Issues

Summary: In this Spotlight, five zebrafish researchers reflect on how the 1996 zebrafish issue of Development has influenced their career and their community.

Summary:In vitro engineering of embryo-like structures (stembryos) from pluripotent stem cells offers unique possibilities to understand how boundary conditions that impose geometrical, mechanical and biochemical constraints pattern and shape the mammalian embryo.

Summary:TAB1 is identified as a central factor that promotes ovule development in rice by regulating stem cell maintenance at a later stage of flower development.

Summary: GSK3β-mediated phosphorylation of kinesin 1 heavy chain is essential for kinesin 1 motility, cargo/membrane attachment and ATPase activity, but not for microtubule binding.

Highlighted Article: Although DPPA2 and DPPA4 are essential for activating two-cell embryo-specific transcripts in mouse embryonic stem cells, they are dispensable for mouse zygotic genome activation and pre-implantation development.

Summary: The mangrove killifish, a self-fertilizing vertebrate model, allows rapid identification of the mutated genes noto and msgn1 from mutant strains and their genetic roles in tail bud development.

Summary: This study demonstrates at the molecular level how maternally provided SMC3 supports the first round of DNA replication and chromosome segregation in the zygote to enable successful embryogenesis.

Highlighted Article: Through theory and computational modeling, cell-cell communication is revealed to be a crucial and under-appreciated determinant of cell-fate decision-making during hematopoiesis.

Highlighted Article: Conditional knockout mouse models reveal maternal stores of Dppa2 and Dppa4 are dispensable for zygotic genome activation, contrasting findings in embryonic stem cells. However, both maternal and zygotic Dppa2/4 are required for development.

Summary: Morphogen gradients are known to subdivide a naive cell field into distinct zones of gene expression, but morphogens can also induce a graded response within such domains.

Summary: An smFISH-based survey identifies a subset of mRNAs encoding junctional components that localize at or in proximity to the adherens junction through a translation-dependent mechanism.

Summary: The microRNA miR-202 prevents precocious spermatogonial differentiation and meiotic initiation during mouse spermatogenesis and acts together with DMRT6 and STRA8 as a module in the meiotic initiation regulatory network.

Summary: Analysis of a graded series of KATNB1 loss-of-function models reveals that katanin proteins are required to regulate the vast majority of microtubule-based processes in male germ cell development.

Summary: Frazzled is required in the Drosophila female germline for the progression of egg chambers through mid-oogenesis, regulating germline survival by inhibiting apoptosis.

Highlighted Article: Intermediate progenitor cells are a distinct population of multipotent cells that contribute to all three differentiated blood cell types in Drosophila and act as signaling centers to neighboring cells.

Summary: Time-series single-cell transcriptomic analysis identifies previously unrecognized transitional states, population dynamics, fate trajectories and gene-expression evolution in the developing mouse lung.