Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: An E11 chick embryo (bottom) and E10 quail embryo (top). Duplication of the first pharyngeal arch and loss of the second pharyngeal arch in chick-quail chimeras reveals their contribution to tympanic membrane formation. See Research article by Furutera et al. on p. 3315.
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IN THIS ISSUE
SPOTLIGHT
An interview with George Daley
Summary: George Daley, who was awarded the ISSCR 2017 Public Service Award, talks about his career investigating the biology and clinical application of stem cells, the importance of ethical guidelines and of science advocacy.
MEETING REVIEW
Metabolism in time and space – exploring the frontier of developmental biology
Summary: This Meeting Review of the 2017 EMBO/EMBL Symposium ‘Metabolism in Time and Space’ summarizes recent findings that emphasize how metabolism and developmental biology are inseparably linked in animals and plants.
PRIMER
The enigma of embryonic diapause
Summary: This Primer discusses the complex embryo-uterine interactions that induce, maintain and reactivate the blastocyst from diapause, highlighting the roles of hormones, cytokines and growth factors across animal species.
STEM CELLS AND REGENERATION
The miR-124 family of microRNAs is crucial for regeneration of the brain and visual system in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea
Summary: miR-124 is required during de novo regeneration of the cephalic ganglion and visual system in planarians, as well as in slit-1 expression in the midline of anterior regenerating tissue via canonical Notch signaling.
Engrailed acts with Nejire to control decapentaplegic expression in the Drosophila ovarian stem cell niche
Summary: Niche-specific expression of the TGFβ protein Dpp, which promotes GSC self-renewal, is regulated by the cap cell transcription factor En and co-activator Nej via a novel 5′ dpp enhancer.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
H2Av facilitates H3S10 phosphorylation but is not required for heat shock-induced chromatin decondensation or transcriptional elongation
Highlighted Article: Histone H2Av and JIL-1 kinase are not required in Drosophila for chromatin decondensation associated with transcriptional activation, instead implicating a role for PARP-1 downstream of JIL-1-mediated H3S10 phosphorylation.
Endothelial cells respond to the direction of mechanical stimuli through SMAD signaling to regulate coronary artery size
Highlighted Article: BMP/SMAD signaling is required for endothelial cells to align and migrate in a directional manner in response to blood flow-induced mechanical stimulation.
Cytoskeletal variations in an asymmetric cell division support diversity in nematode sperm size and sex ratios
Highlighted Article: In nematode species with small spermatocytes, post-meiotic cytoskeletal reorganization becomes unipolar, generating the equivalent of female polar bodies as half the genetic material is discarded along with unnecessary cellular components.
Maternal expression of the histone demethylase Kdm4a is crucial for pre-implantation development
Highlighted Article: Analysis of knockout mice reveals a dual role for Kdm4a in both early embryonic development and maintenance of the maternal uterine environment, identifying it as a crucial factor for female fertility.
Fgf10+ progenitors give rise to the chick hypothalamus by rostral and caudal growth and differentiation
Summary: Anterior and then mammillary hypothalamic cells differentiate from Fgf10+ progenitors that are retained as central tuberal hypothalamic cells. Shh is required for anterior regionalisation and also for integrated hypothalamic/pituitary development.
Hypothalamic sonic hedgehog is required for cell specification and proliferation of LHX3/LHX4 pituitary embryonic precursors
Summary: Genetic approaches demonstrate that, during normal murine development, the SHH pathway is first required for normal specification of Rathke's pouch embryonic precursors and subsequently to control their proliferation.
Dnmt1-dependent Chk1 pathway suppression is protective against neuron division
Summary: Using a Rb triple knockout mouse model, Chk1 pathway activation during S phase is shown to prevent cell death and override the mitotic resistance of pathological hypoxic and differentiating neurons.
Differing contributions of the first and second pharyngeal arches to tympanic membrane formation in the mouse and chick
Summary: Comparison of tissue interactions during tympanic membrane development in mouse and chick indicates similarities and differences in the developmental mechanisms and evolution of middle ear morphology in mammals and diapsids.
Pitx1 directly modulates the core limb development program to implement hindlimb identity
Summary: A small set of limb type-restricted genes among the broadly conserved Pitx1 gene regulatory network, including components of the chondrogenic program, establishes hindlimb identity in mouse.
Transgelin-expressing myofibroblasts orchestrate ventral midline closure through TGFβ signalling
Summary: A population of migratory myofibroblasts at the leading edge of the closing ventral body wall expresses cytoskeletal components and TGFβR2 and responds to an epithelial TGFβ2 morphogen gradient to drive midline closure.
Distinct functions for netrin 1 in chicken and murine semicircular canal morphogenesis
Summary: A unique role for netrin 1-sensitive apoptosis during morphogenesis of chicken semicircular canals is revealed by comparing the expression and activity of netrin 1 in chicken and mouse inner ears.
Vegetally localised Vrtn functions as a novel repressor to modulate bmp2b transcription during dorsoventral patterning in zebrafish
Summary: Vrtn, a novel antagonist or repressor of embryonic ventralisation, functions independently of, but in cooperation with, Wnt/β-catenin signalling to regulate DV patterning in zebrafish.
TECHNIQUES AND RESOURCES
Functional and evolutionary insights from the Ciona notochord transcriptome
Summary: Comprehensive, extensively validated Ciona notochord transcriptomes provide an important resource for studies of notochord specification, morphogenesis and evolution. Ectopic Brachyury expression induces a surprisingly small subset of notochord-enriched genes.
CORRECTION
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.