Making a Commitment: Cell Lineage Allocation and Axis Patterning in the Early Mouse Embryo

Overview

Journal Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol

Specialties Cell Biology
Molecular Biology

Date 2009 Jan 9

PMID 19129791

Citations 385

Authors

Sebastian J Arnold

Elizabeth J Robertson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Genetic studies have identified the key signalling pathways and developmentally regulated transcription factors that govern cell lineage allocation and axis patterning in the early mammalian embryo. Recent advances have uncovered details of the molecular circuits that tightly control cell growth and differentiation in the mammalian embryo from the blastocyst stage, through the establishment of initial anterior-posterior polarity, to gastrulation, when the germ cells are set aside and the three primary germ layers are specified. Relevant studies in lower vertebrates indicate the conservation and divergence of regulatory mechanisms for cell lineage allocation and axis patterning.

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