Issues

Summary: This Primer summarizes the emerging roles of reactive oxygen species and redox-dependent mechanisms in plant growth and development, highlighting interactions with phytohormonal networks.

Summary: Dynamic regulation of stem cell fate is required for tissue homeostasis and repair. The stem cell niche integrates local and systemic signals to adjust stem cell behavior to changing needs of the tissue.

Highlighted Article: HDAC activity is essential for the pluripotency of naïve blastula cells and formation of neural crest stem cells, and increasing HDAC activity enhances reprogramming to a neural crest state.

Summary: Dynamic cytoplasmic projections connect mammalian spermatogonia and provide patent connections for the sharing of macromolecules during testis development.

Summary: During development, cells react to growth signals by division or growth and polyploidy. In the Drosophila blood-brain barrier, this differential response is controlled by the N-end rule pathway component Öbek.

Summary: The BMP and IHH signaling pathways play a role in normal postnatal enthesis maturation. Misregulation of these pathways contributes to the development of enthesopathy in X-linked hypophosphatemia.

Summary: In the developing retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE), Pax6 inhibits Sox9 expression and thereby regulates RPE-choroid differentiation. Their mutation causes choroid pathology and implicates novel secreted factors as involved in blinding diseases.

Summary: In cephalochordates (amphioxus), the late gastrula/early neurula stage is critical for the specification of future gill slits; Nodal signaling establishes their left-right position and Hh, downstream of Nodal, regulates Gli to mediate gill slit penetration.

Summary: This study, showing that retinoic acid regulates salivary gland initiation, is the first to identify a molecular signal directing transition of naïve oral epithelium toward salivary gland identity.

Summary: Developmental regulation of the articular cartilage volume is poorly understood. Here, we provide evidence that Erk signaling during synovial joint development determines articular cartilage thickness in adult mice.

Highlighted Article: Loss of the transcription factor Ey/Pax6 leads to failure of the morphogenetic furrow to initiate and pattern the Drosophila retina, providing an unexpected explanation for why eyeless mutants lack eyes.