Issues

Summary: We recently met with Lewis Wolpert at the Spring Meeting of the BSDB, where he was awarded the Waddington Medal, and asked him about his life and his career.

Summary: A recent Keystone Symposium highlighted major advances in our comprehension of the epigenetic and transcriptional regulation of stem cell states.

Summary: This Review discusses the importance of the formation and survival of the primordial follicle pool during fetal and neonatal periods for the long-term reproductive capacity of female mammals.

Highlighted article: In the mouse kidney, Fat4 interacts with Dchs1 and 2 to regulate nephron progenitor differentiation, independently of YAP and the core PCP Vangl2, but through Six2.

Highlighted article: In mice, kidney morphogenesis and size of the nephron progenitor pool are regulated by Fat4-Dchs1 signaling between stromal cells and nephron progenitors, independently of YAP.

Highlighted article: The chromatin remodelling protein CHD4 dampens transcriptional priming in totipotent cells, facilitating TE specification during murine embryogenesis.

Summary: Soma and germline communicate bi-directionally through gap-junctions to promote germline differentiation and stem cell maintenance during fly spermatogenesis.

Summary: In the chick retina, Hedgehog signaling contributes to retinal repair by promoting the de-differentiation of Muller glia and the proliferation of Muller glia-derived progenitor cells.

Summary: The formation and expansion of mouse adipose tissue during embryogenesis is driven by Perilipin⁺ preadipocytes that emerge at E16.5 and express several stem cell markers.

Summary: During mouse oocyte maturation, RGS2 is recruited for translation and restrains inappropriate Ca²⁺ signaling, preventing egg activation prior to fertilization.

Summary: In the developing mouse forebrain, the lncRNA Evf2 forms a complex with DLX1, BRG1 and BAF170. BRG1 directly interacts with Dlx1 and Evf2, the latter inhibiting its ATPase and chromatin remodeling activity.

Summary: Intravital dye labeling and 3D imaging reveal that Pbx1-mediated vascular mural cell differentiation is required for the repression of PDGFRβ signaling and functional renal vascularization in mice.

Highlighted article: The quantification of cellular behaviour in real time provides new insights into interneuron migration and inner plexiform layer formation during the lamination of the zebrafish retina.

Summary: A genome-wide RNAi screen identifies the BMP/Activin/Nodal inhibitor Coco as an enhancer of the binding of TGFβ1 to its receptor Alk5, thus potentiating TGFβ1 signaling in murine cells and Xenopus explants.

Summary: In the chick mesonephros, Wnt, known to be required for nephron induction, also instructs the nephron axis such that glomeruli differentiate in regions farthest from the source of Wnt.

Summary: In mice, conditional ablation of Yap and Taz in the nephric duct lineage leads to hydronephrotic kidneys, enhanced Ret pathway activity and defective nephric duct fusion to the cloaca.

Highlighted article: In the early zebrafish embryo, dcsh1b and dcsh2 organize actin and microtubule networks, sometimes independently of their known ligand Fat, to control several aspects of embryogenesis.

Summary: Correlative microscopy (scanning electron microscopy and SOX17/RUNX1 immunofluorescence) reveals morphological changes during human and mouse endothelial to hematopoietic transition at the single-cell level.