Book excerpt: A superb compilation of reviews from leading experts in the field of Wnt signaling (signaling molecules that regulate cell-to-cell interactions during embryogenesis), volume 17 in the Advances in Developmental Biology series offers 7 chapters, each devoted to a separate area of research on Wnt signaling. Written by specialists in the field, these chapters cover different levels of signaling, including: ligands, receptors, cytoplasmic and nuclear components of the pathway. This book discusses a number of model systems including mice, Drosophila, Xenopus, zebrafish, C. elegans, and mammalian cells. Together, these chapters review the available knowledge and will fill gaps in our understanding of this interesting network of cell signaling processes. * Includes two parts devoted to the canonical (beta-catenin dependent) and non-canonical branches of Wnt signalling to the cytoskeleton * Offers insight to large genomic data that are now available for the analysis of Wnt gene targets * Discusses regulators of the cytoskeleton such as small GTPAses of the Rho family, jun-N-terminal kinases and other MAP kinases, and proteins involved in the generation of cell polarity