Issues

Summary: Large-scale RNA turnover is a recurring feature of cell state transitions in development. In this Spotlight, we consider the roles of turnover in cell state destabilisation and in establishing the subsequent developmental stage.

Summary: This Meeting Review summarizes recent findings presented at the Jacques Monod Conference on ‘Growth and regeneration during development and aging’ in May 2023.

Summary: This Review summarizes recent insights into the development, evolution and diseases of the vertebrate head based on single-cell profiling of gene expression and regulatory elements across diverse craniofacial tissues.

Highlighted Article: An in vitro model of human inner ear organogenesis created using pluripotent stem cells and analyzed using single-cell RNA sequencing to generate the Inner ear Organoid Developmental Atlas (IODA).

Highlighted Article: iPSC-derived inner ear organoids differentiate otic cell types matching marker expression and developmental timing of the human embryonic inner ear.

Highlighted Article: An actin-based pathway allows nuclei to squeeze through narrow spaces as a normal part of development in C. elegans.

Summary: Unique and sequential functions of Pax3 and Pax7, in combination with Mitf, allow the diversification of pigment cell types in teleost.

Summary: Conditional deletion of Fgfr1 prevents formation of the posterior neuropore caudal closure site known as Closure 5, which delays spinal neural tube closure, and phenocopies the closed spinal dysraphism ‘terminal myelocystocele’ in mice.

Summary: Foxi3-expressing neural plate border mainly contributes to one ectodermal derivative: placodes. Foxi3-knockout neural plate border fate is less restricted, and those cells can contribute to all four ectodermal lineages.

Summary: Commissural axons leave the floor plate and turn rostral by a smooth transition from Robo to Wnt signaling. Cables1 links these pathways by transferring Abl kinase from Robo to β-catenin.

Summary: The RNA-binding protein PUF-8 is required for the highly reproducible and robust pattern of cell survival and cell death during C. elegans development.

Highlighted Article: Brain perivascular fibroblasts migrate from their origin in the meninges and proliferate locally to fully cover penetrating vessels during postnatal mouse development.

Summary: Chemokine-like Orion is involved in the transformation of glial cells into phagocytes in different developmental neuronal remodeling paradigms.

Summary: Analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana mutants reveals multiple connections between mRNA methylation (m⁶A) and auxin-dependent processes and highlights their role in root ground tissue development.

Highlighted Article: The endogenous distribution of a morphogen directly visualized for the first time in a living vertebrate species and studied to assess the importance of extracellular diffusion in its propagation.