Issues

Summary: This Review summarizes recent technical advances that have provided new insights into androgen regulation, epithelial cell origins and cellular heterogeneity during prostate organogenesis.

Summary: This Review highlights common and tissue-specific mechanisms of neonatal regeneration involving cells, signaling pathways and the extracellular matrix.

Summary: Optimised Synthetic Notch circuitry in mouse pluripotent stem cells provides a modular tool with which to monitor cell-cell interactions and program synthetic patterning of cell fates in culture and in embryos.

Summary: Genetic fate mapping and single-cell RNA sequencing reveal Procr expression as early as embryonic day 7.5 and demonstrate an essential role for Procr⁺ endothelial progenitor cells in establishment of the murine vasculature.

Summary: Characterization of the essential role of Hbxip in embryogenesis and embryonic stem cell differentiation, demonstrating that Hbxip is required for activating mTORC1 in these processes.

Summary: A novel CRISPR/Cas9 homology-directed knock-in approach allows fate tracing of resident collagen10a1 (col10a1) osteoblast progenitors during repair of vertebral lesions in a medaka osteoporosis model while preserving endogenous col10a1 expression.

Summary: Daw1 promotes the onset of timely cilia motility for robust axial straightening during zebrafish development.

Highlighted Article: Analyses of the relationships between chromatin architecture and regulatory activities at the HoxD locus show that ancestral transcription patterns can be maintained while new regulations evolve.

Summary: Loss of function of the ribosomal RNA processing protein Nucleolin results in cartilage and bone hypoplasia in the craniofacial region of zebrafish, which can be rescued by FGF8 supplementation.

Highlighted Article: A genetic framework involving RPK2, CVP2, CVL1 and OPS reveals how Arabidopsis embryonic cotyledons modulate vascular branching for organ growth by an auxin-independent mechanism.

Summary: This study describes the architecture of the gene regulatory network underlying endoderm development in C. elegans and illuminates the mechanisms that provoke specification, differentiation and commitment during embryogenesis.

Summary: The unicellular state of the moss Physcomitrium patens is caused in part by uncontrolled cell expansion and defects in cell wall integrity, which are regulated by ROP GTPase activation by prenylation.

Summary: Analysis of Actrt1-knockout mice reveals that ACTRT1, ACTRT2, ACTL7A and ACTL9 form a complex of sperm-specific actin-related proteins, and ACTRT1 in the acroplaxome anchors developing acrosomes to the sperm nucleus.

Summary: Two adjacent extra-embryonic tissues, the area opaca and the marginal zone, interact to influence the polarity of the early chick embryo.

Summary: Analysis of protamine 1-deficient mice revealed that heterozygous (Prm1^+/−) males are subfertile, whereas homozygous males are infertile, with Prm1 deficiency leading to defective chromatin compaction and sperm damage.

Summary: Salt-triggered activation of pectin methyl esterase changes pectin in Arabidopsis, inducing at least two pathways: a CrRLK1L-dependent pathway downregulating salt stress responses and a CrRLK1L-independent pathway that activates downstream signaling.

Summary: Disruption of the biosynthesis of heparan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate enhances retinal permeability, suggesting their roles in the formation of the basement membrane and glycocalyx and maintenance of the retinal barrier.

Highlighted Article: Unidirectional tissue tension deriving from morphogenetic movements aligns the cell long axis; this alignment acts cooperatively with Wnt signalling to establish planar cell polarity in Xenopus neuroectoderm.

Summary: miRNA-dependent poly(A) length control represents an important mechanism underlying uncoupled translation and transcription in male germ cells undergoing spermiogenesis.

Summary: We generated rice cytoskeleton fluorescent marker lines and demonstrated cytoskeletal organization and associations in live rice cells, indicating the utility of the marker lines for investigations in rice biology.