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Control processes in development: Pattern formation in chick limb morphogenesis

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Abstract

Pattern formation is the process in development whereby cells acquire different states and can thus differentiate to form well-defined patterns of cell types. The development of the pattern of cartilage differentiation in the chick wing is chosen as a model and it is suggested that it can be viewed in terms of positional information. This suggests that cells are assigned positional values as in a coordinate system and this is interpreted by appropriate cytodifferentiation. There is reason to believe that the program for generating complex patterns may be simple.

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Wolpert, L. Control processes in development: Pattern formation in chick limb morphogenesis. Ann Biomed Eng 3, 401–405 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02409324

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