Natural resources and associated biological diversity provide the basis of livelihood for human population, particularly in the rural areas and mountain regions across the globe. Asia is home to the world's highest mountain regions including the Himalayas, Karakorum and Hindukush. These regions are renowned around the globe because of their unique beauty, climate, and biocultural diversity. Because of geoclimatic conditions, the mountains of Asia are medicinal and food plant diversity hot spots. The indigenous communities residing in the valleys of these mountains have their own culture and traditions, and have a long history of interaction with the surrounding plant diversity. Local inhabitants of these mountains areas possess significant traditional knowledge of plant species used as food, medicine, and for cultural purposes. So far, many workers have reported traditional uses of plant species from different regions of Asia including some mountain areas; however, there is not one inclusive document on the ethnobotany of mountains in Asia. This book provides a comprehensive overview on ethno-ecological knowledge and cross cultural variation in the application of plant species among various communities residing in the mountains of Asia; cross cultural variation in traditional uses of plant species by the mountain communities; high value medicinal and food plant species; and threats and conservation status of plant species and traditional knowledge. This book should be useful to researchers of biodiversity and conservation, ethnobiologists, ethnoecologists, naturalists, phytochemists, pharmacists, policy makers, and all who have a devotion to nature.

This Open Access volume provides a comprehensive overview of the latest tools available to scientists to study the many facets of whole-body regeneration (WBR). The chapters in this book are organized into six parts. Part One provides a historical overview on the study of the WBR phenomena focusing on the primary challenges of this research. Parts Two and Three explore a series of non-vertebrate zoological contexts that provide experimental models for WBR, showing how they can be approached with cellular tools. Parts Four, Five, and Six discuss the future advancements of WBR, reporting about the cutting-edge techniques in genetics and omics used to dissect the underlying mechanisms of WBR, and systems biology approaches to reach a synthetic view of WBR. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and thorough, Whole-Body Regeneration: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for scientists and researchers who want to learn more about this important and developing field.

This detailed volume presents a variety of animal models that are commonly used to study sepsis and some key procedures to measure specific disease outcomes. The chapters describe well-established surgical and nonsurgical rodent models of sepsis, presented by experts in the field. In addition, the book includes protocols for burn injury and sepsis, modeling the mouse intensive care unit (MICU), and the development of humanized mice, which may be useful tools to increase the translational potential of rodent sepsis research. There is a chapter discussing the use of biomarkers for sepsis diagnosis and prognosis in humans and mice, as well as chapters describing specific methods for biomarker measurement, and the use of analgesics and humane endpoints in rodent sepsis research. Finally, agent-based computational modeling is presented as a valuable complementary approach to study sepsis. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Sepsis: Methods and Protocols serves as an ideal guide for researchers working toward improving the identification and treatment of septic patients.

L systems are language-theoretic models for developmental biology. They wereintroduced in 1968 by Aristid Lindenmayer (1925-1989) and have proved to be among the most beautiful examples of interdisciplinary science, where work in one area induces fruitful ideas and results in other areas. L systemsare based on relational and set-theoretic concepts, which are more suitable for the discrete and combinatorial structures of biology than mathematical models based on calculus or statistics. L systems have stimulated new work not only in the realistic simulation of developing organisms but also in the theory of automata and formal languages, formal power series, computer graphics, and combinatorics of words. This book contains research papers by almost all leading authorities and by many of the most promising young researchers in the field. The 28 contributions are organized in sections on basic L systems, computer graphics, graph grammars and map L systems, biological aspects and models, and variations and generalizations of L systems. The introductory paper by Lindenmayer and J}rgensen was written for a wide audience and is accessible to the non-specialist reader. The volume documents the state of the art in the theory of L systems and their applications. It will interest researchers and advanced students in theoretical computer science and developmental biology as well as professionals in computer graphics.

The COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2019-2020 has led to a gigantic increase in modeling and simulation of infectious diseases. There are numerous topics associated with this epoch-changing event, such as (a) disease propagation, (b) transmission, (c) decontamination, and (d) vaccines. This is an evolving field. The targeted objective of this book is to expose researchers to key topics in this area, in a very concise manner. The topics selected for discussion have evolved with the progression of the pandemic. Beyond the introductory chapter on basic mathematics, optimization, and machine learning, the book covers four themes in modeling and simulation infectious diseases, specifically: Part 1: Macroscale disease propagation, Part 2: Microscale disease transmission and ventilation system design, Part 3: Ultraviolet viral decontamination, and Part 4: Vaccine design and immune response. It is important to emphasize that the rapid speed at which the simulations operate makes the presented computational tools easily deployable as digital twins, i.e., digital replicas of complex systems that can be inexpensively and safely optimized in a virtual setting and then used in the physical world afterward, thus reducing the costs of experiments and also accelerating development of new technologies.

