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A blueprint most wonderful, the homeobox discovery. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-03-18 William McGinnis, Michael Levine
This is a personal, non-linear summary of the discovery of the homeobox, a short DNA sequence encoding a DNA-binding domain conserved in developmental control genes. It is based on our recollections, a few decaying lab notebooks and letters, the early research papers we published, and conversations with a few colleagues who were in Basel at the time. It presents a simple story, when the research we
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40 years of the homeobox: either it is wrong or it is quite interesting. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Matthew P Scott
Many genes that regulate development share a 180 bp DNA sequence, called the homeobox, encoding a 60 amino acid DNA-binding domain ( McGinnis et al., 1984c; Scott and Weiner, 1984). Because the homeobox is long enough to hybridize to related, but different, genes, it has been a powerful tool for discovering developmental regulators. This year is the 40th anniversary of the first homeobox report. Here
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Macrophages play a nutritive role in post-metamorphic maturation in Drosophila. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Gabriela Krejčová, Adéla Danielová, Hana Sehadová, Filip Dyčka, Jiří Kubásek, Martin Moos, Adam Bajgar
In the body of multicellular organisms, macrophages play an indispensable role in maintaining tissue homeostasis by removing old, apoptotic and damaged cells. In addition, macrophages allow significant remodeling of body plans during embryonic morphogenesis, regeneration and metamorphosis. Although the huge amount of organic matter that must be removed during these processes represents a potential
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Foxp- and Skor-family proteins control differentiation of Purkinje cells from Ptf1a and Neurogenin1-expressing progenitors in zebrafish. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Tsubasa Itoh, Mari Uehara, Shinnosuke Yura, Jui Chun Wang, Yukimi Fujii, Akiko Nakanishi, Takashi Shimizu, Masahiko Hibi
Cerebellar neurons, such as GABAergic Purkinje cells (PCs), interneurons (INs), and glutamatergic granule cells (GCs) are differentiated from neural progenitors expressing proneural genes including ptf1a, neurogenin1, and atoh1a/b/c. Studies in mammals previously suggested that these genes determine cerebellar neuron cell fate. However, our studies on ptf1a;neurogenin1 zebrafish mutants and lineage
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Cadherin-dependent adhesion is required for muscle stem cell niche anchorage and maintenance. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Margaret Hung, Hsiao-Fan Lo, Aviva G Beckmann, Deniz Demircioglu, Gargi Damle, Dan Hasson, Glenn L Radice, Robert S Krauss
Adhesion between stem cells and their niche provides stable anchorage and signaling cues to sustain properties such as quiescence. Skeletal muscle stem cells (MuSCs) adhere to an adjacent myofiber via cadherin-catenin complexes. Previous studies on N- and M-cadherin in MuSCs revealed that while N-cadherin is required for quiescence, they are collectively dispensable for MuSC niche localization and
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The people behind the papers - Andy Yang and Stephane Angers. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-03-04
Activation of the Wnt signalling pathway is vital in the anterior-posterior patterning during neural development. In a new study, Stephane Angers and colleagues leverage previously developed selective antibodies against Frizzled receptors of the Wnt pathway to stimulate midbrain progenitor differentiation in human pluripotent stem cells. We caught up with first author Andy Yang and corresponding author
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Functional opsin patterning for Drosophila color vision is established through signaling pathways in adjacent object-detection neurons. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-03-01 Manabu Kitamata, Yoshiaki Otake, Hideaki Kitagori, Xuanshuo Zhang, Yusuke Maki, Rika Boku, Masato Takeuchi, Hideki Nakagoshi
Vision is mainly based on two different tasks, object detection and color discrimination through activities of photoreceptor (PR) cells. Drosophila compound eye consists of ∼800 ommatidia. Every ommatidium contains eight PR cells; six outer cells (R1-R6) and two inner cells (R7 and R8) by which object detection and color vision are achieved, respectively. Expression of opsin genes in R7 and R8 is highly
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A comparative analysis of TonEBP/Nfat5 cKO mouse models reveals the inter-dependency between compartments of the intervertebral disc. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Greig Couasnay, Haley Garcia, Florent Elefteriou
Interactions between notochord and sclerotome are required for normal embryonic spine patterning, but whether the postnatal derivatives of these tissues also require interactions for postnatal intervertebral disc (IVD) growth and maintenance is less established. We report here the comparative analysis of four conditional knockout mice deficient for TonEBP/Nfat5, a transcription factor known to allow
