Monographs 



27. 



L. W. STEARNS. 1974. SEA URCHIN DEVELOPMENT: cellular and molecular aspects 

 Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Stroudsburg. XII,339 pp., 41 figs., author and subject 

 indexes. $ 20,00, £ 11.20 



Contents: I. The sea urchin as a system for the study of development; U. Sea urchin 

 gametes and early developmental processes; III. Fertilization and some associated 

 events; IV. Cleavage and associated phenomena; V. Later stages of development; VI. 

 Nature and activity of DNA in sea urchin eggs and embryos; VII. Polysomes in the sea 

 urchin embryo; VIII. Maternal messenger RNA and its role in development; IX. Other 

 aspects of the nature and function of RNA; X. Some miscellaneous problems of current 

 interest 



This book is perhaps best characterized by contrasting it with the book by Giudice 

 (Developmental biology of the sea urchin embryo, 1973), which was reviewed in Gen. 

 Embryol. Inf. Serv. 15, 1, 1973. In the present book the treatment is at the same level 

 but it is more selective and there is less preoccupation with methodological detail. The 

 style is more personal and may therefore appeal more to some readers (although it 

 definitely tends towards verbosity). Because the book is less of a compilation it reads 

 better as a continuous story and there is more space to discuss problems of general 

 developmental-biological interest. Both books address approximately the same audience; 

 the graduate student and the active investigator. 



The data of classical experimental embryology are not separately discussed but are 

 adduced wherever necessary. A subject that was intentionally omitted is that of 

 interspecific hybrids. The last chapter briefly surveys problems of uptake vs. incorpora- 

 tion of precursors, fluctuations in rate of protein synthesis during cleavage, isozymes, and 

 reaggregation of dissociated embryos. 



The book is well produced but somewhat sparsely illustrated. The literature cited on 

 the whole goes not much beyond 1970/71. There is a good subject index. 



Symposium reports 



28 



R. L. MILLER, organizer. 1974. THE DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY OF THE CNIDA- 



RIA 



Am. Soc. of Zoologists, Utica. American Zoologist Vol.14 No. 2. 430 pp., 305 figs., 

 43 tabs. $ 6.50 (paper) 



This symposium was held in Washington, D.C. in December, 1972. It appears to have 

 been the first symposium ever devoted entirely to the developmental biology of the 

 Cnidaria. It brought together a large proportion of the world's leading investigators in this 

 area, including several from Europe (both East and West). The main feeling the volume 

 evokes is one of excitement: it seems that entirely new ways of looking at the develop- 

 ment of these rather simple creatures are emerging. The volume is an extremely welcome 

 addition to the literature, not least because attention is not devoted to Hydra alone but 

 to many other species. 



The 32 papers of the symposium are partly reviews, partly research reports, and partly 

 mixtures of the two. They are arranged in five sections as follows: 1. Gametogenesis, 

 fertilization, and embryogenesis (6 papers); II. Cellular activities during growth and 

 regeneration in Hydra (6); 111. Morphogenetic controls of Hydra growth and regeneration 

 (5); IV. Morphogenetic and cellular aspects of growth in colonial hydroids (7); V. Aspects 

 of growth and regeneration in other hydroids and the Scyphozoa (8). The approaches 

 range from the morphological through the cell-biological to the molecular-biological. 



The volume is well edited and profusely illustrated. It is to be hoped that the 

 American Society of Zoologists have laid on a good stock, for the volume may well be 

 very popular. 



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