This comprehensive volume is the first to specifically target developing, adult and diseased neural stem cells. It explores recent advances in the understanding of neural stem cell biology along with strategies that use these cells to tackle neurological diseases and brain aging. Ten inclusive chapters discuss a wide range of topics including neurogenesis, neurodegeneration, demyelinating disease, mood regulation, and spinal cord regeneration, among others. Written by world-renowned scientists in the field, Neural Stem Cells in Development, Adulthood and Disease presents cutting-edge studies of interest to both established neurogenesis researchers and readers with general interests in nervous system science. It is an authoritative addition to the Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine series.

One of the striking findings of modern developmental biology has been the high degree of conservation of signaling and developmental mechanisms amongst different animal species. Such conservation allows information learned from a given organism to be applicable to other species, including humans, and has validated the use of a few model systems to deduce general biological principles. In spite of this underlying conservation, however, each species has unique characteristics arising from its evolutionary history. Vertebrate Embryogenesis: Embryological, Cellular and Genetic Methods attempts to address the increasingly important need of straddling species boundaries in the context of a single research program by compiling research protocols used in a wide range of vertebrate species. In fact, this volume has been designed so that readers can readily find information on species other than the one with which they may be most familiar. These protocols include not only embryological methods, but also cellular and genetic approaches that have complemented and expanded our understanding of embryonic development. In addition, a number of chapters highlight a specific method that is in principle applicable to multiple species, such as TILLING and ZFN-mediated mutagenesis, the generation of Embryonic Stem (ES) cell lines, and nuclear/oocyte transfer. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology (TM) series format, chapters contain introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and notes on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and accessible, Vertebrate Embryogenesis: Embryological, Cellular and Genetic Methods serves as an ideal guide to the molecular, cell, and developmental biology community and will hopefully contribute to the ongoing collective effort towards a better understanding of the beauty and logic of vertebrate development.

The Rise of Chance in Evolutionary Theory: A Pompous Parade of Arithmetic explores a pivotal conceptual moment in the history of evolutionary theory: the development of its extensive reliance on a wide array of concepts of chance. It tells the history of a methodological and conceptual development that reshaped our approach to natural selection over a century, ranging from Darwin's earliest notebooks in the 1830s to the early years of the Modern Synthesis in the 1930s. Far from being a "pompous parade of arithmetic," as one early critic argued, evolution transformed during this period to make these conceptual and technical tools indispensable. This book charts the role of chance in evolutionary theory from its beginnings to the earliest days of modern evolutionary theory, making it an ideal resource for evolutionary biologists, historians, philosophers, and researchers in science studies or biological statistics.

Sexual reproduction is a fundamental aspect of life. It is defined by the occurrence of meiosis and the fusion of two gametes of different sexes or mating types. Sex-determination mechanisms are responsible for the sexual fate and development of sexual characteristics in an organism, be it a unicellular alga, a plant, or an animal. In many cases, sex determination is genetic: males and females have different alleles or different genes that specify their sexual morphology. In animals, this is often accompanied by chromosomal differences. In other cases, sex may be determined by environmental (e.g. temperature) or social variables (e.g. the size of an organism relative to other members of its population). Surprisingly, sex-determination mechanisms are not evolutionarily conserved but are bewilderingly diverse and appear to have had rapid turnover rates during evolution. Evolutionary biologists continue to seek a solution to this conundrum. What drives the surprising dynamics of such a fundamental process that always leads to the same outcome: two sex types, male and female? The answer is complex but the ongoing genomic revolution has already greatly increased our knowledge of sex-determination systems and sex chromosomes in recent years. This novel book presents and synthesizes our current understanding, and clearly shows that sex-determination evolution will remain a dynamic field of future research. The Evolution of Sex Determination is an advanced, research level text suitable for graduate students and researchers in genetics, developmental biology, and evolution.

