Search results for "Segment specification"

Reproductive and developmental phenomena in annelids: a source of exemplary research problems

1999

Specific traits of reproduction, of early and postembryonic development and of sexual maturation in annelids are reported, and the existing and expected contributions to this field from the study of annelids are discussed. The study of early development, as in other spiralians, reveals the existence of canonical cleavage patterns and the combined action of antithetical principles, namely determination by stereotypic sorting-out of ‘determinants’ and determination depending upon the interactions between the blastomeres. A high potential of information about the processes of metameric trunk segment formation and of segment specification has only begun to be exploited in annelids. Epitoky, the…