One of the key questions in Biology is how a single cell, the fertilized egg or zygote, diversifies to give rise to a multicellular animal with complex organs and systems. To achieve such a task, several steps must be accomplished in an orchestrated manner before the onset of organogenesis.
From the zygote’s totipotency, cell potency must progressively decrease to specify the germ layers which give rise to all body tissues and organs. The anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral axes must be defined to set the coordinates of the body plan. In some animals, such as the fruit fly, this occurs during oogenesis. In vertebrates, it is thought to take place after fertilization – how it happens is still a theme of debate.
Once defined, germ layers and body axes assume their definitive spatial arrangement through gastrulation, a crucial process that drives cell internalization. Whilst there is remarkable evolutionary conservation of signaling pathways and transcription factors involved, there is a diversity of morphogenetic movements observed throughout the animal kingdom.
Model organisms continue to play a crucial role in elucidating the fundamental molecular, cellular, and biochemical mechanisms that govern biological systems, accelerating our understanding of human health and disease. We hope that the topics covered here will reflect on the recent advances in understanding the early events of embryonic development and provide new perspectives on the subject. We welcome works on established model systems, as well as “non-traditional model organisms” to shed light on recent advances in resources, tools, and approaches to allow new and innovative contemplation of this long-standing question of how multicellular organisms are built.
This Research Topic welcomes reviews, research articles, methods, hypothesis, and theory on themes related to early events of embryonic development (fertilization, cleavage, blastula, gastrulation) including, but not limited to:
• Establishment of the embryonic axes, germ layers, and body plan. This may include the generation of maternal cues during oogenesis, symmetry breaking, and zygotic genome activation.
• Transitions in cell potency and fate specification. This can be considered from perspectives such as signaling pathways, transcription factors, epigenetic regulation, and patterns of cell division.
• Morphogenetic movements and tissue segregation during gastrulation. This may cover aspects such as regulation of cell movements and cell shape by mechanical forces, cytoskeleton, cell adhesion, and cell interactions with the extracellular matrix.
• Comparative analysis of the above aspects of early embryonic development from the perspective of evolutionary biology
Manuscripts focused on the specific timeframe for this topic (from fertilization to gastrulation) but also extending to other stages of development are also welcomed.
One of the key questions in Biology is how a single cell, the fertilized egg or zygote, diversifies to give rise to a multicellular animal with complex organs and systems. To achieve such a task, several steps must be accomplished in an orchestrated manner before the onset of organogenesis.
From the zygote’s totipotency, cell potency must progressively decrease to specify the germ layers which give rise to all body tissues and organs. The anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral axes must be defined to set the coordinates of the body plan. In some animals, such as the fruit fly, this occurs during oogenesis. In vertebrates, it is thought to take place after fertilization – how it happens is still a theme of debate.
Once defined, germ layers and body axes assume their definitive spatial arrangement through gastrulation, a crucial process that drives cell internalization. Whilst there is remarkable evolutionary conservation of signaling pathways and transcription factors involved, there is a diversity of morphogenetic movements observed throughout the animal kingdom.
Model organisms continue to play a crucial role in elucidating the fundamental molecular, cellular, and biochemical mechanisms that govern biological systems, accelerating our understanding of human health and disease. We hope that the topics covered here will reflect on the recent advances in understanding the early events of embryonic development and provide new perspectives on the subject. We welcome works on established model systems, as well as “non-traditional model organisms” to shed light on recent advances in resources, tools, and approaches to allow new and innovative contemplation of this long-standing question of how multicellular organisms are built.
This Research Topic welcomes reviews, research articles, methods, hypothesis, and theory on themes related to early events of embryonic development (fertilization, cleavage, blastula, gastrulation) including, but not limited to:
• Establishment of the embryonic axes, germ layers, and body plan. This may include the generation of maternal cues during oogenesis, symmetry breaking, and zygotic genome activation.
• Transitions in cell potency and fate specification. This can be considered from perspectives such as signaling pathways, transcription factors, epigenetic regulation, and patterns of cell division.
• Morphogenetic movements and tissue segregation during gastrulation. This may cover aspects such as regulation of cell movements and cell shape by mechanical forces, cytoskeleton, cell adhesion, and cell interactions with the extracellular matrix.
• Comparative analysis of the above aspects of early embryonic development from the perspective of evolutionary biology
Manuscripts focused on the specific timeframe for this topic (from fertilization to gastrulation) but also extending to other stages of development are also welcomed.