VI
Preface
lution, the book's third part, reviews the current explosion of evolutionary and
molecular developmental research on the body-plan diversity of animals and plants
owing to the evolution of transcription factor-encoding genes. The final part, Genetic Biodiversity, looks at recent progress in studies on the genetic diversity and
evolution of advanced animals.
The symposium was organized by Dr. N. Takahata, the Graduate University for
Advanced Studies; Dr. N. Satoh, Kyoto University; Dr. Y. Iwasa, Kyushu University; Dr. R. Ueshima, the University of Tokyo; and myself. I am indebted to the
organizers and participants for the success of the symposium, without which this
book would not have appeared. I also gratefully acknowledge Dr. K. Endo of the
University of Tokyo, and Dr. N. Satoh and Dr. R. Ueshima for reviewing some of
the papers and providing useful suggestions. Publication of this book was supported by a 1999 Grant-in-Aid (No. 206002) for Publication of Scientific Research
Results from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
M. Kato