It has been known for some time that telomeres get shorter with each round of DNA replication. To prevent this, highly proliferative cell types elongate their telomeres using the reverse transcriptase telomerase. On p. 4059,Ferrón et al. investigate the effect of telomere erosion on the proliferation of neural stem cells (NSCs). Using mice that lack functional telomerase, they show that progressive telomere shortening impairs the proliferation of adult NSCs in vitro. Surprisingly, however, telomere erosion does not affect the proliferation of embryonic NSCs, despite their accumulation of chromosomal abnormalities. The researchers conclude that adult and embryonic NSCs have very different responses to telomere shortening, and that some types of stem cell can bypass DNA damage checkpoints. They point out that by understanding the intracellular mechanisms that regulate NSC cycling,techniques for activating neurogenesis might emerge for use in treating brain disease.
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 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 15 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.
In preprints
How to build a community site for developmental biologists
Our community site, the Node, has been serving the developmental and stem cell biology community for 15 years. In this post, our Community Manager, Joyce Yu, shares how the Node was born and describes how to build a community site from scratch.
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