Issues

Summary: This Development at a Glance article gives an overview of the structure, function and regulation of the PIN and PILS families of auxin transport facilitators.

Summary: This Review summarizes the precise molecular mechanisms regulating mammalian gamete recognition and fusion, and the block to polyspermy that ensures monospermic fertilization, which is essential for successful embryo development.

Summary: This Review summarizes the development of fetal immune cells that occurs before and after the appearance of the first bona fide hematopoietic stem cell in the embryo, and the possibility that certain tissue-resident immune cells in adults develop through an alternative pathway.

Summary: Wound-induced polyploidization in the Drosophila epithelium is dependent on Myc and enables tissue repair in the presence of DNA damage when cell division is not a viable option.

Summary: Mammalian Dmrt factors orchestrate the development of the dorsal telencephalon, a primordium of the cerebral cortex, via dose-dependent suppression of developmental patterning factors such as Pax6 and Gsx2.

Summary: During epithelia morphogenesis in Drosophila, the Rho-GTPase Cdc42 confers apical identity, Par-complex assembly and Crb accumulation to promote epithelial morphogenesis.

Highlighted Article: FGF and Wnt combinatorially regulate downstream genes, but differences in chromatin binding patterns of β-catenin and Ets may explain the differences in downstream target gene expression patterns.

Summary: An shRNA depletion strategy has uncovered the role of Dlc in the dimerization of Egl, further revealing a step-wise assembly pathway for building a localization-competent mRNP.

Summary: A cell-targeted genetic approach has revealed a previously unrecognized role of the PDGFA/PDGFRa axis, mediated through a complex and interdependent cross regulatory network of multiple signaling pathways that converge to regulate postnatal alveologenesis.

Highlighted Article: Measuring the direct range of action of the Wg gradient reveals that Wg morphogen signaling in the growing epithelia is regulated by both long-range gradient-dependent and gradient-independent mechanisms.

Summary: FGF signaling is essential in establishing the graded transitional tissue of the tendon-bone attachment unit by regulating cell fate decisions and the development of Scx⁺/Sox9⁺ cells.