reviews Valuable reference work on amphibian

morphogenesis

Amphibian Morphogenesir

by Harold Fax, Human a Press, 1984. $59.50 in USA, $69.50 elsewhere (xv + 301pagea lSBN 08960304,71

This is an unusual book. It has the appearance of a review of amphibian metamorphosis, greatly broadened to include the morphology of amphibian development, and discussed with reference to modern cell biology. The result is a mixture of mostly useful, but some not so useful, information.

The volume has four main parts. Some 30 pages are devoted to tables of staged specimens of numerous species of amphibia. This section seems to me to be of use only to museum taxonomists con- cerned with amphibia.

By far the largest and most useful part, occupying half of the whole book, is the next section on the developmental origin of various organs and tissues. For those who work on amphibia, there is a real need to know the embryological origin, in terms of cells, of various adult organs. This information is to some extent available in Nieuw- koop and Faber's Normal Table of Xenopus. However this source is now old (1956), and has limited references to other literature. Harold Fox's book has assembled useful infor- mation on the cellular origins of numerous larval and adult organs, such as the nervous system (including Rohon- Beard and Mauthner cells), musculature, blood, various glands, etc. There is strong emphasis on changes that occur

at metamorphosis. The morph- ological descriptions are accompanied by extensive literature references.

The third quarter of the book is, in my view, less successful. It provides a description of cell organeiles, with some discus- sion of inducers and their rela- tionship to hormones. It is not feasible to review the cell and molecular biology of amphibian development at this level in this space. The result is that much recent molecular investigation of amphibian genes and dev- elopment is not discussed.

The last 30 pages of the book provide over a thousand refer- ences on amphibian taxonomy and developmental morph- ology. The value of this ref- erence list is that it consists mainly of references to what cell and molecular biologists would regard as obscure jour- nals. Thus one sees numerous references to Cape~ and Herpetok;gica, and few, if any, to

7 " I G - March 1985

a journal such as Cell. This is not necessarily a criticism so long as the value of the reference list is appreciated. It is increasingly hard to find a source of references to older embryological work, concerned with the morphology of development, and the list has a substantial use in this context.

In summary, this book is of value as a reference work for those concerned with the meta- morphosis and morphological origin of tissues and organs in amphibia. The detailed style of presentation makes the book a little turgid to read, but it has the great merit that the morpho- logical facts reviewed are well documented by references to original papers.

j. B. GURDON

CRC Molecular Embryology Group, Dept of Zoologz Downing St. Cam. tnidge, CB2 3E], UK

Steroid hormones in particular

Biological Regulation and Development, Vol. 3B. Hormone Action.

edited by Robert F Goldberger and Keith R. Yamamoto. Plenum Press, 1984. $42.50 (xiii + 312 pages) [SBN 0 306 41442 2

This is the fourth volume of a series on biological regulation and the second devoted specifi- cally to hormone regulation. This proportion adequately reflects the importance of hor- monal control for our under- standing of biological regu- latory mechanisms. Almost all eight chapters in this volume deal with steroid hormones, leaving only one chapter for polypeptide hormones. There is a chapter devoted to the regu- lation of transcription by the cyclic AMP receptor protein by de Crombrugghe, Busby and Buc. Although, this is not actually a hormonal system and concerns prokaryotic organ- isms, the review is excellent and represents a clear example of the type of experiments that can be performed in eukaryotes with hormonally regulated systems. It seems improbable that such a subtle mechanism as that used for gene regulation by the cyclic AMP receptor protein in E. coil will not have a

counterpart in animal ceils. In fact, recent reports on specific binding of steroid hormone receptors to regulatory ele- ments in the neighbourhood of hormonally regulated prom- oters support the idea that this mechanism has been conserved through evolution.

Unfortunately, very little of the literature reviewed in most chapters goes beyond 1981. This limitation is particularly evident in papers on the mole- cular mechanisms of hormone action, a field that has been moving very fast during the past couple of years. Never- theless, several chapters dealing with more biological problems are excellent and fulfil the aim of the editors, namely to illustrate general regulatory princip]es. In par- ticular, the ambitious chapter by J. R. Tara on evo]utionary aspects of hormone action, raises a tremendous number of interesting questions and will stimulate the reader to think along less conventional lines. The thoughtful chapter on insect hormones by G. Richards and M. Ashburner is very in- structive and a pleasure to read, even if progress at the mol- ecular level has been slow in this field. More questionable is the inclusion in this volume of the chapters on characteristics

and measurements of intracel- lular receptors and on regula- tion of gene transcription by steroid hormones. Similar con- tributions can be found in several other volumes dealing with steroid hormone action and do not add to the estab- lished views on the reviewed topics. With some reservations, this criticism could also be extended to the paper on receptors for polypeptide hormones.

The chapter on steroid hor- mones of Achyla, although deal- ing with a somewhat exotic sys- tem (or because of that) stimu- lates thoughts on more general aspects of hormonal regulation and offers a good example of

the great variety of functions exerted by the relatively simple class of steroid hormones. A similar effect is fulfilled by the brief chapter on circad- ian rhythms, that otherwise appears to be borderline in this volume.

Except for the reservations mentioned, this book is worth reading, especially for those investigators interested in gen- eral ideas and concepts relevant to hormonal regulation.

M. BEATO

Physiologtsch-Chemisches lnstitut, Philipps-Univers~t~t, Deutsch. hauss~ 1-2, 1)-3550 Marburg, FRG

Genetic Geography

Genetic Maps 1984: A Com- pilation of Linkage and Restriction Maps of Gene- tically Studied Organisms. Vol. 3.

edited by Stephen J. O'Brien, Cold Spring Harbor, 1984. $28.00 in USA, $33.60 else- where(ill + 584 pages) ISBN O 87969 171 9

This, the third edition, suggests that C, enet/c Maps is now an established biennial and that Professor O'Brien and his assis- tants have turned a 'good idea'

into an essential reference work. The compilation is now over 500 pages, a distillate of many decades of work by thous- ands of scientists. It is impos- sible for a single reviewer to comment upon all the informa- tion presented, many of the techniques employed are un- familiar, the loci nomenclature often cryptic.

The idea for this compilation arose from the observation by mammalian geneticists that the linkage relationships of some groups of loci were conserved across species. This conserva- tion appears to have been main- mined since the radiation of the