Abstract.
The control of growth and differentiation is a central question not only for developmental biologists but increasingly for medical research as well. The freshwater polyp hydra was one of the first organisms to be used as a model system for the study of this question. It was chosen because of its simple body plan and because it is made up of only seven to eight different cell types. Recent research has shown that despite their simple body plan, cnidarians already exhibit an impressive repertoire of molecular tools which are responsible for the control of growth and differentiation and amongst which peptides appear to play an important role.
Keywords. Regeneration, differentiation, morphogenetically active peptide, precursor, β-thymosin repeat
Footnotes
Received 25 April 2007; received after revision 31 July 2007; accepted 28 August 2007