Mesoderm induction: from caps to chips

Vertebrate mesoderm induction is one of the classical problems in developmental biology. Various developmental biology approaches, particularly in Xenopus and zebrafish, have identified many of the key factors that are involved in this process and have provided major insights into how these factors interact as part of a signalling and transcription-factor network. These data are beginning to be refined by high-throughput approaches such as microarray assays. Future challenges include understanding how the prospective mesodermal cells integrate the various signals they receive and how they resolve this information to regulate their morphogenetic behaviours and cell-fate decisions.