Sox transcription factors play widespread roles during development; however, their versatile
funtions have a relatively simple basis: the binding of a Sox protein alone to DNA does not …

Genome sequencing has yielded a plethora of new genes the function of which can be
unravelled through comparative genomic approaches. Increasingly, developmental …

INTRODUCTION During embryogenesis, pluripotent cells gradually become specialized
and acquire distinct functions and morphologies. Because much of the specification process …

The zebrafish has become one of the most important model organisms to study biologial
processes in vivo. As a vertebrate that has many of the strengths of invertebrate model …

In the mouse, the definitive endoderm is derived from the epiblast during gastrulation, and,
at the early organogenesis stage, forms the primitive gut tube, which gives rise to the …

The lateral plate mesoderm (LPM) forms the progenitor cells that constitute the heart and
cardiovascular system, blood, kidneys, smooth muscle lineage and limb skeleton in the …

Monocilia have been proposed to establish the left-right (LR) body axis in vertebrate
embryos by creating a directional fluid flow that triggers asymmetric gene expression. In …

Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a secreted lipid mediator that functions in vascular
development; however, it remains unclear how S1P secretion is regulated during …

Over the past year, vertebrate GATA factors have been found to participate directly in several
signal-transduction pathways. Smad3, phosphorylated by TGF-β signalling, interacts with …

The gastrointestinal tract develops from a simple tube to a complex organ with patterns of
differentiation along four axes of asymmetry. The organ is composed of all three germ layers …