About the book: 1984 / The book in a popular form talks about the problem of animal development and how genes control this process. Several chapters are devoted to the formation of the body's immune defense, the formation of blood cells, methods of hybridization of whole organisms and cell hybridization. The latest data on the structure and functioning of the genetic apparatus in the cell and in the developing organism are discussed. Much attention is paid to such areas as the beginning and switching of genes, changes in the genome in development. For biologists, geneticists, physicists, chemists.