Issues

Summary: Neurodevelopmental biologist Paola Arlotta discusses her research and career, as well as her recent efforts to support women in science.

Summary: This Meeting Review summarises the findings presented at the 2016 Weinstein Cardiovascular Development Conference, highlighting the range of research currently being applied to study human cardiac diseases.

Summary: Post-transcriptional modifications regulate stem cell functions in development and adult tissues by co-ordinating the availability and sequence of transcripts that maintain the cell type-specific proteome.

Summary: This Review discusses the known biological functions of mammalian lncRNAs and highlights emerging paradigms of their modes of action.

Highlighted article: Intrinsic mechanisms involving the spatiotemporal regulation of canonical Wnt and BMP signals play a role in setting up DV polarity in mouse ESC-derived optic cups.

Summary: Notch is necessary and sufficient for downregulation of Six2 during nephrogenesis, while nephron progenitors that lack Notch signaling fail to form all segments of the nephron, not just proximal tubules.

Summary: Proper differentiation of somatic cyst stem cells as they move away from their niche requires an increase in PI3K/Tor signaling, downstream of Insulin receptor activation.

Summary: In the mouse cochlea, LGN and Gai guide planar polarity in hair cells and are essential for stereocilia elongation, the staircase pattern of the hair bundle and hearing.

Highlighted article: Collagen I is deposited by osteoblasts onto endothelial cells within bone and serves as a template for mineralisation, with ossification thus spatially and temporally following vascular patterning.

Highlighted article: Rusc proteins are identified as novel components of the vertebrate Hedgehog pathway that bind Sufu and prevent the signaling-induced dissociation of Sufu and Gli.

Highlighted article: Global deletion of MMP14 or MMP15 has no significant effect on mammary gland branching but uncovers unexpected and differential roles for these MMPs in adipose development in mice.

Highlighted article: Tissue-clearing and imaging of intact human embryos reveals previously unprecedented GnRH neuron target sites and routes of migration into the brain.

Highlighted article: A model for how cytokinin inhibits Arabidopsis root cell elongation, working in concert with the hormones auxin and ethylene, is put forward.

Summary: The LIM homeodomain transcription factor Lhx2 regulates FGF3, FGF9 and FGF15 and is essential for lens cell proliferation, survival and differentiation in mice.

Summary: Forced activation of Wnt signaling in the sensory domain of the developing cochlea impacts radial patterning and downstream gene expression in a spatiotemporal manner.

Summary: Tril is a Gata2 target gene that triggers degradation of Smad7 protein during gastrulation, allowing for robust transduction of Bmp signals to enable the commitment of mesoderm to a blood fate.

Summary: SHH signaling within both the neural crest and endoderm influences thymus and parathyroid cell fate establishment and subsequent organogenesis.

Summary: The serine/threonine kinase ATR prevents chromosome fragmentation during postnatal cerebellar neurogenesis in mice, suggesting that ATR dependence may be exploited for medulloblastoma therapy.

Summary: The boron competitor phenylboronic acid differentially affects membrane proteins and interrupts the auxin signalling pathway, leading to perturbed embryonic root development in Arabidopsis.

Summary: Arabidopsis NAC transcription factors BRN1 and BRN2 are specifically expressed in the outer root cap layer and activate genes associated with its cellular functions.

Summary: A synthetic genetic system is used to monitor cell-cell contacts in animals, to genetically manipulate interacting cells, and to investigate the connectivity of neurons in brain circuits.

Summary: Light is used to modulate the timing of mitogen-activated protein kinase activity during PC12 cell differentiation and distinct developmental stages of Xenopus embryos.