From deep ocean trenches and the geographical poles to outer space, organisms can be found living in remarkably extreme conditions. This book provides a captivating account of these systems and their extraordinary inhabitants, 'extremophiles'. A diverse, multidisciplinary group of experts discuss responses and adaptations to change; biodiversity, bioenergetic processes, and biotic and abiotic interactions; polar environments; and life and habitability, including searching for biosignatures in the extraterrestrial environment. The editors emphasize that understanding these systems is important for increasing our knowledge and utilizing their potential, but this remains an understudied area. Given the threat to these environments and their biota caused by climate change and human impact, this timely book also addresses the urgency to document these systems. It will help graduate students and researchers in conservation, marine biology, evolutionary biology, environmental change and astrobiology better understand how life exists in these environments and their susceptibility or resilience to change.

During evolution the vertebrate head has acquired a number of unique features including specialized paired sense organs and cranial sensory ganglia. These evolutionary novelties arise from discrete thickenings of the head ectoderm known as cranial placodes. They include the adenohypophyseal, olfactory, lens, trigeminal, profundal, otic, epibranchial and lateral line placodes. While distinct in the derivatives and cell types they will form, all cranial placodes originate from a common preplacodal domain surrounding the anterior neural plate. Recent evidence suggests that the induction of this pre-placodal domain and its subsequent subdivision into individual placodes with specific identities is a multi-step process. Here we describe the development of these placodes and their derivatives and summarize recent advances in the characterization of the repertoire of transcription factors underlying their development. We also review recent studies that have started to address the role of several classes of signaling molecules in placode induction and segregation, including Bone Morphogenetic Proteins, Fibroblast Growth Factors and Wnt molecules.Table of Contents: Introduction / Cranial Placodes and Their Derivatives / Molecular Identity of Cranial Placodes / Induction and Segregation of the Cranial Placodes / Conclusion / Acknowledgments / References / Author Biographies

This volume explores the richness of contemporary developmental biology, in addition to the organismal, cellular and molecular aspects of animal development.

The neural crest is a remarkable embryonic population of cells found only in vertebrates and has the potential to give rise to many different cell types contributing throughout the body. These derivatives range from the mesenchymal bone and cartilage comprising the facial skeleton, to neuronal derivatives of the peripheral sensory and autonomic nervous systems, to melanocytes throughout the body, and to smooth muscle of the great arteries of the heart. For these cells to correctly progress from an unspecifi ed, nonmigratory population to a wide array of dynamic, differentiated cell types-some of which retain stem cell characteristics presumably to replenish these derivatives-requires a complex network of molecular switches to control the gene programs giving these cells their defi ning structural, enzymatic, migratory, and signaling capacities. This review will bring together current knowledge of neural crest-specifi c transcription factors governing these progressions throughout the course of development. A more thorough understanding of the mechanisms of transcriptional control in differentiation will aid in strategies designed to push undifferentiated cells toward a particular lineage, and unraveling these processes will help toward reprogramming cells from a differentiated to a more naive state. Table of Contents: Introduction / AP Genes / bHLH Genes / ETS Genes / Fox Genes / Homeobox Genes / Hox Genes / Lim Genes / Pax Genes / POU Domain Genes / RAR/RXR Genes / Smad Genes / Sox Genes / Zinc Finger Genes / Other Miscellaneous Genes / References / Author Biographies

The unique architecture and physiology of the mammalian intestine, together with a tightly coordinated regulatory system, allows for the handling and absorption of as much as 9 L of fluid a day with 98% or greater efficiency. Advances in the past 40 years have made inroads into revealing the intricacies and interplay of numerous ion transporters and their modulators that are responsible for intestinal electrolyte and water transport. Studies of two devastating diseases, the virulent infectious disease cholera and the autosomal recessive disease cystic fibrosis, were largely responsible for this information explosion. These advances have been critical in the development of new therapeutic strategies to combat life-threatening diseases of varying etiologies ranging from enteric infections to cystic fibrosis and inflammatory bowel diseases. Yet, the story is far from complete, and progress needs to continue on translating information gained from reductionistic cell and tissue culture models, in vivo models, and ultimately human studies and on improving therapeutic approaches. This book reviews the current status of our knowledge of fluid transport across the intestine, including the complexities of transcellular and paracellular ion transport down the length of the intestine and how aberrations of normal physiological processes lead to disease. Table of Contents: Overview / Epithelial Cell and Tissue Architecture / Principles of Transepithelial Electrolyte and Water Movement / Intestinal Architecture and Electrolyte Transport / Electrolyte Transporters--Pumps, Carriers, and Channels / Water Transport / Regulation / Intestinal Disorders and Advances Toward Better Treatment of Intestinal Disorders / Conclusion / References

