Issues

Summary: In mouse, type II cadherins control the organization of motor neurons into pools by functional interaction with N-cadherin rather than via the implementation of an adhesive code.

Summary: This Development at a Glance article highlights how retinoic acid and its nuclear receptors regulate organ development, which may guide efforts for its use as a therapeutic agent to improve human health.

Summary: This Meeting Review reports on the main results presented 2nd SY-Stem Symposium held in March 2019.

Summary: This Review summarises key discoveries in the field of cell competition and outlines exciting future directions for this area of research.

Highlighted Article: Recruitment of the developmentally relevant mTOR pathway can facilitate regeneration of injured axons of human retinal neurons, which die in glaucoma leading to irreversible vision loss.

Summary: Astrocytes generated from hPSC-derived regional neural progenitors maintain their identity throughout their differentiation and exhibit differential gene expression and functions, suggesting developmental origins of astrocyte functional diversity.

Summary: nrp1a is required for zebrafish heart regeneration in response to cryoinjury by inducing wt1b to promote the revascularization, and the activation and migration of the epicardium.

Summary: The exocyst directly controls EGFR membrane trafficking, recycling and activation in Drosophila and human cells, and is required in the niche to promote germline stem cell differentiation by regulating EGFR signaling.

Highlighted Article: Mutation of an autoregulatory motif of che-1, a cell identity-specifying transcription factor, shows that autoregulation is required for both acquisition and maintenance of cellular identity in C. elegans.

Summary: PHF7 functions as both an epigenetic reader that recognizes H3K4me3/2 and an epigenetic writer that can mediate H2A ubiquitylation prior to histone-to-protamine exchange in mouse spermiogenesis.

Summary: Developmental roles are uncovered in rice for a family of transcription factors that mediate signaling using the hormone cytokinin, including roles in inflorescence branching, flower development and fertilization.

Summary: tfap2a functions in distal nephron development to control the progression of cells to a fully differentiated state. This fundamentally deepens our knowledge about the genetic control of kidney development.

Summary: Mon1 activity in a small subset of 137 neurons regulates ovary maturation, over a distance, by regulating activity of insulin-like peptides.

Summary: Mutating the PIP degron stabilizes Dacapo/p21^Cip1, making them strongly anti-proliferative. Yet stabilized Dacapo/p21^Cip1 trigger a major increase in Cyclin E levels.

Summary: Using aSHF-specific Hand2-deletion mice, a new function is revealed for HAND2 in mediating OFT epithelial maintenance and integrity in OFT morphogenesis during early heart development.

Summary: The lncRNA Hand2os1 locus critically controls the precise expression of its neighboring gene Hand2, thereby balancing cardiac lineages and expression programs that are essential for heart development and function.

Summary: Proepicardial cells emerge from the pericardial mesothelium through apical extrusion, a process that depends on BMP signaling and actomyosin rearrangements.

Summary: Distinct conformations for active and inactivated destruction complex, the central regulator in the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, are identified in vivo using bimolecular fluorescence complementation.

Summary: A novel role for Strip and Cka in JNK signalling is revealed in the Drosophila testis, using the jam mutant.

Summary: Using a novel dual lineage-tracing technology (Dre/RoxP and Cre/LoxP), differential activation of Ptf1a in the developing pancreas is revealed to potentially correlate with β-cell heterogeneity.

Summary: Using a combination of DamID-seq and CRISPR-Cas9, the evolutionary origin, chromatin-binding properties and biological function of Yap1b, a novel Yap family member with an atypical activation domain, are investigated.

Highlighted Article: Studies in gle4/osmpk6 rice mutants raise the possibility that the asymmetric zygotic division and cellular differentiation that lead to apical-basal polarity can be separately regulated.

Summary: The transcription factor SOX2 has a novel early role in promoting progenitor proliferation and in the growth and morphogenesis of the otocyst before its sensory-specific function during inner ear development.