NEURAL-TUBE MORPHOGENESIS

Many important findings in the past year have helped to identify multi ple cellular interactions and signals in vertebrates that govern induc tion of neuroectoderm, its patterning, neural tube formation, and the subsequent differentiation of neurons. For example, the neural inducer s have been shown to function as inhibitors of BMP signaling, the role s of bone morphogenetic proteins and Sonic hedgehog during dorso-ventr al specification of the neural tube have been further elucidated and t he realization of a dorso-ventral inversion of the body axis contribut ed to a better understanding of evolutionarily related genes and funct ions between vertebrates and invertebrates.