Though we have other distinguishing characteristics (walking on two legs, for instance, and relative hairlessness), the brain and the behavior it produces are what truly set us apart from the other apes and primates. And how this three-pound organ composed of water, fat, and protein turned a mammal species into the dominant animal on earth today is the story John S. Allen seeks to tell. Adopting what he calls a "bottom-up" approach to the evolution of human behavior, Allen considers the brain as a biological organ; a collection of genes, cells, and tissues that grows, eats, and ages, and is subject to the direct effects of natural selection and the phylogenetic constraints of its ancestry. An exploration of the evolution of this critical organ based on recent work in paleo anthropology, brain anatomy and neuroimaging, molecular genetics, life history theory, and related fields, his book shows us the brain as a product of the contexts in which it evolved: phylogenetic, somatic, genetic, ecological, demographic, and ultimately, cultural-linguistic. Throughout, Allen focuses on the foundations of brain evolution rather than the evolution of behavior or cognition. This perspective demonstrates how, just as some aspects of our behavior emerge in unexpected ways from the development of certain cognitive capacities, a more nuanced understanding of behavioral evolution might develop from a clearer picture of brain evolution.

In the intestine, a unique immunological system that is different from the systemic immune system exists to provide adaptive immunity in response to luminal bacteria and dietary antigens. There are many lymphoid cell aggregates called gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) including Peyer's patches (PPs), which function as important induction sites for the mucosal immune response. M-cells are present in the epithelium of PPs, having a specialized structure for uptake of macromolecules such as bacteria. In addition to GALT, there are abundant lymphoid cells in the intestinal lamina propria, where they mainly play a role as immune effector cells. A strong innate immune system that mainly consists of dendritic cells, macrophages, and T lymphocytes also exists in the intestinal mucosa to assist the barrier function of intestinal epithelial cells. The intestinal mucosa thus shows a unique morphological structure with many immune cells being present under physiological conditions. This condition is known as "controlled inflammation." These abundant immune cells also have characteristic functions: they are "negatively regulated" and have been educated not to overreact unnecessarily to the intestinal luminal milieu. Main players that control inflammation of the intestinal mucosa include regulatory cytokines and regulatory T cells which induce oral tolerance to intestinal bacteria and food antigens, and the secretory IgA system. The maintenance of unique immunological activity in the intestine is also related to an organized, orchestrated lymphocyte migratory mechanism called the "common mucosal immune system." These negative regulatory mechanisms of the intestinal immune system are disturbed in certain disease conditions, causing the immunocompetent cells to respond to food components and commensal bacteria by becoming activated and to overproduce inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. These disease conditions include food allergies, such as celiac disease, and the inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, although their exact etiological mechanisms remain to be revealed. Table of Contents: Introduction / GALT: Its Structure and Formation / Intestinal Epithelial Cells and Their Immune Function / Innate Immunity in the Intestinal Mucosa / Intraepithelial Lymphocytes (IELs) / Lymphoid Cell Trafficking in Intestinal Immunology / Site of Induction of Mucosal Immunity and Antigen Presentation by Dendritic Cells / Production of Secretory IgA (SIgA) / Effector Site of Acquired Immunity and T Helper Cell Subpopulation / Immune Regulatory System and Oral Tolerance / Food Allergy and Celiac Disease / Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Enteric Infection with Pathogenic Microbes and Mucosal Immunity / References

