Current Topics in Developmental Biology (Volume 28)

"Current Topics in Developmental Biology" - Volume 28 - reviews advances in the field of developmental biology, including both plant and animal systems and lower eukaryote. In plants, analysis of leaf morphogenesis combines traditional descriptive techniques with molecular genetic experiments and clonal and mutation analysis to account for the natural variation in leaf form. In "Dictyostelium discoidium," the evidence for competitive inhibition between pre-stalk and pre-spore cells is presented as a model for cell-type proportioning in a wide variety of metazoa. In animals, the regulation of the cell cycle in mitosis and meisosis is reviewed, emphasizing the role of m-phase kinases, phosphatases and their substrates during oocyte growth and maturation. Cell adhesion molecules in "Drosophila" are reviewed at the molecular and genetic levels, showing their importance in differentiation and morphogenesis. The processes leading to bilateral symmetry in the chick embryo are also reviewed, focusing on the role of the hypoblast in axis determination. The use of spontaneous, chemically induced and DNA-mediated insertional mutagenesis to analyze mammalian development is included. Together, these chapters introduce the reader to important recent advances in understanding the mechanisms of cell proliferation, differentiation and morphogenesis, all closely linked to human development and human genetics.