Issues

Summary: This Review gives an overview of our current understanding of how physical forces influence developing sensory organs, both in the embryo and in organoid cultures.

Highlighted Article: Notch-dependent DNA cis-regulatory elements work together in their developmental context in C. elegans to shape a transcriptional gradient, control stem cell pool size, and govern differentiation onset.

Summary: Jag2b-driven Notch signaling regulates efna1b expression in the somite to modulate the Wnt16–Dlc/Dld signaling axis, which is required for hematopoietic stem cell specification.

Summary: Conserved roles for Pdgfrb signalling in development and regeneration suggest a limited capacity of mural cells to self-renew or contribute to other cell types during tissue regeneration.

Highlighted Article: Signaling for self-renewal and differentiation revealed via systems biology analysis of the bovine blastocyst trophectoderm permits establishment of trophoblast stem cells and discovery of mechanisms surrounding placental development and differentiation.

Highlighted Article: src-1 acts in parallel or downstream of pathways involving Wnt and FGFRL factors to regulate positional information along the anteroposterior axis in planarian regeneration

Highlighted Article: Using a combination of live-cell imaging, single-cell sequencing and genetic manipulation, the molecular connections are defined between cell cycle checkpoints, mitotic divisions and aneuploidy in mammalian preimplantation embryos.

Summary: Premeiotic endoreplication is a mechanism of production of unreduced eggs in parthenogenetic gecko complexes. The endoreplication might be induced by a failure of oocytes with the original ploidy during pachytene in the obligate parthenogenetic hybrids.

Summary: Foxp4 has a phase-dependent role in beige adipocyte differentiation, priming their early cell fate commitment but attenuating their thermogenic activation at mature stages.

Summary: At the end of gastrulation, the vertebrate eye field is already highly regionalized, and species-specific or morphotype-specific pattern variations are apparent.

Summary: A previously unreported role for FOXO1 as a key transcriptional repressor regulating both pre-flow arterial specification and subsequent vessel remodeling within the murine yolk sac.

Summary: Terminal differentiation of the Drosophila eye requires Blimp-1, a transcription factor induced by ecdysone signaling, that promotes photoreceptor rhabdomere extension and increases corneal lens refractive power.

Summary: Analysis of the effect on brain development of mutations in the Drosophila traip gene reveals that Traip suppresses DNA bridges and premature neural stem cell loss to ensure proper brain size.

Summary: The transcription factor SCARECROW patterns stomata in rice leaves, whereas in maize it predominantly patterns the inner leaf.

Summary: A protocol to establish mammary organoids from non-traditional model species, providing a physiologically relevant 3D in vitro model for comparative studies centered on mammary gland development and cancer.