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Review

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 6, 715–725 (1 September 2005) | doi:10.1038/nrm1714

Information networks in the mammary gland

Lothar Hennighausen & Gertraud W. Robinson

Unique developmental features during puberty, pregnancy, lactation and post-lactation make the mammary gland a prime object to explore genetic circuits that control the specification, proliferation, differentiation, survival and death of cells. Steroids and simple peptide hormones initiate and carry out complex developmental programmes, and reverse genetics has been used to define the underlying mechanistic connections.