Most papers are a mixture of review and research report, and 

 all have up-to-date reference lists. The data discussed relate 

 to the whole animal kingdom, with emphasis on man, mammals, and 

 Drosophila. The 27 papers are grouped in seven sections. We men- 

 tion these below, singling out in brackets those contributions 

 that we feel are of particular significance to our readers: 



Sperm structure and development (3 papers; Fawcett on cell 

 differentiation and organelle continuity in spermatogenesis; 

 Bedford et al. on post-meiotic changes in the nucleus and mem- 

 branes of mammalian spermatozoa); Sperm metabolism and function 

 (Moore on RNA polymerase during mammalian spermatogenesis); Phe- 

 nogenetics of spermatozoa (5 papers); Immunogenetics of sperma- 

 tozoa (3 papers); Segregation distortion (8 papers; among other 

 things, discussions of possible haploid gene action); Determina- 

 tion of germ cell sex (McLaren on germ cell differentiation in 

 mouse chimaeras; Short on germ cell sex); Effect of chromosomes 

 on germ cell development and function (4 papers; Meyer on the 

 influence of the Y chromosome on fertility and phenotype of 

 Drosophila spermatozoa). 



The book is exceedingly well produced and beautifully illus- 

 trated, mainly with photo- and electron micrographs. It has no 

 indexes . 



133. 



J.D.BIGGERS and A.W.SCHUETZ, eds . 1972. OOGENESIS 



Univ. Park Press, Baltimore; Butterworths , London. X,5^3 pp., 



328 figs., 63 tabs., subject, taxonomic, and author indexes. 



$ 19.50, £ 8.00 



Contributors: Anderson, Baker, Beatty, Biggers, Blackler, 

 Blandau, Calarco, Crippa, Davidson, Dawid, Donahue, Ford, 

 Huang, Kanatani, Kennedy, King, Miller, Nalbandov, Odor, 

 Pedersen, Schuetz, Smith, Szollosi, Thibault, Tocchini- 

 Valentini, Wallace, Zamboni 



This volume contains the contributions presented at an inter- 

 national Symposium held in October, 1970 in Baltimore, Md. 

 According to the prologue 



"Its purpose was to provide an up-to-date account of oogene- 

 sis in the several areas, and to encourage the exchange of 

 ideas between the scientists involved in the three main areas 

 of study [meiosis, developmental aspects, endocrine regula- 

 tion] . Major emphasis is given to the comparative approach, 

 and to aspects of oogenesis not generally considered. The 

 topics were chosen to stress the viewpoint that oogenesis is 

 a major segment in the continuum of life, and that the oocyte 

 is specialized by a process of differentiation to (1) undergo 

 meiosis, (2) participate in cell fusion, and (3) accumulate 

 and provide materials which govern the nature and nurture of 

 the new individual produced when the ovum is fertilized." 



The large majority of the 25 contributions are complete and 

 usually long reviews. Taken together they contain almost all 

 the recent information on oogenesis in easily surveyable form 

 (with emphasis on the vertebrates), so that the book is a valu- 

 able reference source. 



The book is handsomely produced in offset print, resulting in 

 a reasonable price. The numerous excellent photo- and electron 

 micrographs are reproduced with great care. 



240 



