During blastocyst development, asymmetric cell divisions generate polar and apolar daughter cells, which organise into outer and inner positions, respectively, to form the trophectoderm (TE) and inner cell mass (ICM) lineages. The Hippo signaling pathway is crucial for setting up this early lineage specification, but how Hippo signaling relates to cell position and polarity remains unclear. In this issue (p. 2813), Yojiro Yamanaka and colleagues carefully analyze the initiation process of the first lineage specifications in the 16-cell mouse embryo. The authors count the number of polar/apolar cells and outer/inner cells in intact embryos and find that many apolar cells are located in outer positions with only one or two cells fully internalized. Notably, many of these outer apolar cells have high cytoplasmic phosphorylated YAP, an early marker for inner cells. Further analysis of isolated 8-cell blastomeres confirms that polar and apolar cells have intrinsic differences in the regulation of phosphorylated YAP prior to setting up the outer/inner configurations in the embryo. The authors suggest that polarity regulates the outer/inner cell positioning, as well as Hippo signaling, in order to activate TE and ICM lineage specification.
Polarisation mediates lineage specification
Polarisation mediates lineage specification. Development 15 July 2014; 141 (14): e1403. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.