The transformative wave of Darwinian insight continues to expand throughout the human sciences. While still centered on evolution-focused fields such as evolutionary psychology, ethology, and human behavioral ecology, this insight has also influenced cognitive science, neuroscience, feminist discourse, sociocultural anthropology, media studies, and clinical psychology. This handbook's goal is to amplify the wave by bringing together world-leading experts to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of evolution-oriented and influenced fields. While evolutionary psychology remains at the core of the collection, it also covers the history, current standing, debates, and future directions of the panoply of fields entering the Darwinian fold. As such, The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior is a valuable reference not just for evolutionary psychologists but also for scholars and students from many fields who wish to see how the evolutionary perspective is relevant to their own work.

Scientists elucidate the astounding collective sensory capacity of Earth and its evolution through time. Chimeras and Consciousness begins the inquiry into the evolution of the collective sensitivities of life. Scientist-scholars from a range of fields-including biochemistry, cell biology, history of science, family therapy, genetics, microbial ecology, and primatology-trace the emergence and evolution of consciousness. Complex behaviors and the social imperatives of bacteria and other life forms during 3,000 million years of Earth history gave rise to mammalian cognition. Awareness and sensation led to astounding activities; millions of species incessantly interacted to form our planet's complex conscious system. Our planetmates, all of them conscious to some degree, were joined only recently by us, the aggressive modern humans. From social bacteria to urban citizens, all living beings participate in community life. Nested inside families within communities inside ecosystems, each metabolizes, takes in matter, expends energy, and excretes. Each of the members of our own and other species, in groups with incessantly shifting alliances, receives and processes information. Mergers of radically different life forms with myriad purposes-the "chimeras" of the title-underlie dramatic metamorphosis and other positive evolutionary change. Since early bacteria avoided, produced, and eventually used oxygen, Earth's sensory systems have expanded and complexified. The provocative essays in this book, going far beyond science but undergirded by the finest science, serve to put sensitive, sensible life in its cosmic context.

The vascular endothelium lining the inner surface of blood vessels serves as the first interface for circulating blood components to interact with cells of the vascular wall and surrounding extravascular tissues. In addition to regulating blood delivery and perfusion, a major function of vascular endothelia, especially those in exchange microvessels (capillaries and postcapillary venules), is to provide a semipermeable barrier that controls blood-tissue exchange of fluids, nutrients, and metabolic wastes while preventing pathogens or harmful materials in the circulation from entering into tissues. During host defense against infection or tissue injury, endothelial barrier dysfunction occurs as a consequence as well as cause of inflammatory responses. Plasma leakage disturbs fluid homeostasis and impairs tissue oxygenation, a pathophysiological process contributing to multiple organ dysfunction associated with trauma, infection, metabolic disorder, and other forms of disease. In this book, we provide an updated overview of microvascular endothelial barrier structure and function in health and disease. The discussion is initiated with the basic physiological principles of fluid and solute transport across microvascular endothelium, followed by detailed information on endothelial cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions and the experimental techniques that are employed to measure endothelial permeability. Further discussion focuses on the signaling and molecular mechanisms of endothelial barrier responses to various stimulations or drugs, as well as their relevance to several common clinical conditions. Taken together, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of microvascular endothelial cell and molecular pathophysiology. Such information will assist scientists and clinicians in advanced basic and clinical research for improved health care. Table of Contents: Acknowledgments / Introduction / Structure and Function of Exchange Microvessels / Methods for Measuring Permeability / The Endothelial Barrier / Signaling Mechanisms in the Regulation of Endothelial Permeability / Endothelial Barrier Protectors / Pathophysiology and Clinical Relevance / Conclusion / References

This book aims at providing an overview and in depth analysis of recent developments in stem cell research and therapy. It is composed of recently published review articles that went through peer-review process. Stem cells are the building blocks of the body. They can develop into any of the cells that make up our bodies. Stem cells hold a great deal of hope for the treatment of a broad range of diseases and injuries, spanning from cancers, diabetes, genetic diseases, graft-versus-host disease, eye, heart and liver diseases, inflammatory and autoimmune disorders, to neurological diseases and injuries, particularly neurodegenerative diseases. These include Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, cerebral strokes, and traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. Therefore, Stem cell research is as important for the understanding of the physio- and pathology of the body, as well as for the development and therapy, including the nervous system. Volume IV provides an overview and in depth analysis of recent developments on the role and functions of newly generated neuronal cells of the adult brain in the physio- and pathology of the nervous system. It further emphasises the tremendous potential of adult neural stem cells, as a promising model, for cellular therapy and regenerative medicine.

