This Side Up: Spatial Determination in the Early Development of Animals (Developmental and Cell Biology Series, Series Number 24)

This comprehensive and cogent survey examines the subject of embryonic determination, the set of processes fundamental to animal development by which cells in the early embryo acquire different developmental capabilities. Examining both the classical literature and the newer, molecular findings, the author summarizes the current state of our understanding of determination and poses key questions for the future. He begins with a consideration of how much spatial pattern is already laid down when the egg forms inside the mother, and ends just before the formation of visible organs. Within these limits he also considers evidence obtained by a variety of techniques, both experimental and biochemical, derived from the embryos of a variety of animal groups. This is a suitable text for upper level undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in developmental biology. During animal development the descendants of a single cell form many different tissues and organs in appropriate positions within an embryo. To do this they must recognise their position, and this book examines our knowledge of how this is done. It starts by considering how much spatial pattern is already laid down when the egg forms inside the mother, and ends just before the formation of visible organs. Within these limits it considers evidence obtained by a variety of techniques, both experimental and biochemical, and from the embryos of many different animal groups. This breadth of coverage and the amount of detail afforded, particularly to the experimental studies, distinguish it from competing works and will make it a very valuable review. Moreover, in the final chapter the author analyses this evidence in ways which will be new to most readers, and which call into question current ideas about spatial determination A study of the determination of spatial pattern in embryos clearly has to start long before fertilisation, in particular to find out how much pattern has been laid down during the development of the egg within the mother.