This series was established to create comprehensive treatises on specific topics in developmental biology. Such volumes serve a useful role in developmental biology, since it is a very diverse field that receives contributions from a wide variety of disciplines. This series is a meeting-ground for the various practi tioners of this science, facilitating an integration of heterogeneous information on specific topics. Each volume is intended to provide the conceptual basis for a comprehen sive understanding of its topic as well as an analysis of the key experiments upon which that understanding is based. The specialist in any aspect of devel opmental biology should understand the experimental background of the field and be able to place that body of information in context to ascertain where additional research would be fruitful. At that point, the creative process gener ates new experiments. This series is intended to be a vital link in that ongoing process of learning and discovery."

How organisms come to possess adaptive traits is a fundamental question for evolutionary biology. Although it is almost impossible to demonstrate evolution in the laboratory, this issue can be approached by using an unusual organism, Dark-fly: "Drosophila melanogaster" kept in complete darkness for 57 years through 1,400 generations, which corresponds to 28,000 years in terms of human generations. Has Dark-fly adapted to an environment of total darkness? If so, what is the molecular nature of the adaptation? In "Evolution in the Dark," the remarkable findings from the Dark-fly project performed at Kyoto University are presented. It was found that Dark-fly did not have poor eyesight, but rather exhibited higher phototaxis ability and displayed lengthened bristles on the head that function as tactile receptors. Circadian rhythms were weakened but still retained in Dark-fly. With recent progress in genome science enabling researchers to perform whole genome sequencing for Dark-fly, a large number of mutations were identified including genes encoding a light receptor, olfactory receptors, and enzymes involved in neural development. The Dark-fly project is a simple but very long-term experiment. Combined with advanced techniques in genetics and genomics, it is a valuable tool for understanding the molecular nature of adaptive evolution."

Written by an international panel of recognized leaders in the field, Neural Crest Induction and Differentiation discusses all aspects of modern neural crest biology from its evolutionary significance to its specification, migration, plasticity and contribution to multiple lineages of the vertebrate body, to the pathologies associated with abnormal neural crest development and function. Abundant color figures enhance the text providing clear and attractive illustrations of central issues and concepts.

Molecular biology emerged from advances in biochemistry during the 1940s and 1950s, when the structure of the nucleic acids and proteins were elucidated. Beginning in the 1970s, with nucleic acid enzymology and the discovery of the restriction enzymes, the tools of molecular biology became widely available and applied in cell biology to study how genes are regulated. This new knowledge impacted endocrinology and reproductive biology since it was largely known that the secretion of the internal glands affected the phenotypes, and expression of genes. Modern reproductive biology encompasses every level of biological study from genomics to ecology, encompassing cell biology, biochemistry, endocrinology and general physiology. All of these disciplines require a basic knowledge, both as a tool and as an essential aid to a fundamental understanding of the principles of life in health and disease. Overall, molecular biology is central to scientific studies in all living matter, impacting disciplines such as medicine, related health sciences, veterinary, agriculture and environmental sciences. In this book, the basic biochemistry of nucleic acids and proteins are reviewed. Methodologies used to study signaling and gene regulation in the endocrine/reproductive system are also discussed. Topics include mechanisms of hormone action and several endocrine disorders affecting the reproductive system. Professionals in the medical, veterinary and animal sciences fields will find exciting and stimulating material enhancing the breadth and quality of their research.

Recent progress in recombinant DNA technology and the availability of a number of nonpeptide subtype-specific receptor antagonists and of specific antibodies to components of prorenin-renin-angiotensin system (PRAS) have led to rapid advances in the under standing of the multifaceted role of angiotensin II, classically known as a peptide hormone of cardiovascular homeostasis. Accumulating evidence sug responsible for the regulation gests that, in addition to its role in salt and water metabolism, PRAS may control other physiological functions including neurosecretion, cellular proliferation, hypertrophy and/or differentiation, angiogenesis and gonadal function. At the same time, it is becoming evident that the specialized functions of endocrine glands are not only regulated by trophic hormones but also by locally produced paracrine/autocrine factors. The concept is emerging that tissue PRAS is one such locally active regulatory system. With more and more reproductive and endocrine organs being added to the list of tissues that contain a local tissue PRAS, questions are being raised by the reproductive biologists and endocrinologists as to the role of such systems in the tissues of their interest. On the other hand, the cardiovascular and renovascular physiologists are wondering about the relevance of PRAS in various peripheral tissues compared to those of the classical cardiovascular organs. It appeared, therefore, that the time was ripe for a meeting to consider a merger of interest in these two important but heretofore distinct areas of physiology."

