Cell Lineage and Fate Determination

Key Features
* Presents eight different animal models
* Provides a focused forum on cell fate determination that provides comprehensive and key information for researchers
* Illustrates the transitional relationship between researchers and clinicians
* Includes the extensive use of tables and color figures

Audience: Graduate students, post-doctorates, and faculty in developmental biology, cell biology, neurobiology, genetics, clinical genetics, and teratology.

Cell Lineage and Fate Determination brings together established and young investigators who are leading authorities on the determination of cell fate. Our current understanding of cell fate commitment and cell lineage determination is derived from studies of a number of different organisms, each ideally suited to elucidate particular components of the whole story. Therefore, this book is divided into sections, each representing one major animal model, in which exciting new advances in lineage and fate determination are discussed. Because few can master the intricacies and peculiarities of the development of all necessary animals, or of all critical experiments, this volume provides broad coverage of how combined research in these animals forms our current view of the mechanisms regulating cell lineage and fate. Information obtained in one model system can cross-fertilize the thinking of researchers utilizing another model system, and thus spur new approaches and hypotheses. The final section emphasizes the utility of such an approach by presenting advances in tissue determination that have been made possible by multianimal research strategies.
Key Features:
* Each animal model (sea urchin, leech, nematode, fly, frog, fish, chick, and mammal) is presented in a separate section, beginning with an introduction that presents the salient developmental processes and the experimental usefulness of the model
* The sections on each animal model contain 3-4 research chapters addressing different issues of cell lineage and cell fate determination in that animal. These chapters provide the background, the most recent advances, and comments on the future promise and the expected applied significance of the area of research
* The final section provides examples of research areas in which results of studies of tissue differentiation have been fruitfully applied to multiple animals, and in which clinical application is close at hand
* Many color figures are included
* Numerous chapters address issues of particular interest to developmental neurobiologists

Alvin Telser

This book discusses modern approaches to the study of the embryology, cell lineage, and cell fate determination in eight well-studied animal models of development. "In a well-written and interesting historical forward, the editor explains that the models discussed in the book were chosen because of their extensive use of interdisciplinary experimental approaches. This is an ambitious and worthwhile undertaking, and the book measures up to these goals very well. "The editor does not state for whom the book is intended, but it could serve as a textbook for a contemporary course in developmental biology or as a useful reference for any scientist wishing to know important concepts and technical details about these eight model developmental systems. The contributors are well known experts in their respective fields. "The 41 chapters are grouped into studies on the eight model systems, with each chapter presenting recent results and prospects for future studies in each of these systems. The latest techniques and interpretations of the factors that affect cell lineage and fate determination are presented and discussed in each chapter. There is an adequate number of black-and-white diagrams and figures as well as a good number of color diagrams. The figures are of good to average quality. "This is likely to be a popular reference book for research scientists who are interested in the questions discussed in this book. The high cost would mitigate against its use as a course textbook, but it would be a very useful reference volume. The thorough presentation and discussion of these eight animal model systems would be very useful to anyone who thinks about many of the critical questions indevelopment. It certainly should be on the shelves of all life science libraries.

Sally A. Moody is Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the George Washington University Medical Center, and a member of both the Neuroscience and Genetics programs. Prior to this appointment she was on the faculty of the Anatomy and Cell Biology Department, the Department of Neuroscience, and the Developmental Biology program at the University of Virginia. She trained in developmental neurobiology at the University of Florida’s Department of Neuroscience and the University of Utah’s Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy. Dr. Moody’s current research focuses on the cascade of interactions that instruct lineages to give rise to the frog nervous system. She has taught developmental neurobiology in the MBL "Neurobiology" course and was co-director of the "Early Development of Xenopus Laevis" course at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She has also served on many National Institute of Health advisory committees dealing with issues in developmental biology and developmental neurobiology, and served on the Board of Trustees of the Society for Developmental Biology.