Symposium reports 



106. 



E. D. HAY, T.J.KING, and J. PAPACONSTANTINOU, eds. 1974. MACROMOLE- 



CULES REGULATING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT 



Academic Press, New York, etc. XII, 244 pp., 93 figs., 22 tabs., subject index. 



The 30th Symposium of the Society for Developmental Biology was held in June, 

 1971, and the book has therefore been very long in the making. It is a heterogeneous 

 collection of reviews with a strong -emphasis on cell biology, and several contributions 

 have no direct developmental relevance. 



We will restrict ourselves to briefly characterizing the contents. Papers of most 

 immediate interest to developmental biologists are one by Burger on the role of the cell 

 surface in cell growth and cell transformation, one by Cohen and Taylor on epidermal 

 growth factor, one by O'Malley et al. on hormonal control of chick oviduct growth and 

 differentiation, and one by McCarthy and Janowski on the separation of active and 

 inactive segments of eukaryotic chromatin. Three papers deal with the formation and 

 organization of plant cell walls, one with tumour growth, one with mammalian chromo- 

 some organization, and the remainder with strictly molecular-biological topics. 



DEVELOPMENTAL GENETICS, EVOLUTION (see also 9,23,48,101) 



Treatises 



107. 



B. LEWIN. 1974. GENE EXPRESSION. Vol. 2, Eucaryotic chromosomes 



Wiley, London, etc. XIV,467 pp., 1 15 figs., 7 tabs., subject index. £ 8.00 (cloth), £3.95 



(paper) 



Contents: 1. Structure of the chromosome; 2. Chromosome functions during the cell 

 cycle; 3. Protein components of the chromosome; 4. Sequences of eucaryotic DNA; 5. 

 Transcription and processing of RNA; 6. Control of transcription; 7. Interactions 

 between nucleus and cytoplasm 



This first volume of this book dealt with bacterial genomes. The present volume is 

 concerned largely, though by no means entirely, with the chromosomes of higher 

 vertebrates (particularly mammals). Together they constitute the first comprehensive and 

 critical review of this whole area, and as such will be of great value to advanced students 

 and molecular embryologists. Vol. 2 is perhaps best characterized by a quotation from 

 the preface: 



This book . . . presents a view of gene expression in higher cells; and attempts to pose 

 some of the questions which we should at present ask in cell biology and to suggest 

 some of the lines along which solutions may come. 1 have been as concerned to set out 

 possible concepts of how gene expression may be controlled as to relate the facts 

 which we have so far gathered. Where paradoxes exist which cannot yet be reconciled, 

 I have tried to give a balanced account of ways to view them. 



The book is clearly organized. The treatment is of course to some extent selective, yet 

 the bibliography covers 40 pages of close print. The table of contents speaks for itself; 

 suffice it to add that ch.7 (which is of most direct interest to developmental biologists) 

 has sections on nuclear transplantation (1 1 pp.), somatic cell hybridization (14 pp.), and 

 the genetic complement of hybrid cells (16 pp.). 



The illustrations include many original diagrams as well as numerous good light and 

 electron micrographs. In the bibliography the large majority of titles are less than 

 10 years old, and many date from 1973. (The lay-out of the bibliography lacks clarity; 

 the subject index is less than adequate.) 



230 



