Embryonic patterning is dependent on the establishment of the anteroposterior (AP) and dorsoventral axes early in development. In mammalian embryos, these axes are established by a breaking of symmetry in the epiblast, which involves signals from the extra-embryonic tissues. However, the molecular mechanisms that control this process are still not fully understood. On p. 3894, David Turner, Alfonso Martinez Arias and colleagues use gastruloids, three-dimensional aggregates of mouse embryonic stem cells, as a tool to unravel the signalling pathways that establish AP polarity in mammalian embryos. The authors demonstrate that these gastruloids can develop an AP axis in the absence of extra-embryonic tissue, instead depending on precisely timed interactions between Wnt and Nodal signalling. They also show that BMP signalling is dispensable for AP axis formation. This research demonstrates the powerful potential of gastruloids as a tool to understand the molecular mechanisms that underpin early embryonic development. Together, their results suggest that extra-embryonic tissues do not induce axis formation per se, but rather bias the critical symmetry-breaking event in embryo development, furthering our understanding of the molecular control of embryonic patterning.
Gastruloids: mimicking early embryonic polarisation in vitro
- Split-screen
- Views Icon Views
-
Article Versions Icon
Versions
- Version of Record 01 November 2017
- Share Icon Share
-
Tools Icon
Tools
- Search Site
Gastruloids: mimicking early embryonic polarisation in vitro. Development 1 November 2017; 144 (21): e2102. 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.