Craniofacial Development The Tissue and Molecular Interactions That Control Development of the Head

The molecular cascades that control craniofacial development have until recently been little understood. The paucity of data that exists has in part been due to the complexity of the head, which is a unique, and possibly one of the most intricate regions of the body. However, the generation of mouse mutants, the identification of gene mutations that cause human craniofacial syndromes, together with classical embryological approaches in other species has now given significant insight into how the head develops. These studies have emphasized how unique the head actually is with each individual part governed by a distinct set of signalling interactions, again demonstrating the complexity of this region of the body.