80 Years since Hans Spemann - Modern Approaches in Experimental Embryology

Dear Colleagues,

In 2021, it will have been eighty years since Hans Spemann passed, and 85 years since his publication of Experimentelle Beiträge zu einer Theorie der Entwicklung (1936; Embryonic Development and Induction), where he summarized his research. Hans Spemann was a German embryologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1935) for his description of ‘embryonic induction’. Embryonic induction is a process by which parts of the embryo direct the development of cell groups into particular tissues and organs. Spemann’s concept of induction was based on decades of research into early newt development. Since then, advances in developmental biology have resulted in more detailed understanding of developmental patterning. Other organisms became models to study development (e.g., Xenopus, Ambystoma, Danio, Mus, and more recently Ciona) but for many decades, surgical manipulation (ablation, grafting) remained the main way of studying development. However, it is now possible to follow cell lineages by designing markers/reporters, to visualize gene expression (in situ hybridization) or protein presence (antibody staining), and even manipulate genes and gene expression (e.g., morpholinos, CRISPR/Cas9). Other techniques (e.g., whole-genome and singe-cell sequencing) have opened new ways of analyzing what is happening at different stages of development. These methods and/or a combination of these and others have enabled as yet unparalleled detail during the investigation of induction and differentiation of cells, tissues, and organs. This Special Issue of the Journal of Developmental Biology will provide an overview of the current standing in methodology for studying development and developmental mechanisms. Additionally, it will highlight the directions for future research. Contributions can be reviews as well as research papers covering topics of model and non-model organism research.

Dr. Janine M. Ziermann
Guest Editor

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• development
• induction
• CRISPR
• cell lineage
• progenitor
• sequencing
• lineage tracing
• visualization