Showing papers in "Biological Reviews in 1962"

Migration of terrestrial arthropods in relation to habitat

Abstract: CONTENTS

The control of mitotic activity in adult mammalian tissues.

Abstract: CONTENTS

Variability in crop plants, its use and conservation

Abstract: CONTENTS

Cell contact and adhesion.

Abstract: 1 0 3 (2) Electrostatic attractive forces (3) London-van der Waals forces (4) The interaction of London and electrostatic forces . ( 5 ) Other factors . . . IX. The specificity of adhesion . . (I) Antigen-antibody type binding . . . . (2) Specific patterning . . X. Non-specific adhesion . . . (I) Binding by intercellular material . . . . (2) Other effects of intercellular material . . . . XI. The dynamic nature of the interaction of cells . . . XII. Summary . . . . . XIII. References . . . . . XIV. Addendum . . . . .

The osmoregulation of crustacea

Abstract: VII . VIII . IX . X . Blood concentration in relation to that of the medium . . . ( I ) Types of regulation . . . . . . . . (2) Osmotic regulation of terrestrial forms . . . . (3) Osmotic regulation of freshwater forms . . . . (4) Tolerance of high salinities and fluctuations in concentration ( 5 ) The mechanisms involved in osmotic regulation . . . Osmotic and ionic regulation at the cellular level . . . . ( I ) General . . . . . . . . . . (2) Cellular ionic metabolism . . . . . . . (3) Regulation of cellular osmotic pressure . . . .

The biology of lichen thalli

Abstract: 111. Respiration ’ 545 ( I ) Rate of respiration . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 (2) Respiration rate and water content . . . . . . . . ’ 545 (3) Effects of other environmental factors on respiration rate . . . . . 546 (4) Respiratory substrates and respiratory quotients . . . . . . . 546 IV. Photosynthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547 ( I ) Rate of photosynthesis and net assimilation . . . . . . . ’ 547 (2) Photosynthetic rate and water content . . . . . . . . . 548 . . . 548 (4) Products of photosynthesis . . . . . . . . . . ’ 549 V. Nutrition and metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . 549 ( I ) General features of nutrient accumulation . . . . . . . . 549 (2) Nitrogen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550 (3) Carbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550 (4) Inorganic elements and the action of lichens on their substrata 552 VI. ‘Lichen substances’ . . . . . . . . . . . . ’ 553 ( I ) Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5 3 (2) Biosynthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 (3) Physiological roles and antibiotic properties . . . . . . . 555 (4) Use in taxonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . 556 VII. Growth rates, longevity and reproduction . . . . . . . . . 557 (I) Growth rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557 (2) Longevity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558 (3) Reproduction . . . . . . . . . . . . ’ 559 VIII. Resistance to environmental conditions . . . . . . . . . . 560 ( I ) Drought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560 (2) Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 (3) Other factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

Pre-cambrian fossils

Abstract: Since Darwin’s time the total number of recorded fossils has grown enormously, and so has their importance as documents of the real history of the organic world. Many previously missing links in the documentation of the course of evolution have been found. The discovery of some of them had been predicted by comparative anatomists and embryologists. Some fossils are truly transitional between major existing groups so that their classification in the framework of established systematics is difficult. Fossils enable us to trace the evolution of vertebrates as far back as the Ordovician when the first fragmentary fish bones appear in the record. We have no reason to assume that vertebrates originated much before that time. Invertebrate fossils are abundant, so much so that they provide in many instances statistically significant samples. Evolutionary lineages have been established on the basis of collections made from successive strata, as well as by general comparisons of fossil representatives of different genera, families and higher taxa. The interrelationships of cephalopods, of decapod crustaceans, the origin of asteroids, the evolutionary lineages of many groups of bivalved molluscs, even of insects, are well documented by significant fossils. But when we ask such questions about the relationships between the classes of the coelenterates, or the arthropods, or when we try to find the ancestors of the brachiopods, or of the echinoderms, we get little, if any, more enlightenment from the study of fossils than from the investigation of living animals. We can follow these groups of animals down through the Palaeozoic strata into the Cambrian where most though not all phyla of the invertebrates are represented. When we reach the Lower Cambrian the record is diminished and Pre-Cambrian rocks are considered, as a general rule, to be unfossiliferous.

Pyruvate carboxylation and plant metabolism.

