Part V. DEVELOPMENTAL
DEFECTS, ch.20. Congenital abnormalities, ch.21. Neoplasia: an abnormal
cell phenotype, ch.22. Aging: a decline in growth potential?
This is one of the best developmental biology texts to have appeared in
recent years. It was designed for older undergraduates and beginning graduates
and the scope and coverage are astounding. Any student who has digested
it will have a firm grasp of the entire field. It was an excellent idea to
start the book with the principles of cell biology with particular reference
to the flow of information in the cell. Another noteworthy feature is
the emphasis throughout on the hierarchial nature of biological organisation.
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