Includes bibliographical references and index.

Causal analysis of development in the past half century: a personal history / S.G. Waelsch -- Gastrulation and the evolution of development / L. Wolpert -- Evolution of developmental decisions and morphogenesis: the view from two camps / R.A. Raff -- Mechanisms of early Drosophila mesoderm formation / M. Leptin ... [et al.] -- Pattern formation during gastrulation in the sea urchin embryo / D.R. McClay, N.A. Armstrong and J. Hardin -- Cell interactions and mesodermal cell fates in the sea urchin embryo / C.A. Ettensohn -- Gastrulation center in the ascidian egg / W.R. Jeffery -- Cell movements and cell fate during zebrafish gastrulation / R.K. Ho -- Midblastula transition, the YSL transition and the onset of gastrulation in Fundulus / J.P. Trinkhaus -- Patterning and functioning of protrusive activity during convergence and extension of the Xenopus organiser / R. Keller, J. Shih and C. Domingo -- Fate mapping the neural plate and the intraembryonic mesoblast in the upper layer of the chicken blastoderm with xenografting and time-lapse videography / H. Bortier and L.C.A. Vakaet.

(cont) NCAM and its polysialic acid moiety: a mechanism for pull/push regulation of cell interactions during development? / U. Rutishauser -- Epithelial differentiation and intercellular junction formation in the mouse early embryo / T.P. Fleming, Q. Javed and M. Hay -- Relationship of gap junctions and compaction in the preimplantation mouse embryo / D.L. Becker, C. LeClerc-David and A. Warner -- Role of intermediate filaments in early Xenopus development studied by antisense depletion of maternal mRNA / J. Heasman, N. Torpey and C. Wylie -- Mesoderm-inducing factors and the control of gastrulation / J.C. Smith and J.E. Howard -- Muscle gene activation in Xenopus requires intercellular communication during gastrula as well as blastula stages / J.B. Gurdon ... [et al.] -- Specification of the body plan during Xenopus gastrulation: dorsoventral and anteroposterior patterning of the mesoderm / J.M.W. Slack ... [et al.] -- Relationships between mesoderm induction and the embryonic axes in chick and frog embryos / C.D. Stern ... [et al.].

(cont) Brachyury: a gene affecting mouse gastrulation and early organogenesis / R.S.P. Beddington, P. Rashbass and V. Wilson -- Goosecoid and the organizer / E.M. De Robertis ... [et al.] -- Dorsoventral development of the Drosophila embryo is controlled by a cascade of transcriptional regulators / C. Thisse and B. Thisse -- Induction of anteroposterior neural pattern in Xenopus by planar signals / T. Doniach -- Xenopus Hox-2 genes are expressed sequentially after the onset of gastrulation and are differentially inducible by retinoic acid / E.-J. Dekker ... [et al.] -- Retinoic acid and the late phase of neural induction / C.R. Sharpe.