In choosing these recent papers and briefly summarising their contents, I have made no attempt to be comprehensive. Instead, I have tried to select papers that illuminate particular examples of morphogenesis.

For ease of access, these references are listed under the appropriate section heading in the book.

Chapter 2: Background

Strategies

Gilbert, S. (1991). Developmental biology (3rd edn.). Sunderland, Mass., U.S.A.: Sinauer Press.

This comprehensive text book covers the whole of developmental biology and, with its wide literature guide, provides a thorough background to the molecular and cellular basis of morphogenesis.

Molecular basis of morphogenesis

Chisaka, O. & Capecchi, M.R. (1991). Regionally restricted developmental defects resulting from targeted disruption of the mouse homeobox gene hox-1.5. Nature, 350, 473–9.

Stein, C.A. & Cohen, J.S. (1988). Oligonucleotides as inhibitors of gene expression: a review. Cancer Res., 48, 2659–68.

These papers show that it is now possible to block the effect of a gene and see how developmental processes cope with the loss. The first uses gene targeting to modify embryonic-stem (ES) cells which are then used to make transgenic animals and the second discusses how to use anti-sense oligonucleotides to stop expression. Thus far, the techniques have not been used to study the role of morphogenetically significant molecules, but the techniques will certainly be used soon for this purpose.

Chapter 3: Case studies

Sea urchin gastrulation

Ettensohn, C.A. (1990). The regulation of primary mesenchyme cell patterning. Dev. Biol., 140, 261–71.