Issues

Summary: This Review discusses how Activin/Nodal signalling controls the self-renewal and differentiation of stem cells during organ development and homeostasis.

Summary: This Review discusses melanocyte development and differentiation, melanocyte stem cells, and the role of the melanocyte lineage in diseases such as melanoma.

Highlighted article: Using two complementary approaches, human pluripotent stem cells are differentiated into hypothalamic neurons that regulate sleep, feeding behavior and metabolism.

Summary: The generation of enteroendocrine cells from stem cells in the adult Drosophila midgut occurs via a distinct progenitor stage and involves the transcription factor Prospero.

Summary: Molecular mapping, lineage tracing and genetic analyses provide insight into the mechanisms governing enteroendocrine cell diversity in the adult Drosphila gastrointestinal tract.

Summary: Epithelial cells of chick embryo somites exhibit filopodia-like protrusions that serve as transport conduits connecting them to the overlying surface ectoderm.

Highlighted article: The vascularization of limb interdigital regions leads to an increase in tissue oxygenation that, in turn, triggers ROS production and cell death during mouse limb development.

Highlighted article: In mice, obesity induces oocyte mitochondrial dysfunction that is transmitted to offspring but that can be reversed using interventions prior to conception.

Highlighted article: A new method for measuring tissue-scale force production is used to investigate the mechanical control of convergent extension in Xenopus embryos.

Highlighted article: Auxin-dependent cell specification during plant embryo development requires balanced and regulated auxin transport involving both influx and efflux machineries.

Summary: DIAGEOTROPICA modulates the localization of PIN proteins and is required for proper polar auxin transport, highlighting a new developmental role for this cyclophilin.

Summary: Components of the polycomb repressive complex 2 are expressed in neural crest cells and cooperate with Snail2 to modulate neural crest specification and migration.

Summary: The deletion of Pten reveals that Pten/Akt signaling coordinates BMP signaling and β-catenin to regulate the proliferation and differentiation of second heart field progenitors.

Summary: The characteristic eye loss seen in cavefish species occurs via different mechanisms, indicating that there are several ways to arrest the development and maintenance of an eye.

Summary: The transcription factor foxc1a is dispensable for trunk motor nerve guidance but is required to guide spinal nerves innervating the pectoral fins in zebrafish.

Summary: Jag1b differentially regulates FGF signaling, cell death and cell differentiation during the patterning of anterior and posterior cristae in the zebrafish inner ear.

Summary: UXT/ART27 is a novel repressor of Notch signaling that impairs the interaction between NICD and RBP-Jκ/CSL and is indispensable for zebrafish intersegmental vessel formation.

Summary: Cell populations expressing the transcription factors Scleraxis and Osterix are involved in the tensile force-induced remodeling of periodontal tissues in a position-specific manner.

Summary: α5 and αv integrins on neural-crest-derived vascular smooth muscle cells cooperate to control pharyngeal arch remodeling and are essential for heart and outflow tract septation.