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Transitions in development - an interview with Nika Shakiba. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-29
Nika Shakiba is a group leader at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where she applies synthetic biology techniques to explore the basis of stem cell competition. We met with Nika over Zoom to discuss her career path so far. She explained how her engineering background led her to approach stem cells as programmable units and helped establish her research niche. We also discussed her passion
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HCR spectral imaging: 10-plex, quantitative, high-resolution RNA and protein imaging in highly autofluorescent samples. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Samuel J Schulte, Mark E Fornace, John K Hall, Grace J Shin, Niles A Pierce
Signal amplification based on the mechanism of hybridization chain reaction (HCR) provides a unified framework for multiplex, quantitative, high-resolution imaging of RNA and protein targets in highly autofluorescent samples. With conventional bandpass imaging, multiplexing is typically limited to four or five targets owing to the difficulty in separating signals generated by fluorophores with overlapping
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Functional consequences of somatic polyploidy in development. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Gabriella S Darmasaputra, Lotte M van Rijnberk, Matilde Galli
Polyploid cells contain multiple genome copies and arise in many animal tissues as a regulated part of development. However, polyploid cells can also arise due to cell division failure, DNA damage or tissue damage. Although polyploidization is crucial for the integrity and function of many tissues, the cellular and tissue-wide consequences of polyploidy can be very diverse. Nonetheless, many polyploid
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TBXT dose sensitivity and the decoupling of nascent mesoderm specification from EMT progression in 2D human gastruloids. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Emily A Bulger, Ivana Muncie-Vasic, Ashley R G Libby, Todd C McDevitt, Benoit G Bruneau
In the nascent mesoderm, Brachyury (TBXT) expression must be precisely regulated to ensure cells exit the primitive streak and pattern the anterior-posterior axis, but how varying dosage informs morphogenesis is not well understood. In this study, we define the transcriptional consequences of TBXT dosage reduction during early human gastrulation using human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) models
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LiverZap: a chemoptogenetic tool for global and locally restricted hepatocyte ablation to study cellular behaviours in liver regeneration. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-21 Elizabeth M G Ambrosio, Charlotte S L Bailey, Iris A Unterweger, Jens B Christensen, Marcel P Bruchez, Pia R Lundegaard, Elke A Ober
The liver restores its mass and architecture after injury. Yet, investigating morphogenetic cell behaviours and signals that repair tissue architecture at high spatiotemporal resolution remains challenging. We developed LiverZap, a tuneable chemoptogenetic liver injury model in zebrafish. LiverZap employs the formation of a binary FAP-TAP photosensitiser followed by brief near-infrared illumination
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The people behind the papers - Julia Grzymkowski and Nanette Nascone-Yoder. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-19
As the digestive system develops, the gut tube lengthens and convolutes to correctly package the intestine. Intestinal malrotation is a prevalent birth anomaly, but its underlying causes are not well understood. In this new study, Nanette Nascone-Yoder and colleagues show that exposure of Xenopus embryos to atrazine, a widely-used herbicide, can disrupt cellular metabolism in the developing gut tube
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Developmental regulation of cellular metabolism is required for intestinal elongation and rotation. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Julia K Grzymkowski, Yu-Chun Chiu, Dereje D Jima, Brent H Wyatt, Sudhish Jayachandran, Whitney L Stutts, Nanette M Nascone-Yoder
Malrotation of the intestine is a prevalent birth anomaly, the etiology of which remains poorly understood. Here, we show that late-stage exposure of Xenopus embryos to atrazine, a widely used herbicide that targets electron transport chain (ETC) reactions, elicits intestinal malrotation at high frequency. Interestingly, atrazine specifically inhibits the cellular morphogenetic events required for
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Robust axis elongation by Nodal-dependent restriction of BMP signaling. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Alexandra Schauer, Kornelija Pranjic-Ferscha, Robert Hauschild, Carl-Philipp Heisenberg
