Abstract
The fundamental task in early embryogenesis is to install in the descendants of a single cell initial patterns of spatial regulatory gene expression in respect to the axes of the future body plan. This poses control challenges unlike any others encountered in bilaterian life. We introduce in this chapter general principles of development couched in terms of regulatory logic, such as the regulatory properties of the egg, inductive signaling, differentiation and cellular morphogenesis. Beyond these, bilaterian evolution has given rise to several distinct developmental strategies for pregastrular embryogenesis, specifically those of regularly cleaving small embryos with early onset of transcription; of large embryos undergoing rapid cell division with delayed onset of transcription and motility; of embryos utilizing a transcriptionally active syncytium. Here, for each of these strategies, we focus on particular regulatory design features of gene regulatory networks encoding embryonic specification, response to maternal spatial inputs, territorial pattern formation, and global control of zygotic gene expression.
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