Issues

Summary: Anne Ferguson-Smith and Marisa Bartolomei look back at the life and career of Denise Barlow, a pioneer in genomic imprinting and epigenetics.

Summary: This Review re-evaluates the notion of Spemann's organizer as identified in amphibians, highlighting the spatiotemporal dispersion of equivalent elements in mouse and the key influence of responsiveness to organizer signals.

Summary: At the onset of hematopoiesis, regulation of RUNX1 dosage is crucial for the successful maturation of hemogenic endothelium and for both the initiation and completion of the endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition.

Summary: CTNNB1-mediated Wnt signaling maintains lung fate and suppresses gastrointestinal fate of mouse and human SOX9 progenitors, maintaining NKX2.1 and inhibiting SOX2 in a developmental stage-specific manner.

Summary: α-Catenin-regulated actomyosin organization couples signals from N-cadherin to Yap in an integrated mechanochemical signaling system to ultimately control cardiomyocyte proliferation in the newborn heart.

Summary: Following heart injury, zebrafish dusp6 mutants show increased cardiomyocyte proliferation and angiogenesis and early downregulation of fibrosis genes, indicating accelerated cardiac repair associated with enhanced signaling via PDGFR and Nrg1/Erbb2.

Summary: Stage-specific overexpression of GDNF in mouse spermatagonial stem cells blocks their differentiation and promotes self-renewal, rather than promoting their proliferation.

Highlighted Article: In addition to its role as a nuclear coactivator, a cytoplasmic mRNA-stabilizing function of Multiprotein bridging factor 1 may contribute to various types of stress defense, metabolic processes and neurogenesis in Drosophila.

Summary: Zebrafish prospective ectoderm cells lose responsiveness to Nodal between shield stage and 75% epiboly owing to embryo-wide degradation of maternally provided oep mRNA, at least partially mediated by an abundance of destabilizing codons.

Summary: Repressor and activator activities of Otx2 are regulated by phosphorylation, which may coordinate cell proliferation and differentiation in the neuroectoderm and eye formation in Xenopus.

Summary: Dynamic mechanical loading of joints, via muscle contraction, defines an indispensable permissive zone, which is deprived of BMP signaling and is essential for Wnt signaling-induced articular cartilage differentiation.

Highlighted Article: Drosophila Yorkie can sense physiological mechanical strain forces via the canonical Hippo pathway in different epithelial tissues.

Highlighted Article: During migration of mouse cerebellar neurons, microtubules dynamically bind to nesprins in the nuclear envelope via kinesin-1 and dynein, and induce sharpening, rotation and translocation of the nucleus independently of actin.

Summary: MpNEK1 regulates growth directionality in tip-growing rhizoids, the single-celled structures that mediate nutrient absorption and attachment to the substrate, through a mechanism that is evolutionarily conserved in land plants.

Highlighted Article: Loss of Pbx transcription factors in mouse embryos causes perturbation of epithelial cell plasticity in the facial prominences, resulting in clefting of the lip and primary palate.

Summary: Variation in interaction affinity between transcription factors of an ETTIN-containing complex underlies diversity of gynoecium style structure among members of the Brassicacea family.