Quantifying convergent extension: Shih and Keller's quintessential work in developmental cell biology

Abstract

Few biological fields have become more intertwined in recent years than cell and developmental biology, a fact made clear by the departments of cell and developmental biology across the United States. And few papers better demonstrate the marriage of these fields than a pair of back-to-back papers in Development by John Shih and Ray Keller in 1992. The first describes the subcellular dynamics and cell movements that occur during amphibian axis elongation. The second takes a zoomed-out view, explaining how these cell movements are patterned across space and time to shape the early embryo. This triumph of description not only highlights the blurred line between cell and developmental biology but has been foundational for the field of animal morphogenesis.