[Early events in the development of the nervous system]

In the recent years, real advances have been made in our understanding of some aspects of early neural development. A remarkable finding is the identification of neural inducers, the existence of which had been predicted by Mangold and Spemann almost seventy years ago. Another recent and important discovery consists in the identification of several developmental genes and growth factors. Indeed these two classes of molecules participate in the induction and in the physiological and morphological compartmentalization of the nervous system along its anteroposterior and dorsoventral axes.