Issues

Summary: This Review discusses key features of the spindle-orientating complex and reviews how this complex is regulated and localized to allow correct mitotic spindle orientation.

Summary: This Review highlights how synthetic biology-based approaches have been used to explore the principles underlying patterning, differentiation and morphogenesis during development.

Summary: Tendon enthesis progenitor cells are capable of healing enthesis injuries in immature mice, in a hedgehog pathway-dependent manner. This capacity is lost in mature animals.

Highlighted article: In the regenerating zebrafish fin, local Hedgehog signalling between basal epidermal cells and osteoblast progenitors controls ray branching and hence skeletal patterning.

Highlighted article: Notch/Delta signalling in Drosophila intestinal stem cells can result in asymmetric or symmetric outcomes, depending on the activation threshold - which depends on cell contact area.

Highlighted article: Arabidopsis lateral roots can be directly transdifferentiated to shoot identity by cytokinin treatment during a narrow time window of lateral root development.

Highlighted article: Multiple mechanisms induce quiescence of translation in sea urchin primordial germ cells, including Nanos2-mediated downregulation of eIF1A and a switch to glycolytic metabolism.

Highlighted article: Using 3D self-organizing culture techniques, thalamic progenitors can be induced from mouse embryonic stem cells, and show appropriate gene expression and axonal projection patterns.

Summary: Extinction of mouse embryonic stem cell identity upon differentiation immediately follows collapse of the naïve pluripotency transcription factor circuitry and precedes upregulation of lineage-specific factors.

Summary: In mice, bridging of paired MEF2C-bound MEF2 sites in a cardiac enhancer of the Prkaa2 gene by the transcriptional co-activator myocardin promotes cooperativity between the two homotypic elements.

Summary: Phosphorylations of the conserved serine cluster in the Drosophila E-Cadherin intracellular tail are quantitatively rather than site specifically required for its function in adherens junction formation.

Summary: Expression of the mouse T-box factor Eomes is controlled by a key gene-proximal enhancer-like element, with changes in chromatin accessibility influencing its activity in definitive endoderm.

Summary: In Drosophila, immature myofibrils are built simultaneously across an entire muscle fiber, and then self-organize in a manner dependent on spontaneous contractions and mechanical tension.

Summary: The C. elegans histone methyltransferase SET-4 acts to link environmental signals to diapause through regulation of the X-linked insulin-like peptide gene ins-9 in sensory neurons.

Summary: Genome-wide analysis of Wnt and BMP targets in the Xenopus gut endoderm reveals cooperation and crosstalk between these pathways through integration of Smad1 and β-catenin on cis-regulatory elements.

Summary: The transcription factor CDX2 functions in the trophectoderm of pig embryos to maintain polarity and integrity of the blastocyst, revealing further diversity in CDX2 activities across mammals.

Summary: Two patterns of calcium fluctuation in the Xenopus neural plate control epithelial folding, with extracellular ATP and N-cadherin also participating in calcium-induced apical constriction.

Summary: Systemic and tissue-specific depletion of patched 1 in epithelial and stromal compartments of the mammary gland defines functions in ductal patterning, proliferation and gene expression.

Summary: The FGF signaling pathway suppresses plasticity in the developing ventricle by promoting ventricular chamber characteristics and inhibiting atrial gene expression via Nkx factors.

Summary: In the short-germ beetle Tribolium, the terminal system regulates axis elongation. Among its targets, the piRNA regulator Maelstrom is crucial for growth-zone formation.

Summary: Using body axis elongation in Drosophila embryos as a model, novel image analysis and machine learning methods identify cell divisions oriented by mechanical cues to reduce strain.