Is it possible to explain and predict the development of living things? What is development? Articulate answers to these seemingly innocuous questions are far from straightforward. To date, no systematic, targeted effort has been made to construct a unifying theory of development. This novel work offers a unique exploration of the foundations of ontogeny by asking how the development of living things should be understood. It explores the key concepts of developmental biology, asks whether general principles of development can be discovered, and examines the role of models and theories. The two editors (one a biologist with long interest in the theoretical aspects of his discipline, the other a philosopher of science who has mainly worked on biological systems) have assembled a team of leading contributors who are representative of the scientific and philosophical community within which a diversity of thoughts are growing, and out of which a theory of development may eventually emerge. They analyse a wealth of approaches to concepts, models and theories of development, such as gene regulatory networks, accounts based on systems biology and on physics of soft matter, the different articulations of evolution and development, symbiont-induced development, as well as the widely discussed concepts of positional information and morphogenetic field, the idea of a 'programme' of development and its critiques, and the long-standing opposition between preformationist and epigenetic conceptions of development. Towards a Theory of Development is primarily aimed at students and researchers in the fields of 'evo-devo', developmental biology, theoretical biology, systems biology, biophysics, and the philosophy of science.

This book summarizes various tools and techniques used to provide insights into the cellular and molecular pathophysiology of stroke. It also presents rodent animal models to help shed light on the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke. Presenting the latest information on the different types of stroke, including embolic, filament, photothrombotic, and bilateral common carotid artery, the book also describes techniques that are used for confirmation of stroke surgery, such as laser speckle imaging (LSI) and laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF), and discusses the non-human primates that are used in stroke surgery, cerebral venous sinuous thrombosis, and neurobehavioral assessment. Lastly, it analyzes various neuroprotective agents to treat and prevent ischemic stroke, and examines the challenges and advances in treating and preventing acute ischemic stroke.

This book explores the potential applications of animal stem cells in veterinary medicine. It begins with an overview of stem cells and their application in treating various animal diseases, including mastitis. In turn, the book discusses the challenges of using stem cells in regenerative medicine and emphasizes the importance of understanding the action of stem cells and preclinical evidence for ensuring safety and therapeutic efficacy. It also presents methods for the identification, characterization, and quantification of stem cells. Further, it discusses the therapeutic applications of different stem cells, including milk-derived, testicular, and mesenchymal stem cells in veterinary medicine. Lastly, it discusses strategies for and therapeutic applications of genome editing by CRISPER/Cas9 in mammary stem cells. As such, the book offers a valuable resource for students and scientists working in the veterinary sciences and veterinarians.

The seventh volume of a multi-volume work designed for medical students with rudimentary knowledge of cellular biology. It is the key discipline for the basic medical sciences and clinical medicine to be taught in an integrated curriculum. This text features developmental biology.

For humankind, the most irreducible idea is the concept of life itself. In order to understand that life is essentially an infinite process, transmitted from generation to generation, this book takes the reader on a fascinating journey that unravels one of our greatest mysteries. It begins with the premise that life is a fact-that it is everywhere; that it takes infinite forms; and, most importantly, that it is intrinsically self-perpetuating. Rather than exploring how the first living forms emerged in our universe, the book begins with our first primordial ancestor cell and tells the story of life-how it began, when that first cell diversified into many other cell types and organisms, and how it has continued until the present day. On this journey, the author covers the fundaments of biology such as cell division, diversity, regeneration, repair and death. The rather fictional epilogue even goes one step further and discusses ways how to literally escape the problem of limited recourse and distribution on our planet by looking at life outside the solar system. This book is designed to explain complex ideas in biology simply, but not simplistically, with a special emphasis on plain and accessible language as well as a wealth of hand-drawn illustrations. Thus, it is suitable not only for students seeking for an introduction into biological concepts and terminology, but for everyone with an interest in the fundamentals of life at the crossroad of evolutionary and cell biology.

This detailed book builds on the foundation of lymphatic protocols with tools to aid in the interpretation of large datasets created by angiogenesis research. For example, this includes protocols to explore how transcriptional phenotyping can be achieved, both in terms of exploring tissue-specific heterogeneity to the use of database mining of existing datasets. Similarly, bioinformatic techniques run alongside protocols for transcript analysis, cell biology, pathology, as well as physiological and developmental angiogenesis models. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and up-to-date, Angiogenesis: Methods and Protocols provides a meaningful compendium of practical approaches to angiogenesis and endothelial cell biology research.

