Issues

Summary: Cliff Tabin talks to us about his life in science and his excitement for the present and future of evo-devo research.

Summary: With first-in-human clinical trials using cells derived from both human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells on the horizon, this Spotlight reports on such stem cell-based therapies for Parkinson's disease.

Summary: This Review describes cellular and molecular mechanisms governing red blood cell development and regeneration, and potential links between these events and other regenerative processes.

Summary: This Review discusses recent progress in our understanding of mTOR signaling in stem and progenitor cells, highlighting the role of mTOR in self-renewal, differentiation, proliferation and fate determination.

Highlighted Article: Using human pluripotent stem cells, robust and reliable methods are described for large-scale production of purified human lens epithelial cells, and for subsequent large-scale generation of clinically relevant, light-focusing micro-lenses.

Summary: Non-canonical inhibitory Wnt signaling via Wnt5a fosters endothelial differentiation of Nkx2.5⁺ cardiac progenitor cells during mouse embryogenesis and human pluripotent stem cell differentiation.

Summary: Neural crest- and endoderm-derived parts of the middle ear epithelium have distinct patterns of proliferation and distribution of keratin 5 and Sox2 that may impact on response during inflammation.

Summary: Arabidopsis ERECTA-family receptor kinase genes coordinate stem cell behaviors between epidermal and internal layers of the shoot apical meristem by layer-specifically modulating outputs from the CLAVATA3-WUSCHEL and cytokinin pathways.

Summary: New deterministic and stochastic mathematical models are proposed to investigate adult neurogenesis in young, old and perturbed hippocampus, and quantified using population-level and clonal experimental data.

Summary: The spatiotemporal dynamics of ependymoglial maturation and neurogenic waves correlate with the emergence of feeding and locomotor activities in salamanders.

Summary: Sox2 plays a key role in incisor morphogenesis and renewal through initiating differentiation towards the enamel-secreting ameloblast fate, but is not required for establishing the dental epithelial stem cell niche.

Summary: White and beige adipocytes arise from distinct progenitor cell lineages. In both mice and humans, beige and white adipogenesis is induced by PDGFRα and PDGFRβ signaling, respectively.

Summary: The cortical hem, a telencephalic organizer that induces the hippocampus, is positionally restricted by the transcription factor FOXG1 acting directly and also by positively regulating LHX2.

Summary: Cell biological analyses in Arabidopsis show that the vegetative cell differentiates without the presence of the actual gametes, and is solely sufficient for pollen tube germination, guidance, ovule penetration and pollen tube discharge.

Summary: Modeling of Notch signaling when activated by more than one type of ligand suggests that ligands with different efficiencies can cooperate to drive new spatial coordination of cell signaling states.

Highlighted Article: Analysis of MZnanog maternal-zygotic mutant zebrafish embryos reveals that the stem cell transcription factor Nanog is involved in regulation of embryo morphogenesis, yolk cell cytoskeletal organization, and cell survival during gastrulation.

Highlighted Article: Detailed analyses of zebrafish nanog mutants, including tissue-specific rescue and chimera analysis, indicate that Nanog is necessary for yolk syncytial layer development but is not directly required for embryonic cell differentiation.

Summary: Ccdc39-deficient ependymal cells exhibit abundant short, thin cilia that are incapable of creating the rhythmic beating pattern necessary for cerebrospinal fluid flow in the perinatal mouse brain.

Highlighted Article: Comparison of the root patterning of Arabidopsis thaliana and Cardamine hirsuta reveals that species-specific cortical layering patterns are determined by the spatial distribution of microRNAs and their targets.

Summary: Radial migration of upper layer pyramidal neurons born at E15.5 is regulated by both BMP pathways, whereas establishment of neuronal polarity is mostly through Smad-dependent signaling, and dendritic maturation through LIMK-mediated signaling.

Summary: Genome-wide polysome profiling reveals that developmental progression through the maternal-to-zygotic transition in zebrafish depends on the precise translational activation of a subset of maternal mRNAs by cytoplasmic polyadenylation.

Summary: The Rb1-E2F1-caspase axis is examined using the rb1^smu8/smu8 zebrafish model, providing an intriguing link between tumour suppression and lymphatic system development.

Summary: Integrative analyses using Uhrf1^{ΔLimb/ΔLimb} mice and genome-wide sequencing reveal that Uhrf1 alters genome-wide DNA methylation status and, in turn, expression of specific genes, and is indispensable for normal limb growth.

Summary: Conditional inactivation of the cis-Golgin GMAP-210 reveals that the skeletal phenotype in achondrogenesis type-1A, which is caused by mutations in GMAP-210, is solely due to impaired protein trafficking by chondrocytes.

Summary: This study reports for the first time that, through repression of SetD5, neuronal miR-126-5p regulates angiogenesis in developing mouse retina by protecting endothelial cells from Sema3A-mediated apoptosis.

Summary: RNA-sequencing and genetic manipulation of Xenopus laevis PGCs reveal novel roles for sox7 and pou5f3.3 in PGC development and a high degree of conservation between the Xenopus and human PGC transcriptomes. 

Summary: Limb- and craniofacial mesenchyme-specific deletion of Gpr161 demonstrates an unexpected role played by cilia in limb/skeletal morphogenesis by basally repressing the sonic hedgehog pathway at times when sonic hedgehog is absent.

Summary: In Drosophila, Tra antagonizes the function of male-specific Fru (Fru^M) to prevent Fru^M-dependent cell death of a subset of female-specific motoneurons that control egg laying.

Summary: Cohesin contributes to dynamic changes in chromosome architecture that occur upon zygotic genome activation, raising the possibility that germline cohesinopathy mutations could lead to global alteration of the zygotic transcription program early in development.

Summary: Conditional inactivation of Asna1/TRC40 in pancreatic progenitor cells results in pancreatic agenesis resulting from pancreatic progenitor cell apoptosis, thus revealing a crucial role for Asna1/TRC40 in pancreatic progenitor cell survival.

Summary: We provide the first report of the transition of the neuronal transcriptome during metamorphic remodeling and further elucidate how Shep regulates transcription of its chromatin targets to regulate neuronal remodeling.

Summary: Genetic fate-mapping identifies the contribution of a Krox20-positive neural crest cell population during arterial valve development. An excess of these cells results in aortic valve defects, including bicuspid aortic valve – the most common heart disease.

Summary: Quantitative in situ hybridization chain reaction (qHCR) enables quantitative multidimensional analyses of developmental gene expression with subcellular resolution in an anatomical context.