Issues

Summary: This Primer article provides an overview of mitotic bookmarking processes in development and stem cells, highlighting how bookmarking factors can regulate cell identity and contribute to phenotypic flexibility and plasticity during development.

Summary: This Review summarizes the role of 3D chromatin architecture in organizing the regulatory genome and evaluates how its misfolding can lead to gene misexpression and disease.

Highlighted Article: Using laser capture microscopy, a comprehensive transcriptomic dataset of well-defined and distinct germ cell subtypes based on morphology and localization in the human testis is generated.

Summary: The H3K9 demethylase KDM3A enhances the chromatin binding of Neurog2 during neuronal transcription in Xenopus but is not required for Ascl1 to induce neuronal gene expression.

Summary: Using Zfp423 mouse mutants, this study raises the possibility that cerebellar hypoplasia in Joubert syndrome may stem, at least partially, from defective DNA repair and consequent cell cycle delay.

Summary: A quantitative fluorescent reporter-based platform is described for screening of complex human iPSC-derived retinal organoids, with a speed, sensitivity and reproducibility suitable for physiological assays and compound screening applications.

Highlighted Article: Klf5 regulates lineage segregation by repressing Fgf4-Fgfr-ERK signalling in E3.0-3.25 morula, which suppresses the Gata6⁺ primitive endoderm specification programme and ensures the emergence of Nanog⁺ naïve pluripotent cells.

Highlighted Article: A comprehensive analysis of rabbit preimplantation development reveals key differences between rabbit and mouse, with some aspects of lineage specification in rabbit more closely resembling that of human and primate embryos.

Highlighted Article: The miR-290 cluster plays multiple roles in placental development and function, and ultimately in embryonic survival, including regulating the mitotic division of trophoblast progenitors and endoreduplication of trophoblast giant cells.

Highlighted Article: Semaphorin signaling provides spatial information during pancreatic islet development, controlling outward radial migration of fetal islet cells similar to cortical lamination seen during neural development.

Summary: A novel translational regulatory mechanism is demonstrated for the vertebrate-specific germline RNA-binding protein Dnd1, which promotes nanos1 translation by directly interacting with the translational machinery and the mRNA itself.

Summary: Myosin II plays multiple roles in the cell morphology changes and cellular rearrangements, including radial intercalation, that drive remodeling of the prosensory domain during development of the mouse cochlea.

Summary: In vivo and in vitro knockdown studies reveal that PTPRB regulates branching morphogenesis in the mouse mammary epithelium by modulating the response of the FGFR signalling pathway to FGF stimulation.

Summary: Hypoacetylation of tubulin K40 by HDAC3 promotes the establishment of kinetochore-microtubule interactions, ensuring proper spindle morphology and accurate chromosome movement during oocyte maturation.

Summary: Lack of Sf1 SUMOylation and the genetic loss of Dax1 both cause extended activation of the fetal adrenoceptor enhancer of Sf1 and delayed regression of the postnatal fetal cortex (X-zone) in mouse adrenals.

Summary:TAF10 is important for the assembly of TFIID and SAGA complexes in the embryo but in its absence, global transcription is not affected in the presomitic mesoderm at E9.5.

Summary: Pax9-dependent Wnt signaling via Dkk1/2 expression in the posterior palatal mesenchyme enhances cell proliferation along the buccal-lingual axis, palatal shelf outgrowth and fusion.

Summary: Plk1-mediated phosphorylation at the coiled-coil domain targets CIP2A to the microtubule organizing center, where it acts independently of PP2A in spindle assembly during meiotic maturation of mouse oocytes.

Summary: Caspase-activity sensors derived from GFP, Venus and Cerulean fluorophores reveal apoptotic cell dynamics throughout the whole apoptotic process within fixed and living Drosophila tissues.