Issues

Summary: This Meeting Review summarises the recent RIKEN-CDB Symposium 'Size in Development: Growth, Shape and Allometry', highlighting recent advances and open questions in the field.

Summary: This Hypothesis explores pioneer transcription factor-driven direct lineage reprogramming between mature cell states, proposing that this depends on reversion to a developmentally immature state.

Summary: This Review discusses the roles of blood vessels in controlling developmental and regenerative bone formation and providing niche microenvironments for various cell types.

Highlighted article: Targeted mutation of the Polycomb protein AEBP2 in mouse provides evidence for a role for this factor in defining the composition and activity of PRC2 complexes.

Summary: Denervation of the amputated axolotl limb prevents regeneration. The neuronally secreted protein Neuregulin-1 is required for regeneration, and can induce it in denervated limbs.

Highlighted article: Astrocyte-specific depletion of the schizophrenia-associated gene Disc1 in the developing mouse and in vitro leads to impaired astrogenesis due to disrupted RAS/ERK signaling.

Summary: During mouse cortical development, the Arp2/3 actin branching complex regulates process formation and the maintenance of radial glial cell polarity, as well as affecting neuronal migration.

Highlighted article: The RNA-binding protein IMP2 is enriched in developing axons, interacts with a network of axon guidance-related mRNAs, and is required for normal axon pathfinding in mouse embryos.

Summary: Mammalian neurogenins are proneural factors, but the Drosophila homolog Tap is not, instead acting to prevent axonal outgrowth, likely by regulating the planar cell polarity pathway via Dishevelled.

Highlighted article: The H3K9 methyltransferase Setdb1 is required during mouse oogenesis to control gene expression, restrain expression of endogenous retroviruses and enable successful progression through meiosis and mitosis.

Summary: In the female gametophyte, the synergid cell is required to attract the pollen tube, and then degenerates. Its death, and pollen tube bursting, is controlled by the VDD and VAL transcription factors.

Summary: The chromatin-organizing protein CAP-D3 maintains EGFR signaling in the developing Drosophila wing disc, identifying a key transcriptional regulatory network influencing vein development.

Summary: In different regions of the mouse oral epithelium, differential subcellular localization of the spindle orientation protein LGN regulates distinct patterns of cell division.

Summary: The serine protease prostasin triggers a cell surface-associated proteolytic pathway that regulates epithelial development in mouse, independent of its own proteolytic activity.

Summary: During mouse retinogenesis, the Sip1 transcription factor participates in the gene regulatory network that controls timely cell cycle exit and differentiation of a subset of retinal progenitor cells.

Summary: The analysis of zebrafish quadruple Mesp mutants identifies conserved and species-specific mechanisms by which the temporal periodicity of the somitogenesis clock is interpreted.

Summary: MRTFs are regulators of actin cycling and cytoskeletal gene expression. Loss of MRTFs in the mouse skeletal muscle causes muscle hypoplasia due to defects in sarcomere formation.

Summary: Single-molecule hybridization chain reaction, combined with tissue clearing, allows the near-quantitative and spatially localized detection of mRNAs in thick tissue samples.

Summary: Germ cell transplantation from mutagenized F0 Xenopus tropicalis embryos into wild-type hosts mitigates founder lethality, allowing generation of mutant lines. This technique should be transferable to other species.