Tooth development: 1. Generating teeth in the embryo.

Teeth are organs that develop in the embryo via a series of interactions between oral epithelium and neural crest-derived ectomesenchyme of the early jaws. These interactions are initiated by the regional production of signalling molecules in the oral epithelium and the transfer of information to the underlying mesenchyme via homeobox gene transcription. This article describes how these interactions are co-ordinated in the embryo during development of the dentition and provides a theoretical basis for the second article in this series; understanding how biologists are attempting to generate teeth artificially in the laboratory.