Platelets are essential mediators of the physiologic process of hemostasis and pathologic thrombosis. While platelets do not interact with vascular walls under normal conditions, vascular injury or inflammation result in a coordinated series of events including platelet adhesion, aggregation, and promotion of coagulation. In this review, we describe the primary mechanisms involved in these responses in various vascular beds of both macro- and microvessels, and outline key unresolved aspects of these important interactions.Table of Contents: Introduction / General Characteristics of Platelets / Platelet Adhesion to Vascular Walls / Platelet Aggregation / Platelet Recruitment and Blood Coagulation / Arterial, Venous, and Microvascular Hemostasis/Thrombosis / Summary

For millennia, Africans have lived on the African continent, in close contact with the diversities of nature: floral, faunal and human; and in so doing they have developed cultures, values, attitudes and perspectives to the problems, ethical and otherwise, that have arisen from the existential pressures of their situation. The problem, however, is that such values and perspectives do not necessarily form coherent ethical theories. Theory-making is a second order activity requiring a certain amount of leisure and comfort which the existential conditions of life on the African continent have not easily permitted in the retrospect-able past. The elements of African bioethics are to be found in its cultural values, traditions, customs and practices. These are research-able, highlight-able and usable by those who would. The bioethical problems of our current global existential situation are such that all possible solutions, no matter their provenance, ought to be tried. Western culture has far too loud a voice combined with deaf ears in contemporary ethical discourse. But it should never be forgotten that other cultures have their own word to say and that alternative values, ways of thinking and practices exist, and attempt should always be made to bring these out and to highlight them, if they could possibly contribute to the satisfactory solution of a global problem. This book brings together various papers on bioethical issues and problems, written at different times, some previously published, each of which attempts to bring out some African elements, perspective or concern. The African narrative style predominates through these essays but their framing conforms, more or less, to the Western paradigm for presenting academic issues.

The fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) represent one of the relatively few families of extracellular signalling peptides that have been shown in recent decades to be key regulators of metazoan development. FGFs are required for multiple processes in both protostome and deuterostome groups. Given the wide range of regulatory roles attributed to the FGFs, it is perhaps not surprising that misregulation of this signalling pathway has been implicated in a number of human disease conditions. The focus of the present review is to look at the fundamental components of the FGF pathway and illustrate how this highly conserved regulatory cassette has been deployed to regulate multiple, diverse processes during vertebrate development. This review will explore examples from several vertebrate model organisms and include discussions of the role of FGF signalling in regulating the establishment of the mesoderm, neural patterning, morphogenesis, myogenesis, limb development, and the establishment of right-left asymmetry.Table of Contents: Introduction / FGF Ligands / FGF Receptors / Heparan Sulphate Proteoglycans / FGF Signal Transduction / Regulators / Integration with Other Signalling Pathways / Mesoderm Induction / Neural Induction / FGF Signalling and Posterior Neural Patterning / FGF Signalling at the Isthmic Organizer / FGF Signalling at the Anterior Neural Ridge / Morphogenesis / Somitogenesis / FGF and Myogenesis / Limb Development / FGF and Left-Right Asymmetry / Perspectives / References / About the Authors

