Dear Colleagues,

Multicellular organisms begin as a single fertilized egg cell that then divides into a large number of cells that undergo morphogenesis requiring cell–cell interactions and migration in order to create the complex tissues and organs that form the mature organism. During development, embryonic cells acquire a variety of specialized cell fates, communicate with neighbors or distant tissues, migrate as single cells or as a collective to new positions, and form sheets, tubes or blocks of cells that undergo involution, branching or even more complex morphogenetic movements. For over 100 years, classical embryological approaches have been critical for revealing the steps that specify different cell fates, which cells interact when germ layers and tissues are induced, and the process of morphogenetic movements. However, only in the past few decades have the cell biological bases of these developmental processes been elucidated by advances in molecular genetics, reagents for tracking subcellular compartments and organelles and high resolution microscopy. For over 30 years, Professor Roberto Mayor has been a leader in applying the most advanced cell biological techniques to understanding vertebrate development, beginning with his first publication in 1989 on the role of the cytoskeleton in the process of compaction during mammalian blastocyst formation. When early in his career his attention turned to the neural crest cells, he had the opportunity to combine molecular and cell biological approaches to ask how these cells are induced and what controls their directional migration in the embryo. He has had the foresight to investigate both the chemical and the mechanical signals that regulate directed cell movement, and to consider migration from a “supracellular” organization.

This Special Issue is focused on the cell biology of how the single fertilized egg is transformed into a completed individual organism. Many of these processes underlie a variety of congenital defects and thus impact our understanding of childhood disease. The Special Issue will include a short review of Professor Mayor’s contributions to the field, and other original research articles and reviews on all aspects of the cellular processes that regulate developmental events.

Prof. Dr. Sally A. Moody
Prof. Dr. Kristin Bruk Artinger
Guest Editors

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• cell adhesion
• signaling pathways
• cell fate determination
• morphogenetic movements
• extracellular matrix
• cell migration
• cell polarity