microRNAs in development - Methods and protocols

The fascinating process of organ formation and patterns of forms acquistion stick together in plant and animal development intriguing the observers, from the great greek philosopher to the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, from D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson and Conrad Hal Waddington to present day biologists, scientists and laypeople! Each of us is fascinated by these natural phenomena and wondering how the genome, the same genome (constantly the very same genome in each cell, from the fertilized egg, with the only exception of those organisms were gene expression is primarily controlled by pre-transcription coarse mechanisms like chromatin elimination, not infrequently occurring in Nematoda, Insects and Crustacea to name a few) reach such a fine tuning capacity to modulate and direct gene expressions patterns towards specific organ formation and form acquisition. Which are ultimately based on the production of specific sets of proteins characterizing the different cell types.....