title: Patterning in the C. elegans embryo.
abstract: Recent studies reveal preliminary insights into the mechanisms of embryonic patterning in Caenorhabditis elegans. It appears that both embryonic axes and early blastomere fates are determined by a combination of segregating determinants and cell interactions, under the control of maternally expressed genes. Later in embryogenesis, some regional identities are specified by a group of homeotic selector genes homologous to the HOM-C clusters in other animals. Intervening stages of specification, which could link these two classes of genes in a regulatory hierarchy, are beginning to be investigated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309.
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: L G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Edgar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics; D007814:Larva / Q000166:cytology