Issues

Summary: We spoke to Didier Stainier, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, about his career working with zebrafish and his recent move from the USA to Germany.

Summary: This Hypothesis considers the growing evidence for a dual origin of the central nervous system: as well as the neuroectoderm lineage, neuromesodermal progenitors contribute to the spinal cord.

Summary: This Review discusses the complex and dynamic interplay between the Polycomb and Trithorax group proteins, known for maintaining epigenetically stable expression states.

Highlighted article: A Cyp26a1-expressing niche in the basal epidermal layer of the zebrafish fin controls osteoblast localisation during regeneration - thus defining ray patterning.

Highlighted article: Multiple steps of ray regeneration in the zebrafish fin require dynamic modulation of retinoic acid signalling, regulated by the retinoic acid-degrading enzyme Cyp26b1.

Highlighted article: In the developing mouse brain, hypoxia impairs proliferation and causes apoptosis, while hyperoxia induces the expansion of a normally rare population of neural progenitors.

Summary: Modulating histone H3K27 methylation state during leg regeneration in cricket leads to defects in proximodistal patterning of the regenerating limb.

Summary: During early zebrafish heart development, three distinct phases of endoderm convergence and myocardial cell migration can be identified, all of which rely on S1pr2/Gα₁₃ signalling.

Summary: In the legume Medicago, the PLETHORA genes are expressed in the nodule meristem and regulate nodule formation, indicating the recruitment of root developmental programs by Rhizobium.

Highlighted article: Following the behaviour of single cells during vessel formation at high spatio-temporal resolution provides insights into endothelial cell migration and lumen formation.

Highlighted article: Direct interaction between the Hippo effector Yap and the Notch intracellular domain regulates Notch target gene expression during vascular smooth muscle differentiation from neural crest.

Summary: Meiotic chromosomal regions that fail to synapse elicit meiotic silencing of unsynapsed chromatin (MSUC), which shows similarities to the DNA damage response to replication stress in somatic cells.

Summary: Genetic ablation of the transcription factor YY1 in mouse lung epithelium disrupts lung branching and leads to cyst formation, a phenotype reminiscent of pleuropulmonary blastoma.

Summary: Bucky ball is essential for germ plasm assembly in zebrafish. It binds Kinesin-1, which promotes microtubule reorganisation after egg activation and is required for Bucky ball activity.

Summary: The transcription factor Meis1 controls expression of a set of eye territory-specific transcription factors. Meis1 haploinsufficiency causes micropthalmia and visual impairment in adult mice.

Summary: In zebrafish, the transcriptional regulators Yap/Taz and Tead are necessary and sufficient for optic vesicle progenitors to adopt retinal pigmented epithelium identity.

Summary: Protein phosphatase 2A controls cell cycle progression in the developing Drosophila eye and wing - inhibiting Cdk2/Cyclin E to induce the quiescent state.

Summary: Two tetraspan membrane proteins, Pasiflora1 and 2, are essential components of the Drosophila septate junction required for epithelial and blood-brain barrier integrity.

Summary: Cdc42 and its effectors Pak2/4 and N-WASP are required for organisation of the actin cytoskeleton during blood vessel development, both in filopodia and nascent cell-cell junctions.