Issues

Summary: Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard discusses her groundbreaking genetic screens in flies and fish, the impact of winning the 1995 Nobel Prize, and the challenges of being a ‘woman in science’.

Summary: This Review highlights how high-resolution quantitative tools and theoretical models have formed our current view of the mechanisms determining precision and accuracy in the timing, location and level of transcription in the Drosophila embryo.

Summary: This Review examines new insights into cortical GABAergic interneuron subtype specification, focussing on spatial, temporal and genetic mechanisms regulating cell fate decisions in the mouse medial ganglionic eminence.

Summary: Delineation of the minimal evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways required for generating lung or thyroid progenitors from pluripotent stem cells aids the provision of an inexhaustible source of progenitors for further investigations.

Highlighted Article: Early gastruloid patterning involves the development of the embryonic axes in the absence of extra-embryonic tissues, a process that relies on the interactions of Nodal and Wnt, but not BMP.

Summary: Cell depletion studies show that macrophages regulate multiple key aspects of a mammalian epimorphic regenerative response, including wound closure, bone histolysis, blastema formation and redifferentiation.

Summary: The bHLH TF E2A splice variant E47 regulates the expression of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p57(KIP2) via a distant regulatory cis-element to specify the identity of neural subtypes during mid-neurogenesis.

Summary: Barricade associates with the U2 snRNP complex, prevents intron retention, and is required for neural progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation in the Drosophila larval brain.

Summary: Despite being derived from a common lineage, Drosophila trunk and appendages possess different regenerative potential and cannot be reprogrammed to regenerate each other.

Summary: A novel mechanism by which Rho can regulate Hippo signaling is described, in contrast to the prevailing view that Rho represses Hippo signaling by modulating the actin cytoskeleton.

Summary: mRNA electroporation is a powerful new method for functional studies in neonatal and adult neural stem cells as well as postmitotic neurons.

Highlighted Article: Analysis of mouse mutants reveals for the first time that a combination of planar cell polarity genes and molecular crowding determines the patterning of collagen-fibril bundles in an extracellular matrix.

Highlighted Article: The WD40 domain of Atg16 plays a crucial role in stress resistance and gut homeostasis, and its loss impairs Slit/Robo-dependent differentiation of pre-enteroendocrine cells into mature secretory cells and triggers inflammation.

Summary: Conditional deletion of paxillin in the developing mouse brain circumvents embryonic lethality and demonstrates a role for this focal adhesion adaptor protein in controlling the speed of neuronal migration and the timing of cortical layer formation.

Summary: The movement of lateral marginal cell nuclei toward the yolk syncytial layer during endoderm specification involves the Nodal-regulated reorientation of microtubule-organizing centers, phospho-Smad2 nuclear translocation and sox32 induction.

Summary: PDGFRα-PI3K/AKT signaling plays an essential role in the developing calvarial tissues of mouse by regulating endochondral ossification in cartilage anlagen underlying coronal sutures derived from neural crest and mesoderm.

Summary: Dlx5-mediated FGF10 signaling plays a crucial role in oropharyngeal patterning and the development of muscles derived from the 4th pharyngeal arch, an important finding for understanding soft palate muscle development defects.