TRANSPARENT THINGS - CELL FATES AND CELL MOVEMENTS DURING EARLY EMBRYOGENESIS SF ZEBRAFISH

Development of an animal embryo involves the coordination of cell divi sions, a variety of inductive interactions and extensive cellular rear rangements. One of the biggest challenges in developmental biology is to explain the relationships between these processes and the mechanism s that regulate them. Teleost embryos provide an ideal subject for the study of these issues. Their optical lucidity combined with modern te chniques for the marking and observation of individual living cells al low high resolution investigations of specific morphogenetic movements and the construction of detailed fate maps. In this review we describ e the patterns of cell divisions, cellular movements and other morphog enetic events during zebrafish early development and discuss how these events relate to the formation of restricted lineages.