Nearly 10 years have elapsed since I finished writing the first edition
of Intro- duction to Molecular Embryology. During this period, molecular
embryology has made great strides forward, but without undergoing a
major revolution; there- fore, the general philosophy and outline of the
book have remained almost un- changed. However, all the chapters had to
be almost completely rewritten in or- der to introduce new facts and to
eliminate findings which have lost interest or have been disproved.
There was a major gap in the first edition of this book: very little was
said about mammalian eggs despite their obvious interest for mankind.
Research on mammalian eggs and embryos is so active today that this
important topic deserves a full chapter in a book concerned with
molecular embryology. Therefore, I am very thankful to my colleague Dr.
Henri Alexandre, who has written a chapter on mammalian embryology
(Chap. 9) and has prepared all the illustrations for this book.