Development shows some backbone. HFSP Workshop on Genetic Control of Vertebrate Development cosponsored by the Human Frontier Science Program, European Science Foundation, and European Molecular Biology Organization, Les Diablerets, Switzerland, May 26-30, 1991.

This meeting aptly illustrated the power of a combined analysis of development in a range of vertebrate systems. Each system has its own inherent strengths: the mouse has gene transfer technology and targeted mutagenesis, the frog and chick have experimental embryology, and the zebrafish has genetics. It is the synergistic effect of considering all of these systems in combination that is without measure. In the past, the study of vertebrate development has been relegated to a largely descriptive phase. Initially, this was through analysis of morphological changes taking place during development. More recently, this has taken the form of cataloging the expression patterns of genes transcribed in development. It is clear that we are now entering an era when a functional analysis of development can get underway.