The Wnt/ -catenin signaling pathway is a key regulator of cell fate specification, differentiation, and growth in multiple systems throughout the animal kingdom. In vertebrate posterior neural development, Wnt/ -catenin signaling controls this complex multistep process. It initially induces the posterior regions of the nervous system, including the mid-hindbrain border, hindbrain, spinal cord and neural crest, and then subsequently fine-tunes the pattern of each region and determines the different cell fates within them. In this review, we explore the function of the Wnt/ -catenin pathway during the formation of these specific posterior neural regions. We have examined the important transcriptional targets of the Wnt/ -catenin pathway acting downstream to mediate its morphogenetic activity. Different regulatory networks are activated in different posterior neural regions, and these networks induce specific neural cell types in each region. Eludidating how each of these networks specify different cell fates is crucial for understanding the basic tenets of how Wnt morphogenetic activity induces the posterior nervous system during the earliest stages of vertebrate development. Table of Contents: Introduction / Making the Neural Rear / Wnt Morphogenetic Activity in Neural Posterior Induction / Induction of the Midbrain-Hindbrain Border / Induction of the Hindbrain / Induction of the Spinal Cord / Downstream of Wnt: Hindbrain or Spinal Cord? / Neural Crest Induction / Anti-Wnt Anterior Determinants / The Role of Mesoderm and Specific Wnt Ligands in Neural Patterning / Concluding Remarks / References

Technological advances have given us increased life expectancy, conquest of disease and hunger, provided us the wherewithal to explore other worlds, and our inner selves. Yet, we owe a certain pessimism to the materialism of the mind. Beyond Biology transposes brain science from mere description of diseases and lesions, into a realm of limitless possibility. The brain, mediator for all behavior, is the springboard of all human capacity, taking us far beyond our physical and biological limitations. Do computers and other tools extend mental and physical capacities? For science, music, architecture, all of civilization, our brain is their launching pad. Beyond Biology views physicality as the mere beginning of human potential, not its end. Scientific understanding, far from being just reductionist, must ignite a new spiritual awakening. This work seeks to transport the reader into the metaphysical world through the lens of brain biology

Eggs of all animals contain mRNAs and proteins that are supplied to or deposited in the egg as it develops during oogenesis. These maternal gene products regulate all aspects of oocyte development, and an embryo fully relies on these maternal gene products for all aspects of its early development, including fertilization, transitions between meiotic and mitotic cell cycles, and activation of its own genome. Given the diverse processes required to produce a developmentally competent egg and embryo, it is not surprising that maternal gene products are not only essential for normal embryonic development but also for fertility. This review provides an overview of fundamental aspects of oocyte and early embryonic development and the interference and genetic approaches that have provided access to maternally regulated aspects of vertebrate development. Some of the pathways and molecules highlighted in this review, in particular, Bmps, Wnts, small GTPases, cytoskeletal components, and cell cycle regulators, are well known and are essential regulators of multiple aspects of animal development, including oogenesis, early embryogenesis, organogenesis, and reproductive fitness of the adult animal. Specific examples of developmental processes under maternal control and the essential proteins will be explored in each chapter, and where known conserved aspects or divergent roles for these maternal regulators of early vertebrate development will be discussed throughout this review. Table of Contents: Introduction / Oogenesis: From Germline Stem Cells to Germline Cysts / Oocyte Polarity and the Embryonic Axes: The Balbiani Body, an Ancient Oocyte Asymmetry / Preparing Developmentally Competent Eggs / Egg Activation / Blocking Polyspermy / Cleavage/ Mitosis: Going Multicellular / Maternal-Zygotic Transition / Reprogramming: Epigenetic Modifications and Zygotic Genome Activation / Dorsal-Ventral Axis Formation before Zygotic Genome Activation in Zebrafish and Frogs / Maternal TGF- and the Dorsal-Ventral Embryonic Axis / Maternal Control After Zygotic Genome Activation / Compensation by Stable Maternal Proteins / Maternal Contributions to Germline Establishment or Maintenance / Perspective / Acknowledgments / References

