Human And Mammalian Cytogenetics

The history of science is mostly written retrospec tively, a generation or two after the actual events being discussed. Science historians are now analyzing and evaluating the origins of evolutionary and genetical theory in the nineteenth century and a sort of "Darwin industry" seems to have grown up. A history of mammalian cytogenetics by one of the main participants is, hence, a very welcome change, since it has a vividness, an immediacy and a personal flavor which these scholarly tomes and the official biog raphies of scientists mostly lack. The life of the author, Chinese-born, T. C. Hsu, has been a romantic and color ful one, and he is himself a unique personality, so that his book is a very unusual blend of reminiscences, history of his special field (which has transformed human genetics) and wise comments on the mistakes made along the way. The best qualities of a very fine Chinese mind have contributed to Dr. Hsu's career, including this book. Those qualities (which seem to me especially Chinese) include a kind of transparent honesty, a very direct em pirical approach to problems and superb technical ability.

Mammalian Cytogenetics and Related Problems in Radiobiology covers the proceedings of a symposium held in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in October 1962. The book focuses on the processes, methodologies, and approaches involved in mammalian cytogenetics and radiobiology. The selection first offers information on the nutrition and metabolism of cultured mammalian cells, blood technique and human chromosomes, and DNA replication in human chromosomes. Discussions focus on replication of heterochromatin in the human male; difficulties involved in the study of DNA synthesis in human chromosomes; and perspectives for future research. The text then ponders on the progress in the utilization of cell culture techniques for studies in mammalian and human somatic cell genetics and modification of radiation effects in the Ehrlich ascites tumor by oxygen or sodium azide. The manuscript examines experimental studies on mammalian chromosome aberrations, chromosome breakage in vitro, and survival of human cells in tissue culture after irradiation with densely and sparsely ionizing radiation. The text then elaborates on the observations on the morphology and behavior of normal human chromosomes, human pachytene chromosomes, and abnormalities of autosomes. The selection is a vital reference for readers interested in mammalian cytogenetics and radiobiology.

Ten years ago a symposium on Cytotaxonomy 'was held in London (Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 169:110, 1958) in which a first attempt was made to bring together various disciplines to discuss advances of mammalian cytogenetics and to put them into proper context with the sciences of evolution and taxonomy. The introductory remarks by \V. B. Turrill to that symposium, essentially an admonishment to be tolerant of the short comings of our respective disciplines, would be a most appropriate begin ning to this conference as ,,'ell. However, the meeting held at Hanover was conceived more along the lines of remarks made by R. B. Seymour Se,,'ell in his presidential address to the same society: "It has been said that scientists in this search for truth are nowadays too much concerned with the accumulation of facts, and make too little use of their imagina tion in their attempts to explain such facts as they have accumulated. " (In "The continental drift theory and the distribution of the Copepoda," ibid. 166:149, 1956. ) \\Tith this as a background, two years ago we held the first of a series of loosely-structured conferences on reproductive failure in the relaxing atmosphere of this small New England college community. The manu scripts of that meeting have been published (Comparative Aspects of Re productive Failure, Springer-Verlag New York Inc. , 1967).

Now in its second edition, this atlas serves as an easy-to-use diagnostic guide for the analysis of the human karyotype. Split in four parts, it starts with a comprehensive introduction covering the molecular cytogenetic basics, the role of ethic committees and international quality control in the field of diagnostics. The main parts II and III show the spectrum of different types of chromosomal abnormalities by a combination of karyogram and ideogram. They compare the significance of different banding techniques, give the karyotype formula and describe morphological peculiarities of each case presented. The final part provides a detailed description of non-coding DNA variants and focuses on potential problems in the detection of aberrations. It also mentions necessary additional investigations and peculiarities to be considered when counselling carriers of a chromosomal aberration or their relatives. Given its comprehensive scope and practical approach, this atlas is an indispensable resource for researchers, clinicians and practitioners working in the field of cytogenetics and clinical genetics.

Ten years ago a symposium on Cytotaxonomy 'was held in London (Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 169:110, 1958) in which a first attempt was made to bring together various disciplines to discuss advances of mammalian cytogenetics and to put them into proper context with the sciences of evolution and taxonomy. The introductory remarks by \V. B. Turrill to that symposium, essentially an admonishment to be tolerant of the short comings of our respective disciplines, would be a most appropriate begin ning to this conference as ,,'ell. However, the meeting held at Hanover was conceived more along the lines of remarks made by R. B. Seymour Se,,'ell in his presidential address to the same society: "It has been said that scientists in this search for truth are nowadays too much concerned with the accumulation of facts, and make too little use of their imagina tion in their attempts to explain such facts as they have accumulated. " (In "The continental drift theory and the distribution of the Copepoda," ibid. 166:149, 1956. ) \\Tith this as a background, two years ago we held the first of a series of loosely-structured conferences on reproductive failure in the relaxing atmosphere of this small New England college community. The manu scripts of that meeting have been published (Comparative Aspects of Re productive Failure, Springer-Verlag New York Inc. , 1967).

This publication combines and extends the now classic system of human cytogenetic nomenclature that has been prepared by expert committees and published in, or in collaboration with, Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics since 1963. The current ISCN committee and its advisors finalized the report at a meeting in Memphis, Tennessee in October 1994. It updates, corrects and combines all previous human cytogenetic nomenclature recommendations into one systematically organized publication. ISCN 1995 includes, supersedes, and reorganizes the previous compilation in ISCN 1985 and its supplement, ISCN 1991, the Guidelines for Cancer Cytogenetics. Also, some minor inconsistencies of the previous compilations are corrected and clarified.