Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: Developmental Biology, Eighth Edition by Gilbert, Scott F. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, MA, 2006, 796 p, $24.95 L. Charles Murtaugh*, * Department of Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah It is a truth universally acknowledged that an undergraduate trying to understand embryology must be in want of Scott Gilbert's Developmental Biology textbook. What is remarkable is that this has now been the case for a full 21 years—as Gilbert says in the preface to the new eighth edition, the book should be taken out for a drink. The book's age is also, as he notes, the age of its intended audience, and it was at this age that I myself made the acquaintance of the Nieuwkoop center, Hensen's node, segment polarity genes, and all the many other aspects of developmental biology explored in an earlier edition of this essential textbook. These old friends are still prominently featured in the most recent edition, as are many new ones, in keeping with the continued progress of the field. Nonetheless, Gilbert's preface warns that he has made a philosophical shift and that the textbook no longer tries to “track the field,” but includes as much material as an advanced undergraduate biology major needs to know. Readers will be hard-pressed to find major gaps in the material covered, but they will also find that most changes from the seventh edition, published in 2003, are relatively cosmetic. Developmental Biology, the textbook, is apparently shifting from the “becoming” phase of its life cycle to that of “being.” Whether the same is true for developmental biology, the field, is a subject fit for melancholic speculation. In any event, keeping in mind that it is best read through the eyes of an advanced college student, we can turn to the textbook itself and consider the form it has assumed after 21 years of development. Developmental Biology continues to stand out for its didactic use of experimental evidence—the reader has the rare feeling, in a science textbook, of understanding both the underlying principles under discussion as well as the practical details of how those principles were uncovered. Experimental results are repeatedly presented in as close to their primary form as possible, so that the reader is naturally guided through the inferences made by the researchers themselves. It helps the book—as it helps the field, in recruiting new students—that so much of this evidence is both visual and beautiful, and Developmental Biology benefits from hundreds of color and black-and-white photomicrographs. Although weighted toward vertebrates, Developmental Biology draws on insights from diverse organisms and begins with a wide-ranging discussion of developmental anatomy, life cycles and life histories, and experimental principles. This last, comprising the third chapter of Part 1 (“Principles of Developmental Biology”), is among the most important sections, as it introduces several important topics, such as morphogens, through a rapid-fire presentation of experiments that, together, help elucidate the “rules of evidence” for science. The remaining chapters of Part 1 introduce the key concepts and techniques of modern developmental biology, and place the reader's prior molecular biology and cell biology coursework into an embryological framework. Overall, the organization of Part 1 is relatively unchanged from the previous edition, but includes expanded discussion of some topics (such as microRNAs) and minor contractions of others. Parts 2 (“Early Embryonic Development”) and 3 (“Later Embryonic Development”) retain the organization of the seventh edition, although all chapters have been updated to reflect new results. These chapters cover the material at the heart of any developmental biology class: fertilization; gastrulation; development of nerves, bones, and muscles; limb patterning; sex determination; metamorphosis; and regeneration. The chapters occur in roughly the order of the processes themselves and provide a rich buffet from which an instructor can cull the material most pertinent to his or her syllabus. (As in recent editions, the textbook is also enriched by a Web site, www.devbio.com, which provides additional short articles outside the scope of the main text, as well as by version 2.2 of Tyler and Kozlowski's CD-ROM, Vade Mecum2, which includes videos illustrating experimental organisms and the techniques used in their study.) Whereas early editions of Developmental Biology focused on key processes, such as cleavage and gastrulation, and discussed their similarities and differences across multiple species, the explosion of molecular detail in the past decade has forced more recent editions to proceed organism-by-organism in discussing early development (Part 2). The chapter on fertilization, which retains a “compare-and-contrast” organization, is thus succeeded by chapters on early development of invertebrates other than Drosophila, early Drosophila development, early amphibian development, and early development of other vertebrates (including zebrafish, chick, and mouse). The chapter on amphibian development is particularly up-to-date, and together with the Drosophila chapter provides a centerpiece for a lecture course as well as a valuable resource for a laboratory-based class. Part 3 describes the subsequent differentiation of the various germ layers and their collaborations in organogenesis. The focus is initially on vertebrates and incorporates material from the recent literature into expanded discussions of brain morphogenesis, somite formation, heart development, and other topics. The last chapters of Part 3 treat sex determination, maturation, and germline development, among other “adult” topics, and discuss invertebrates as well as vertebrates. All of these chapters are very up-to-date, and as always, Gilbert is careful to note areas of controversy and uncertainty. Not only is his approach even-handed, but it will hopefully continue to tempt future students into the field. The fourth part of Developmental Biology, “Ramifications of Developmental Biology,” begins with a chapter, by Susan Singer, summarizing plant development and making helpful use of concepts earlier discussed in animals. The final three chapters deal with the medical, ecological, and evolutionary aspects of developmental biology, and provide excellent “hooks” for the instructor—they should certainly help wake up a potentially exhausted class, if they are covered among its final lectures! As befits their coverage of rapidly moving fields, these three chapters are the most substantially updated and reorganized of the textbook. I would suggest that the chapter on medical implications of development, particularly the section regarding stem cells and regeneration therapy, could stand further updating in the next edition. This section is currently too dependent on explanation and summary, rather than presentation of experimental evidence, and relatively shaky or controversial results (e.g., the pluripotency of mesenchymal stem cells) do not get the detailed discussion they require. One solution might be to establish an entirely new chapter devoted to stem cell biology, combining new material with that currently scattered through the book. Stem cells, and their attendant controversies, may be the only aspects of developmental biology already familiar to the average student opening this textbook, and instructors would likely be grateful for a consolidated treatment of the field. Some of the growing pains of stem cell biology may be due to its general disconnect from embryology, and both current and future researchers would benefit from a deeper treatment in Developmental Biology. Although Gilbert plainly states that its intended audience is advanced undergraduates, the textbook has long provided more advanced researchers with quick refreshers on unfamiliar topics. This remains the case, but for one near-disastrous editorial judgment: rather than end every chapter with a complete list of references, all but a tiny handful of references have been moved from the textbook to the Web site, and readers interested in following up a citation within the text will be out of luck unless sitting in front of a computer. This has certainly saved a small amount of space, but at the cost of considerable user-friendliness, and I will surely not be the only reader to suggest returning full reference lists to future editions. For better or worse, most undergraduates will not worry about the difficulties of looking up source material, and Developmental Biology remains an exemplary textbook. For 21 years, Scott Gilbert has met the challenge of keeping up with and distilling a vast, changing breadth of material. With this edition, he puts us on notice that he and his audience are no longer interested in more of the same, and issues a challenge to developmental biologists to make discoveries novel and exciting enough for inclusion in future editions.
Source: Developmental Dynamics
DOI: 10.1002/dvdy.20938
Author: L. Charles Murtaugh
Institution: University of Utah
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2127648317