Dual adhesive recognition systems in chick embryonic cells.

Abstract

One of the fundamental processes of animal development is morphogenesis, the sculpting of embryonic pattern and form from ever-changing pools of multi plying, differentiating cells. That it is a process of staggering complexity is compellingly obvious, and even the most casual observer might be drawn to ask how a series of events so involved can possibly be directed and coordinated. In many cases, the inherent complexity of developmental interactions defies direct analysis within the natural context—the growing organism. To understand morphogenesis in its larger sense, then, one is constrained to start small, to ask answerable questions about the individual aspects of morphogenesis that together generate the cascade of events we observe. It is within this context that the molecular analysis of cellular adhesive interactions can provide a beginning for a more comprehensive understanding of developmental processes.