Issues

Summary: This Review summarizes the roles of fibroblast growth factors in repair and regeneration of different tissues and organs and in different organisms, ranging from planarians to humans.

Summary: New technologies are emerging to allow studies of cortical development in diapsid (reptiles and birds) embryos that should address several key unresolved issues, including the fast evolution of the human cortex.

Summary: This Review presents current knowledge of the development of the sensory microdomains in mammalian skin and the mechanosensory neurons that innervate them.

Highlighted Article: Gene expression at the Drosophila midgut-hindgut boundary is a hybrid of both organs. Hybrid cells repress stem cell mitosis, but organ injury drives stem cell mitosis by interorgan STAT signaling.

Summary: Loss of vimentin leads to altered gene expression and impedes the growth of basal mammary epithelium, which might be of importance in developing therapeutic strategies against breast cancer.

Highlighted Article: African Zika virus MR-766 causes more cell death in NPCs and neurons in the developing brain, leading to more potent brain damage than Asian strain MEX1-44 and dengue virus.

Highlighted Article: Precursors of inhibitory interneurons receive an unprecedented early GABAergic and glutamatergic synaptic input while in transit through the cerebellar cortex that directs their mobility and directionality.

Summary: The transition of mouse male germ cells from mitosis to meiosis is regulated by β-TrCP-mediated degradation of DMRT1, a mechanism that arose after the evolutionary divergence of vertebrates from invertebrates.

Summary: Talin proteins regulate kidney collecting duct development through mechanisms that extend beyond those that require binding to the β1 integrin subunit NPxY motif in their cytoplasmic tail.

Summary: During Drosophila hematopoiesis, Graf promotes downregulation of EGFR through GEEC-mediated endocytosis to restrain Spitz-dependent plasmatocyte proliferation. Defective EGFR downregulation may contribute to the development of a subset of myeloid malignancies.

Summary: Characterization of a cell type-specific enhancer for the Wnt9b/β-catenin target gene Fam19a5 shows that Myc is necessary for activation of the β-catenin nephron progenitor cell renewal program.

Summary: Using constitutive or time-controlled depletion of PFKFB4 in Xenopus embryos, an essential role is identified for PFKFB4 and AKT signaling in formation of premigratory neural crest and its subsequent migration.