Within the fertilized egg lies the information necessary to generate a
diversity of cell types in the precise pattern of tissues and organs
that comprises the vertebrate body. Seminal embryological experiments
established the importance of induction, or cell interactions, in the
formation of embryonic tissues and provided a foundation for molecular
studies. In recent years, secreted gene products capable of inducing
or patterning embryonic tissues have been identified. Despite these ad
vances, embryologists remain challenged by fundamental questions: What
are the endogenous inducing molecules? How is the action of an induce
r spatially and temporally restricted? How does a limited group of ind
ucers give rise to a diversity of tissues? In this review, the focus i
s on the induction and patterning of mesodermal and neural tissues in
the frog Xenopus laevis, with an emphasis on families of secreted mole
cules that appear to underlie inductive events throughout vertebrate e
mbryogenesis.