Issues

Summary: This Review discusses how crosstalk between different families of axon guidance receptors and cues functions during axonal navigation, highlighting recent studies that question the textbook model of axon guidance.

Summary: Lineage-tracing work in glioma and medulloblastoma reveals similarities between neuronal development and brain tumours, identifying potential new therapeutic avenues that exploit vulnerabilities in tumour growth patterns.

Highlighted Article: The Krüppel-like factors Klf2, Klf4 and Klf5 support self-renewal of mouse embryonic stem cells by activating Nanog, Tbx3 and Esrrb.

Summary: Histone deacetylases 1 and 2 perform redundant, sequential and essential roles in the balance of nephron progenitor cell self-renewal and differentiation, as well as in progression of nephrogenesis.

Highlighted Article: Notch3 signalling selectively controls neural stem cell stemness through the activity of the Hey1 transcription factor, independently of its molecular regulation of neural stem cell quiescence.

Summary: GSK-3 promotes CDK-2 transcription, which in turn maintains germline stem cell proliferation by establishing a short G1 phase and an efficient S phase, permitting the continuous proliferation of GSCs for gamete production.

Highlighted Article: Driving gene expression in different Arabidopsis root cell types demonstrates that the importance of the epidermis in regulating root growth is partly due to its role in auxin transport via sterol biosynthesis.

Summary: Specific immunoglobulin domain-containing isoforms of the basement membrane protein UNC-52/Perlecan act in concert with the basement membrane protein NID-1/Nidogen via UNC-6/Netrin signaling to promote secondary branching of PVD somatosensory dendrites.

Highlighted Article: Caudal, Dichaete and Odd-paired are likely to regulate pair-rule gene expression similarly in Drosophila and Tribolium, providing a simple mechanism for the evolutionary transition between short-germ and long-germ segmentation modes.

Highlighted Article: The intricate interplay between CLE-sensing pathways along the spatiotemporal gradient of protophloem formation involves the novel CLE-RESISTANT RECEPTOR KINASE gene.

Highlighted Article: Genetic lineage tracing and targeted gene disruption and gain of function identify a novel source of lymphatic endothelial progenitors that contribute to the formation of lymphatic vasculature in mouse skin.

Summary: Investigation of Wwtr1 in zebrafish heart development reveals its role in compact wall maturation and trabeculation, as well as in modulation of the cardiomyocyte actomyosin network and cell-cell junctions.

Summary: The cytoskeletal regulator Mid1ip1L is required in the early zebrafish embryo for F-actin dynamics and cortical contractions that modulate and facilitate germ plasm ribonucleoparticle aggregation.

Summary: During early cleavage stages, Nebel is required for calcium store enrichment at the furrow, with the reduced calcium release in nebel mutants disrupting the medial-to-distal enrichment of germ plasm RNPs and microtubule arrays.

Summary: Development of genetic tools in a close unicellular relative of animals, the filasterean Capsaspora owczarzaki, will open new opportunities for functional studies to understand the transition to animal multicellularity.

Summary: NvERTx is an online database, comprising several transcriptomic datasets and an annotated transcriptome assembly, for comparing gene expression during embryogenesis and whole-body regeneration in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis.