Issues

Summary: This Meeting Review summarises the main themes and messages emerging from the virtual Keystone Symposia about ‘Metabolic decisions in development and disease’ on 24-25th March 2021.

Summary: This Review looks at the recent discoveries in the field of developmental lymphangiogenesis and discusses their implications for understanding the development of the lymphatic vasculature and the aetiology of lymphatic vascular diseases.

Summary: By integrating the most recent data from public transcriptomic datasets, this Review aims to expose the heterogeneity of Cajal-Retzius neurons in terms of ontogenetic origins, migration, functions and death dynamics.

Summary: Mathematical analysis of cell state trajectory networks demonstrates that self-renewing cell types must reside at the apex of every cell lineage hierarchy in homeostatic renewing tissues, and only there.

Summary: Secreted inhibitors associated with chondrogenic progression inhibit AER cell formation and restrict limb regeneration potential.

Summary: Ectopic kcnh2a underlies the classic longfin zebrafish mutant and links ion signaling within a growth-determining mesenchyme lineage to fin size control by tuning outgrowth periods rather than altering positional information.

Highlighted Article: Wild-type Arabidopsis form pedicel-supporting organs (cantils) in short photoperiods via delayed flowering and a discovered regulatory network comprising FLOWERING LOCUS T, ERECTA and the GPA1-AGB1-AGG3 heterotrimeric G protein complex subunits.

Summary: A positive-feedback loop between Ca²⁺ signaling and a histone modifier enhances gene expression in key larval neurons and drives larval-to-pupal transitions on a protein-deficient diet.

Summary: Tissue-level F-actin and myosin patterning during Drosophila gastrulation is regulated by overlapping transcriptional patterns and modulated by RhoA signaling. This pattern regulates fold curvature of the ventral furrow.

Summary:  RNA sequencing and proteomics analyses of Fsip2 transgenic mouse models reveal insights into the role of Fsip2 in sperm tail and acrosome formation, which may be crucial for fertility.

Summary: The fate of similar neurons that are derived from distinct lineages is controlled by distinct bHLH factors controlling the expression of terminal selectors.

Summary: The essential function of EWSR1, a commonly expressed gene, in the post-meiotic development of male germ cells leading to production of mature sperm.

Highlighted Article: The cell adhesion molecule NCAM-1 and its post-translational modification by polysialylation are required for normal formation and function of the specialized ventricular conduction system.

Highlighted Article: A Zic transcription factor has two recognition motifs that are not divergent versions of a single motif. These motifs activate different sets of targets in different cell lineages of ascidian embryos.

Highlighted Article: A fully rescuable, patient-based hypo-N-glycosylation ALG2 medaka model recapitulates the patient's multisystemic phenotypes, prominently in skeleton and neuronal tissue, allowing the cell type-specific impact of N-glycosylation to be investigated.

Summary: During the re-establishment of functional connectivity following nerve injury, the expression of UNC-40/DCC and UNC-6/Netrin is regulated in neuron and muscle, respectively, by the DAF-2-DAF-16 axis.

Summary: The developing cochlea comprises spatially and lineally distinct populations of epithelial and mesenchymal cells. This study shows the opposing effects of aberrant Wnt/β-catenin signaling on cell fates of cochlear epithelial and mesenchymal cells.

Summary: A CUT&RUN screen for in vivo Hox13-binding sites in the zebrafish tailbud reveals a highly conserved enhancer element necessary for NMp expression of brachyury and body axis elongation.

Summary: A complete set of seven zebrafish hox cluster loss-of-function alleles provides insights into the sub/neofunctionalization of vertebrate Hox clusters.