Embryogenesis results from the coordinated activities of different signaling pathways controlling cell fate specification and morphogenesis. In vertebrate gastrulation, both Nodal and BMP signaling play key roles in germ layer specification and morphogenesis, yet their interplay to coordinate embryo patterning with morphogenesis is still insufficiently understood. Here, we took a reductionist approach
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Development and evolution of the primate neocortex from a progenitor cell perspective. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-16 Colette Dehay, Wieland B Huttner
The generation of neurons in the developing neocortex is a major determinant of neocortex size. Crucially, the increase in cortical neuron numbers in the primate lineage, notably in the upper-layer neurons, contributes to increased cognitive abilities. Here, we review major evolutionary changes affecting the apical progenitors in the ventricular zone and focus on the key germinal zone constituting
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Exploiting spatiotemporal regulation of FZD5 during neural patterning for efficient ventral midbrain specification. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-15 Andy Yang, Rony Chidiac, Emma Russo, Hendrik Steenland, Quinn Pauli, Robert Bonin, Levi L Blazer, Jarrett J Adams, Sachdev S Sidhu, Aleksandrina Goeva, Ali Salahpour, Stephane Angers
The Wnt/β-catenin signaling governs anterior-posterior neural patterning during development. Current hPSC differentiation protocols utilize a GSK3 inhibitor to activate Wnt signaling to promote posterior neural fate specification. However, GSK3 is a pleiotropic kinase involved in multiple signaling pathways and since GSK3 inhibition occurs downstream in the signaling cascade, it bypasses potential
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Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Crystal D Rogers, Chris Amemiya, Swathi Arur, Leslie Babonis, Michael Barresi, Madelaine Bartlett, Richard Behringer, Blair Benham-Pyle, Dominique Bergmann, Ben Blackman, C Titus Brown, Bill Browne, Jasmin Camacho, Chiswili Yves Chabu, Ida Chow, Ondine Cleaver, Jonah Cool, Megan Y Dennis, Alexandra Jazz Dickinson, Stefano Di Talia, Margaret Frank, Stewart Gillmor, Eric S Haag, Iswar Hariharan, Richard
The field of developmental biology has declined in prominence in recent decades, with off-shoots from the field becoming more fashionable and highly funded. This has created inequity in discovery and opportunity, partly due to the perception that the field is antiquated or not cutting edge. A 'think tank' of scientists from multiple developmental biology-related disciplines came together to define
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EphB1 controls proper long-range cortical axon guidance through a cell non-autonomous role in GABAergic cells. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Ahlem Assali, George Chenaux, Jennifer Y Cho, Stefano Berto, Nathan A Ehrlich, Christopher W Cowan
EphB1 is required for proper guidance of cortical axon projections during brain development, but how EphB1 regulates this process remains unclear. We show here that EphB1 conditional knockout (cKO) in GABAergic cells (Vgat-Cre), but not in cortical excitatory neurons (Emx1-Cre), reproduced the cortical axon guidance defects observed in global EphB1 KO mice. Interestingly, in EphB1 cKOVgat mice, the
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Mitochondrial morphology dynamics and ROS regulate apical polarity and differentiation in Drosophila follicle cells. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Bhavin Uttekar, Rahul Kumar Verma, Darshika Tomer, Richa Rikhy
Mitochondrial morphology dynamics regulate signaling pathways during epithelial cell formation and differentiation. The mitochondrial fission protein Drp1 affects the appropriate activation of EGFR and Notch signaling-driven differentiation of posterior follicle cells in Drosophila oogenesis. The mechanisms by which Drp1 regulates epithelial polarity during differentiation are not known. In this study
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Multifaceted effects on even-skipped transcriptional dynamics upon Krüppel dosage changes. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Shufan Lin, Bomyi Lim
Although fluctuations in transcription factor (TF) dosage are often well tolerated, TF dosage modulation can change the target gene expression dynamics and result in significant non-lethal developmental phenotypes. Using MS2/MCP-mediated quantitative live imaging in early Drosophila embryos, we analyzed how changing the gap gene Krüppel (Kr) level affects transcriptional dynamics of the pair-rule gene
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ETS transcription factors regulate precise matrix metalloproteinase expression and follicle rupture in Drosophila. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Baosheng Zeng, Elizabeth M Knapp, Ekaterina Skaritanov, Rebecca Oramas, Jianjun Sun
Drosophila matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) is specifically expressed in posterior follicle cells of stage-14 egg chambers (mature follicles) and is crucial for the breakdown of the follicular wall during ovulation, a process highly conserved from flies to mammals. It remains unknown what factors regulate spatiotemporal expression of MMP2 in follicle cells. Here, we demonstrated critical roles for
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Sall4 regulates posterior trunk mesoderm development by promoting mesodermal gene expression and chromatin accessibility that promotes WNT signaling and represses neural genes within the mesoderm. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Matthew P Pappas, Hiroko Kawakami, Dylan Corcoran, Katherine Q Chen, Earl Parker Scott, Julia Wong, Micah D Gearhart, Ryuichi Nishinakamura, Yasushi Nakagawa, Yasuhiko Kawakami
The trunk axial skeleton develops from paraxial mesoderm cells. Our recent study demonstrated that conditional knockout of a stem cell factor Sall4 in mice by TCre caused tail truncation and disorganized axial skeleton posterior to the lumbar level. With this phenotype, we hypothesized that, in addition to the previously reported role of Sall4 in neuromesodermal progenitors, Sall4 is involved in the
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Long-range formation of the Bicoid gradient requires multiple dynamic modes that spatially vary across the embryo. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Thamarailingam Athilingam, Ashwin V S Nelanuthala, Catriona Breen, Narain Karedla, Marco Fritzsche, Thorsten Wohland, Timothy E Saunders
Morphogen gradients provide essential positional information to gene networks through their spatially heterogeneous distribution, yet how they form is still hotly contested, with multiple models proposed for different systems. Here, we focus on the transcription factor Bicoid (Bcd), a morphogen that forms an exponential gradient across the anterior-posterior (AP) axis of the early Drosophila embryo
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The people behind the papers - Fay Cooper and Anestis Tsakiridis. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-12
Neuromesodermal progenitor (NMPs) give rise to neural and mesodermal tissues during axis elongation. In their study, Fay Cooper, Anestis Tsakiridis and colleagues reveal the role of Notch signalling in NMP differentiation and its role in Hox gene expression. To learn more about their work, we spoke to first and co-corresponding author, Fay Cooper, and to co-corresponding author Anestis Tsakiridis,
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The people behind the papers - Daniel Doro, Sachiko Iseki and Karen J. Liu. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-12
It has been suggested that bone repair following craniofacial injury could be supported by a stem cell niche in the sutures. A new paper in Development identifies a key role for neural crest-derived progenitors in skull repair and suggests that injuries close to the sutures heal more efficiently, possibly due to better access to these progenitors. To learn more about the story behind the paper, we
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Cranial suture lineage and contributions to repair of the mouse skull. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Daniel Doro, Annie Liu, Jia Shang Lau, Arun Kumar Rajendran, Christopher Healy, Marko Krstic, Agamemnon E Grigoriadis, Sachiko Iseki, Karen J Liu
The cranial sutures are proposed to be a stem cell niche, harbouring skeletal stem cells that are directly involved in development, homeostasis and healing. Like the craniofacial bones, the sutures are formed from both mesoderm and neural crest. During cranial bone repair, neural crest cells have been proposed to be key players; however, neural crest contributions to adult sutures are not well defined
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The people behind the papers - Thomas Mullan and Richard Poole. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-05
Asymmetric cell divisions can produce daughter cells of different sizes, but it is unclear whether unequal cell cleavage is important for cell fate decisions. A new paper in Development explores the role of unequal cleavages in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos. To learn more about the story behind the paper, we caught up with first author Thomas Mullan and corresponding author Richard Poole, Associate
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Grainyhead-like 2 (Grhl2) interacts with Noggin to regulate tissue fusion in mouse. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Michael E de Vries, Marina R Carpinelli, Jarrad N Fuller, Yindi Sutton, Darren D Partridge, Alana Auden, Peter J Anderson, Stephen M Jane, Sebastian Dworkin
Defective tissue fusion during mammalian embryogenesis results in congenital anomalies such as exencephaly, spina bifida and cleft lip and/or palate. The highly-conserved transcription factor Grainyhead-like 2 (Grhl2) is a critical regulator of tissue fusion, with mouse models lacking Grhl2 function presenting with a fully-penetrant open cranial neural tube (NT), facial and abdominal clefting (abdominoschisis)
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Disruption of placental ACKR3 effects embryo, and offspring, growth and hematopoietic development. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-01 Ayumi Fukuoka, Gillian J Wilson, Elise Pitmon, Lily Koumbas Foley, Hanna Johnsson, Marieke Pingen, Gerard J Graham
