During vertebrate development, the facial skeleton forms from the segmental pharyngeal arches. Hox genes specify segmental identity throughout the pharyngeal arches: altered Hox expression causes homeotic transformations of facial skeletal elements. Now, Miller and co-workers report that Moz(monocytic leukaemia zinc finger) regulates Hox expression and pharyngeal segmental identity in zebrafish (see p. 2443). To identify genes involved in specifying segmental identity, the researchers looked for mutations affecting cartilage patterning in the zebrafish larval pharynx. They homed in on a mutant with a mirror image duplication of jaw cartilages in place of the normal second-arch cartilages, a pattern seen in zebrafish with reduced hox2 expression. They identify the mutated gene as a zebrafish orthologue of the human oncogene MOZ, a histone acetyltransferase. Inhibition of histone deacetylase activity rescues the defective Hox gene expression and homeosis in moz mutants. These results indicate that Moz maintains Hox gene expression through a process...
Interviews with Biologists @ 100 conference speakers
Explore our interviews with keynote speakers from the Biologists @ 100 conference, hosted to celebrate our publisher’s 100th anniversary, where we discuss climate change and biodiversity with Hans-Otto Pörtner and Jane Francis, health and disease with Charles Swanton and Sadaf Farooqi, and emerging technologies with Manu Prakash and Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz.
Call for papers – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues. This issue will be coordinated by Guest Editors Meritxell Huch (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany) and Mansi Srivastava (Harvard University and Museum of Comparative Zoology, USA), working alongside our team of academic Editors. Submit your articles by 30 May 2025.
A case for broadening our view of mechanism in developmental biology
In this Perspective, B. Duygu Özpolat and colleagues survey researchers on their views on what it takes to infer mechanism in developmental biology. They examine what factors shape our idea of what we mean by ‘mechanism’ and suggest a path forward that embraces a broad outlook on the diversity of studies that advance knowledge in our field.
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