The symposium took place in 1977 in Houston, Tex. Of the 28 papers in the 

 sessions listed above six are by groups or individuals outside North America. 

 Most are short to medium-length reviews of recent research, sometimes against 

 a background of older work. Viewed as a whole the volume is a (temporary) 

 milesrone on the way to further knowledge in a field expanding at a stupen- 

 dous rate. 



Throughout the book the emphasis is on gene expression in mammalian cells. 

 The cell surface and the cytoskeleton figure in only a few papers. In section 

 II. ii two papers deal with amphibian material. Preceding the symposium 

 proper there is a 27-page "award address" by Mintz entitled Genetic mosaicism 

 and in vivo analyses of neoplasia and differentiation. The symposium is con- 

 cluded by a summary by J.Paul. 



The volume is very well produced and profusely illustrated; the quality of 

 the many half -tones is excellent. 



DEVELOPMENTAL BIOCHEiViISTRY, MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (see also 36,42,50,53,57,73,75, 



76,78,79,82,84,85,89,102) 



Treatises 



90. 



J.PAUL, ed. 1977. BIOCHEMISTRY OF CELL DIFFERENTIATION II 



Univ. Park Press, Baltimore, etc. Internat. Review of Biochemistry, vol.15. 



XII, 439 pp., 94 figs., 22 tabs., combined taxonomic & subject index. £ 17.95 



Contents: 1. Gene cloning: a new approach to understanding relationships 

 between DNA sequences (Glover); 2. Cellular and molecular aspects of ge- 

 netic expression in Chironomus salivary glands (Case, Daneholt) ; 3. Gene 

 activity in the lampbrush chromosomes of amphibian oocytes (Sommerville) ; 

 4. Programmed information flow in the sea urchin embryo (Weinberg); 5. Bio- 

 synthesis of eye lens protein (Bloemendal) ; 6. The biology of the Friend 

 cell (Harrison); 7. Muscle protein synthesis and its control during the 

 differentiation of skeletal muscles in vitro (Buckingham); 8. Teratocar- 

 cinoma cells as a model for mammalian development (Hogan) ; 9. Structural 

 organization and transcription of the genome of Diatyostelium discoideum 

 (Firtel, JacoDson) 



The first volume of this series was reviewed in Gen. Embryol . Inf. Serv. 

 16, 1, 1975. Although the design of the series has changed slightly, this 

 volume fulfills the expectations engendered by the first volume. The chap- 

 ters are authoritative and well-organised reviews ranging in length from 

 about 30 to about 80 pages, and describe the scene as it was by the end of 

 1976. The numbers of references per chapter range from about 100 to about 

 300. The first chapter reviews genetic recombinant techniques and serves at 

 the same time as background material for several other chapters, notably 

 ens. 4 and 9. 



The practice of including editor's comments has been abandoned in this 

 volume, so that it now almost exclusively addresses the specialist. The book 

 is well produced and adequately illustrated. 



Textbooks 



91. 



J.D.WATSON. 1976. MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF THE GENE. 3rd edit. 



Benjamin, Menlo Park, etc. XXIV, 739 pp., 461 figs., 37 tabs., subject index. 

 $ 16.95 



This book remains the best text for developmental biologists to "read up" 

 on their molecular biology. In revising and extending it the author has 

 ventured even further into the domain of cell biology than he did before. 



220 



