The organization of the embryo as a whole appears to be determined to a large extent during gastrulation, by which process different regions of the blastoderm are displaced and brought into new spatial relationships to each other. Groups of cells that were distant from each other in the blastula come into close contact, which increases possibilities for interaction between materials of different origin. In the development of vertebrates in particular, the sliding of cells (presumptive mesoderm) into the interior and their placement on the dorsal side of the archenteron (in the archenteric “roof”), in immediate contact with the overlying ectoderm, is of major importance in development and subsequent differentiation. Experiments have shown that, at the start of gastrulation, ectoderm is incapable of progressive development of any kind; that only after invagination, with chordamesoderm lying directly underneath it, does ectoderm acquire the ability for progressive development. The dorsal mesoderm, which later differentiates into notochord, prechordal mesoderm, and somites, causes the overlying ectoderm to differentiate as neural plate. Lateral mesoderm causes overlying ectoderm to differentiate as skin. The influence exercised by parts of the embryo, which causes groups of cells to proceed along a particular path of development, is called embryonic induction. Though induction requires that the interacting parts come into close proximity, actual contact is not necessary. The inducing influence—whatever it might be—is a diffusible substance emitted by the activating cells (the inductor). The inducing substance of the mesoderm is a large molecule, probably a protein or a nucleoprotein, which presumably penetrates reacting cells, though direct and unequivocal proof of such penetration is still unavailable. Inducing substances are active on vertebrates belonging to many different classes; e.g., inductions of primary organs have been obtained by transplanting mammalian tissues into frog embryos or by transplanting tissues of a chick embryo into the embryo of a rabbit.

Induction is responsible not only for the subdivision of ectoderm into neural plate and epidermis but also for the development of a large number of organ rudiments in vertebrates. The notochord is a source of induction for the development of the adjoining somites and nephrotomes; the latter appear jointly to induce development of limb rudiments from the lateral plate mesoderm. Further examples are mentioned below in connection with development of the various organs.

Since the results of induction are different for different organ rudiments, it must be presumed that there exist inducing substances with specific action, at least to a certain extent; thus, the lateral mesoderm induces differentiation of the skin but not neural plate from the very same kind of ectoderm. The number of inducing substances need not, however, be the same as the number of different kinds of tissues and organs, since certain differentiations could possibly be induced by a combination of two or more inducing substances, or the same inducing substance might have different effects on different tissues. It has been suggested that the regional organization of the entire vertebrate body could be controlled by the graded distribution of only two inducing substances—provisionally named the neuralizing substance and the mesodermalizing substance—along the length of the embryo. The neuralizing substance, concentrated at the anterior end, gradually decreases toward the posterior end; the mesodermalizing substance, on the other hand, is concentrated at the posterior end and decreases toward the anterior end. The differentiation of induced structures depends on the relative amounts of the two inducing substances at any given point in the embryo. Acting alone, the neuralizing substance induces only nervous tissue, which takes the form of the forebrain, and the mesodermalizing substance induces only mesodermal structures (e.g., somites, notochord).

In the amphibian embryo, induction appears to have its primary source in the dorsal lip of the blastopore, which eventually gives rise to the notochord and adjoining somites. Induction by the notochord and somites is responsible for the development of the neural plate in the ectoderm, of lateral and ventral parts of the mesodermal mantle, and of the lumen of the alimentary canal in the endoderm. The dorsal lip of the blastopore for this reason has been called the primary organizer. In higher vertebrates, in which gastrulation occurs through the medium of a primitive streak, the anterior end of the streak and the Hensen’s node have properties similar to those of a primary organizer. Organization centres have been found, or suspected, in embryos of animals belonging to a few other groups, in particular the insects and sea urchins, but the interpretation of the experimental results in these animals is less satisfactory than in the case of vertebrates.

The concept of an organization centre suggests that a part of the embryo differs from the rest of the embryonic tissues in being more active. The more active parts of the embryo (and also of animals in later stages of development) are particularly sensitive to certain noxious influences in their environment. If an embryo is deprived of oxygen or subjected to weak concentrations of poisons, the first parts to suffer are the most morphogenetically active ones. In vertebrate embryos the anterior end of the head is most sensitive. Early sea-urchin embryos have two centres of maximal sensitivity: one at the animal pole and the other at the vegetal pole. The damage done by noxious influences may result in actual breakdown of cells in a region of maximal sensitivity and may also lead to a depression of the developmental potential of the cells. Thus, the graded distribution of certain physiological properties appears to play a part in morphogenetic processes: physiological gradients are in fact also morphogenetic gradients.

Gradients in the embryo can be used to control development to a certain extent, by exposing the embryo to influences that, while reaching all parts, have a local effect as the result of differences in sensitivity. Disturbances of normal development often are the result of disruptions of gradients.