Issues

Summary: This poster article reviews the origins of glia, their diverse roles during neural development and their contribution to plasticity and disease in the adult mammalian nervous system.

Summary: This Review discusses novel insights into the gene regulatory networks that govern limb development, fin-to-limb transition and digit reductions during tetrapod limb evolution.

Highlighted article: In the chick prechordal mesoderm, the Nodal precursor proNodal acts via a non-canonical route to inhibit BMP signalling and thus maintain Shh expression

Highlighted article: In the mouse early embryo, H19 ICR imprinting is achieved through maternally inherited DNMT3A- and DNMT3L-mediated de novo methylation and requires a specific 5′ region of the locus.

Highlighted article: Linking intercellular signaling and mechanical regulators of cell behavior, differential Hh activity in the Drosophila wing disc regulates the shape of the anterior-posterior boundary.

Highlighted article: Loss of Hox6 function in the mouse pancreatic mesenchyme results in a drastic reduction of endocrine cells as a result of decreased mesenchymal Wnt signaling.

Summary: The conserved Tor and autophagy metabolic sensing pathways are required for a burst of spatially regulated yolk catabolism during Drosophila cellularization.

Summary: In the developing mouse hippocampus, intrinsic neuronal excitability does not alter CA3 neuron development but regulates spine formation and synaptic transmission in CA1 neurons.

Highlighted article: Spatially distinct populations of the early sea urchin embryo display profound differences in effector gene expression before morphological differences can be distinguished.

Summary: A three dimensional in silico model of C. elegans predicts that adult germ cells are subject to a mechanical feedback on the cell cycle akin to contact inhibition.

Summary: The endochondral ossification of the malleus, an ossicle of the mouse inner ear, occurs around capillaries and is mediated by the AP-1 transcription factor Fosl1.

Summary: In the mouse cerebellum, Aspm depletion causes increased DNA damage and impaired mitosis, leading to granule cell progenitor apoptosis. In medulloblastoma, Aspm sustains tumor growth.

Summary: In the fish eye, Hh signalling from the ventral forebrain regulates spatial identity in the retina by promoting foxd1 expression. This role is required only in the presence of Fgf activity.

Summary: In the early mouse embryo, DNA damage repair is achieved through BCAS2-mediated control of the RPA complex, a key regulator of genome integrity.

Summary: Foxi3 shapes tooth morphogenesis in mice by suppressing the formation of signaling centers in the tooth crown and inhibiting the acquisition of root and ameloblast cell fates.

Highlighted article: A previously undescribed intermediary membrane-lined multivesicular compartment is required for subcellular lumen formation in maturing Drosophila tracheal cells.

Summary: The deposition of chitin, a key component of the insect exoskeleton, can now be followed in living Drosophila pupae with ChtVis-Tomato, an in vivo chitin reporter.