Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access published online on August 5, 2008
Integrative and Comparative Biology, doi:10.1093/icb/icn081
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Anterior-posterior patterning and segmentation of the vertebrate head
Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-2300, USA
Correspondence: 1E-mail: tschilli{at}uci.edu
Segmentation of the vertebrate head emerges out of earlier processes that establish the anterior-posterior (A-P) axis. Recent genetic studies and comparisons across species have led to a better understanding of the links between A-P patterning and segmentation. These point to similar signals acting on both head and trunk, such as retinoic acid and fibroblast growth factors. These form interacting networks of diffusible morphogen gradients that pattern both hindbrain rhombomeres and mesodermal somites. New computational models, particularly for retinoic acid, have revealed how morphogen gradients are established and made robust to changes in signaling levels. However, the orientations of these gradients, as well as how they interact to generate segments, differ remarkably between germ layers and body regions. Thus, the vertebrate head is, in part, built through modifications of the same processes that link A-P patterning and segmentation in the trunk, but fundamental differences in how these processes are deployed lend further doubt to the notion that head and trunk segments are homologous.
From the symposium "Vertebrate Head Segmentation in a Modern Evo-Devo Context" presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 2–6, 2008, at San Antonio, Texas.