Issues

Summary: Kathryn Anderson, recipient of the Edwin G. Conklin medal, talks about swapping flies for mice, her work on primary cilia and why science needs more women in leadership positions.

Summary: This meeting report highlights the major advances and emerging trends in quantitative stem cell biology as presented at the 5th annual Cambridge Stem Cell Symposium this year.

Summary: This Review discusses how and when transposable elements are expressed during development and how they modulate genome architecture, gene regulatory networks and protein function during embryogenesis.

Highlighted article: Conditional Sox2 ablation affects dental epithelial stem cell proliferation and differentiation and causes arrested incisor development and abnormal molar development in rodents.

Highlighted article: A postnatal model for ZIKV infection reveals blood-brain barrier leakage, neuronal death, apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of NPCs, leading to microcephaly with brain damage in ZIKV-infected pups.

Summary: MicroRNA 501 is a novel muscle-specific microRNA that is induced during muscle regeneration and regulates the transition of myosin heavy chains during early myogenesis.

Summary: Immunohistochemistry reveals an anteroposterior gradient of nuclear β-CATENIN-1 in the adult planarian, with the lowest levels in the pre-pharyngeal region and the highest levels at the tip of the tail.

Summary: A Dlk1 knock-in reporter mouse reports allele- and tissue-specific Dlk1 expression in developing embryos that can be used to study changes in genomic imprinting during cellular reprogramming.

Summary: The antagonistic action between β-catenin and Gata.a in Ciona intestinalis is involved in segregation between ectoderm and endomesoderm at the 16-cell stage, and between endoderm and mesoderm at the 32-cell stage.

Summary: An EXC-5/FGD-CDC-42 pathway regulates the two formins INFT-2/INF2 and CYK-1/mDia to control F-actin levels and modulate cell outgrowth during tubulogenesis in C. elegans.

Summary: Ldb1 and Ldb2 have both overlapping and specific functions in mouse retinal development, specifically in maintaining the pool of retinal progenitors and for the generation of early-born photoreceptors.

Summary: Nuclear migration through a constricted space of about 200 nm between muscle and cuticle in C. elegans larval P cells requires microtubule motors, actin and nuclear deformation.

Summary: Bi-directional mitochondrial transport driven by Dynein is regulated by Milton at primary anterograde sorting, whereas Miro regulates a retrograde transport switch.

Summary: The progression of apical organ neurogenesis in sea star larvae is controlled by the formation of nested concentric domains of gene expression along the anteroposterior axis.

Summary: Postsynaptic engagement of GDNF and GFRα1 is required for proper development of hippocampal dendritic arbors and spine maturation through NCAM signaling.

Summary: A decline in miR-150 is critical for lactation, as pups nursed by dams in which this decline is prevented exhibit a dramatic decrease in survival compared with littermate controls.

Summary: Voltage-gated K⁺ channels establish a balance between cell proliferation and barrier properties in the neuroepithelium that lines the ventricles during development of the zebrafish brain ventricular system.

Summary: The migratory behavior of tracheal fusion cells is controlled by the FGF-induced expression of the transcription factor Escargot, which subsequently suppresses ERK signaling.

Summary: Critical improvements to the DamID protocol improve specificity and sensitivity in determining genome-wide protein-DNA interactions in transient or stable transgenic animal lines.

Summary: Tamoxifen-induced Caspase activation in zebrafish enables fast, efficient and specific cell ablation via targeted apoptosis.