Abstract: The discovery and elucidation of 8-carboxylation of pyruvate 8-Carboxylases of plants . . . . . . ( I ) Oxaloacetic decarboxylase . . . . . (2) Malic enzyme . . . . . . (3) Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase . , . . (4) Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase . . . The role of pyruvate carboxylation in plant metabolism . (I) Respiration . . . . . . . . (2) Photosynthesis . . . . . . . (3) Crassulacean acid metabolism . . . . . (4) Fat metabolism . . . . . . . (5) Carbon dioxide fixation by roots Conclusions . . . . . . . . . Summary . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . Addendum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 . 216 . 220 . 220 . 220 . 223 . 226 . 227 . 227 . 232 . 239 . 244 . 247 . 248 . 248 249 254

Is there a nervous system in sponges

Abstract: The Porifera constitute a well-characterized group of animals which have a relatively simple mode of life and a structural organization quite distinct from that found in any other phylum. They are all sedentary organisms\" which do not exhibit the properties of irritability and contractility to any striking degree; their responses are relatively slow, simple and unvaried. Probably in this respect the sponges represent a primitive condition relative to that found in metazoan phyla, particularly as the sponges have had a very long geological history, remains being found in the oldest fossiliferous rocks (Shrack & Twenhofel, 1953). For this reason a study of the behaviour of sponges should be very rewarding. On the one hand, there is the opportunity to determine the contractile properties of cells not differentiated into striated muscle fibres, and, on the other, the means to investigate how co-ordinating signals can be transmitted in the absence of a fully differentiated nervous system. Yet few researchers have attempted these investigations. In recent years, however, several sponge specialists have made a fresh approach to the problem of behaviour by identifying certain elements in the sponge as nervous and sensory cells, and this has resulted in the revival of an earlier claim that a nervous system exists. This claim can be strongly challenged.

The roles of amino acids in animal embryogenesis

Abstract: CONTENTS I . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . 11. hmino acids and the nutrition of the embryo . . . . ( I ) The chick embryo . . . . . . . . (2) The embryos of fish . . . . . . . . (3) Insect embryos . . . . . . . . . 111. Changes in the free amino acids of developing embryonic tissues . ( I ) Amphibian embryos . . . . . . . . (2) Echinoid embryos . . . . . . . . I\\’. Intermediary metabolism of amino acids in the embryo . . ( I ) Interconversions of amino acids . . . . . . (2) Glutamine metabolism . . . . . . . (3) Transaminases . . . . . . . . . (4) Arginase and tyrosinase . , . . . . . ( 5 ) Tryptophan peroxidase . . . . . . . V. Possible roles of amino acids in the control of tissue differentiation ( I ) Early embryonic stages . . . . . . . (2) Neural induction . . . . . . . , (3) Differentiation of tissues in the late embryo . . . . ( I ) Breakdown of storage protein reserves. . . . . (2) Uptake of amino acids into protein . . . . . VII. Conclusions and suggestions for future research . . . . VIII. Summary . . . . . . . . . . VI. Amino acids in the cycle of protein metabolism of the embryo 378

The taxonomy of the polyporaceae

Abstract: The polypores are an important group of fungi represented all over the world, much collected, variously studied in the laboratory and sylviculturally, but in such a chaotic state of classification that it is impossible to collate the information scientifically. There can be few large groups of organisms, numbering thousands of species, of which it can still be said that the main genera are artificial, that the whole assemblage may be artificial, and that it is not known what generic names should be applied to the natural aggregates of species that can be detected. Thus progress is prevented. In the last 30 years, however, information has been accruing which sheds light not only on the particular problem of classification but on another neglected subject which is the extreme complexity of the construction of the fruit-body in higher fungi. These contributions have been local in so far as they have been prepared for local floras, and they do not meet the real need of monographic revaluation, which is complicated further by the scatter of collections and types in museums and by the inaccessibility of the literature. In bringing together this information, a platform is provided for future research. The polypores are Basidiomycetes producing the basidia, typically, on the inside of tubes lining the undersurface of the fructifications. These are generally conspicuous as brackets on the fallen or standing trunks and branches on which they grow and, as they are usually tough or woody, but not truly ligneous, they are the fungi most often collected and preserved. If there were a proper classification for them, they would provide a basis for the almost non-existent subject of mycological geography. The mycelium causes decay in wood, often the heart-wood of living trees, and it may be parasitic. The polypores, indeed, are the fungi of most importance to foresters and those whom one may call in general 'wood workers'; if there were this adequate