Böcker i Colloquium Series on Developmental Biology-serien

Describes the development of placodes and their derivatives and summarizes recent advances in the characterization of the repertoire of transcription factors underlying their development. The text also reviews recent studies that have started to address the role of several classes of signalling molecules in placode induction and segregation.

Provides an overview of fundamental aspects of oocyte and early embryonic development and the interference and genetic approaches that have provided access to maternally regulated aspects of vertebrate development. Some of the pathways and molecules highlighted in this review are well known and are essential regulators of multiple aspects of animal development.

Different regulatory networks are activated in different posterior neural regions, and these networks induce specific neural cell types in each region. Elucidating how each of these networks specify different cell fates is crucial for understanding the basic tenets of how Wnt morphogenetic activity induces the posterior nervous system during the earliest stages of vertebrate development.