The Developmental Biology of Plants and Animals [antikvár]

'1,1; : ' ' ' iPrefaceThis book has been written to meet the need for a unified account of plant and animal development for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. There have been relatively few attempts to produce such a general treatment of developmental biology in the past and, so far as we know, none at the advanced level. The traditional subject divisions into botany, zoology, biochemistry and medicine have resulted in largely independent approaches to developmental problems in plants, animals and micro-organisms and there has been remarkably little communication between workers in these various fields. Indeed, the language and approaches used by plant and animal developmental biologists are in many respects so different that communication between them is often difficult, as is very apparent on the rare occasions when they meet at interdisciplinary conferences. The differences in approach are partly due to the very different nature of the biological material they are dealing with and the consequent different opportunities for experimental approaches which plants and animals offer. Thus, the motility of animal cells offers experimental opportunities which are denied to the plant biologist, while the remarkable capacity for regeneration of many plants offers possibilities envied by the animal biologist. Nevertheless, despite these differences in approach, there is more common ground in the nature of the problems posed and in the concepts developed than is commonly realized, and as we hope will become apparent from the present book. Our aim, therefore, was to combine a variety of biological disciplines in the study of development and thereby to achieve a unification and synthesis of ideas and concepts. We believe that such a unified approach to plant and animal development is fruitful and that the study of one illuminates the other. For instance, the study of pollen-stigma interactions may give a good model of cell recognition in animal development, while knowledge of gene expression in amphibians is helpful in understanding plant differentiation. We therefore consider it blinkered to study one without the other.In selecting the material to be included in the book we were governed by two main considerations: firsdy, that the background knowledge of the student readers would be very diverse; secondly, that it would be impossible and unnecessary to give complete coverage of the whole field to an advanced level, within a reasonable space. Accordingly, we have had to assume that the reader has a general elementary knowledge ofbiology, including development, and a reasonable grounding in biochemistry and molecular biology. However, Part 1 is intended to provide a general introduction, particularly for readers who have a less detailed knowledge of biochemistry and molecular biology or who may not be well acquainted with plant development. The remaining chapters require rather more concentration as the book progresses, but it was important that all the book should be readily comprehensible. To this end, the first draft of each chapter was kindly read through by several students and where authors were found to be less than lucid they rewrote and clarified.We considered it more important, in an advanced text book, that the topics covered should be treated in depth than that a comprehensive coverage should be given at a more general level. The criteria we adopted in selecting topics have therefore been, firstly, that they should illustrate or have a bearing on general themes of plant and animal development; and secondly, that there should be a well-established body of information on each of the topics selected. Hence, for example, the selection of photomorphogenesis to illustrate environmental control of plant development.One of the results of this policy has been that a number of topics which appear in standard texts of plant or animal development have been given very cursory treatment or omitted altogether. On the other hand, some topics, such as cell junctions and short range interactions in plant cells, which have been included are not normally dealt with in standard textbooks of developmental biology, but are included here because they have a bearing on a general developmental problem.It was important that the chapters be written by authorities who were aware of recent advances in their respective fields. To integrate their diverse contributions we have introduced and summarized the Parts, extensively cross-referenced, and provided a large index. These aids should be used. For instance there is no section entitled 'Developmental genetics' but the index shows that a full treatment of the genes which control development can be found in Chapters 1.3, 2.1, 3.6 and 5.3; again no chapter is called 'Biochemistry of development' but a quick look at the Conclusions at the end of each Part of the book would draw the reader's attention to Parts 4, 5 and 6 where this subject is widely discussed.We would like to thank the authors who have devoted so much time and effort to produce excellent and original