Walking the Walk: Migration and Other Common Themes in Blood and Vascular Development

In this issue of Cell, a study by N. Cho and coworkers provides insight into the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling in Drosophila hematopoiesis . Their work suggests that an ancestral function of VEGF was to guide blood cell migration and highlights the conservation of at least one aspect of VEGF signaling during evolution.