Monographs 



104. 



O. GREENGARD, ed. 1973. BIOCHEMICAL BASES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF 



PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS 



Karger, Basel, etc. Enzyme Vol. 15, No. 1-6. IV ,380 pp., 84 figs., 60 tabs., author and 

 subject indexes. S.fr. 96.00, DM 90.00, $ 29.00 (paper) 



Contributions for this special issue of "Enzyme" were invited from a truly interna- 

 tional group of authors. It is published simultaneously as a book by S. Karger. Of the 

 22 papers six are research reports and the remaining ones reviews of recent work by the 

 authors and others. Most of them range in length from about 10 to about 20 pages. Many 

 have extensive bibliographies (50-150 titles). 



The editor writes in her Preface: "The sudden growth of precisely defined, quantita- 

 tive information about the changing compositions of tissues in the developing animal has 

 stimulated the assembly of this Special Issue". The focus is on late prenatal and postnatal 

 stages in laboratory mammals, man, and birds. Many papers deal with enzymes and 

 (precocious) enzyme induction, but several treat other cell and tissue constituents, 

 organelle activities, effects of hormones and cycUc AMP, specific binding proteins, etc. 

 Cultured cells are used in several studies. The organ most frequently studied is the liver, 

 but at least half a dozen other tissues are dealt with in one or two papers. 



The brief subject index is rather inadequate. 



105. 



J. PAUL, ed. 1974. BIOCHEMISTRY OF CELL DIFFERENTIATION 



Butterworths, London; University Park Press, Baltimore, MTP Intern. Review of Science, 

 Biochemistry Series One 9. Xn,380 pp., 85 figs., 26 tabs., subject index. £ 8.50, $ 19.50 



Contents: 1. The development of the cellular slime moulds; 2. The role of phyto- 

 chrome in controlling enzyme levels in plants; 3. Macromolecular synthesis in sea 

 urchin development; 4. Nucleic acid synthesis during oogenesis and early embryonic 

 development of the amphibians; 5. Mammalian erythroid cell differentiation; 6. 

 Oestrogen-induced differentiation of target tissues; 7. Protein synthesis and degrada- 

 tion in animal tissue; 8. mRNA stability and the control of specific protein synthesis in 

 highly differentiated cells; 9. RNA polymerase and transcriptional regulation in physi- 

 ological transitions; 10. The role of chromosomal proteins as gene regulators 



The MTP International Review of Science is a new venture in scientific publishing. Its 

 basic concept is to provide regular authoritative reviews of entire disciplines which are to 

 be updated at regular intervals. The series addresses both investigators and advanced 

 students and is carefully edited. 



The editor of the present volume has had in mind a wider group of biologists than 

 those actively engaged in the area concerned, as well as biochemists who are put off by 

 the complexities of biology. He has provided an introduction and five brief editor's 

 comments between chapters, which admirably serve to make the volume read as a 

 continuous story. The ten essays making up the volume are written by an international 

 team of outstanding experts and are well organized. They range in length from about 20 

 to about 50 pages of smallish type (the chapter on sea urchins is only 10 pages long). The 

 volume describes the scene as it was in mid-1973. 



The book is well produced, and illustrated mainly with numerous graphs. The index is 

 good and the price very reasonable. 



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