Vertebrate axis formation.
Molecular understanding of axis formation has recently taken a great leap forward with the identification and functional characterization of regulatory genes that appear to act at the top of the hierarchy leading to positional specification in the vertebrate. Analysis of these genes, which encode peptide growth factors and their receptors as well as transcription factors, is disclosing principles of early cell fate specification that are common to all vertebrates.
Niehrs
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Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles 90024 1737.
De Robertis
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D000818:Animals; D005775:Gastrula / Q000502:physiology; D005801:Genes, Homeobox / Q000502:physiology*; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000502:physiology; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics