Issues

Summary: This Meeting Review summarises the novel understanding of stem cell plasticity, emerging technologies for disease modelling and their translation into the clinic reported at this 2017 EMBO Conference.

Summary: This Review summarizes current knowledge of how microtubule organization and dynamics change upon cellular differentiation and gives an overview of the functions of non-centrosomal microtubule arrays in differentiated cells.

Summary: This Review gives an overview of the process of spermatogenesis and places recent findings using cell-type markers in the context of a hierarchical model for the regulation of spermatogonial proliferation.

Highlighted Article: Secretory cells act as a stem/progenitor cell population that is regulated by Wnt/β-catenin signaling and maintains epithelial cell homeostasis in the developing and adult mouse oviduct.

Highlighted Article: Interactions between cells within a colony enforce a common fate, both in the state of pluripotency and when cells differentiate in response to morphogen signaling.

Summary: The production and maintenance of taste bud cells requires Shh from both local epithelium and gustatory innervation, and this dual supply mechanism may be relevant for progenitor populations of other renewing epithelia.

Summary: PABPC2 plays a crucial role in the maintenance of epidermal and extracellular matrix integrity, which is essential for neoblast function and regeneration in planarians.

Summary: A Sall1 knock-in mouse mutant shows accelerated differentiation of nephron progenitors and impaired lineage determination of loop of Henle progenitors, implicating the Sall1-NuRD interaction as being vital for kidney development.

Summary: Analysis of sequences upstream of the eve minimal enhancer region in multiple Drosophila species demonstrates functional evolution via mechanisms other than changes in transcription factor-binding sites.

Highlighted Article: By opposing the actions of viking/collagen IV and βPS-integrin, the AdamTS-A metalloprotease anchors neural lineages in place and preserves CNS structure in Drosophila.

Summary: Sox2 promotes both Schwann cell proliferation and macrophage infiltration in peripheral nerves, demonstrating its potential involvement in disorders of myelination.

Summary: Root system development can respond flexibly to developmental and environmental cues by utilizing WOX11-mediated and non-WOX11-mediated pathways, which converge on a common mechanism for primordium development involving LBD16.

Summary: Distributions of Hh:GFP expressed during a timed pulse, and of Hh:GFP, Ptc:mCherry and Smo:GFP expressed by BAC transgenes, reveal a basal route of Hh dispersion and Hh intracellular choreography in the Drosophila wing disc.

Summary: The conserved transcription factor Grh exhibits unexpected functional complexity as a regulator of epithelial morphogenesis, wound healing and immune responses.

Summary: Hes5 regulates the transition timing of neurogenesis and gliogenesis in mammalian neocortical development, as shown by alteration in Hmga1/2 expression in response to Hes5 overexpression and Hes5 knockout.

Summary: The position of vein L2 in the Drosophila wing is permanently and dynamically established through cross-interactions of Aristaless, Spalt mayor, Spalt-related and Optix, which modulate knirps expression.

Summary: RNA-seq and in situ studies of progenitor pools driving the morphogenesis of mammalian kidney epithelial networks highlight gene sets linked to kidney and cross-organ branching programs.