Live imaging mouse embryonic development: seeing is believing and revealing.

The use of genetically encoded fluorescent proteins has revolutionized the fields of cell and developmental biology and redefined our understanding of the dynamic morphogenetic processes that work to shape the embryo. Fluorescent proteins are routinely used as vital reporters to label tissues, cells, cellular organelles, or proteins of interest and in doing so provide contrasting agents enabling the acquisition of high-resolution quantitative image data. With the advent of more accessible and sophisticated imaging technologies and abundance of fluorescent proteins with different spectral characteristics, the dynamic processes taking place in situ in living embryos can now be probed. Here, we provide an overview of some recent advances in this rapidly evolving field.