Hedgehog family of signaling proteins are pivotal for growth, patterning, and morphogenesis during embryonic development of vertebrates and many invertebrates. The hedgehog signaling pathway is one of the key regulators of animal development conserved from flies to humans. The Drosophila hedgehog gene was identified as one of several genes important for creating the differences between the anterior and posterior parts of individual body segments in the famous genetic screen of Nusslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus during late 70′s. It was named Hedgehog because a larva which lacked this protein completely …

Signaling pathways play crucial role in pattern formation and cross talk between different pathways forms an important aspect of developmental biology. During early embryogenesis ,cells are exposed to various multitude of growth factors,which will be put together to generate a particular cell differentiation decision. Wingless/wnt and dpp/BMP pathways are widely studied for their roles in various aspects of developmental biology.Dpp is the Drosophila homolog of the vertebrate bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), which are members of the TGF-β superfamily. (264)

Researchers have always puzzled for ages over how some animals can regenerate their lost or damaged body parts. It all began way back in 1740 when Swiss researcher Abraham Trembley observed that hydra-when chopped into two pieces could remarkably grow back into two complete, new organisms. However not all animals have same capacity of regeneration , for instance the planarians (flat worms) can be cut into 50 pieces and you will end up with 50 smaller worms and same can be said about beautiful star fishes, If an arm …

The conference entitle “From Developmental Biology to Anti-Cancer Drugs” which will be held in NICE (France) on May 11th(2 PM start) to May 12th 2009.
The meeting will focus on the mechanism of action of Hedgehog and Wnt in Developmental Biology and Cancer model systems. Role of Cilia in signaling and disease will also be discussed. The meeting will take place at the Parc Valrose (University of Sciences-downtown Nice).
Registration is free but mandatory.Please register online: www.atoutcom.com (90)

Signal transduction pathways play a pivotal role in growth and patterning various tissues in animals and some of these pathways are very much conserved in evolution from Sponges to Humans. Wnt/Wingless (Wg) and TGFβ/BMP/dpp are perfect examples of highly conserved signaling pathways in evolution and any aberrant functioning of these vital pathways will lead to various cancers.To get more insights into aberrant development and cancers that results when regulation of signalling is disrupted, Esther M. Verheyen’s group studied the mechanism of interaction between Drosophila Wg and BMP signaling in which …

Drosophila melanogaster, a model organism of choice for many researchers share any similarities with human beings at molecular and cellular level.If one look at the morphology of Drosophila ,its difficult for a common man to believe that we humans share so many common aspects with this little arthropod.This is one of the reason which makes Drosophila a powerful model system to study early development of embryo,organ formation ,disease and many more things, as many genes related to development and disease are shared by Flies and Humans. Another fact that makes …

Cells form the building blocks of all animals and diversity in animal forms can be attributed to the way these building blocks arrange themselves while proliferating.These things depend on cross talk between cells and which is termed as Signalling.This language of cross talk involves a series of players,where one component relay the received signal to the one downstream to it ,forming a chain reaction or signalling pathway.
Signalling pathways transduce signal from external medium into the nucleus,which results in turning ON or OFF of concerned target genes of that pathway.Cells …