Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Ovules of Arabidopsis bel1 cna phb phv mutants. The ovulate axis of extant angiosperms does not branch, whereas some fossil gymnosperms show branching ovules. The branched ovulate axis of this mutant might thus bridge the gap in ovule body plan. See Research report by Yamada et al. on p. 422.
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IN THIS ISSUE
DEVELOPMENT AT A GLANCE
Hedgehog signalling
Summary: This poster article reviews our current understanding of Hedgehog signalling mechanisms in metazoan development.
REVIEWS
The force within: endocardial development, mechanotransduction and signalling during cardiac morphogenesis
Summary: This Review article presents a comprehensive view of the endocardium: how it develops and then functions as an important angiocrine signalling centre, sensor and transducer of biophysical forces.
View from the heart: cardiac fibroblasts in development, scarring and regeneration
Summary: This Review article looks at the role of cardiac fibroblasts in scarring and regeneration, as well as how these cells are specified during development and the unique characteristics that define them.
STEM CELLS AND REGENERATION
WNT/β-catenin signaling mediates human neural crest induction via a pre-neural border intermediate
Highlighted article: A new protocol for human neural crest induction from hESCs is fast and efficient, and involves TGFβ, FGF and BMP signaling to specify the neural crest independent of neural ectoderm and mesoderm.
Transcriptomes of lineage-specific Drosophila neuroblasts profiled by genetic targeting and robotic sorting
Summary: Transcriptome analysis of lineage-specific neural progenitors reveals molecular heterogeneity at the single-cell level and the origin for the numerous distinct neurons present in a complex brain.
RESEARCH REPORT
CORONA, PHABULOSA and PHAVOLUTA collaborate with BELL1 to confine WUSCHEL expression to the nucellus in Arabidopsis ovules
Summary: Transgenic analysis identifies transcription factors necessary for boundary demarcation between the nucellus and chalaza of the Arabidopsis ovule, and for patterning of WUS expression.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Villification in the mouse: Bmp signals control intestinal villus patterning
Highlighted article: Intestinal villus pattern in the fetal mouse is controlled by mesenchymal BMP signaling, not mechanical forces, and behaves in accordance with a reaction-diffusion Turing mechanism.
Hoxb6 can interfere with somitogenesis in the posterior embryo through a mechanism independent of its rib-promoting activity
Highlighted article: Hoxb6 can disturb somitogenesis and anterior-posterior somite patterning, suggesting the existence of functional differences in somitogenesis before and after the trunk-to-tail transition.
Formin 2 regulates the stabilization of filopodial tip adhesions in growth cones and affects neuronal outgrowth and pathfinding in vivo
Highlighted article: Formin 2 regulates filopodial dynamics required for efficient translocation of neuronal growth cones, while depletion of formin 2 in vivo results in aberrant axonal tracts in the spinal cord.
Proper closure of the optic fissure requires ephrin A5-EphB2-JNK signaling
Summary: Cross-subclass interaction of EphB2 with ephrin A5 functions upstream of JNK signaling to maintain an adequate pool of progenitor cells to ensure proper closure of the optic fissure.
Endocardial-to-mesenchymal transformation and mesenchymal cell colonization at the onset of human cardiac valve development
Summary: Global gene expression analyses on semilunar valve leaflets from embryonic human hearts reveals significant differences in the expression profiles of EndMT-associated and proliferation-associated genes.
The function and regulation of the GATA factor ELT-2 in the C. elegans endoderm
Summary: The GATA factor ELT-2 is a key regulator of C. elegans intestinal differentiation and can act alone to specify the endoderm.
A novel role for Ascl1 in the regulation of mesendoderm formation via HDAC-dependent antagonism of VegT
Summary: The proneural factor ASCL1 recruits HDAC1 to repress VegT-induced, but not Nodal-induced, mesendoderm formation via a previously uncharacterized N-terminal domain.
Yap and Taz play a crucial role in neural crest-derived craniofacial development
Summary: Conditional ablation of Yap and Taz in the cranial neural crest reveals how these proteins regulate Fox gene expression and, in turn, cranial neural crest diversification and development.
Differentiation and molecular heterogeneity of inhibitory and excitatory neurons associated with midbrain dopaminergic nuclei
Summary: Tal1 and Gata transcription factors select between inhibitory GABAergic and excitatory glutamatergic fates of neurons regulating the dopaminergic system.
Antagonistic roles of Nibbler and Hen1 in modulating piRNA 3′ ends in Drosophila
Summary: Antagonism between Nbr and Hen1 represents a novel mechanism for the modulation of piRNA sequences, revealing new players involved in the silencing of transposable elements.
TECHNIQUES AND RESOURCES
Automated detection and quantification of single RNAs at cellular resolution in zebrafish embryos
Summary: Single-molecule RNA detection combined with automated cell segmentation and transcript analysis in zebrafish embryos enables efficient subcellular transcript quantification in tissues and embryos.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST IN OTHER COB JOURNALS
From Journal of Cell Science
History of our journals
As our publisher, The Company of Biologists, turns 100 years old, read about Development’s journey and highlights from some its first issues, and explore the history of each of our sister journals: Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open.
Call for papers – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues. This issue will be coordinated by Guest Editors Meritxell Huch (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany) and Mansi Srivastava (Harvard University and Museum of Comparative Zoology, USA), working alongside our team of academic Editors. Submit your articles by 15 May 2025.
A case for broadening our view of mechanism in developmental biology
In this Perspective, B. Duygu Özpolat and colleagues survey researchers on their views on what it takes to infer mechanism in developmental biology. They examine what factors shape our idea of what we mean by ‘mechanism’ and suggest a path forward that embraces a broad outlook on the diversity of studies that advance knowledge in our field.
In preprints
Did you know that Development publishes perspectives on recent preprints? These articles help our readers navigate the ever-growing preprint literature. We welcome proposals for ‘In preprints’ articles, so please do get in touch if you’d like to contribute.
