Issues

Summary: Environmental biologists need data from developmental biology; developmental biology should be considered when discussing multiple issues regarding environmental degradation and global climate change, and during our current climate of significant environmental upheaval.

Summary: This Review addresses how microbial symbioses impact animal development from gametogenesis through adulthood, and assesses which developmental processes may or may not be influenced by microbial symbioses.

Highlighted Article: A continuous pseudotime trajectory of human trophoblast development from zygote to mid-gestation determines the in vivo counterpart of in vitro trophoblast cultures and identifies key regulators of human trophoblast stem cell self renewal.

Summary: Analysis of a new resource for the PDX1 cistrome and single-cell transcriptome of the developing pancreas suggests that PDX1 maintains adult β-cell plasticity to allow adaptation and dedifferentiation under pathological conditions.

Highlighted Article: By generating a single-cell transcriptomic atlas of early cardiac development, we uncover transcriptional mechanisms governing lineage relationships between heart field progenitors and their progeny.

Highlighted Article: Following brain vascular injury, Cxcl12b/Cxcr4a become active to control the direction of lymphangiogenesis and cerebrovascular regeneration, thus avoiding uncontrolled vessel growth.

Highlighted Article: Prolongation of M phase in early mouse embryos does not arrest the cell cycle, and embryos continue to develop but show cohesion fatigue and micronuclei, which can lead to chromosomal instability.

Summary: Genetic and imaging approaches identify ethylene-regulated reactive oxygen species-producing enzymes that drive root hair initiation in Arabidopsis.

Summary: Coupling of FAK with TRIM25/USP9x controls ERG degradation in endothelial cells, thus determining vascular patterning in the retina.

Highlighted Article: Auxin exerts a posttranslational feedback regulation on the PILS proteins, contributing to cellular auxin homeostasis and providing robustness to plant growth and development.

Summary: The forkhead transcription factor FOXL2 is a key upstream regulator of temperature-dependent female sex determination in the red-eared slider turtle Trachemys scripta.

Highlighted Article: The skate pseudobranch is a gill serial homologue and reveals the ancestral gill arch-like nature of the jawed vertebrate mandibular arch.

Summary: A versatile light-sheet imaging setup enabling simultaneous live imaging of multiple mouse embryos for 48 h, an approach that offers insight into the onset of oscillatory signaling dynamics and the segmentation clock.

Summary: BicD is required for normal female meiosis and pronuclear fusion, processes that are needed to form the first zygotic nucleus to start a new life.

Summary: Analysis of conditional knockout mice reveals Pinch2 as a key regulator of CNS myelin formation and maturation, preventing excessive myelination and ensuring myelin stability via its interactions with RhoA and Cdc42.

Summary: Single cell RNA sequencing in the vomeronasal organ reveals a crucial role for Dll4-Notch1 signaling in the formation of V1R⁺/apical and V2R⁺/basal vomeronasal sensory neurons of rodents.

Summary: Detailed characterization of the contribution of distinct morphogenetic processes and mechanical tissue coupling during neural tube closure, a process indispensable for central nervous system formation in vertebrates.

Summary: A previously unreported mechanism to explain the role of CK1α in the regulation of spermatogenesis.

Summary: An asymmetric actin cable array generated by the differential localization of Diaphanous and Enabled is necessary to reposition nurse cell nuclei and complete oogenesis in Drosophila.

Summary: The Drosophila CPEB ortholog Orb regulates the centrosome component PLP by promoting post-transcriptional polyadenylation, thereby ensuring proper centrosome function, mitotic fidelity and genome stability.