Issues

Summary: This Review provides an update on the different in vitro models for the developing NMJ, focusing on the recent findings in humanized in vitro models, and their promises and challenges.

Summary: This Review highlights recent findings that have furthered our understanding of key regulatory features that govern epidermal stem cell function during development and homeostasis.

Summary: In this Review, we outline the various stages of mammary gland development in the mouse, with a particular focus on lineage specification.

Summary: We address the gap in knowledge regarding neural tube defects by describing a detailed mechanism of how an intracellular trafficking defect results in disrupted development of the mammalian neural tube.

Highlighted Article: β-Catenin is repurposed from pro-proliferative to protective functions in cardiomyocytes during postnatal heart development.

Highlighted Article: Analyses of Hox transcription factor (TF) DNA-binding and regulatory activity demonstrates that the ability of mammalian posterior Hox TFs to bind to previously inaccessible chromatin is the predominant force driving their patterning diversification.

Summary: Notch/Hes overactivation causes neural stem cell tumours in Drosophila by repressing a cohort of anti-stemness transcription factor genes.

Highlighted Article: Sponge regeneration is as dynamic as embryogenesis and can be explored to study the genetic features underlying the evolution of multicellularity and regeneration.

Summary: Hif3α directly regulates gata1 expression to modulate erythropoiesis, which enhances zebrafish hypoxia tolerance.

Summary: The zinc-finger protein 423, a transcription factor and protein-protein interaction hub, is identified as a master gene in hindbrain choroid plexus patterning and multiciliogenesis.

Summary: A systemic investigation of ontogenesis of the tear drainage system, highlighting the PCP component Prickle1 as being essential for tear duct elongation through control of polarized basement membrane secretion and deposition.

Summary: Amh controls gametogenesis in zebrafish by inhibiting gonadotropin stimulation of germ cell proliferation but promoting its action on germ cell differentiation.

Summary: PLP-1, the C. elegans ortholog of the conserved Pur-alpha proteins, functions downstream of small RNA biogenesis during initiation of gene silencing in the germ line.

Summary: NHR-23, a well-characterized regulator of C. elegans molting, is identified as a critical regulator of spermatogenesis in both hermaphrodite and male animals.

Summary: This study investigates the molecular keys that regulate the disintegration of the prothoracic gland during insect metamorphosis, after adulthood is reached.

Highlighted Article: The Hox13 genes are shown to have a novel crucial role in ensuring development of the posterior body in zebrafish through sustaining the tailbud-derived bipotential neuromesodermal progenitors.

Highlighted Article: Transplanted blastomeres from distantly related teleost fish form an ectopic retina in the host that develops using the dynamics of the donor species.

Summary: The two classes of vestibular hair cell are established during embryogenesis and are readily distinguished from each other by Fgf8 expression shortly after terminal mitosis.

Summary: The key apical polarity protein MPP5a interacts with small GTPase Rab11 to guide synergistically apical polarization and zonula adherens formation in epithelial cells.

Highlighted Article: β1 Integrin is pivotal for PCP establishment and convergent extension of the early developing notochord, which is crucial for its structural integrity and positioning, for nucleus pulposus development and vertebral alignment.

Summary: Hedgehog produced by the wing imaginal disc regulates cell type-specific responses in three discreet target tissues: wing disc, myoblast and tracheal cells.

Summary: Activation of Hippo signaling induces cell extrusion in the Drosophila wing epithelia, in which bantam mediates basal cell extrusion and Ets21c mediates apical cell extrusion.

Summary: An important mechanism exists in MGE progenitors through which broadly expressed transcriptional regulators can have important context-specific functions by directly controlling lineage-specific transcriptional programs.

Highlighted Article: An investigation of the function of Drosophila male germline ring canals and fusomes during spermatogenesis, documenting protein movement through ring canals and determining that fusomes are largely dispensable for male fertility.

Summary: The transcription factor Pointed regulates the posterior determinant Midline; it is sufficient to repress BMP signaling and to abrogate all cell morphogenesis in the anterior follicular epithelium.

Summary: This study demonstrates that Arp2/3-dependent branched actin assembly is indispensable for melanoblasts populating the skin of the developing mouse embryo.

Summary: A fluorescent antisense probe and the inactive form of Staphylococcus epidermidis Mini-III RNase with a fluorescent tag may be used together to visualize endogenous mRNAs in zebrafish embryos.