Developmental biology : a very short introduction Lewis Wolpert.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Cells -- 2. Vertebrates -- 3. Invertebrates and plants -- 4. Morphogenesis -- 5. Germ cells and sex -- 6. Cell differentiation and stem cells -- 7. Organs -- 8. Nervous system -- 9. Growth, cancer, and ageing -- 10. Regeneration -- 11. Evolution.

This book is a concise account of what we know about development; it discusses the first vital steps of growth and explores scientific research in this area. It discusses how fertiziled eggs develop, the process of cell division, the development of patterns, and overall growth. From a single cell, a fertilized egg, comes an elephant, a fly, or a human. How does this astonishing feat happen? How does the egg "know" what to become? How does it divide into the different cells, the separate tissues, the brain, the fingernail, every tiniest detail of the growing fetus? In this work, the author shows how the field of developmental biology seeks to answer these profound questions. A developmental biologist himself, he offers an explanation of the patterning created by Hox genes and the development of form, embryonic stem cells, the timing of gene expression and its management, chemical signaling, and growth. Drawing on scientific breakthroughs in genetics, evolution, and molecular biology, he illuminates processes that are deeply rooted in evolutionary history, revealing how information is held in genes whose vital timing in switching on and off is orchestrated by a host of proteins expressed by other genes.