... an adult poet is simply an individual in a state of arrested development-in brief, a sort of moron. Just as all of us, in utero, pass through a stage in which we are tadpoles, ... so all of us pass through a state, in our nonage, when we are poets. A youth of seventeen who is not a poet is simply a donkey: his development has been arrested even anterior to that of the tadpole. But a man of fifty who still writes poetry is either an unfortunate who has never developed, intellectually, beyond his teens, or a conscious buffoon who pretends to be something he isn't-something far younger and juicier than he actually is. -H. 1. Mencken, High and Ghostly Matters, Prejudices: Fourth Series (1924) Where would evolution be, Without this thing, heterochrony? -M. L. McKinney (1987) One of the joys of working in a renascent field is that it is actually possible to keep up with the literature. So it is with mixed emotions that we heterochronists (even larval forms like myself) view the recent "veritable explosion of interest in heterochrony" (in Gould's words in this volume). On the positive side, it is ob viously necessary and desirable to extend and expand the inquiry; but one regrets that already we are beginning to talk past, lose track of, and even ignore each other as we carve out individual interests."

Leo Buss expounds a general theory of development through a simple hierarchical extension of the synthetic theory of evolution. He perceives innovations in development to have evolved in ancestral organisms where the germ line was not closed to genetic variation arising during the course of ontogeny.

Originally published in 1988.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

How do we understand and explain the apparent dichotomy between plasticity and robustness in the context of development? Can we identify these complex processes without resorting to 'either/or' solutions? Written by two leaders in the field, this is the first book to fully unravel the complexity of the subject, explaining that the epigenetic processes generating plasticity and robustness are in fact deeply intertwined. It identifies the different mechanisms that generate robustness and the various forms of plasticity, before considering the functional significance of the integrated mechanisms and how the component processes might have evolved. Finally, it highlights the ways in which epigenetic mechanisms could be instrumental in driving evolutionary change. Essential reading for biologists and psychologists interested in epigenetics and evolution, this book is also a valuable resource for biological anthropologists, sociobiologists, child psychologists and paediatricians.

Biological and machine systems exist within a complex and changing three-dimensional world. We appear to have no difficulty understanding this world, but how do we go about forming a perceptual model of it? Centred around three key themes: depth processing and stereopsis; motion and navigation in 3D; and natural scene perception, this volume explores the latest cutting-edge research into the perception of three dimension environments. It features contributions from top researchers in the field, presenting both biological and computational perspectives. Topics covered include binocular perception; blur and perceived depth; stereoscopic motion in depth; and perceiving and remembering the shape of visual space. This unique book will provide students and researchers with an overview of ongoing research as well as perspectives on future developments in the field. Colour versions of a selection of the figures are available at www.cambridge.org/9781107001756.

In very general terms, "scaling" can be defined as the structural and func tional consequences of differences in size (or scale) among organisms of more or less similar design. Interest in certain aspects of body size and scaling in primate biology (e. g., relative brain size) dates to the turn of the century, and scientific debate and dialogue on numerous aspects of this general subject have continued to be a primary concern of primatologists, physical an thropologists, and other vertebrate biologists up to the present. Indeed, the intensity and scope of such research on primates have grown enormously in the past decade or so. Information continues to accumulate rapidly from many different sources, and the task of synthesizing the available data and theories on any given topic is becoming increasingly formidable. In addition to the formal exchange of new ideas and information among scientific experts in specific areas of scaling research, two of the major goals of this volume are an assessment of our progress toward understanding various size-related phe nomena in primates and the identification of future prospects for continuing advances in this realm. Although the subject matter and specific details of the issues considered in the 20 chapters that follow are very diversified, all topics share the same fundamental and unifying biological theme: body size variation in primates and its implications for behavior and ecology, anatomy and physiology, and evolution."