ACKR3 scavenges and degrades the stem cell recruiting chemokine CXCL12 which is essential for proper embryonic, and in particular hematopoietic development. Here we demonstrate strong expression of ACKR3 on trophoblasts. Using a maternally-administered pharmacological blocker, and Cre-mediated genetic approaches, we demonstrate that trophoblast ACKR3 is essential for preventing movement of CXCL12 from
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How studies in developmental epithelial-mesenchymal transition and mesenchymal-epithelial transition inspired new research paradigms in biomedicine. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-02-01 Jean Paul Thiery, Guojun Sheng, Xiaodong Shu, Raymond Runyan
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and its reverse mechanism, mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET), are evolutionarily conserved mechanisms initially identified in studies of early metazoan development. EMT may even have been established in choanoflagellates, the closest unicellular relative of Metazoa. These crucial morphological transitions operate during body plan formation and subsequently
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The MEK-ERK signaling pathway promotes maintenance of cardiac chamber identity. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-31 Yao Yao, Deepam Gupta, Deborah Yelon
Ventricular and atrial cardiac chambers have unique structural and contractile characteristics that underlie their distinct functions. The maintenance of chamber-specific features requires active reinforcement, even in differentiated cardiomyocytes. Prior studies in zebrafish have shown that sustained FGF signaling acts upstream of Nkx factors to maintain ventricular identity, but the rest of this
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Transitions in development - an interview with Peng Du. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-31
Peng Du is Associate Professor at Peking University College of Life Sciences, where he started his own lab in 2018. Peng's research focusses on post-transcriptional RNA regulatory pathways in early mammalian embryonic development and disease. We spoke to Peng over Zoom to find out more about his career path, his transition from plant to mammalian research and his experience becoming a group leader
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The ACE-inhibitor drug captopril inhibits ACN-1 to control dauer formation and aging. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-29 Brian M Egan, Franziska Pohl, Xavier Anderson, Shoshana C Williams, Imienreluefe Gregory Adodo, Patrick Hunt, Zuoxu Wang, Chen-Hao Chiu, Andrea Scharf, Matthew Mosley, Sandeep Kumar, Daniel L Schneider, Hideji Fujiwara, Fong-Fu Hsu, Kerry Kornfeld
The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) plays a well-characterized role regulating blood pressure in mammals. Pharmacological and genetic manipulation of the RAAS has been shown to extend lifespan in C. elegans, Drosophila, and rodents, but its mechanism is not well defined. Here we investigate the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor drug captopril, which extends lifespan in worms
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The Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, a novel model for developmental studies in mollusks. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-25 Angelica Miglioli, Marion Tredez, Manon Boosten, Camille Sant, João E Carvalho, Philippe Dru, Laura Canesi, Michael Schubert, Rémi Dumollard
A model organism in developmental biology is defined by its experimental amenability and by resources created for the model system by the scientific community. For the most powerful invertebrate models, the combination of both has already yielded a thorough understanding of developmental processes. However, the number of developmental model systems is still limited, and their phylogenetic distribution
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Fluctuation of lysosomal protein degradation in neural stem cells of the postnatal mouse brain. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-24 He Zhang, Karan Ishii, Tatsuya Shibata, Shunsuke Ishii, Marika Hirao, Zhou Lu, Risa Takamura, Satsuki Kitano, Hitoshi Miyachi, Ryoichiro Kageyama, Eisuke Itakura, Taeko Kobayashi
Lysosomes are intracellular organelles responsible for degrading diverse macromolecules delivered from several pathways, including the endo-lysosomal and autophagic pathways. Recent reports have suggested that lysosomes are essential for regulating neural stem cells in developing, adult, and aged brains. However, the activity of these lysosomes has yet to be monitored in these brain tissues. Here,
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Innervation of the pancreas in development and disease. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-24 Rikke Hoegsberg Agerskov, Pia Nyeng
