title: Head-tail patterning of the vertebrate embryo: one, two or many unresolved problems?
abstract: When, where and how is the head-tail axis of the embryo set up during development? These are such fundamental and intensely studied questions that one might expect them to have been answered long ago. Not so; we still understand very little about the cellular or molecular mechanisms that lead to the orderly arrangement of body elements along the head-tail axis in vertebrates. In this paper, we outline some of the major outstanding problems and controversies and try to identify some reasons why it has been so difficult to resolve this important issue.
authors.affiliation: European Union Network of Excellence Cells into Organs, University College London, UK. c.stern@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Claudio D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Charité
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deschamps
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Duboule
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Durston
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kmita
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Nicolas
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Palmeirim
authors.forename: Jim C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Lewis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wolpert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D008954:Models, Biological