This book vividly describes how complex and integrated movements can arise from the properties and behaviors of biological molecules. It provides a uniquely integrated account in which the latest findings from biophysics and molecular biology are put into the context of living cells. This second edition is updated throughout with recent advances in the field and has a completely revised and redrawn art program. The text is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and for professionals wishing for an overview of this field.

The chapters contained in this two-volume set provide a broad perspective on the novel strategies and conceptual paradigms that drive the current resurgence of interest in somitogenesis - the process by which somites form and elaborate differentiated tissues and structures. Because somites are a ubiquitous feature of vertebrate embryos, they can be studied in a variety of experimental animal models including those amenable to genetic (zebrafish, mammalian), molecular/genetic (mammalian, avian) as well as those already well established for classical experimental embryological and cell biological studies (amphibians, avian). The wide variety of experimental approaches to somitogenesis that are presented in these volumes will leave the reader with a broad perspective on how current research in somitogenesis is helping to solve fundamental questions in vertebrate development and morphogenesis.Key Features:* Novel transcriptional mechanisms that control repetitive pattern formation* Wide scale genetic screens for mutations affecting somitogenesis* Molecular/genetic control of pattern and tissue formation during somitogenesis* Transplantation of mouse embryo somites* Classical embryological approaches and concepts* Evolutionary perspectives on somitogenesis

Hox Gene Expression starts with the amazing discovery of the homeobox twenty-three years ago and follows the exciting path thereafter of a series of breakthroughs in Genetics, Development and Evolution. It deals with homeotic genes, their evolution, structure, normal and abnormal function. Researchers and graduate students in biology and medicine will benefit from this integrated overview of Hox gene activities.

The different aspects of muscle development are considered from cellular, molecular and genetic viewpoints, and the text is supported by black/white and color illustrations. The book will appeal to those studying muscle development and muscle biology in any organism.

Somite development is a unique and important topic; unique because somitic mesoderm is the first tissue to become segmented, important because the somites - once established - exert a profound influence on other seg mental structures which form later. Somite development is of interest at a number of levels. In one aspect, demarcation of a specific number of somites and size regulation, it is a particularly intriguing example of embryonic pattern formation, 'especially in vew of its possible relation to homoeobox-controlled segmentation in insects. At another level, somite development has long been studied by compara tive anatomists, but only recently has new light been thrown on such sub jects as segmentation of the head, proposed in the 18th century by Goethe and now a live issue for developmental biologists. Somit es are simple when they first appear, but very complex structures arise from them. These include the vertebrae and the axial and other muscles and consequently there is a wealth of morphogenetic problems to be explored. Sometimes their morphogenesis is disturbed, by genetic or environ mental factors, and there are many clinical conditions which arise as a result.