Meristematic cells in plants become the many different types of cells found in a mature plant. This is achieved by a selective response to chemical signals both from neighbouring cells and distant tissues. It is these responses that shape the plant, its time of flowering, the sex of its flowers, its length of survival or progress to senescence and death. How do plants achieve this? This treatise addresses this question using well-chosen examples to illustrate the concept of target cells. The authors discuss how each cell has the ability to discriminate between different chemical signals, determining which it will respond to and which it will ignore. The regulation of gene expression through signal perception and signal transduction is at the core of this selectivity and the Target Cell concept. This volume will serve as a valuable reference for all researchers working in the field of plant developmental biology.

Unicellular organisms use gravity as an environmental guide to reach and stay in regions optimal for their growth and reproduction. These single cells play a significant role in food webs and these factors together make the effects of gravity on unicellular organisms a fascinating and important subject for scientific study. In addition, they present valuable model systems for studying the mechanisms of gravity perception, a topic of increasing interest in these days of experimentation in space. This book reveals how single cells achieve the same sensoric capacity as multicellular organisms like plants or animals. It reviews the field, discussing the historical background, ecological significance and related physiology of unicellular organisms, as well as various experimental techniques and models with which to study them. Those working on the biology of unicellular organisms, as well as in related areas of gravitational and space science will find this book of value.

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.

Dictyostelia are soil amoebae capable of extraordinary feats of survival, motility, chemotaxis, and development. Characterised by their ability to transform from a single-celled organism into an elaborate assemblage of thousands of synchronously-moving cells, Dictyostelids are often referred to as 'social amoebae', and have been the subjects of serious study since the 1930s. Research in this area has been instrumental in understanding many problems in cellular biology. Beginning with the history of Dictyostelids and discussing each stage of their development, this book considers the evolution of this unique organism, analyses the special properties of the Dictyostelid genome, and presents in detail the methods available, at the time of the book's original publication in 2001, to manipulate their genes. Representing the synthesis of such material and with an emphasis on combining classical experiments with modern molecular findings, this book will be essential for researchers and graduates in developmental and cellular biology.

'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.

This 1999 edition of The Neural Crest contains comprehensive information about the neural crest, a structure unique to the vertebrate embryo, which has only a transient existence in early embryonic life. The ontogeny of the neural crest embodies the most important issues in developmental biology, as the neural crest is considered to have played a crucial role in evolution of the vertebrate phylum. Data that analyse neural crest ontogeny in murine and zebrafish embryos have been included in this revision. This revised edition also takes advantage of recent advances in our understanding of markers of neural crest cell subpopulations, and a full chapter is now devoted to cell lineage analysis. The major research breakthrough since the first edition has been the introduction of molecular biology to neural crest research, enabling an elucidation of many molecular mechanisms of neural crest development. This book is essential reading for students and researchers in developmental biology, cell biology, and neuroscience.

Fungal Morphogenesis brings together in one book, for the first time, the full scope of fungal developmental biology. It provides a coherent account of the subject and puts forward ideas that can provide the basis of future research. Throughout, the author blends together physiological, biochemical, structural and molecular descriptions within an evolutionary framework. Sufficient information is provided about fungal biology to give the reader a rounded view of the mycological context within which fungal morphogenesis is played out, without obscuring the broader biological significance. Readers with a background in basic biology should not need to bring any other knowledge with them, nor should it be necessary to refer elsewhere, in order to appreciate fungal morphogenesis. Written by one of the few people with the necessary breadth of research expertise to deal authoritatively with the wide range of topics, this book will appeal to developmental and cell biologists, microbiologists, and geneticists.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Morphogenesis, the set of processes that generate shape and form in the embryo, remains a central area in developmental biology. This book, first published in 1990, provides an overview of the events and mechanisms of morphogenesis, reviewing the major molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying morphogenetic change and describing how these processes are integrated during normal development. Most of the major embryological systems, both vertebrate and invertebrate, are discussed, with extensive coverage of the molecular mechanisms of morphogenesis involving the extracellular matrix, the membrane and the cytoskeleton. The major focus of the book, however, is on those properties of mesenchymal and epithelial cells responsible for organogenesis, while the extensive reference cover of the historical and contemporary literature (more than 500 titles) provides a useful research tool in this very wide field. This book is aimed at both scholars in the field of embryology, and postgraduate and final-year students in development and anatomy.

Meiosis, the antithesis of fertilization, is the unique genetically programmed mode of nuclear division associated with a halving of the chromosome number in sexually reproducing eukaryotes. It thus represents a key cellular and developmental pathway in the life of an organism. In this book, Bernard John presents the first complete, and the most authoritative, review of the events and mechanisms of meiosis including their scheduling, their mechanics and their biochemistry as well as their genetic control and the variations to be found in them in both sexual and subsexual systems. The text is superbly illustrated with 131 figures and 73 tables. Meiosis must be regarded as essential reading for all students, teachers and research workers with an interest in eukaryotic cell biology and genetics.

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.

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 book considers in detail the mechanisms of a major human problem. Chromosome imbalance affects all stages of life in ways ranging from spontaneous abortion and retardation to behavioural problems and malignancy. Charles J. Epstein concerns himself with how and why a particular chromosome imbalance produces a specific phenotype. His fundamental goal is to connect chromosome aberrations with functional abnormalities in terms of gene expression, developmental and cell biology, and metabolism. Through his examination of this relationship, we learn more about normal development and function. The book begins with an exploration of several human autosomal aneuploid phenotypes, with particular emphasis on the relationship between genotype and phenotype. In the next part, broad theoretical considerations of the mechanisms which generate these phenotypes are examined with reference to studies on man and other organisms such as bacteria and mice. Experimental approaches to study the effects of aneuploidy are presented next with special attention paid to the development of model systems for studying human aneuploidy.