The author of this remarkably comprehensive review, PIERRE DUSTIN, has performed an invaluable service in bringing to gether in one volume the observations and theory on micro tubules that have accumulated over the last fifteen years. He has understood the magnitude of the task from the beginning and has met it thoroughly and, I must say, courageously. From here on, and for many years to come, young investiga tors, and some not so young, will have a ready reference as they seek to discover what has been done and remains to be done in achieving a better understanding of these important cell components. Since the early 1960's when it became clear that the fila ments (micro tubules) making up the 9 + 2 complex of cilia and flagella were to be found very widely in cells, microtub ules have attracted an ever-increasing amount of attention. Now it is known, as reviewed in this volume, that they influ ence the morphogenesis of anisometry in the shapes of cells and cell extensions; that they function as frames for the intra cellular movement of granules and chromosomes; that they are subject to control in their assembly and disassembly by externally applied substances such as colchicine and cyclic AMP; and that they display abnormalities in their numbers and orientations in transformed (malignant) cells, to mention only a few of their several functions.weiterlesen