Originally published in 1985, this book describes research on the ecological, structural, physiological, genetic and molecular factors that control morphogenesis in the higher fungi. The topics range from the relation between organism and substrate to problems associated with the production of mushrooms in commercial conditions, and include accounts of research on biochemical, molecular and structural aspects of mushroom fruit body development. Thus both pure and applied studies of the biology of basidiomycetes are included in this volume, which provides a detailed synthesis of the area, by authors of the highest calibre.

The past decade has seen a steady increase in studies oflemur behavior and ecology. As a result, there is much novel information on newly studied populations, and even newly discovered species, that has not yet been published or summarized. In fact, lemurs have not been the focus of an international symposium since the Prosimian Biology Conference in London in 1972. Moreover, research on lemurs has reached a new quality by addressing general issues in behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology. Although lemurs provide important comparative information on these topics, this aspect of research on lemurs has not been reviewed and compared with similar studies in other primate radiations. Thus, as did many in the field, we felt that the time was ripe to review and synthesize our knowledge of lemur behavioral ecology. Following an initiative by Gerry Doyle, we organized a symposium at the XIVth Congress of the International Primatological Society in Strasbourg, France, where 15 contributions summarized much new information on lemur social systems and their ecological basis. This volume provides a collection of the papers presented at the Strasbourg symposium (plus two reports from recently completed field projects). Each chapter was peer-reviewed, typically by one "lemurologist" and one other biologist. The first three chapters present novel information from the first long-term field studies of three enigmatic species. Sterling describes the social organization of Daubentonia madagascariensis, showing that aye-aye ranging patterns deviate from those of all other nocturnal primates.

It is a source of great satisfaction to us that a Second Edition of this handbook should be called for, especially because it has given us the opportunity to produce, we believe, a better book. Eighteen chapters, amounting to one-third of the whole, are new, and of these, 13 deal with subjects not covered at all in the First Edition. We have paid more attention to embryonic and fetal growth, with chapters on cell differentiation (Lehtonen and Saxen), embryonic growth (O'Rahilly and Muller), control offetal size (Snow), regulation offetal growth (D'Ercole and Underwood), and ultrasonic studies offetal growth (Meire). At last the data are available for a chapter on the evolution of the human growth curve, by Eliz- abeth Watts. Large parts of the endocrine section have been rewritten (by Michael Preece, and by William Crowley and Margaret Wierman), and the genetics section has been largely recast, with new contributions by William Mueller and Ronald Wilson. Reynaldo Marto- rell has contributed a new chapter on growth in developing countries, and Tanner discusses growth surveys and standards as well as catch-up growth. Finally, there are two new chap- ters dealing with growth as a monitor of the health of populations-one by Tadeusz Bie- licki, considering the contemporary scene, and the other by Robert Fogel, on the contri- bution that such studies are making to the economic history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection fails to explain the forms of organisms because it focuses on inheritance and survival, not on how organisms are generated. The first part of this 2007 book (by Gerry Webster) looks critically of the conceptual structure of Darwinism and describes the limitation of the theory of evolution as a comprehensive biological theory, arguing that a theory of biological form is needed to understand the structure of organisms and their transformations as revealed in taxonomy. The second part of the book (by Brian Goodwin) explores such a theory in terms of organisms as developing and transforming dynamic systems, within which gene action is to be understood. A number of specific examples, including tetrapod limb formation and Drosophila development, are used to illustrate how these hierarchically-organized dynamic fields undergo robust symmetry-breaking cascades to produce generic forms.

Gastrulation is a fundamental process of early embryonic development. It involves virtually every aspect of cell and developmental biology and results in the formation of fundamental structural elements around which a developing animal's body plan is organized. As such it is not only an important process, but also one that is complicated and not easily dissected into its component parts. To understand the mechanisms of gastrulation one must acknowledge that gastrulation is fundamentally a biomechanical process (that is, a problem of cells generating forces in a three dimensional array, patterned in space and time such that appropriate tissue movements are executed). Three intertwined questions emerge: what cell activities generate forces, how are these cell activities patterned in space and time, and how are the resulting forces harnessed in three dimensional domains? To address these issues it is important to define and characterize regional cell behaviors and to learn how they are patterned in the egg and/ or by subsequent cell and tissue interactions. At the biochemical level, what are the cellular and extracellular molecules that control cell behavior? Finally, how are specific patterns of cellular activity integrated to produce tissue behavior? The task of answering the above questions, an immense task in itself, is compounded by the fact that the morphogenetic movements of gastrulation and their underlying mechanisms vary between different organisms.

