The Body Blueprint

Everyone is unique right? Sort of! Unless something goes awry in development, humans generally have a head at the top, feet at the bottom, the same features in between, two arms and two legs. This is our body plan and a pattern that's intricately regulated as we develop as an embryo. Hundreds of different signals are sent between cells to construct our body pattern, but Wnt signalling is particularly important. Wnt proteins are a big, complex family, but why we have so many has puzzled researchers. Using developing mouse embryos (pictured), researchers have mapped where individual Wnt family members are found (various colours), whether they work solo or in pairs. This work not only beautifully illustrates the intricate levels of organisation required to create an organism’s body plan, but is also a useful tool for researchers to use in the future to study Wnt signalling during development in more detail.

Written by Sophie Arthur

Sophie Arthur

former Science Communications Officer MRC LMS

Formerly a stem cell biologist, Sophie has since moved into science communication working at the MRC LMS. She also writes an award winning science and education blog Soph talks science.

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• Video from work by Paula Murphy and colleagues
• School of Natural Sciences, Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Development, August 2022