Nadine Dobrovolskaia-Zavadskaia and the dawn of developmental genetics

In one of the first genetic screens aimed at identifying induced developmen tal mutants, Nadine Dobrovolska'ia-Zavadskaia, working at the Pasteur Labor atory in the 1920s, isolated and characterized a mutation affecting Brachyu ry, a gene that regulates tail and axial development in the mouse. Dobrovol skai'a-Zavadskai'a's analysis of Brachyury and other mutations affecting ta il development were among the earl lest attempts to link gene action with a tissue-specific developmental process in a vertebrate, Her analyses of gen es that interacted with Brachyuryled to the discovery of the t-haplotype ch romosome of mouse, After 70 years, Brachyury and the multiple genes with wh ich it interacts continue to occupy a prominent focus in developmental biol ogy research. A goal of this review is to identify the contributions that D obrovolskai'a-Zavadskaia made to our current th in ki ng about Brachyury an d how she helped to shape the dawn of the field of developmental genetics. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.