Heasman Janet
Division of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation, 3333 Burnet Avenue, OH 45229-3039, USA.
Development. 2006 Apr;133(7):1205-17. doi: 10.1242/dev.02304.
Developmental biology teachers use the example of the frog embryo to introduce young scientists to the wonders of vertebrate development, and to pose the crucial question, 'How does a ball of cells become an exquisitely patterned embryo?'. Classical embryologists also recognized the power of the amphibian model and used extirpation and explant studies to explore early embryo polarity and to define signaling centers in blastula and gastrula stage embryos. This review revisits these early stages of Xenopus development and summarizes the recent explosion of information on the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that are responsible for the first phases of embryonic patterning.
发育生物学教师通过青蛙胚胎的例子，向年轻科学家介绍脊椎动物发育的奇妙之处，并提出关键问题：“一团细胞如何变成一个图案精美的胚胎？”。经典胚胎学家也认识到两栖动物模型的作用，并利用切除和外植体研究来探索早期胚胎的极性，以及确定囊胚期和原肠胚期胚胎中的信号中心。这篇综述回顾了非洲爪蟾发育的这些早期阶段，并总结了最近有关负责胚胎图案形成第一阶段的内在和外在因素的信息爆炸式增长。
