| Recent discoveries in the field of developmental genetics have lead to the resurrection of the old idea, first proposed in the early 19th century, that the dorso-ventral axis of deuterostomes, such as vertebrates, has been inverted during the course of evolution from that noted in protostomes, i.e., what in deuterostomes is dorsal, is in protostomes ventral. However, while attractive in its simplicity, such a suggestion ignores the real events of embryogenesis. During the onset of gastrulation in deuterostomes as well as in protostomes a blastopore is formed with exactly the same embryonic, antero-posterior/dorso-ventral polarity. Subsequent differences in the patterns or morphogenetic movement in gastrulation result in a spatial inversion of this... |
