Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Confocal micrograph of a Drosophila melanogaster third instar larval brain. GFP (green) marks the expression pattern of ey-Gal4 and is mainly detected in the optic lobes. The glial marker Repo is shown in red, whereas blue depicts nuclei stained with DAPI. See Research article by Fernández-Espartero et al. (dev162156).
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT
INTERVIEW
SPOTLIGHT
Exploring landscapes of brain morphogenesis with organoids
Summary: This Spotlight summarizes the themes that emerged from a recent workshop organized by The Company of Biologists on ‘Thinking beyond the dish: taking in vitro neural differentiation to the next level’, highlighting the limitations and potential applications of organoid-based technologies.
REVIEW
Left-right asymmetry in heart development and disease: forming the right loop
Summary: This Review compares mechanisms underlying asymmetric heart morphogenesis and the dynamics thereof in fish, chick and mouse, relating them to clinical presentations and providing an evolutionary perspective.
STEM CELLS AND REGENERATION
Comparative genomic analysis of embryonic, lineage-converted and stem cell-derived motor neurons
Highlighted Article: Motor neurons made by stem cell differentiation and lineage conversion are highly similar to their primary counterparts, yet carry distinct differences that can impact their utility in translational studies.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Distinct cis-acting elements mediate targeting and clustering of Drosophila polar granule mRNAs
Summary: The accumulation of Drosophila germline mRNAs within polar granules is controlled by complex 3′UTR localization signals with distinct sub-elements that target mRNAs to the granules and promote mRNA clustering within them.
The Hippo pathway effector Taz is required for cell morphogenesis and fertilization in zebrafish
Highlighted Article: The Hippo pathway effector Taz is required for the formation of the micropylar cell, a unique enlarged follicle cell in the ovary, and is essential for fertilization in zebrafish.
The Ric-8A/Gα13/FAK signalling cascade controls focal adhesion formation during neural crest cell migration in Xenopus
Summary: Ric-8A-mediated Gα13 signalling, through Src and FAK, organizes the cortical actin cytoskeleton, and regulates focal adhesion properties and protrusion formation in Xenopus.
Hey2 regulates the size of the cardiac progenitor pool during vertebrate heart development
Summary: Hey2 controls the proliferative capacity of zebrafish cardiac progenitors, affecting the subsequent contribution of late-differentiating cardiac progenitors to the developing vertebrate heart, and ensuring a proper and timely growth of the heart.
N-linked glycosylation restricts the function of Short gastrulation to bind and shuttle BMPs
Summary: Altering the Short gastrulation glycosylation status could add great diversity to its function in regulating the pattern of bone morphogenetic protein activity in cells, wings and embryos during Drosophila development.
Basal epithelial tissue folding is mediated by differential regulation of microtubules
Summary: Examination of cell shape changes during zebrafish neuroepithelium tissue folding reveals that Wnt5b specifically regulates basal anisotropic cell shape via a microtubule-dependent mechanism, likely involving JNK signaling.
TWE-PRIL reverse signalling suppresses sympathetic axon growth and tissue innervation
Summary: In vivo and in vitro studies of superior cervical ganglion neurons of April−/− mice reveal that TWE-PRIL is a physiological regulator of NGF-promoted sympathetic axon growth, acting as a reverse signalling receptor.
Hedgehog signaling regulates cell motility and optic fissure and stalk formation during vertebrate eye morphogenesis
Summary: Multidimensional imaging of ptch2 mutant zebrafish uncovers a role for the Hh signaling pathway in regulating the cell and tissue dynamics underlying early eye morphogenesis.
Inhibition of cell fate repressors secures the differentiation of the touch receptor neurons of Caenorhabditis elegans
Summary: ZAG-1, a ZEB family transcription factor, safeguards fate specification of C. elegans touch receptor neurons by inhibiting a TEA domain-containing repressor, revealing its role in neuronal fate choice.
Vangl2-dependent regulation of membrane protrusions and directed migration requires a fibronectin extracellular matrix
Summary: The extracellular matrix protein fibronectin plays an important role in membrane protrusion formation and polarization in migrating gastrula cells, interacting with the planar cell polarity protein Vangl2.
Prp8 regulates oncogene-induced hyperplastic growth in Drosophila
Summary: Prp8 has been identified as a modulator of oncogenic growth in multiple Drosophila cancer models, which suggests the spliceosome as a potential context-dependent target in cancers.
TECHNIQUES AND RESOURCES
ROSA26 reporter mouse lines and image analyses reveal distinct region-specific cell behaviors in the visceral endoderm
Summary: Cell lineage analysis and live imaging reveals distinct region-specific cell behaviors in the visceral endoderm of mouse embryos during peri-implantation stages.
Interviews with Biologists @ 100 conference speakers

Explore our interviews with keynote speakers from the Biologists @ 100 conference, hosted to celebrate our publisher’s 100th anniversary, where we discuss climate change and biodiversity with Hans-Otto Pörtner and Jane Francis, health and disease with Charles Swanton and Sadaf Farooqi, and emerging technologies with Manu Prakash and Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz.
Call for papers – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues

Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues. This issue will be coordinated by Guest Editors Meritxell Huch (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany) and Mansi Srivastava (Harvard University and Museum of Comparative Zoology, USA), working alongside our team of academic Editors. Submit your articles by 30 May 2025.
A case for broadening our view of mechanism in developmental biology

In this Perspective, B. Duygu Özpolat and colleagues survey researchers on their views on what it takes to infer mechanism in developmental biology. They examine what factors shape our idea of what we mean by ‘mechanism’ and suggest a path forward that embraces a broad outlook on the diversity of studies that advance knowledge in our field.
In preprints
Did you know that Development publishes perspectives on recent preprints? These articles help our readers navigate the ever-growing preprint literature. Together with our preprint highlights service, preLights, these perspectives help our readers navigate the ever-growing preprint literature. We welcome proposals for ‘In preprints’ articles, so please do get in touch if you’d like to contribute.
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