For more than two decades the concept of phenotypic plasticity has allowed researchers to go beyond the nature-nurture dichotomy to gain deeper insights into how organisms are shaped by the interaction of genetic and ecological factors. "Phenotypic Plasticity: Beyond Nature and Nurture" is the first work to synthesize the burgeoning area of plasticity studies, providing a conceptual overview as well as a technical treatment of its major components.

Phenotypic plasticity integrates the insights of ecological genetics, developmental biology, and evolutionary theory. Plasticity research asks foundational questions about how living organisms are capable of variation in their genetic makeup and in their responses to environmental factors. For instance, how do novel adaptive phenotypes originate? How do organisms detect and respond to stressful environments? What is the balance between genetic or natural constraints (such as gravity) and natural selection? The author begins by defining phenotypic plasticity and detailing its history, including important experiments and methods of statistical and graphical analysis. He then provides extended examples of the molecular basis of plasticity, the plasticity of development, the ecology of plastic responses, and the role of costs and constraints in the evolution of plasticity. A brief epilogue looks at how plasticity studies shed light on the nature/nurture debate in the popular media.

"Phenotypic Plasticity: Beyond Nature and Nurture" thoroughly reviews more than two decades of research, and thus will be of interest to both students and professionals in evolutionary biology, ecology, and genetics.

This detailed book explores techniques for understanding and engineering programs that naturally control and drive formation of tissues and organs in order to open powerful opportunities to produce physiologically relevant tissues of interest, generate models to study human disease, and set the path for the manufacturing of advanced tissue and organs. Beginning with chapters to help understand signaling events and patterns in morphogenetic systems, the volume continues by covering programming signaling events and patterns to drive morphogenesis, techniques for engineering organoids, tissue barriers, and disease models, as well as in vivo therapeutic applications. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and cutting-edge, Programmed Morphogenesis: Methods and Protocols aims not only to communicate knowledge but also to inspire approaches to new challenges and to empower readers with the capability to approach those challenges.

Organoid Technology for Disease Modelling and Personalised Treatment provides a comprehensive overview of current knowledge of the organoid as a human-organ-in-a-dish, a powerful new technology for studying fundamental aspects of human organ development and disease progression in the search for drugs for personalised treatment. This preclinical tool is extensively being utilised as a model for studying human diseases in a dish, which is critical for accurate predictive modelling in precision medicine. The chapters in this book introduces readers to the numerous applications of organoids in various fields of study, as well as ethical considerations associated with organoids. In stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, where chimaera research, biomaterials for tissue vascularisation, gene-editing technologies, and their use in clinical procedures especially issues related to ethical concern over the use of human organoids have gotten much attention. Organoid Technology for Disease Modelling and Personalised Treatment is an excellent resource for in-depth research on one of the most interesting and significant topics in stem cell and regenerative medicine. This book's chapter collection covers a fresh viewpoint on organoid technology that scholars will require reading.

This book provides detailed protocols for research in plant photomorphogenesis. The collection includes a broad range of topics including assays for shade avoidance responses, assays for light-dependent protein-protein interactions, photobody detection with immunofluorescence and the super-resolution imaging method, protein complex isolation from plants, detection of homodimer and monomer of photoreceptor UVR8 with immunoblotting analysis, assays for seedling greening, procedures for studying skotomorphogenesis, phenotypic study of photomorphogenesis at the seedling stage, expression of Cryptochrome in insect cells, and more. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Plant Photomorphogenesis: Methods and Protocols serves as an ideal guide for researchers and students who are new to the field, as well as a stepping stone for experienced researchers to further their skills in this fast-developing field.

About 7 million people worldwide are suffering from various inherited neuromuscular diseases. Gene therapy brings the hope of treating these diseases at their genetic roots. Muscle Gene Therapy is the only book dedicated to this topic. The first edition was published in 2010 when the field was just about to enter its prime time. The progress made since then has been unprecedented. The number of diseases that have been targeted by gene therapy has increased tremendously. The gene therapy toolbox is expanded greatly with many creative novel strategies (such as genome editing and therapy with disease-modifying genes). Most importantly, clinical benefits have begun to emerge in human patients. To reflect rapid advances in the field, we have compiled the second edition of Muscle Gene Therapy with contributions from experts that have conducted gene therapy studies either in animal models and/or in human patients. The new edition offers a much needed, up-to-date overview and perspective on the foundation and current status of neuromuscular disease gene therapy. It provides a framework to the development and regulatory approval of muscle gene therapy drugs in the upcoming years. This book is a must-have for anyone who is interested in neuromuscular disease gene therapy including those in the research arena (established investigators and trainees in the fields of clinical practice, veterinary medicine and basic biomedical sciences), funding and regulatory agencies, and patient community.

