Issues

Summary: This Primer provides an overview of planarians as a model system for studying regeneration, highlighting the tools and techniques available for examining planaria and discussing how the study of planarians can help address broader questions about regenerative mechanisms.

Summary: This Primer gives an overview of the history of human IVF, highlighting how basic research in developmental biology both influenced and benefitted from this process.

Summary: In this Primer, we introduce and review the three mammalian RUNX genes, RUNX1, RUNX2 and RUNX3, and discuss the regulation of their activities and their mechanisms of action.

Summary: Inner ear organoids from pluripotent stem cells and tissue-specific progenitors provide new tools to validate drug-based therapies, gene-targeting approaches and cell replacement strategies for hearing loss.

Highlighted Article: Comparative analysis of human gastruloids along with recording of cell migrations enables the piecing together of part of a rudimentary fate map for the human primitive streak.

Highlighted Article: The pluripotency marker SOX2 is not initially regulated by OCT4 and NANOG, but by HIPPO pathway members during the first 2 days of mouse embryogenesis.

Highlighted Article: Differences in miRNA expression in Müller glia and retinal progenitor cells account for the dissimilarities in their neurogenic potential. Such differences could be manipulated to reprogram MG for retinal regeneration.

Highlighted Article: The rapid growth of Drosophila larvae is dependent on the coordinated activity of lactate dehydrogenase and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 1, a metabolic relationship that is also observed in human cancer cells.

Highlighted Article: Apical hook formation is a result of a tight root-to-hypocotyl communication pathway, whereby the initial stimulus originates from the root-bending response and is transmitted to and perceived in the hypocotyl.

Summary: A novel G-protein-coupled receptor is involved in the regulation of dorsal-ventral pattern formation in the neural tube.

Summary: Despite the broad conservation of segmentation in insects, the regulatory genes underlying this process in Drosophila have different roles in the hemipteran Oncopeltus fasciatus.

Summary: Mutation of Tshz1 in mice impairs the development of hypoglossal and phrenic motor neurons, leading to severe breathing and feeding problems that are ultimately lethal.

Summary: The Drosophila follicle epithelium uses strategies of relaxation and contractility at adherens junctions to balance cell and tissue shape with germline growth and curvature.

Summary: The PCP effector Combover is required for the process of separation and ensheathment of interconnected spermatids, likely by coordinating the actin-based individualization machinery with the axonemes.

Summary: A non-cell autonomous, miRNA-dependent mechanism by which the ABA-dependent drought stress response regulates the development of xylem and lateral roots, helping roots to adapt to water availability.

Summary: Single-cell transcriptomics of early-born retinal neurons unveil cell cycle dynamics, differentiation waves for photoreceptors and RGCs, spatial position and new candidate genes for circuit formation with special emphasis on ipsilaterally projecting RGCs.