Teeth are attached to alveolar bone by the periodontal ligament (PDL), which contains stem cells supporting tissue turnover. Here, we identified Gli1+ cells in adult mouse molar PDL as multi-potential stem cells (PDLSCs) giving rise to PDL, alveolar bone, and cementum. They support periodontium tissue turnover and injury repair. Gli1+ PDLSCs are surrounding the neurovascular bundle and more enriched

Solid tumors reside in harsh tumor microenvironments (TMEs) together with various stromal cell types. During tumor progression and metastasis, both tumor and stromal cells undergo rapid metabolic adaptations. Tumor cells metabolically coordinate or compete with their “neighbors” to maintain biosynthetic and bioenergetic demands while escaping immunosurveillance or therapeutic interventions. Here, we

How a basement membrane continuously surrounds an organ that is growing and changing shape is not yet understood. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Matsubayashi et al. and Keeley et al. address this question by showing that individual basement membrane proteins are more dynamic than previously thought.

In this issue of Developmental Cell, Teo et al. (2020) uncover how caveolae control a PIP2-FMNL2 pathway that regulates tensional homeostasis at cell-cell junctions. They further examine caveolae-mediated tensional dysregulation and its functional consequences in oncogenic cell extrusion.

During organismal growth, body parts expand proportionally with one another and with the body as a whole, but the signals mediating this scalar expansion have been elusive. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Ho and Treisman uncover a signal transduction pathway that coordinates muscle growth and neuromuscular junction expansion.

Microtubules are non-covalent mesoscale polymers central to the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. Microtubule structure, dynamics, and mechanics are modulated by a cell’s choice of tubulin isoforms and post-translational modifications, a “tubulin code,” which is thought to support the diverse morphology and dynamics of microtubule arrays across various cell types, cell cycle, and developmental stages. We give

Aging is associated with a loss of metabolic homeostasis and plasticity, which is causally linked to multiple age-onset pathologies. The majority of the interventions—genetic, dietary, and pharmacological—that have been found to slow aging and protect against age-related disease in various organisms do so by targeting central metabolic pathways. However, targeting metabolic pathways chronically and

The lysosome is an essential catabolic organelle that consumes cellular biomass to regenerate basic building blocks that can fuel anabolic reactions. This simple view has evolved more recently to integrate novel functions of the lysosome as a key signaling center, which can steer the metabolic trajectory of cells in response to changes in nutrients, growth factors, and stress. Master protein kinases

How are diverse regulatory strategies integrated to impose appropriately patterned gene expression that underlie in vivo phenotypes? Here, we reveal how coordinated miRNA regulation and neural-specific alternative polyadenylation (APA) of a single locus controls complex behaviors. Our entry was the unexpected observation that deletion of Bithorax complex (BX-C) miRNAs converts virgin female flies into

Mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) is a crucial event enabling apoptotic cell death. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Wang et al. reveal an interaction contributing to full MOMP execution, which depends on endosomes accumulating on apoptotic mitochondria. This causes mitochondrial lipid alterations that may contribute to functional pore assembly.

It remains unclear how intercellular force transmission is coupled with intracellular biochemical signaling to achieve collective cell migration. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Hino et al. demonstrate that intracellular ERK signaling propagates as waves across a tissue and couples with intercellular mechano-transduction to direct epithelial cell migration.

Molecular signatures defining quiescence in muscle satellite cells (mSCs) remain enigmatic. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Yue et al. adapted an in vivo fixation approach to isolate dormant mSCs from healthy muscle. Characterizing the transcriptome from these cells, they identified intron retention as a novel hallmark of mSC quiescence.

Organ fibrosis represents a default tissue program activated when regenerative capacity is limited. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Ding et al. identify a lipid signaling pathway involving the liver synthesized chaperone ApoM as a circulating pro-regenerative mediator that is deficient in aging and mitigates fibrosis in distant organs.

Mechanical cues from the extracellular matrix (ECM) regulate various cellular processes via distinct mechanotransduction pathways. In breast cancer, increased ECM stiffness promotes epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cell invasion, and metastasis. Here, we identify a mechanosensitive EPHA2/LYN protein complex regulating EMT and metastasis in response to increasing ECM stiffness during tumor

Mechanisms controlling skin heterogeneity are poorly understood. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Liang et al. show that in chicken, the difference in β-keratin genes expressed in feathered and scaly skin is regulated via typical enhancers, while differential expression within individual feathers correlates with chromatin looping within the gene cluster.

The γ-tubulin ring complex (γTuRC) is a microtubule nucleator that controls when and where new microtubules form. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Consolati et al. provide much-needed insight into the mechanism of γTuRC-mediated nucleation by determining the structure of human γTuRC and performing quantitative measurements of its activity.

In a recent issue of Nature, Lammert et al. demonstrate that DNA damage drives AIM2-mediated pyroptosis during normal brain development, preventing anxiety-like behaviors acquisition in adults and revealing an important role for non-apoptotic mechanisms of cell death during neurodevelopment.

Deconstructing the events leading to cancer genome rearrangements is key to understanding tumorigenesis. In a recent issue of Science, Umbreit, Zhang et al. elegantly show that complex genome evolution is the result of a cascade of events initiated by a single error during cell division.

Membrane lipids are often viewed as passive building blocks of the endomembrane system. However, mounting evidence suggests that sphingolipids, sterols, and phospholipids are specifically targeted by developmental pathways, notably hormones, in a cell- or tissue-specific manner to regulate plant growth and development. Targeted modifications of lipid homeostasis may act as a way to execute a defined

Somatic scribble mutant cells are selectively eliminated from the growing Drosophila tissue through cell competition, a tumor-suppressing mechanism that ensures tissue integrity. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Sanaki et al. demonstrate that organismal hyperinsulinemia promotes tumorigenesis by abrogating local cell competition.

Root growth depends on spatially distinct cell division and elongation activities in the root meristem. The correct positioning of a "transition zone" boundary between the division and elongation zones is critical for efficient root growth; new work from Salvi et al. sheds light on how this boundary is established and maintained.

Among the hundreds of recombination events initiated at meiosis, only a subset is selected to become crossovers. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Sandhu et al. (2020) reveal that budding yeast Mph1/FANCM dismantles recombination events between sister chromatids at early meiosis, thus favoring recombination with homologs.

Bone marrow (BM) mesenchymal stem and progenitor cells (MSPCs) are a critical constituent of the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niche. Previous studies have suggested that the zinc-finger epithelial-mesenchymal transition transcription factor Snai2 (also known as Slug) regulated HSCs autonomously. Here, we show that Snai2 expression in the BM is restricted to the BM stromal compartment where it regulates