Issues

Summary: This Development at a Glance article highlights the conserved and divergent mechanisms that are used to construct branched tissues.

Summary: This Review discusses our current understanding of how the extracellular matrix helps guide developing tissues by influencing cell adhesion, migration, shape and differentiation, emphasizing the biophysical cues it provides.

Summary: In vivo studies in chick reveal that NF-κB plays significant roles in regulating glial reactivity, neuronal survival and the reprogramming of Müller glia into proliferating Müller glia progenitor cells.

Summary: Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A3, a conserved molecule that maintains the chromosome organization in mitotic neural progenitors, is required for proper neurogenesis of early born cortical neurons.

Summary: R-spondin 2 signals through the thrombospondin type 1 domain to inhibit the FGF pathway during mesoderm development in Xenopus embryos.

Summary: Ascl1 and Neurog3 are required to specify glutamatergic neurotransmitter phenotype and specification of subdomain subtypes of ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus neurons.

Highlighted Article: Knockout of any one of 19 different mitochondrial ribosomal protein genes results in failure to initiate gastrulation, suggesting that distinct energy systems are crucial at specific times during mammalian development.

Summary: Loss- and gain-of-function, and floor plate deletions, reveal that Shh that transits through the sclerotome is presented to the neuroepithelium from its basal aspect to affect motoneuron development.

Summary: The transcription factor Zeb2 uses distinct molecular subdomains to regulate olfactory bulb interneuron generation and maturation from the young postnatal ventricular-subventricular zone in mice.

Summary: Trio functions in protrusion formation of neural rest cells by interacting with Dishevelled upstream of Rac1, a finding contributing to a better understanding of cell migration and invasion in a variety of diseases.

Highlighted Article: An optimized approach to developmental arrest of third instar Drosophila larvae offers new insights into the mechanisms of synaptic growth, function, homeostatic plasticity and neurodegeneration at a model glutamatergic synapse.

Summary: A complex relationship of synergistic and antagonistic activities exists between REV and MAX2 that appear to depend on the developmental context and do not all involve the direct regulation of MAX2 by REV.

Summary: Live imaging and genetic ablation experiments reveal the regulation of blood flow in early developing zebrafish cerebral vessels, and the role of pericytes and vascular smooth muscle cells in response to stimuli.

Summary: This study presents a collection of four mouse lines and genetic tools for mis-expression-mediated manipulation of cellular activity with high spatiotemporal control, in a reversible manner.