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Developmental Biology, Eighth Edition. Scott F. Gilbert, editor.

Article in Integrative and Comparative Biology · June 2006

DOI: 10.1093/icb/icl011 · Source: OAI

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652
Book Reviews
Developmental Biology, Eighth
Edition. Scott F. Gilbert, editor.
Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, 2006. 751 pages.
ISBN 0-87893-250, $112.
The eighth edition of Scott Gilbert’s Developmental
Biology contains a broad range of topics from evolution
to the aging process. The book contains 23 jam-packed
chapters grouped into four focus areas. The first
area covers the basic “principles of developmental
biology.” This section includes the basic concepts of
the life cycle, reproduction, and cellular interactions
in Volvox, Dictyostelium, vertebrates (amphibians),
and plants (angiosperms), as well as examples of the
fates of cells and their differentiation. There are also
details on differential gene expression and explanation
of past and present techniques used in experimental
embryology. Throughout the text there is in-depth
coverage of the many genes and proteins involved in
the building of an organism, whether the natural way
or by way of transgenics and cloning. Part 2 covers early
embryonic development in more detail, focusing
on gamete formation, fertilization, and early develop-
mental stages (cleavage, gastrulation, neurulation,
and organogenesis) in sea urchin, snails, tunicates,
Drosophila, amphibians, fish, birds, and mammals.
Part 3 treats later embryonic development and meti-
culously covers the derivatives of each germ layer.
Processes involved in the ectoderm forming the central
nervous system and epidermis, the fates of the neural-
crest cells and axonal specification, partitioning of
the mesoderm to form the body cavities, muscles,
and organs, as well as the formation of the respiratory
and digestive tract from the endoderm, are well written
and clearly described. This section also covers the
formation of the tetrapod limb, sex determination,
metamorphosis, regeneration, and aging. The final
section “Ramification of Developmental Biology”
includes a chapter on plants, as well as a look at
how the rapid expansion of knowledge in this field
has allowed advances in biomedical technology and
stimulated much ethical debate. While much of the
text covers animal development, Gilbert, with the
help of Susan R. Singer, dedicates chapter 20 solely
to the development of plants. The model organisms
Integrative and Comparative Biology, volume 46, number 5, pp. 652–654
Ó The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved.
For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.
of plant development include the pea plant (a proto-
typical angiosperm), maize, and Arabidopsis. The
events throughout the life cycle of these plants are
described with details on recent findings from muta-
tional analysis of plant genes.
Each chapter is highlighted with a section called
“Sidelights & Speculations” to call attention to a hot
area of research currently under investigation. Gilbert
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makes a point to go to leading scientists to get the most
recent findings on each topic. This edition covers topics
that have been in the forefront of discussions at annual
meetings around the world and are also the topics of
the funding trends in the leading funding agencies.
These include stem cell niches, microRNAs, sperm–
egg attraction and binding, left–right gene expression
asymmetry, heart chamber specification, neural-crest
cell specification and differentiation, somite formation,
human brain growth genes, the embryonic origin of
tendons, new sources of muscle precursor cells, sex
determination pathways in the brain, newly discovered
mechanisms of teratogenesis, the effects of endocrine
disruptors on human development, the effects of
maternal nutrition on gene expression, and suscepti-
bility to disease in the adult offspring. The book also
covers controversial discussions over digit specification
in birds and dinosaurs and whether mammalian blas-
tomere fate is biased at the first division. There are also
web links to supplemental online information and a
“Coda” that gives Gilbert’s commentary on the signifi-
cance of the subject being covered in that chapter
and adds extra information that relates the chapter
to landmark findings and transitions to the next
topic to be covered. At the end of each chapter is a
useful “snapshot summary” that gives a brief synopsis
of the information covered.
I have used Scott Gilbert’s Developmental biology
text since the 1988 second edition. Each new edition
has added more information and touched on new
areas of interest. The eighth edition continues in
that tradition giving new information, adding more
visual graphics, access to the companion Website
(www.devbio.com), and including a copy of an inter-
active CD-Rom Vade Mecum2: An Interactive Guide
to Developmental Biology in each book. Web sites are
listed throughout for the conscientious student who is
 Book Reviews
