Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- CHAPTER ONE CELL LINEAGE VS. INTERCELLULAR SIGNALING
- CHAPTER TWO THE BRISTLE
- CHAPTER THREE BRISTLE PATTERNS
- CHAPTER FOUR ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF DISCS
- CHAPTER FIVE THE LEG DISC
- CHAPTER SIX THE WING DISC
- CHAPTER SEVEN THE EYE DISC
- CHAPTER EIGHT HOMEOSIS
- EPILOGUE
- APPENDIX ONE Glossary of Protein Domains
- APPENDIX TWO Inventory of Models, Mysteries, Devices, and Epiphanies
- APPENDIX THREE Genes That Can Alter Cell Fates Within the (5-Cell) Mechanosensory Bristle Organ
- APPENDIX FOUR Genes That Can Transform One Type of Bristle Into Another or Into a Different Type of Sense Organ
- APPENDIX FIVE Genes That Can Alter Bristle Number by Directly Affecting SOP Equivalence Groups or Inhibitory Fields
- APPENDIX SIX Signal Transduction Pathways: Hedgehog, Decapentaplegic, and Wingless
- APPENDIX SEVEN Commentaries on the Pithier Figures
- References
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- CHAPTER ONE CELL LINEAGE VS. INTERCELLULAR SIGNALING
- CHAPTER TWO THE BRISTLE
- CHAPTER THREE BRISTLE PATTERNS
- CHAPTER FOUR ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF DISCS
- CHAPTER FIVE THE LEG DISC
- CHAPTER SIX THE WING DISC
- CHAPTER SEVEN THE EYE DISC
- CHAPTER EIGHT HOMEOSIS
- EPILOGUE
- APPENDIX ONE Glossary of Protein Domains
- APPENDIX TWO Inventory of Models, Mysteries, Devices, and Epiphanies
- APPENDIX THREE Genes That Can Alter Cell Fates Within the (5-Cell) Mechanosensory Bristle Organ
- APPENDIX FOUR Genes That Can Transform One Type of Bristle Into Another or Into a Different Type of Sense Organ
- APPENDIX FIVE Genes That Can Alter Bristle Number by Directly Affecting SOP Equivalence Groups or Inhibitory Fields
- APPENDIX SIX Signal Transduction Pathways: Hedgehog, Decapentaplegic, and Wingless
- APPENDIX SEVEN Commentaries on the Pithier Figures
- References
- Index
Summary
How embryos “self-assemble” has fascinated thinkers for millennia. Among the ancient Greeks, Aristotle (384–322 bce) made copious observations and coined the term “morphogenesis,” which is still in use today. For the past century, the science of “developmental mechanics” has hammered at this problem relentlessly, but it is only in the last decade that the core mysteries have finally cracked. The deepest secrets have come from a fairylike fly named Drosophila melanogaster, probably the same species of “gnat” that Aristotle himself noticed hovering over vinegar slime. Unfortunately, these insights can only be fully appreciated in the arcane language of fly genetics. Hence this book full of runes and rules.
This book concerns cuticular patterns, the cellular machinery that makes them, and the genetic circuitry that runs the machinery. Although it is mainly a survey, it is also a narrative that traces the roots of our knowledge. The story that it tells – albeit in condensed form – rivals the Iliad in scope (legions of researchers devoting decades to attacking thousands of genes) and the Odyssey in wonderment (monstrous mutants posing riddles that challenge even the most clever explorer-heroes). Indeed, truth is often stranger than a fairy tale in the realm of the fly. Believe it or not, there are even remote islands where giant drosophilids with dappled wings and feathery legs have been spied dancing and fighting in the misty forests.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Imaginal DiscsThe Genetic and Cellular Logic of Pattern Formation, pp. xi - xviPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002