Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: The zebrafish cardiac extracellular matrix, labelled by Tg(ubb:ssNcan-GFP) expression and surface rendered in 3D using Imaris. Colours mark the distinct cardiac regions: ventricle in purple, atrioventricular canal in yellow, and atrium in green. See Research article by Gentile et al. (dev202310).
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
EDITORIAL
INTERVIEWS
REVIEW
Exploring the reciprocity between pioneer factors and development
Summary: This Review discusses how pioneer transcription factors govern alterations in cell fate and how the cellular state impacts pioneer-factor binding and function.
STEM CELLS AND REGENERATION
BF170 hydrochloride enhances the emergence of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells
Summary: BF170 hydrochloride is identified as a novel inducer of HSPCs, and induces HSPC emergence via blood flow-cilia-Ca2+ signaling-Notch/NO signaling axis.
BET activity plays an essential role in control of stem cell attributes in Xenopus
Highlighted Article: BET-family epigenetic readers are essential regulators of the developmental potential of both pluripotent blastula and neural crest cells.
RESEARCH REPORT
Accelerated hermaphrodite maturation on male pheromones suggests a general principle of coordination between larval behavior and development
Highlighted Article: In larvae, foraging behavior and development are coordinated; male pheromones can modulate both, accelerating the onset of reproductive maturity in the opposite sex.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Evolutionary conservation of VSX2 super-enhancer modules in retinal development
Summary: Deleting individual super-enhancer modules in human embryonic stem cells can be used to study developmental stage- and cell type-specific effects of neurogenic transcription factors with complex expression patterns.
Caenorhabditis elegans germ granules accumulate hundreds of low translation mRNAs with no systematic preference for germ cell fate regulators
Highlighted Article: Germ granule-enriched RNA provides a structural, not functional, role in germ cell fate specification in C. elegans.
Mechanical forces remodel the cardiac extracellular matrix during zebrafish development
Summary: Mechanical forces regulate zebrafish cardiac extracellular matrix volume dynamics in a region-specific manner, an effect mediated at least in part by Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2b (Timp2b).
Cerebellar granular neuron progenitors exit their germinative niche via BarH-like1 activity mediated partly by inhibition of T-cell factor
Summary: An amphibian model for studying granular neuron development reveals that Barhl1 controls granular neuron progenitor exit from their germinative niche through T-cell factor inhibition and Hes gene repression.
Muscle cofilin alters neuromuscular junction postsynaptic development to strengthen functional neurotransmission
Summary: Cofilin regulates muscle postsynaptic actin organization, structural maintenance, glutamate receptor composition, and neuromuscular junction function in a Drosophila nemaline myopathy disease model.
Differential proliferation regulates multi-tissue morphogenesis during embryonic axial extension: integrating viscous modeling and experimental approaches
Summary: A 2D continuum mathematical model to explore multi-tissue coordination during morphogenesis highlighting the role of differential tissue proliferation and mechanical interactions in tissue shaping during axial extension.
DIS3 ribonuclease is essential for spermatogenesis and male fertility in mice
Summary: Conditional disruption of DIS3 causes severe impairment of early germline cell differentiation and subsequent failure of spermatogenesis through perturbation of RNA metabolism in male germ cells.
Llgl1 mediates timely epicardial emergence and establishment of an apical laminin sheath around the trabeculating cardiac ventricle
Summary: The polarity protein Llgl1 promotes timely deposition of laminin on the apical surface of the developing cardiac ventricle through regulating timing of epicardial colonisation in zebrafish.
Confinement promotes nematic alignment of spindle-shaped cells during Drosophila embryogenesis
Summary: Spindle-shaped amnioserosal cells display distinctive cell-cell adhesion, compressed tissue organization within a narrow strip of the embryo surface and nematic alignment due to confinement by surrounding tissue.
Insights into digit evolution from a fate map study of the forearm using Chameleon, a new transgenic chicken line
Summary: The widely held assumption that the ulna remains unchanged during limb evolution has overlooked the evidence that the gene regulatory networks involved are not static.
Reelin differentially shapes dendrite morphology of medial entorhinal cortical ocean and island cells
Summary: A reelin conditional knockout mouse reveals that reelin limits ocean cell and island cell dendritic overgrowth to ensure proper development of dendritic architecture, with a potential functional role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.
TECHNIQUES AND RESOURCES
BirthSeq, a new method to isolate and analyze dated cells in different vertebrates
Summary: BirthSeq allows the isolation and investigation of alive cells according to their birthdate, in any kind of tissue and vertebrate species.
CORRECTIONS
History of our journals
As our publisher, The Company of Biologists, turns 100 years old, read about Development’s journey and highlights from some its first issues, and explore the history of each of our sister journals: Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open.
Call for papers – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues. This issue will be coordinated by Guest Editors Meritxell Huch (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany) and Mansi Srivastava (Harvard University and Museum of Comparative Zoology, USA), working alongside our team of academic Editors. Submit your articles by 15 May 2025.
A case for broadening our view of mechanism in developmental biology
In this Perspective, B. Duygu Özpolat and colleagues survey researchers on their views on what it takes to infer mechanism in developmental biology. They examine what factors shape our idea of what we mean by ‘mechanism’ and suggest a path forward that embraces a broad outlook on the diversity of studies that advance knowledge in our field.
In preprints
Did you know that Development publishes perspectives on recent preprints? These articles help our readers navigate the ever-growing preprint literature. We welcome proposals for ‘In preprints’ articles, so please do get in touch if you’d like to contribute.
