... simple and transparent embryos, compact rapidly evolving genomes, and the availability of powerful experimental and computational tools with which to study these organisms. Tunicates are thus a powerful system for exploring chordate evolution and how extreme variation in genome sequence and gene...

... )(this work); Cdx factors thus define the prospective spinal cord territory in the caudal neural plate and, by exclusion, the region that will give rise to hindbrain. Careful re-examination of Cdx function in chordate neural tube patterning might prove useful in addressing the underlying developmental...

... FGF functions as a conserved initiator of neural specification among chordates. * Author for correspondence (e-mail: [email protected] ) 11 11 2004 ©2005. 2005 Xenopus Vertebrates Chordates Neural induction FGF BMP SMAD6 eFGF Spemann's organiser Mesoderm...