Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Digitally enhanced hand-painted illustration of a Xenopus laevis stage 48 embryo, dorsal view. Using live samples viewed under a stereomicroscope as reference, a sketch was produced and hand-painted with watercolours. The painting was then digitised and refined by adding further layers and highlights, sharpening edges and adjusting hues. © 2017 Natalya Zahn. See Spotlight by Zahn et al. on p. 2708.
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IN THIS ISSUE
EDITORIAL
Editorial changes
Summary: Development announces changes to the editorial team and invites community input in choosing a new Editor in Chief and in suggesting future areas for the journal to explore.
SPOTLIGHTS
An interview with Jim Smith
Summary: Jim Smith, recently knighted for services to medical research and science education, talks about his research career and his hopes for the future of biomedical science.
The Zahn drawings: new illustrations of Xenopus embryo and tadpole stages for studies of craniofacial development
Summary: New, freely available illustrations of developing Xenopus laevis, drawn by Natalya Zahn, provide a resource for teaching and research, especially in the field of craniofacial biology.
MEETING REVIEW
Programming and reprogramming the brain: a meeting of minds in neural fate
Summary: This Meeting Review discusses recent progress in our understanding of neuronal programming, highlighting some of the common features of cell fate determination during development and directed reprogramming.
PRIMER
KRAB zinc finger proteins
Summary: This Primer summarises our current understanding of the intriguing family of KRAB-ZFP transcriptional regulators and its contribution to the control, evolution and co-option of transposable elements.
STEM CELLS AND REGENERATION
Soluble APP functions as a vascular niche signal that controls adult neural stem cell number
Summary: Endothelium-derived soluble amyloid precursor protein negatively regulates the growth of neural stem cells to control neural stem cell number in the subventricular zone of the adult mouse brain.
BMP signaling regulates satellite cell-dependent postnatal muscle growth
Summary: Bone morphogenetic protein signaling is pivotal for muscle stem cell-dependent postnatal skeletal muscle growth and determination of the final adult muscle stem cell reservoir.
Epigenetic resetting of human pluripotency
Highlighted article: A simple, transgene-free method is described for resetting human ESCs or iPSCs to a stable naïve status via transient histone deacetylase inhibition.
RESEARCH REPORT
Acetylcholinesterase plays a non-neuronal, non-esterase role in organogenesis
Highlighted article: A non-classical function of acetylcholinesterase in the polarization, rearrangement and adhesion of endoderm cells during Xenopus gut morphogenesis is identified.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Inwardly rectifying potassium channels influence Drosophila wing morphogenesis by regulating Dpp release
Highlighted article: Calcium transients modulate the temporal dynamics of Dpp presentation in developmental BMP signaling, impacting the downstream transcriptional response and tissue morphogenesis.
Defects in dosage compensation impact global gene regulation in the mouse trophoblast
Highlighted article: The genome-wide impact of Xist RNA lacking the A-repeat suggests a significant role for Xist in gene regulation beyond imprinted X inactivation.
Wnt signalling controls the response to mechanical loading during zebrafish joint development
Summary: Wnt16 signalling acts downstream of mechanical loading to shape developing joints through control of cell division and migration.
Cell interactions, signals and transcriptional hierarchy governing placode progenitor induction
Summary: A new model is presented whereby multiple mesodermal tissues and signalling centres, rather than a single organizer, mediate the induction and patterning of chick sensory placodes.
Multiple modes of Lrp4 function in modulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling during tooth development
Summary: Lrp4 can act as both inhibitor and activator of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway through interactions with Wise to determine tooth number and patterning in mouse.
Coup-TF1 and Coup-TF2 control subtype and laminar identity of MGE-derived neocortical interneurons
Summary: The regulation of somatostatin (SST) and parvalbumin (PV) mouse cortical interneurons is mediated by Coup-TF1- and Coup-TF2-driven Sox6 expression, identifying a transcriptional pathway that controls SST-PV fate.
TECHNIQUES AND RESOURCES
High-efficiency non-mosaic CRISPR-mediated knock-in and indel mutation in F0 Xenopus
Summary: Genome editing in Xenopus oocytes employing homology-directed repair and DNA ligase inhibition effciently generates non-mosaic mutations with germline transmission.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST IN OUR OTHER 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.