The autonomic nervous system innervates the pancreas by sympathetic, parasympathetic and sensory branches during early organogenesis, starting with neural crest cell invasion and formation of an intrinsic neuronal network. Several studies have demonstrated that signals from pancreatic neural crest cells direct pancreatic endocrinogenesis. Likewise, autonomic neurons have been shown to regulate pancreatic
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Hindbrain boundaries as niches of neural progenitor/stem cells regulated by the extracellular matrix proteoglycan chondroitin sulphate. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-22 Carmel Hutchings, Yarden Nuriel, Daniel Lazar, Ayelet Kohl, Elizabeth Muir, Olga Genin, Yuval Cinnamon, Hadar Benyamini, Yuval Nevo, Dalit Sela-Donenfeld
The interplay between neural progenitor/stem cells (NPSCs) and their extracellular matrix (ECM), is a crucial regulatory mechanism that determines their behavior. Nonetheless, how the ECM dictates NPSC's state remains elusive. The hindbrain is valuable to examine this relationship, as cells in the ventricular surface of hindbrain boundaries (HB), which arise between any two neighboring rhombomeres
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Cell division angle predicts the level of tissue mechanics that tune the amount of cerebellar folding. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-22 Amber G Cook, Taylor V Bishop, Hannah R Crowe, Daniel Stevens, Lauren Reine, Alexandra L Joyner, Andrew K Lawton
Modeling has proposed that the amount of neural tissue folding is set by the level of differential-expansion between tissue layers and that the wavelength is set by the thickness of the outer layer. Here we used inbred mouse strains with distinct amounts of cerebellar folding to investigate these predictions. We identified distinct critical periods where the folding amount diverges between the two
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The people behind the papers - Meng-Han Tsai, Wan-Cian Lin and Jin-Wu Tsai. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-18
Lissencephaly is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by a loss of brain folds. In a new study, Jin-Wu Tsai and colleagues uncover a new variant of BAIAP2 that is associated with lissencephaly. To learn more about the story behind the paper, we caught up with first authors Meng-Han Tsai and Wan-Cian Lin, and corresponding author Jin-Wu Tsai, Professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
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Interplay of Zeb2a, Id2a, and Batf3 regulates microglia and dendritic cell development in the zebrafish brain. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Thi My Linh Nguyen, Shaoli Hassan, Hongru Pan, Shuting Wu, Zilong Wen
In vertebrates, the central nervous system (CNS) harbours various immune cells, including parenchyma microglia, perivascular macrophages, and dendritic cells, which act coordinatively to establish an immune network to regulate neurogenesis and neural function and to maintain the homeostasis of the CNS. Recent single cell transcriptomic profiling has revealed that the adult zebrafish CNS contains microglia
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Extraocular muscle stem cells exhibit distinct cellular properties associated with non-muscle molecular signatures. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Daniela Di Girolamo, Maria Benavente-Diaz, Melania Murolo, Alexandre Grimaldi, Priscilla Thomas Lopes, Brendan Evano, Mao Kiruki, Stamatia Gioftsidi, Vincent Laville, Jean-Yves Tinevez, Gaëlle Letort, Sebastian Mella, Shahragim Tajbakhsh, Glenda Comai
Skeletal muscle stem cells (MuSC) are recognized as functionally heterogeneous. Cranial MuSCs are reported to have greater proliferative and regenerative capacity when compared to the ones in the limb. A comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying this functional heterogeneity is lacking. Here we used clonal analysis, live imaging and scRNA-seq to identify critical features that distinguish
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Fibroblast Growth Factor-induced lens fiber cell elongation is driven by the stepwise activity of Rho and Rac. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Yuki Sugiyama, Daniel A Reed, David Herrmann, Frank J Lovicu, Michael L Robinson, Paul Timpson, Ichiro Masai
The spheroidal shape of the eye lens is critical for precise light focusing onto the retina. This shape is determined by concentrically aligned, convexly elongated lens fiber cells along the anterior and posterior axis of the lens. Upon differentiation at the lens equator, the fiber cells increase in height as their apical and basal tips migrate towards the anterior and posterior poles, respectively
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Transitions in development - an interview with Berna Sozen. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-17
Berna Sozen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics at Yale University, USA. Berna's lab studies early mammalian development, metabolism, and maternal-fetal interactions using mouse and human embryos, as well as stem cell-derived embryo-like models. In 2022, Berna received the NIH Director's New Innovator Award. We spoke to Berna over Zoom to learn more about her journey to becoming