Traditional methods in synthetic chemistry produce chemical waste and byproducts, yield smaller desired products, and generate toxic chemical substances, but the past two centuries have seen consistent, greener improvements in organic synthesis and transformations. These improvements have contributed to substance handling efficiency by using green-engineered forerunners like sustainable techniques, green processes, eco-friendly catalysis, and have minimized energy consumption, reduced potential waste, improved desired product yields, and avoided toxic organic precursors or solvents in organic synthesis. Green synthesis has the potential to have a major ecological and monetary impact on modern pharmaceutical R&D and organic chemistry fields. This book presents a broad scope of green techniques for medicinal, analytical, environmental, and organic chemistry applications. It presents an accessible overview of new innovations in the field, dissecting the highlights and green chemistry attributes of approaches to green synthesis, and provides cases to exhibit applications to pharmaceutical and organic chemistry. Although daily chemical processes are a major part of the sustainable development of pharmaceuticals and industrial products, the resulting environmental pollution of these processes is of worldwide concern. This edition discusses green chemistry techniques and sustainable processes involved in synthetic organic chemistry, natural products, drug syntheses, as well various useful industrial applications.

Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Organoid Models, Volume 159 highlights recent and emerging advances that describe organoid differentiation protocols for the different organ systems that implement organoids as tools to understand complexity and maturation, high content drug screening, disease modeling, development and evolution. Specific chapters in this new release include Pluripotent stem cell derived gastric organoids, Pluripotent stem cell derived esophageal organoids, Pluripotent stem cell derived small intestinal organoids, Pluripotent stem cell derived colonic organoids, Pluripotent stem cell intestinal organoids with an Enteric Nervous System, Pluripotent stem cell derived airway organoids, Pluripotent stem cell derived alveolar organoids, and much more.

Advances in Genetics, Volume 105, provides the latest information on the rapidly evolving field of genetics, presenting new medical breakthroughs that are occurring as a result of advances in our knowledge of the topic. The book continually publishes important reviews of the broadest interest to geneticists and their colleagues in affiliated disciplines, critically analyzing future directions.

Animal life, now and over the past half billion years, is incredibly diverse. Describing and understanding the evolution of this diversity of body plans - from vertebrates such as humans and fish to the numerous invertebrate groups including sponges, insects, molluscs, and the many groups of worms - is a major goal of evolutionary biology. In this book, a group of leading researchers adopt a modern, integrated approach to describe how current molecular genetic techniques and disciplines as diverse as palaeontology, embryology, and genomics have been combined, resulting in a dramatic renaissance in the study of animal evolution.
The last decade has seen growing interest in evolutionary biology fuelled by a wealth of data from molecular biology. Modern phylogenies integrating evidence from molecules, embryological data, and morphology of living and fossil taxa provide a wide consensus of the major branching patterns of the tree of life; moreover, the links between phenotype and genotype are increasingly well understood. This has resulted in a reliable tree of relationships that has been widely accepted and has spawned numerous new and exciting questions that require a reassessment of the origins and radiation of animal life. The focus of this volume is at the level of major animal groups, the morphological innovations that define them, and the mechanisms of change to their embryology that have resulted in their evolution. Current research themes and future prospects are highlighted including phylogeny reconstruction, comparative developmental biology, the value of different sources of data and the importance of fossils, homology assessment, character evolution, phylogeny of major groups of animals, and genome evolution. These topics are integrated in the light of a 'new animal phylogeny', to provide fresh insights into the patterns and processes of animal evolution.
Animal Evolution provides a timely and comprehensive statement of progress in the field for academic researchers requiring an authoritative, balanced and up-to-date overview of the topic. It is also intended for both upper level undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in animal evolution, molecular phylogenetics, evo-devo, comparative genomics and associated disciplines.