Issues

Summary: This Spotlight presents a working framework for the establishment of the Human Developmental Cell Atlas (HDCA), highlighting potential applications but also challenges in gathering, processing, integrating, interpreting and accessing the data.

Summary: This Review discusses our current understanding of phyllotaxis and the classes of models proposed to explain the roles of auxin and its efflux carrier PIN1 in determining cell polarity patterns in the Arabidopsis shoot.

Highlighted Article: A comprehensive analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data from human pre-implantation embryos resolves cell-type ambiguities and defines consensus transcriptomes for emergent embryonic lineages.

Highlighted Article: In Drosophila, the robustness of stem cell niche assembly is safeguarded via a dual mechanism of Notch activation. Cellular Notch status can be reprogrammed by miR-125, which spatiotemporally coordinates paracrine and endocrine signaling.

Summary: In addition to its role in neuroblast maturation and differentiation, NFIX is shown to suppress the expression of oligodendrocyte-associated genes within the adult mouse hippocampus.

Summary: In Drosophila ovaries, anterior escort cells, maintained by Wnt signaling, form a crucial component of the stem cell niche by promoting BMP signaling and anchoring GSCs through DE-cadherin-based junctions.

Highlighted Article: Previously unrecognized roles of platelets and lymphatic vessels during developmental vascular remodeling are revealed, providing mechanistic insight into how vascular abnormalities characterized by blood-filled lymphatic vessels arise.

Highlighted Article: In Arabidopsis, non-cell-autonomous ABA signalling mediated by miR165 determines root vascular patterning and xylem morphology under both normal and water-limiting conditions, revealing employment of core developmental factors in the environmental response.

Summary: The formation of trichomes on the reproductive floral organs of Arabidopsis is suppressed by an interplay of floral organ identity factors and components of the genetic program for leaf development.

Highlighted Article: In Drosophila brain lobes, Notch and the mitosis-activating phosphatase String regulate the switch of subperineurial glia from endocycle to endomitosis during larval development, with endomitotic cells attaining increased ploidy and size.

Summary: Pancreatic endocrine cells extend previously unrecognized dynamic, flexible, fine projections to guide clustering into a compacted islet in a process regulated by PI3K and GPCR.

Summary: By analyzing Tnt1 insertion mutants for MtTFL1, MtFULc, SGL1 and MtAP1, the genetic relationship between these genes and compound inflorescence development in the model legume species M. truncatula is revealed.

Summary: Arabidopsis gtl1 df1 double mutants and tissue-specific overexpression of GTL1 and DF1 demonstrate that both GTL1 and DF1 negatively regulate root hair growth by directly repressing RSL4.

Highlighted Article: The mutation in the PMA mouse model of human clubfoot was mapped and a candidate gene, Limk1, identified that was shown to cause sciatic nerve and limb abnormalities when overexpressed.

Summary: Nkx genes play key functions in secondary heart field cardiomyocyte differentiation in zebrafish and shed light on the mechanisms underlying heart malformations and conduction defects in individuals carrying NKX2-5 mutations.

Summary: Drosophila Sidekick has a conserved function in visual motion detection, but in contrast to vertebrates, it acts in a single cell type rather than mediating recognition of synaptic partners.

Summary: Loss of the Ret receptor tyrosine kinase causes larval feeding defects associated with abnormal axon innervation and defective peristalsis of the midgut.

Summary: RBX2, a core component of the E3 ubiquitin ligase CRL5, provides a key mechanism to maintain proper retinal cell position and cone function in mouse.

Summary: Gli3 activity in thymic epithelial cells promotes maturation from CD4⁺ CD8⁺ to CD4⁺ CD8⁻ thymocyte by reducing Shh, which signals to reduce T-cell receptor-mediated transcription during repertoire selection in mouse fetal thymus.