Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Confocal image of a rat pre-implantation blastocyst at embryonic day 5 showing nuclear localisation of 5-methylcytosine (green), pan-cytokeratin (magenta) specific to the cytoskeleton of trophectoderm cells, and Hoechst (blue). See Research article by Kalisch-Smith et al. (dev172205).
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
INTERVIEW
REVIEWS
The maternal-to-zygotic transition revisited
Summary: The development of animal embryos is initially directed by maternal gene products. This Review discusses the mechanisms that underlie the handover of developmental control to the zygotic genome during the maternal-to-zygotic transition.
The endoderm: a divergent cell lineage with many commonalities
Summary: This Review discusses the mechanisms of early endoderm morphogenesis across different model organisms, highlighting a surprising number of conserved features, including cells undergoing an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, collective cell migration and mesenychymal-to-epithelial transitions.
STEM CELLS AND REGENERATION
Doublesex controls specification and maintenance of the gonad stem cell niches in Drosophila
Highlighted Article: Drosophila gonad stem cell niche development is directed to the male or female pathway by the sex-determination factor Doublesex via its downstream target bric a brac.
RESEARCH REPORTS
Kirrel2 is differentially required in populations of olfactory sensory neurons for the targeting of axons in the olfactory bulb
Summary: Loss-of-function analyses in mice demonstrate a role for Kirrel2 in the coalescence of OSN axons in the DII region of the olfactory bulb and suggest that Kirrel-independent mechanisms contribute to axonal coalescence in the DI region.
Genome-wide strategies reveal target genes of Npas4l associated with vascular development in zebrafish
Summary: Multiple genome-wide approaches reveal that Npas4l functions as a master regulator by directly inducing a group of transcription factor genes that are crucial for hematoendothelial specification.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
APETALA2 control of barley internode elongation
Summary: Regulation of reproductive stem elongation in barley by APETALA2 suggests a pivotal role for phase change repression of JA-associated responses to promote internode growth.
Sequence environment of BMP-dependent activating elements controls transcriptional responses to Dpp signaling in Drosophila
Highlighted Article: Reciprocal interactions between BMP-response elements and the cis-regulatory environment control Dpp-dependent transcriptional gene activation in developing Drosophila epithelia.
Periconceptional alcohol exposure causes female-specific perturbations to trophoblast differentiation and placental formation in the rat
Highlighted Article: Alcohol exposure in early pregnancy has sex-specific effects on placenta formation and function in the developing rat embryo.
A V0-ATPase-dependent apical trafficking pathway maintains the polarity of the intestinal absorptive membrane
Highlighted Article: V0-ATPase controls a late apical trafficking step involved in the maintenance of the apical absorptive intestinal membrane and its silencing phenocopies microvillus inclusion disease in C. elegans.
Physical and functional cell-matrix uncoupling in a developing tissue under tension
Highlighted Article: The independent behavior of extracellular matrix and cell monolayer of an epithelium under tension during Drosophila leg development highlights the interplay between tissue mechanics and cell-matrix coupling.
About us

Our publisher, The Company of Biologists, turns 100 this year. Read about the history of the Company and find out what Sarah Bray, our Chair of the Board of Directors, has to say.
Biologists @ 100 - join us in Liverpool in March 2025

We are excited to invite you to a unique scientific conference, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of The Company of Biologists, and bringing together our different communities. The conference will incorporate the Spring Meetings of the BSCB and the BSDB, the JEB Symposium Sensory Perception in a Changing World and a DMM programme on antimicrobial resistance. Find out more and register by 28 February 2025 to join us in March 2025 in Liverpool, UK.
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 15 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. We welcome proposals for ‘In preprints’ articles, so please do get in touch if you’d like to contribute.