Issues

Summary: This Primer provides an overview of functionalized protein binders that can be used to target and manipulate proteins, and highlights the recent application of such tools in developmental and synthetic biology.

Summary: This Review gives an overview of what is known regarding niche heterogeneity at distinct stages of HSC ontogeny, from embryonic life to the adult bone marrow.

Highlighted Article: A large-scale comparison of mouse and human placentae from early post-implantation to full term identifies species-specific regulatory networks of genes involved in early placental development.

Highlighted Article: Oxygen tension-dependent expression of placenta-specific protein 8 positively regulates trophoblast invasion and migration partially through upregulating the activation of Rac1 and Cdc42.

Highlighted Article: An allelic series of isogenic hESCs modeling Huntington's repeat expansions reveals nuclear, chromosomal and cytokinesis abnormalities in early development, phenocopying the HTT knockout and suggesting that a loss-of-function mechanism underlies the disease.

Summary: By using mutant mice to trace mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) origins, this work provides preliminary data needed for the safe and successful application of MSCs for clinical use.

Summary: The transcription factor chinmo acts as a master gene of neural stem cell self-renewal in the different regions of the developing Drosophila brain, where it is controlled by distinct regulatory strategies.

Summary: Runx1 expression in non-hemogenic endothelial cells promotes blood cell formation in ectopic sites in the mouse conceptus, but only if Runx1 is expressed before embryonic day 8.5.

Summary: A Ntn1 conditional knockout demonstrates that netrin 1 prevents pontine neurons and other classes of hindbrain commissural neurons from exiting the CNS through sensory nerve roots.

Summary: A new cardiac outflow component, the outflow hanging structure, is identified that originates from an anteriorly located subpopulation of Eve-expressing cells and stabilises spatial positioning of the cardiac outflow in late-stage Drosophila embryos.

Highlighted Article: Correct apical clustering of Cno, an essential cue for setting up the apical-basal polarity axis, is regulated by active Rap1 acting both through, and independently of, the Cno Rap1-binding domain.

Highlighted Article: GEF complex ELMO-Sponge, which redistributes from a disc-like to ring-like pattern during onset of cellularization, determines Cno accumulation independently of Scribbled and Slam to specify the subapical cortical domain, which emerges together with the basal and lateral domains.

Summary: The cooperative and specific roles of AP-2α and AP-2β in regulating homeobox gene expression during development of the mouse jaw has implications for vertebrate facial evolution and human craniofacial disorders.

Summary: Interaction studies demonstrate that Mms19 forms complexes with Xpd, thereby preventing Xpd-mediated repression of the mitotic kinase activity of the CAK complex and facilitating progression through mitosis.

Summary: SWR1-C component mutations demonstrate that H2A.Z promotes the expression of MIR156A and MIR156C in Arabidopsis early in shoot development, but is not responsible for the temporal expression pattern of these genes.

Summary: Embryonic mouse thyroid gland develops by branching morphogenesis stimulated by mesenchymal Fgf10 targeting Sox9⁺/Nkx2-1⁺ progenitors, in a mechanism reminiscent of ductal organ development and thyroid evolution from an exocrine forerunner.

Highlighted Article: W/RPRPamide-related tetrapeptides released from neural-type gonad ectoderm cells in response to light cues cause oocyte maturation and spawning in male and female hydrozoan jellyfish.

Summary: In embryos of the sea star Patiria miniata, Nodal is required for the progressive restriction of the germ cell factors Vasa and Nanos.

Summary: Unique protein motifs, subcellular localization and post-translational modification, rather than protein size, regulate the plasmodesmal transport of TMO7 family proteins during Arabidopsis root development.

Summary: The non-canonical, Abl-dependent axon-patterning function of Notch requires the same proteolytic activation as the canonical signaling, but also selectively requires tyrosine phosphorylation of the receptor.

Highlighted Article: The conditional ablation of Slit proteins and Robo receptors in precerebellar neurons and floor plate reveals that, in the mouse, the migration of hindbrain precerebellar neurons is independent of Slit and Robo signaling.

Summary: Analysis of Sox2 mutant mouse and Sox2 CRISPR-targeted chick embryos reveals that Sox2 controls the establishment of sensory progenitors in the olfactory epithelium by suppressing Bmp4 and upregulating Hes5 expression.

Summary: Chicken NFIA prevents hypertrophic differentiation in the interzone/articular region, whereas GATA3 activates articular cartilage-specific gene expression in concert with other transcription factors, possibly OSR1/2, c-JUN and Wnts.