Symposium reports 



1 . 



T.ISHIKAWA, Y.MARUYA^4A and H.MATSUMIYA, eds . 1977. GROWTH AND DIFFERENTIATION 



IN MICROORGANISMS 



Univ. Park Press, Baltimore, etc.; Univ. of Tokyo Press, Tokyo. NRI Symposia 



on Modern Biology. XII, 309 pp., 122 figs., 28 tabs., combined taxonomic and 



subject index. $ 37.50, E 22.75, Yen 6,400 



This symposium was held in Tokyo in June 1975. The resulting volume has 

 much more than the ephemeral value of so many symposium reports. It is a 

 series of interesting and competent reviews by Japanese authors, in which the 

 foreign literature is covered equally well as the Japanese, and all of which 

 are remarkably up to date. In addition, all authors write remarkably good 

 English. 



Among the 14 contributions we specifically mention papers on growth and 

 branching in Agrobacter'ium (Fujiwara and Fukui) , on the role of ribosomes in 

 bacterial sporulation (Kobayashi and Domoto) , on cell differentiation in 

 sporulating BaciZl'L (Kaneko) , on cytodifferentiation in the cell cycle of 

 yeasts (Hayashibe) , on hyphal growth and morphogenesis in Fungi fNishi) , on 

 photosporogenesis in Fungi imperfeoti (Oda and Kumagai) , and on fruiting 

 body formation in Basidiomyoetes (Ishikawa and Uno) . 



The standard of production is very good indeed, and particularly the elec- 

 tron micrographs are well reproduced. 



THEORETICAL AND MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY (see also 99,100,101) 



Monographs 



8. 



B.C.GOODWIN. 1976. ANALYTICAL PHYSIOLOGY OF CELLS AND DEVELOPING ORGANISMS 

 Academic Press, London, etc. X,249 pp., 55 figs., 1 tab., subject index. 

 £ 8.50, $ 18.50 



Contents: 1. Stability and regulation in the metabolic system, 2. Stabili- 

 ty and regulation in the epigenetic system, 3, The mitotic and cell cycles, 

 4. Cell growth, cell synchrony and biological clocks, 5. Morphogenesis: 

 aperiodic order in one dimension, 6. Morphogenesis: spatial periodicities 

 and multidimensional order, 7. The organism as a cognitive and co-opera- 

 tive system 



This book is a thought-provoking attempt to provide a picture of biologi- 

 cal organisation valid from the lowest to the highest levels. The approach 

 is based on molecular biology on the one hand and mathematical model building 

 on the other: hence the word "analytical" in the title is to be understood in 

 both the experimental and the mathematical sense. The author aims to show 

 that there is no discontinuity of action in moving from problems of homeo- 

 stasis and stability (chs.l and 2) to those of temporal organisation (chs.3 

 and 4), and finally to those of temporal and spatial order {chs.5 and 6). 

 Higher-level systems (e.g. embryos) "continue to include in their operation 

 all relevant activities of the lower-order ones" (such as self-regulating 

 metabolic systems within cells) . In the last chapter this leads to what the 

 author considers to be "a self-consistent and rigorous alternative to a re- 

 ductionist position". 



The chapters of most immediate interest to developmental biologists are 

 chs.5 and 6. In the first of these the discussion centres on morphogenesis in 

 hydroids, cellular slime moulds and Acetobularia . The latter is included to 

 emphasise that morphogenesis can occur without cell interaction. Therefore, 

 the ensuing model for (morphallactic) linear morphogenesis starts from the 

 cell membrane and is based on activity waves associated with it. The wave 



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