The spatial regulation of neuorogenesis is a mysterious but crucial process in vertebrate central nervous system development. In zebrafish embryos,proneuronal domains, which produce early neurons, are separated by inter-proneuronal domains, which do not undergo neurogenesis until later in development. On p. 1375, Bae and colleagues report that the hairy- and enhancer of split-related genes her3 and her9 link positional information in the posterior neuroectoderm to the spatial regulation of neurogenesis. The expression of her3 and her9is restricted to inter-proneuronal domains, and inhibiting either of their functions with antisense morpholinos causes the ectopic expression of proneural genes in these domains. Inhibiting both proteins' functions abolishes inter-proneuronal domain formation. Other results indicate that her3 and her9 expression is regulated by positional information in which Bmp signalling is involved. The researchers conclude that her3 and her9 spatially control neurogenesis by functioning as prepattern genes.
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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the Node: Have your say
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