Experts from diverse fields, including artificial life, cognitive science, economics, developmental and evolutionary biology, and the arts, discuss modularity. Modularity-the attempt to understand systems as integrations of partially independent and interacting units-is today a dominant theme in the life sciences, cognitive science, and computer science. The concept goes back at least implicitly to the Scientific (or Copernican) Revolution, and can be found behind later theories of phrenology, physiology, and genetics; moreover, art, engineering, and mathematics rely on modular design principles. This collection broadens the scientific discussion of modularity by bringing together experts from a variety of disciplines, including artificial life, cognitive science, economics, evolutionary computation, developmental and evolutionary biology, linguistics, mathematics, morphology, paleontology, physics, theoretical chemistry, philosophy, and the arts. The contributors debate and compare the uses of modularity, discussing the different disciplinary contexts of "modular thinking" in general (including hierarchical organization, near-decomposability, quasi-independence, and recursion) or of more specialized concepts (including character complex, gene family, encapsulation, and mosaic evolution); what modules are, why and how they develop and evolve, and the implication for the research agenda in the disciplines involved; and how to bring about useful cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer on the topic. The book includes a foreword by the late Herbert A. Simon addressing the role of near-decomposability in understanding complex systems.

While we have a feeling that our 'thought experiment' could bear fruit, we are far from the idea that equivalent expressions by the brain and the immune function point to an axis of both systems. Al-though major players, they also depend on the regulation of the rest of the body. As we focus here rather on a social context, many more factors are to be accounted for. Shanty-towns, rather than being seen in a dismissive context, may provide clues to historical conditions, a tip off perhaps to update the idea of 'individualistic' immunity. Subjected to all kinds of inward and outward interferences, obviously, a historical approach is complex. Urban overcrowding, by replacing nomadic life, allowed multiple interacting brains to develop civilization and science. The fact that survival under prolonged siege had been recorded, filthy food and water supply notwithstanding, suggests that collective immune adaptation may not be out of question either. Fortunately, experimental evidence in mice and other animal comes in support to our hypothesis of collective immunity. As yet no consensus about immune stimulation or downplaying has been reached, our aim being the possibility of reciprocal immune influence as such.

In most respects, Abigail and Brittany Hensel are normal American twins. Born and raised in a small town, they enjoy a close relationship, though each has her own tastes and personality. But the Hensels also share a body. Their two heads sit side-by-side on a single torso, with two arms and two legs. They have not only survived, but have developed into athletic, graceful young women. And that, writes Mark S. Blumberg, opens an extraordinary window onto human development and evolution.
In Freaks of Nature, Blumberg turns a scientist's eye on the oddities of nature, showing how a subject once relegated to the sideshow can help explain some of the deepest complexities of biology. Why, for example, does a two-headed human so resemble a two-headed minnow? What we need to understand, Blumberg argues, is that anomalies are the natural products of development, and it is through developmental mechanisms that evolution works. Freaks of Nature induces a kind of intellectual vertigo as it upends our intuitive understanding of biology. What really is an anomaly? Why is a limbless human a "freak," but a limbless reptile-a snake-a successful variation?
What we see as deformities, Blumberg writes, are merely alternative paths for development, which challenge both the creature itself and our ability to fit it into our familiar categories. Rather than mere dead-ends, many anomalies prove surprisingly survivable-as in the case of the goat without forelimbs that learned to walk upright. Blumberg explains how such variations occur, and points to the success of the Hensel sisters and the goat as examples of the extraordinary flexibility inherent in individual development.
In taking seriously asubject that has often been shunned as discomfiting and embarrassing, Mark Blumberg sheds new light on how individuals-and entire species-develop, survive, and evolve.

This exceptional laboratory manual describes thirty-seven procedures most likely to be used in the next decade for molecular, biochemical, and cellular studies on Drosophila. They were selected after extensive consultation with the research community and rigorously edited for clarity, uniformity, and conciseness.
The outstanding features of this protocol collection are:
Scope: The methods included permit investigation of chromosomes, cell biology, molecular biology, genomes, biochemistry, and development.
Depth: Each protocol includes the basic information needed by novices, with sufficient detail to be valuable to experienced investigators.
Format: Each method is carefully introduced and illustrated with figures, tables, illustrations, and examples of the data obtainable.
Added value: The book's appendices include key aspects of Drosophila biology, essential solutions, buffers, and recipes. An evolution of Michael Ashburner's 1989 classic Drosophila: A Laboratory Manual, this book is an essential addition to the personal library of Drosophila investigators and an incomparable resource for other research groups with goals likely to require fly-based technical approaches.