Issues

Summary: This Meeting Review discusses the research that was presented at the ‘Auxin 2016’ meeting, highlighting the latest advances in understanding auxin transport, metabolism and signaling.

Summary: This Review discusses the metabolic remodelling that occurs during the transitions between different states of pluripotency and commitment, both in vitro and in the early mammalian embryo.

Summary: This Review discusses the cellular, molecular and biomechanical mechanisms involved in neural tube closure, focusing on the most recent advances in the field.

Highlighted article: Jmjd2c is required for the proper assembly of mediator-cohesin complexes at lineage-specific enhancer regions and is essential for timely gene activation.

Highlighted article: Clonal expansion of p53+ cardiomyocytes is observed in neonatal heart, pre-adolescent and adult hearts, as well as in regenerating neonatal hearts subject to three different injury models.

Summary: R-spondin 1, a Wnt co-factor, regulates the expression of components of the parallel pathways Wnt16/DeltaC/DeltaD and Vegfa/Tgfβ1, required for specification of hematopoietic stem cells.

Summary: A unique transcriptional program that regulates the coordination of positional information and tissue differentiation in regenerating salamander limbs and tails .

Summary: Balanced expression of Nipped-A prevents hyperproliferation of intestinal stem cells in aged Drosophila midguts, identifying Nipped-A as a novel regulator of stem cell proliferation.

Summary: The level of ID4 expression distinguishes stem cells and immediate progenitors in mammalian spermatogonial cells, while downregulation of ID4 is required for transition between the functional states.

Summary: Optimised strategies and protocols enable a range of complex genetic manipulations directly in mouse and human neural stem cell lines.

Summary: Sequential P-cadherin repression in the primitive streak and the neural plate defines embryonic territories during early chick embryonic development.

Summary: Drosophila faint sausage (fas) encodes a subunit of the spliceosome activating Prp19 complex, which is essential for efficient pre-mRNA splicing.

Highlighted article: The protocadherin PAPC regulates the segmental de-adhesion of the somites in the developing chick embryo by promoting CDH2 (N-cadherin) endocytosis.

Summary: Evenly distributed Trunk protein and terminally localized Torso-like combine to promote spatially restricted dimerization and activation of the receptor tyrosine kinase Torso.

Summary: Two parallel sensory lines in medaka share a common origin and are composed of identical organs that are, nevertheless, generated through different morphogenetic programmes.

Summary: Selective repression of a neuronal isoform of ankyrin in epidermis depends on alternative polyadenylation at an intronic transcriptional termination site and is necessary for epidermal tissue integrity.

Summary: Time-lapse imaging of zebrafish lens epithelium reveals that cell division and cadherin-mediated adhesion regulate lens epithelial cell movement via modulation of epithelial tension.

Summary: Chromatin profiling identifies numerous putative transcriptional enhancers of genes important for sex determination and Sertoli development, and validate a novel enhancer upstream of Wt1.