ABSTRACT
Control of morphogenetic processes is critical for embryonic development. These processes include proliferation, cell death, extracellular matrix (ECM) and cytoskeletal remodeling, cell-cell and cell-ECM adhesion, cell motility, cell shape modifications, and differentiation to tissue/organ specific cellular phenotypes. Signaling pathways provide the regulation necessary to control these processes during development allowing the critical events to occur at the right time and at the specific locations necessary for an organ to form, mature, and become functional. These signaling events are tightly regulated during development, and disruption of the signaling pathways by exogenous agents can be catastrophic for the embryo. This chapter provides an introduction to signal transduction pathways essential for development and presents examples of teratogenic modes of action that involve disrupting signal transduction.
