Amine Fluorescence Histochemistry

This supplement to the "International Review of Cytology" is entitled "Aspects of Nuclear Structure and Function." Thus it is strange that the first article in the series, "Comparative Aspects of the Female Gamete," contains but one page of text on the oocyte nucleus and one on the nuclear envelope. This quasi-philosophical review of studies on oocyte morphology falls short of being well written and informative. For example, the reader may frequently be frustrated by abrupt changes of subject, biochemical aspects are not even touched upon, and the author cites unpublished observations he has made as "illustrative examples" without providing an illustration or other documentation. Happily, the other articles in this volume are well written and informative. Franke thoroughly and critically summarizes information on the "Structure, Biochemistry, and Functions of the Nuclear Envelope," and provides a massive bibliography. Daneholt's article, "Transfer of Genetic Information in Polytene Cells," is an excellent summary illustrating the applicability of insect salivary glands to the study of genetic activity, with emphasis on recent work on transcription that has been done by the Karolinska group. Schnedl has written a useful and well-documented discussion of the several banding techniques for chromosome identification. While this article deals largely with the appearance of human chromosomes after the various treatments of staining with Giemsa solution, quinacrine or acriflavin, mention is also made of observations on the chromosomes of some other mammals and birds. The article by Fansler on "Eukaryotic DNA Polymerases: Their Association with the Nucleus and Relationship to DNA Replication" takes the cell-biological rather than biochemical approach to DNA polymerases and replication, although biochemistry is not slighted. Johnson, Douvas, and Bonner treat "Chromosomal Proteins" in general in their article, the bulk of which is comprised of an extensive and thoughtful review of studies on histones and histone-DNA interaction. While this volume suffers a bit in having limited and occasionally inaccurate index, so that it cannot readily be used as a reference source, it is, on the whole, a useful collection of article on facets of the study of cell nuclei.