Issues

Summary: This Review discusses the chromatin modifications associated with the mammalian female inactive X chromosome and their relevance to gene silencing and potential for therapeutic modulation.

Summary: NOTCH3 signalling has a crucial role in early development of the human placenta by promoting expansion of its founder cell: the epithelial trophoblast stem cell.

Summary: Activation of platelet-derived growth factor signaling in sclerotome microenviroment facilitates zebrafish primitive erythropoiesis.

Highlighted Article: Transcription factors and effector proteins have limited mobility within the skeletogenic syncytium of the sea urchin embryo.

Summary: Timing of expression of conserved cell cycle regulator Cyclin B is controlled by multiple cell-type-specific proteins in Drosophila meiotic prophase male germ cells.

Summary: Two formin proteins, FRL and DAAM, are required for the sealing of the interommatidial cell lattice necessary for optical insulation of the photoreception units in the insect compound eye.

Summary: Through genetic deletion, we disrupt netrin 1 signaling in the developing kidney and uncover previously unreported roles in mediating vascular patterning and maturity and proper kidney development.

Summary: Netrin 1 secreted by cortical stromal progenitors in the kidney regulates vascular patterning of the renal arterial tree, as well as vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation via Klf4.

Summary: The morphological speciality of axons emerging from dendrites has been shown to be important during development: basket cell axons emerging from dendrites grow more rapidly and form denser terminal fields.

Highlighted Article: Hair follicle identity is governed by mesenchymal cues and hair follicle inductive capacity is an intrinsic property of the naïve skin mesenchyme even before formation of the dermal condensate.

Summary: In Drosophila, centrosomal maturation and endoplasmic reticulum condensation occur with similar timings at mitotic onset, and endoplasmic reticulum dysregulation leads to spindle weakening and failures of mitosis.

Summary: Formulation of a mathematical model to investigate the interplay between morphogen gradients and tissue mechanics in regulating the collective cell movements that drive hindgut morphogenesis in the chick embryo.

Highlighted Article: A mathematical model for growing networks by oscillations on nodes reproduces germline cyst topologies in invertebrates and reveals the nonintuitive effects of model parameters including cell-cell coupling on network structure.

Summary: The microtubule-severing enzymes KATNA1 and KATNAL1 function collectively to regulate multiple aspects of microtubule dynamics during spermatogenesis.

Highlighted Article: Hypoglycosylated FSH²¹ improves the establishment of cell-to-cell communication during early folliculogenesis in mouse, which promotes increased follicular growth and enhanced oocyte quality.

Summary: Multi-omics assays of purified embryonic and in vitro-generated cells identify thousands of notochord enhancers including TNE2, which is essential for notochord function and tail development of the mouse embryo.

Summary: The early Arabidopsis embryo is surrounded by a proteinaceous envelope that is distinct from the cuticle and embryo sheath.

Summary: Saliency analyses show that a deep convolutional network trained to accurately classify chick embryos from images bases this classification on biologically relevant features.