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Seven-up acts in neuroblasts to specify adult central complex neuron identity and initiate neuroblast decommissioning. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Noah R Dillon, Laurina Manning, Keiko Hirono, Chris Q Doe
An open question in neurobiology is how diverse neuron cell types are generated from a small number of neural stem cells. In the Drosophila larval central brain, there are eight bilateral Type 2 neuroblast (T2NB) lineages that express a suite of early temporal factors followed by a different set of late temporal factors and generate the majority of the central complex (CX) neurons. The early-to-late
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A new experimental evidence-weighted signaling pathway resource in FlyBase. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Helen Attrill, Giulia Antonazzo, Joshua L Goodman, Jim Thurmond, Victor B Strelets, Nicholas H Brown
Research in model organisms is central to the characterization of signaling pathways in multicellular organisms. Here, we present the systematic curation of 17 Drosophila signaling pathways using the Gene Ontology framework to establish a comprehensive and dynamic resource that has been incorporated into FlyBase, providing visualization and data integration tools to aid research projects. By restricting
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Live tracking of basal stem cells of the epidermis during growth, homeostasis, and injury response in zebrafish. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Zhengcheng Liu, Yidan Meng, Ayu Ishikura, Atsushi Kawakami
Basal stem cells of the epidermis continuously differentiate into keratinocytes and replenish themselves via self-renewal to maintain skin homeostasis. Numerous studies have attempted to reveal how basal cells undergo differentiation or self-renewal; however, this has been hampered by a lack of robust basal cell markers and analytical platforms that allow single-cell tracking. Here, we report that
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Notch signalling influences cell fate decisions and HOX gene induction in axial progenitors. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Fay Cooper, Celine Souilhol, Scott Haston, Shona Gray, Katy Boswell, Antigoni Gogolou, Thomas J R Frith, Dylan Stavish, Bethany M James, Daniel Bose, Jacqueline Kim Dale, Anestis Tsakiridis
The generation of the post-cranial embryonic body relies on the coordinated production of spinal cord neurectoderm and presomitic mesoderm cells from neuromesodermal progenitors (NMPs). This process is orchestrated by pro-neural and pro-mesodermal transcription factors that are co-expressed in NMPs together with Hox genes, which are critical for axial allocation of NMP derivatives. NMPs reside in a
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Spherical harmonics analysis reveals cell shape-fate relationships in zebrafish lateral line neuromasts. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Madeleine N Hewitt, Iván A Cruz, David W Raible
Cell shape is a powerful readout of cell state, fate, and function. We describe a custom workflow to perform semi-automated, 3D cell and nucleus segmentation, and spherical harmonics and principal components analysis to distill cell and nuclear shape variation into discrete biologically meaningful parameters. We apply these methods to analyze shape in neuromast cells of the zebrafish lateral line system
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Expanding the Evo-Devo Toolkit: Generation of 3D mammary tissue from diverse mammals. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Hahyung Y Kim, Ishani Sinha, Karen E Sears, Charlotte Kuperwasser, Gat Rauner
The varying pathways of mammary gland development across species and evolutionary history are underexplored, largely due to a lack of model systems. Recent progress in organoid technology holds the promise of enabling in-depth studies of the developmental adaptations that have occurred throughout the evolution of different species, fostering beneficial phenotypes. The practical application of this
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Mitochondrial defects triggered by amg-1 mutation elicit UPRmt and phagocytic clearance during spermatogenesis in C. elegans. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Peng Wang, Lianwan Chen, Ning Wang, Long Miao, Yanmei Zhao
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of many biological processes. During spermatogenesis, post-transcriptional regulation of mitochondrial gene expression is mediated by nuclear-encoded mitochondrial RNA-binding proteins (mtRBPs). We identified AMG-1 as an mtRBP required for reproductive success in C. elegans. amg-1 mutation led to defects in mitochondrial structure and sperm budding, resulting in mitochondria
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Control of successive unequal cell divisions by neural cell fate regulators determines embryonic neuroblast cell size. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-11 T W Mullan, T Felton, J Tam, O Kasem, J T Yeung, N Memar, R Schnabel, R J Poole