Tissue engineering is a new field of biomedical engineering, in which synthetic materials are used together with biological components such as tissue fragments, cells, proteins to encourage tissue regeneration, regrowth, and repair. This book introduces the principles of tissue engineering in a unique way that is ideally suited for the modern engineering student. A review of developmental biology is presented early in the book, since biological development is the fundamental process of most relevance for tissue engineering. The study of development provides a pathway to basic bioengineering units on cell adhesion, migration, assembly, and transport, which are integrated in the final sections of the book into tissue engineering processes (such as cell delivery, growth factor administration, and polymeric scaffold materials).

The present monograph is the fourth of six volumes which review the Hypotricha, a major group of the spirotrichs. The book is about the Gonostomatidae, the Kahliellidae, and some taxa of unknown position in the hypotrichs. Gonostomum was previously misclassified in the Oxytrichidae because its type species Gonostomum affine has basically an 18-cirri pattern, which is dominant in the oxytrichids. A new hypothesis, considering also molecular data, postulates that this 18-cirri pattern evolved in the last common ancestor of the hypotrichs and therefore it appears throughout the Hypotricha tree. The simple dorsal kinety pattern, composed of only three bipolar dorsal kineties, and gene sequence analyses strongly suggest that Gonostomum branches off rather early in the phylogenetic tree. Thus, the Gonostomatidae, previously synonymised with the oxytrichids, are reactivated to include the name-bearing type genus and other genera (e.g., Paragonostomum, Wallackia, Cladotricha) which have the characteristic gonostomatid oral apparatus. The Kahliellidae are a rather vague group mainly defined via the preservation of parts of the parental infraciliature. The kahliellids preliminary comprise, besides the name-bearing type genus Kahliella, genera such as Parakahliella and its African pendant Afrokahliella or the monotypic Engelmanniella. In total 68 species distributed in 21 genera and subgenera are revised. As in the previous volumes almost all morphological, morphogenetic, molecular, faunistic, and ecological data, scattered in almost 700 papers, are compiled so that the four volumes (Oxytrichidae, Urostyloidea, Amphisiellidae and Trachelostylidae, Gonostomatidae and Kahliellida) provide a detailed insight into the biology of almost 500 species of hypotrichs. The series is an up-to-date overview about this highly interesting taxon of spirotrichous ciliates mainly addressed to taxonomists, cell biologists, ecologists, molecular biologists, and practitioners.

Originally published in 2005, this unique resource presents 27 easy-to-follow laboratory exercises for use in student practical classes in developmental biology. These experiments provide key insights into developmental questions, and many of them are described by the leaders in the field who carried out the original research. This book intends to bridge the gap between experimental work and the laboratory classes taken at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. All chapters follow the same format, taking the students from materials and methods, through results and discussion, so that they learn the underlying rationale and analysis employed in the research. The book will be an invaluable resource for graduate students and instructors teaching practical developmental biology courses. Chapters include teaching concepts, discussion of the degree of difficulty of each experiment, potential sources of failure, as well as the time required for each experiment to be carried out in a class with students.

Originally published in 1995, this significant publication on genomic or parental imprinting was prepared by an outstanding team of international authorities. Genomic imprinting results in the preferential expression of one allele, depending on the parent of origin. It is associated with several disease syndromes in humans. Interest in this area has expanded rapidly from the time when it was first recognised that some aspects of inheritance were not adequately explained by the Mendelian laws. The chapters cover a wealth of material to help explain not only the mechanisms of genomic imprinting but also its biological and medical consequences. This interdisciplinary volume encompasses clinical genetics, pathology, developmental biology, evolution and genetics. It will be of interest to all scientists and clinicians working in this area.

