Description

This timely account provides a comprehensive contemporary analysis of morphogenetic processes in vertebrate and invertebrate embryos. Morphogenesis, the generation of tissue organization in embryos, is an increasingly important subject. This is partly because the techniques for investigating many morphogenetic mechanisms have only recently become available and partly because studying the genomic basis of embryogenesis requires an understanding of the developmental phenotype. Following an introduction covering case studies and historical and technical approaches, the book reviews the mechanistic roles of extracellular matrices, cell membranes and the cytoskeleton in morphogenesis. A detailed discussion of how mesenchymal and epithelial cells cooperate to build a wide range of tissues is also included. The book concludes with a dynamical analysis of the subject. With its extensive literature review (more than 500 titles), this book will interest developmental biologists and will also serve as an advanced textbook for postgraduate and final year students.