Developmental Biology

1. Development: Organisms Construct and Organize Themselves on the Basis of Inherited Information.- 2. Basic Stages, Principles, and Terms of Developmental Biology.- 3. Model Organisms in Developmental Biology.- 4. Comparative Review: The Phylotypic Stage of Vertebrates, Common versus Distinct Features, and Aspects of Evolution.- 5. The Egg Cell and the Sperm Get a Dowry.- 6. The Start: Fertilization and Activation of the Egg.- 7. Precisely Patterned Cleavage Divisions Are Driven by an Oscillator.- 8. Determination: Cells Are Programmed and Committed to Their Fates.- 9. Epigenetic Pattern Formation: New Patterns Are Created During Development.- 10. Differentiation Is Based upon Differential Gene Expression that Is Programmed during Determination.- 11. Cell Differentiation Frequently Is Irreversible and Causes Cell Death; Early Cell Death Can Be Programmed.- 12. Animal Morphogenesis Is Shaped Actively by Adhesion and Cell Migration.- 13. Cell Journeys: Even Germ Cells and Cells of the Peripheral Nervous System Originate from Emigrant Precursors.- 14. Development of the Nervous System: Cell Migration, Pathfinding, and Self-Organization.- 15. Heart and Blood Vessels: Divergent Developmental Roads but One System in the End.- 16. Stem Cells Enable Continuous Growth and Renewal.- 17. Signal Molecules Control Development and Growth.- 18. Cancer Comes from Disturbed Growth and Differentiation Control.- 19. Metamorphosis: A Second Embryogenesis Creates a Second Phenotype.- 20. Sex and the Single Gene.- 21. Regeneration and Renewal versus Loss and Death.- 22. Life and Death: What Is the Major Mystery?.- Boxes.- Box 1 History: From the Soul to Information.- Box 2 Famous Experiments with Eggs and Embryos: Cloning, Chimeras, Teratomas, and Transgenic Mice.- Box 3 The PI Signal Transduction System.- Box 4 Models of Biological Pattern Formation.- Box 5 Signal Molecules Acting through Nuclear Receptors.- Box 6 How Cells Communicate and Interact.- Box 7 Contemporary Techniques in

Der Autor Werner A. Müller ist Professor für Biowissenschaften an der Uni Heidelberg. Er schreibt nicht nur wissenschaftliche Lehrbücher, sondern auch Geschichten, die Kindern und Jugendlichen in vergnüglicher Weise Wissenswertes vermitteln.