Asymmetric cell divisions often generate daughter cells of unequal size in addition to different fates. In some contexts, daughter cell size asymmetry is thought to be a key input to specific binary cell fate decisions. An alternative possibility is that unequal division is a mechanism by which a variety of cells of different sizes are generated during embryonic development. We show here that two unequal
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Assembly, dynamics and remodeling of epithelial cell junctions throughout development. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-11 Marta Mira-Osuna, Roland Le Borgne
Cell junctions play key roles in epithelial integrity. During development, when epithelia undergo extensive morphogenesis, these junctions must be remodeled in order to maintain mechanochemical barriers and ensure the cohesion of the tissue. In this Review, we present a comprehensive and integrated description of junctional remodeling mechanisms in epithelial cells during development, from embryonic
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The people behind the papers - Ingvild Lynneberg Glærum, Keagan Dunville and Giulia Quattrocolo. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-09
Cajal-Retzius (CR) cells are transient neurons that control cortical lamination during development. Although most CR cells disappear before birth, a small population persists in the hippocampus postnatally for several months. In a new study, Giulia Quattrocolo and colleagues investigate the role of postnatal CR cells in establishing the hippocampal network. To find out more about the story, we caught
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Integrated single-cell multiomics uncovers foundational regulatory mechanisms of lens development and pathology. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-05 Jared A Tangeman, Sofia M Rebull, Erika Grajales-Esquivel, Jacob M Weaver, Stacy Bendezu-Sayas, Michael L Robinson, Salil A Lachke, Katia Del Rio-Tsonis
Ocular lens development entails epithelial to fiber cell differentiation, defects in which cause congenital cataracts. We report the first single-cell multiomic atlas of lens development, leveraging snRNA-seq, snATAC-seq and CUT&RUN-seq to discover previously unreported mechanisms of cell fate determination and cataract-linked regulatory networks. A comprehensive profile of cis- and trans-regulatory
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Generation of rat-derived lung epithelial cells in Fgfr2b-deficient mice retains species-specific development. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-05 Shunsuke Yuri, Yuki Murase, Ayako Isotani
Regenerative medicine is a tool to compensate for the shortage of lungs for transplantation, but it remains difficult to construct a lung in vitro due to the complex three-dimensional structures and multiple cell types required. A blastocyst complementation method using interspecies chimeric animals has been attracting attention as a way to create complex organs in animals, although successful lung
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Organogenetic transcriptomes of the Drosophila embryo at single cell resolution. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-04 Da Peng, Dorian Jackson, Bianca Palicha, Eric Kernfeld, Nathaniel Laughner, Ashleigh Shoemaker, Susan E Celniker, Rajprasad Loganathan, Patrick Cahan, Deborah J Andrew
To gain insight into the transcription programs activated during the formation of Drosophila larval structures, we carried out single cell RNA sequencing during two periods of Drosophila embryogenesis: stages 10 - 12, when most organs are first specified and initiate morphological and physiological specialization, and stages 13 - 16, when organs achieve their final mature architectures and begin to
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Intercellular contact and cargo transfer between Müller glia and to microglia precede apoptotic cell clearance in the developing retina. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-04 Michael Morales, Anna P Findley, Diana M Mitchell
To clarify our understanding of glial phagocytosis in retinal development, we used real-time imaging of larval zebrafish to provide cell-type specific resolution of this process. We show that radial Müller glia frequently participate in microglial phagocytosis while also completing a subset of phagocytic events. Müller glia actively engage with dying cells through initial target cell contact and phagocytic
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Lissencephaly-associated BAIAP2 variant causes defects in neuronal migration during brain development. Development (IF 4.6) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Meng-Han Tsai, Wan-Cian Lin, Shih-Ying Chen, Meng-Ying Hsieh, Fang-Shin Nian, Haw-Yuan Cheng, Hong-Jun Zhao, Shih-Shun Hung, Chi-Hsin Hsu, Pei-Shan Hou, Chien-Yi Tung, Mei-Hsuan Lee, Jin-Wu Tsai
Lissencephaly is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a loss of brain surface convolutions caused by genetic variants that disrupt neuronal migration. However, genetic origins in nearly one-fifth of lissencephaly patients remain unidentified. Using whole exome sequencing (WES), we identified a de novo BAIAP2 variant p.Arg29Trp in a lissencephaly patient with a posterior more severe than anterior