Synopses & Reviews
This book is the first detailed description of the embryonic development of all important sturgeon species - from the egg, over the various larval stages to the grown up fish. Besides dealing with the typical issues of developmental biology: hormonal stimulation of oocyte maturation; development of the mature egg organisation and the role of the ucleus and the cytoplasm in this process; timing of the mitotic phases; changes in the cell cycle during the transition to gastrulation; morphometric movements during the gastrulation. Emphasis is also placed on fish breeding in aquaculture, with special recommendations and instructions for the artificial breeding of sturgeons.
Synopsis
This book is the first comprehensive description of development of the Acipenserid fish published in the English language. It con tains the results of more than 40 years of studies by the authors and their colleagues. My own life in science has been intimately related both with the authors and the fish, which are the subject of this book. Therefore, it gives me a great pleasure to present to the English reader an expanded version of the book. Those interested in the history of biology must be well aware of the fact that genetics in the USSR was practically demolished by Lysenko at the session of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1948. However, it is much less well known that other fundamental branches of biology were also persecuted at that time, experimental embryology (developmental mechanics) among them. As a result, many embryologists, in cluding the authors of this book, were forced to turn to more ap plied problems, this being the only way to continue research. They had to abandon amphibians and concentrate their efforts on sturgeon."