This series was established to create comprehensive treatises on specific topics in developmental biology. Such volumes serve a useful role in developmental biology, which is a very diverse field that receives contributions from a wide variety of disciplines. This series is a meeting ground for the various practi tioners of this science, facilitating an integration of heterogeneous information on specific topics. Each volume is comprised of chapters selected to provide the conceptual basis for a comprehensive understanding of its topic as well as an analysis of the key experiments upon which that understanding is based. The specialist in any aspect of developmental biology should understand the experimental back ground of the specialty and be able to place that body of information in context, in order to ascertain where additional research would be fruitful. The creative process then generates new experiments. This series is intended to be a vital link in that ongoing process of learning and discovery.

Inhalt
I. Specification of Regional Patterns of Cell Fate in Animal Development.- 1 The Role of Cytoplasmic Determinants in Embryonic Development.- 2 Determination of Pattern and Fate in Early Embryos of Caenorhabditis eJegans.- 3 Cellular Interactions in Establishment of Regional Patterns of Cell Fate during Development.- 4 A New Look at Spemann's Organizer.- 5 The Molecular Biology of Pattern Formation in the Early Embryonic Development of Drosophila.- II. Developmental Regulation of Gene Expression in Animals.- 6 Regulation of Actin Gene Expression during Sea Urchin Development.- 7 Regulation of the Mid-Blastula Transition in Amphibians.- 8 Expression of Ribosomal Protein Genes during Xenopus Development.- 9 Regulation of Expression of Xenopus Vitellogenin Genes.- 10 Developmental Regulation of the rosy Locus in Drosophila melanogaster.- 11 Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Strategies in Neuroendocrine Gene Expression.- 12 Hypomethylation of DNA in the Regulation of Gene Expression.- III. The Molecular Biology of Plant Growth and Development.- 13 Molecular Biology of Plant Growth and Development: Arabidopsis thaliana as an Experimental System.- 14 Regulation of Gene Expression during Seed Development in Flowering Plants.- 15 Development and Differentiation of the Root Nodule: Involvement of Plant and Bacterial Genes.