Editor

Dr. Robert A. Meyers
Editor-in-Chief
Ramtech Limited
34896 Staccato St.
Palm Desert, CA 92211
United States

Cover

Overview of different stages of population divergence along the speciation continuum from races or biotypes (on left) to completely isolated taxa (on right). For details see chapter 3, figure 1 (with kind permission of Elsevier).

All books published by Wiley-VCH are carefully produced. Nevertheless, authors, editors, and publisher do not warrant the information contained in these books, including this book, to be free of errors. Readers are advised to keep in mind that statements, data, illustrations, procedural details or other items may inadvertently be inaccurate.

Library of Congress Card No.: applied for

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

© 2019 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Boschstr. 12, 69469 Weinheim, Germany

All rights reserved (including those of translation into other languages). No part of this book may be reproduced in any form – by photoprinting, microfilm, or any other means – nor transmitted or translated into a machine language without written permission from the publishers. Registered names, trademarks, etc. used in this book, even when not specifically marked as such, are not to be considered unprotected by law.

Print ISBN: 978-3-527-33821-4

ePDF ISBN: 978-3-527-68589-9

ePub ISBN: 978-3-527-68591-2

Mobi ISBN: 978-3-527-68590-5

Cover Design Adam Design, Weinheim, Germany

Our book is aimed at providing students, professors, physicians and research scientists at universities, research laboratories, hospitals and drug companies with the latest developments in the very broad, central and fertile field of developmental biology.

We cover the major advances and especially the multitude of remaining issues in developmental and evolutionary biology of plants and animals including: understanding how a functional organ can be produced from a small group of cells; understanding the processes leading to functional organisms; how cells move collectively to accomplish gastrulation and begin differentiation to establish distinct cell lineages and then other functional parts of the body; how cells are polarized as part of cell differentiation; how cell communication affects the origin of the different cell types within close proximity to each other; and evolutionary biology from single cell or protocell life to multicellularity including the molecular mechanisms by which genetic variations are generated.

The book is organized into five sections. First, an Introduction covering all aspects of developmental biology which sets the stage for consideration of the latest advances in the fields covered in the following four sections.

The Evolutionary Developmental Biology Section or evo-devo'' covers the identification of molecular elements - for example, transcription factors or other types or classes of proteins and genes, as well as epigenetic and non-Mendelian factors - that provide insight about the processes of development of structure and form. This includes current understanding of speciation in reproductive organisms and how barriers to gene flow evolve and focus on the most important factors promoting speciation including recent progress from many different model systems. Molecular Darwinism is explored including “evolution genes” which are involved as generators of genetic variation and/or as modulators of the frequencies of genetic variation. The products of evolution genes operate in tight collaboration with nongenetic factors, such as the structural flexibilities and chemical instabilities of molecules, the action of chemical and physical mutagens, and random encounters. From there we cover animal body plan development and hypotheses on the origin of life such as the possiblity that the first forms of life used RNA both as ribozyme catalysts and as a way to store and transmit genetic information. Although this remains hypothetical, it does provide a foundation that can be used to guide experimental research. Finally, there is a focus on the minimal gene-set machinery necessary to keep a cell alive under defined environmental conditions. This is useful to obtain a better understanding of the phenomenon of life. Paleogenomics is the science of reconstructing and analyzing the genomes of organisms that are not alive in the present day. Paleogenomic analyses can provide insights as to when and by what means traits evolved, and how extinct organisms are related to living species and populations. A discussion is presented of some of the biological insights that can be gained from studying the genomes of dead organisms.

Cell Migration and Morphogenesis contains coverage of molecular morphogenesis as defined by gene expression patterns in animals as well as development of the autonomic nervous system and regulation of the function of internal organs. There are three main divisions of the peripheral autonomic nervous system, namely the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions and the enteric nervous system, which arise from the neural crest. The processes and mechanisms controlling the development of sympathetic, parasympathetic, and enteric neurons including their migratory pathways and neuronal differentiation, and the main signaling pathways involved in the development of each division, are reviewed. The formation of left-right (LR) asymmetry is one of the fundamental problems to be solved in developmental biology. In various vertebrate species, the LR axis forms as a result of a leftward flow of extraembryonic fluid that is generated by motile cilia. However, recent studies have shown that the mechanisms of LR-asymmetric development are evolutionarily divergent even among vertebrates.

The Gametogenesis, Fertilization and Early Embryogenesis section includes a consideration of the collaboration between genetic and epigenetic mechanisms in driving neuronal fate. A comprehensive overview is provided of the epigenetic layers that underlie neurogenesis, along with a perspective for future challenges in this exciting field. Animals display a tremendous diversity of patterns - from pigmentation markings to segmented body parts, which result from the establishment of discrete domains within developing organs through the integration of positional information. How such pattern-forming processes underlie the apparent complexity and diversity of natural patterns which has long puzzled mathematicians and developmental biologists alike is presented. Coverage of Regulation in the Early Drosophila Embryo provides emphasis on how multiple early morphogen gradients are established and how they feed into gene regulatory networks that generate distinct cell fates along the body plan. Also, Nuclear transfer (NT), also termed nuclear replacement or nuclear transplantation, is described for animal cloning.

Finally, we cover Growing Mini Organs from Stem Cells. Recently, novel three-dimensional (3D) stem cell culture methods for recapitulating the organogenesis process were reported and proved successful for self-organizing 3D mini-organs, so-called an organoid or organ bud. Here, the latest culture technologies to use stem cells for generating functional 3D mini-organs are reviewed and their potential for future applications is discussed.

Robert A. Meyers

Editor-in-Chief

Palm Desert, California

January 2019