This book provides a comprehensive view of research in lens developmental biology, emphasising technical and molecular breakthroughs. Elucidation of the mechanisms that govern lens development has enabled us to understand how the normal lens forms and how developmental processes are involved in the maintenance of its normal structure, function and growth throughout life. This knowledge is fundamental to our understanding of many lens disorders. The ocular lens has also become a model for understanding the developmental biology of more complex organ systems. In this 2004 book, leading experts in lens cell biology and development discuss lens evolution, induction, morphology, the regulation of the lens cell cycle and fiber cell differentiation, as well as lens regeneration. This book is an authoritative treatment of the subject that will serve as a reference for graduate students and research scientists in developmental biology and in the visual sciences, as well as for ophthalmologists.

This book has evolved by processes of selection and expansion from its predecessor, Practical Scanning Electron Microscopy (PSEM), published by Plenum Press in 1975. The interaction of the authors with students at the Short Course on Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Microanalysis held annually at Lehigh University has helped greatly in developing this textbook. The material has been chosen to provide a student with a general introduction to the techniques of scanning electron microscopy and x-ray microanalysis suitable for application in such fields as biology, geology, solid state physics, and materials science. Following the format of PSEM, this book gives the student a basic knowledge of (1) the user-controlled functions of the electron optics of the scanning electron microscope and electron microprobe, (2) the characteristics of electron-beam-sample inter actions, (3) image formation and interpretation, (4) x-ray spectrometry, and (5) quantitative x-ray microanalysis. Each of these topics has been updated and in most cases expanded over the material presented in PSEM in order to give the reader sufficient coverage to understand these topics and apply the information in the laboratory. Throughout the text, we have attempted to emphasize practical aspects of the techniques, describing those instru ment parameters which the microscopist can and must manipulate to obtain optimum information from the specimen. Certain areas in particular have been expanded in response to their increasing importance in the SEM field. Thus energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry, which has undergone a tremendous surge in growth, is treated in substantial detail.

In Gene Regulatory Sequences and Human Disease, the Editor will introduce the different technological advances that led to this breakthrough. In addition, several examples will be provided of nucleotide variants in noncoding sequences that have been shown to be associated with various human diseases.

Biological development, how organisms acquire their form, is one of the great frontiers in science. While a vast knowledge of the molecules involved in development has been gained in recent decades, big questions remain on the molecular organization and physics that shape cells, tissues and organisms. Physical scientists and biologists traditionally have very different backgrounds and perspectives, yet some of the fundamental questions in developmental biology will only be answered by combining expertise from a range of disciplines. This book is a personal account by Professor Lionel Harrison of an interdisciplinary approach to studying biological pattern formation. It articulates the power of studying dynamics in development: that to understand how an organism is made we must not only know the structure of its molecules; we must also understand how they interact and how fast they do so.

Maia is the story of an idea, and its development into a working hypothesis, that provides a cybernetic interpretation of how growth is controlled. Growth at the lowest level is controlled by regulating the rate of growth. Access to the output of control mechanisms is provided by perturbing the growing organism, and then filtering out the consequences to growth rate. The output of the growth control mechanism is then accessible for interpretation and modelling. Perturbation experiments have been used to provide interpretations of hormesis, the neutralization of inhibitory load and acquired tolerance to toxic inhibition, and catch-up growth. The account begins with an introduction to cybernetics covering the regulation of growth and population increase in animals and man and describes this new approach to access the control of growth processes. This book is suitable for postgraduate students of biological cybernetics and researchers of biological growth, endocrinology, population ecology and toxicology.

Anatomy, to be sure, is the essential foundation of clinical practice, but it is much more than that. First and foremost, anatomy is a biological science. There is order and logic to the organization of the human body and the arrangement of its parts. And, as all sciences, anatomy offers challenge and discovery. Concepts in Anatomy is not a textbook, but more of a brief handbook that is selective rather than encyclopedic in scope, conception rather than particular in its approach. It stresses general principles, so as to minimize rote learning, and it provides order and direction to the study of gross anatomy. Anatomy is inherently complicated and confusing; this volume helps you make sense of it in a way that also aims to inspire its study. Richly illustrated with original drawings, Concepts in Anatomy is a valuable resource for anyone currently studying or teaching the subject, or as a reference for advanced researchers.