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Nature 418, 492-493 (1 August 2002) | doi:10.1038/418492a

Open Innovation Challenges

Developmental biology: Making progress with limb models

Denis Duboule

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What is the developmental mechanism that makes our upper arms different from our forearms or fingers? Two new papers challenge an influential and popular model, and propose an alternative view.

Our limbs can move freely because they are constructed in segments, separated by articulations. The arm, for example, is composed of the upper arm, the forearm and the hand — three parts that develop from an early bud of unspecialized limb cells.