In the vertebrate nervous system, specialised cell types develop at characteristic positions. To investigate how the fine patterning of motoneurone subtypes is specified, Lewis and Eisen turned to zebrafish embryos in which three subtypes of primary motoneurones (PMNs) occur in a segmentally reiterated pattern along the spinal cord (see p. 891). Two of these PMN subtypes - middle primary (MiP) and caudal primary (CaP) - can be identified molecularly and by their axonal trajectories, i.e. by which tissue they innervate. Lewis and Eisen report that in zebrafish mutants that lack the overlying paraxial mesoderm, PMNs adopt a gene expression profile that has characteristics of both MiPs and CaPs. Furthermore, in mutants with severely disrupted paraxial mesoderm, although the PMNs have a hybrid gene expression profile, their axonal trajectories resemble those of CaP motoneurones. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that signals from the paraxial mesoderm specify the segmental...
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 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.
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