curious to know more about a particular subject. These
web links also allow Gilbert to cover the historical
perspective and classical experiments while moving
on to the current literature within the text. I highly
recommend this book for upper level undergraduate
students and graduate students. The amount of infor-
mation and coverage of complex material may prove
to be a challenge for lower level undergraduate stu-
dents. It can, however, serve as a very good reference
book for all students but may require supplemental
handouts to abridge the wealth of information.
The book tackles complex concepts with clear
understandable language and informative images.
It is wonderfully illustrated with thorough figure
legends that complement the text. Images of current
research are combined with tables, charts, and draw-
ings to explain complex problems in terms that an
undergraduate student can understand, while being
informative at a level of detail suitable for graduate
students and other scientists wishing to gain
insight into recent findings in the field or brush up
on basic principles in developmental biology. A must-
have book for anyone interested in development
biology.
Brenda Judge Grubb
Department of Zoology, North Carolina State University
Advance Access publication June 21, 2006
doi:10.1093/icb/icl011
The Evolution of Animal
Communication: Reliability and
Deception in Signaling Systems.
William A. Searcy and S. Nowicki
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.
288 pp. ISBN 0-691-07095-4.
Are communicating animals straight-talkers or con-
men? That is, when a gazelle stots, a songbird sings,
or a mantis shrimp displays its weapons, are they send-
ing a truthful signal to the receiver or trying to pull a
fast one? The answer, like answers to most questions in
biology, is that it depends. And it is how it depends that
is the topic of Searcy and Nowicki’s excellent treatise
on animal communication. This book continues the
eminent Monographs in Behaviour and Ecology series in
fine form.
Over the years the pendulum has swung back
and forth between views of animals as honest adver-
tisers or deceitful manipulators, and the debates have
sometimes been heated and polemic. For example, the
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653
concept of information content in a signal has swung
from defining communication to being regarded as
unnecessary for the study of communication. Searcy
and Nowicki do a great job of both reviewing the his-
tory of these debates and in many cases providing
reconciliation. One perennially controversial issue is
whether song dialect regions in songbirds serve as indi-
cators of genetic differences and could potentially lead
to local adaptations. The authors review these studies
well, pointing out how some debates have been essen-
tially beside the point (patterns of genetic change, tim-
ing of song learning), and how other problems are
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more critical for the local adaptation hypothesis
(lack of evidence for local adaptation, limited female
dispersal). In this and other topics the authors do
exactly what a good synthesis should: review the cur-
rent data and provide future direction.
I found the balanced presentation by Searcy and
Nowicki refreshing. That is not to say that the authors
do not push their own viewpoints, but that they do so
in a relatively evenhanded manner. Their overall con-
clusion is that signals usually are more or less honest,
but that a certain amount of deception can, and often
does, exist in signaling systems. Perhaps because I am
Canadian I found this middle-road and moderate
viewpoint refreshing.
The theoretical framework of this book follows the
argument that senders should be selected to produce
signals only if that benefits them (in terms of fitness),
and receivers should respond to signals only if that
benefits them. This selection acting both on senders
to manipulate receivers and on receivers to scrutinize
senders should result in signals, on average, containing
reliable information. The balance between honesty
and deception will depend upon a variety of factors
including the degree of shared interest between
signalers and receivers. The majority of the book is
organized around 3 such situations: when interests
overlap (for example, food begging by dependent
young), when interests diverge (for example, courtship
signals), and when interests oppose (for example,
aggressive displays). Following this, communication
networks in which eavesdroppers may make use
of information directed to another receiver are
considered. In each of these sections a variety of exam-
ples are used to illustrate variations on the main theme.
The writing in this book is delightfully clear. In
particular, mathematical models (of which the
field of communication has attracted a great
number) are explained clearly enough for the compu-
tationally challenged to follow. The figures are clear
and well selected, and the production quality is
excellent. One might consider the selection of examples
to be taxonomically biased, but my view is that the