New Patterns in Genetics and Development

Fülszöveg

NEW PATTERNS IN GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENT
By C. H. Waddington
A widely held opinion in the biological research laboratories today is that the major problem facing biology in the next few decades is to arrive at a genetical interpretation of differentiation. This book is the first thorough treatment of this topic by someone who is both an embry-ologist and a geneticist. It is a completely new attempt to synthesize the data and outlooks of these two fundamental branches of biology with the great advances of the last twenty years in the fields of microbiological genetics and molecular biology and in the application of new techniques of electron microscopy, autoradiography, and immunology.
In his book, Dr. Waddington boldly tackles the developmental biologist's most challenging problem: the nature and origin of structural organization at the supramolecular, cellular, and tissue levels. Because of its difficulty, this has been one of the most neglected fields in recent biology. Dr.... Tovább

Fülszöveg

NEW PATTERNS IN GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENT
By C. H. Waddington
A widely held opinion in the biological research laboratories today is that the major problem facing biology in the next few decades is to arrive at a genetical interpretation of differentiation. This book is the first thorough treatment of this topic by someone who is both an embry-ologist and a geneticist. It is a completely new attempt to synthesize the data and outlooks of these two fundamental branches of biology with the great advances of the last twenty years in the fields of microbiological genetics and molecular biology and in the application of new techniques of electron microscopy, autoradiography, and immunology.
In his book, Dr. Waddington boldly tackles the developmental biologist's most challenging problem: the nature and origin of structural organization at the supramolecular, cellular, and tissue levels. Because of its difficulty, this has been one of the most neglected fields in recent biology. Dr. Waddington has been one of the first to apply the electron microscope to differentiating embryos, and this book includes most of the unpublished material resulting (Continued, on back flap)
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(Continued from front flap) from this work. The author shows how this, and other, new techniques are throwing new light on old problems and at the same time raising new issues. He argues that structural organization plays an essential role in the control of the complex network of synthetic processes by which the cells of an early embryo become changed into the differentiated cells of an adult. He suggests that we cannot hope to arrive at a genetical interpretation of development until we have some understanding of the process by which structural organization is brought into being and maintained.
About the Author:
Dr. Waddington began his career as an experimental embryologist. After working for some years at the level of complex biological entities, he went on to become one of the pioneers in the attempts made during the thirties in interpreting developmental processes in biochemical terms. Later he was one of the first workers in developmental genetics. For the last fifteen years, Dr. Waddington has been the leader of one of the largest and most active research laboratories in genetics: The Institute of Animal Genetics, University of Edinburgh. He is the author of many articles and several books, among which are two comprehensive texts, Introduction to Modern Genetics and Principles of Embryology, and a book, Organizers and Genes, in which he brings together the subjects of embryology and genetics. Vissza