The Cell Cycle

Concepts of Biology is designed for the single-semester introduction to biology course for non-science majors, which for many students is their only college-level science course. As such, this course represents an important opportunity for students to develop the necessary knowledge, tools, and skills to make informed decisions as they continue with their lives. Rather than being mired down with facts and vocabulary, the typical non-science major student needs information presented in a way that is easy to read and understand. Even more importantly, the content should be meaningful. Students do much better when they understand why biology is relevant to their everyday lives. For these reasons, Concepts of Biology is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand.We also strive to show the interconnectedness of topics within this extremely broad discipline. In order to meet the needs of today's instructors and students, we maintain the overall organization and coverage found in most syllabi for this course. A strength of Concepts of Biology is that instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Concepts of Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand--and apply--key concepts.

The Cell Cycle: Principles of Control provides an engaging insight into the process of cell division, bringing to the student a much-needed synthesis of a subject entering a period of unprecedented growth as an understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying cell division are revealed.

In recent years, the study of the plant cell cycle has become of major interest, not only to scientists working on cell division sensu strictu , but also to scientists dealing with plant hormones, development and environmental effects on growth. The book The Plant Cell Cycle is a very timely contribution to this exploding field. Outstanding contributors reviewed, not only knowledge on the most important classes of cell cycle regulators, but also summarized the various processes in which cell cycle control plays a pivotal role. The central role of the cell cycle makes this book an absolute must for plant molecular biologists.

Cell Growth and Cell Division is a collection of papers dealing with the biochemical and cytological aspects of cell development and changes in bacterial, plant, and animal systems. One paper discusses studies on the nuclear and cytoplasmic growth of ten different strains of the genus Blepharisma, in which different types of nutrition at high and low temperatures alter the species to the extent that they became morphologically indistinguishable. The paper describes the onset of death at high and low temperatures as being preceded by a decrease in the size of the cytoplasm and a corresponding decrease in the size of the macronucleus. The moribund organisms, still possessing structure, are motionless with no distinguishable macronuclear materials. Another paper presents the response of meiotic and mitotic cells to azaguanine, chloramphenicol, ethionine, and 5-methyltryptophan. The paper describes the failure of spindle action, arrest of second division, inhibition of cytokinesis, aberrant wall synthesis, and alterations in chromosome morphology in meiosis cells. In the case of mitosis, a single enzyme—thymidine phosphorylase—shows that reagents which inhibit protein synthesis also inhibit the appearance of that enzyme if the reagent is applied one day before it normally appears. Other papers discuss control mechanisms for chromosome reproduction in the cell cycle, as well as the force of cleavage of the dividing sea urchin egg. The collection can prove valuable for bio-chemists, cellular biologists, micro-biologists, and developmental biologists.