Chick
- Conserved and divergent functions of Pax6 underlie species-specific neurogenic patterns in the developing amniote brain
Highlighted Article: Pax6 promotes neuronal differentiation in the developing chick and mouse telencephalon via Notch inhibition, whereas its stage-specific function in RGC maintenance in the VZ is unique to mammalian neocortical progenitors.
- Motor neurons with limb-innervating character in the cervical spinal cord are sculpted by apoptosis based on the Hox code in chick embryo
Summary: Hox-dependent apoptosis in the limbless neck region of the chick embryo eliminates a transient population of spinal motor neurons that express Foxp1 and have characteristics of limb-innervating LMC neurons.
- Adenohypophysis placodal precursors exhibit distinctive features within the rostral preplacodal ectoderm
Summary: In chick embryos, adenohypophyseal placode precursors differ from the remaining preplacodal ectoderm as they are clustered at the midline, resembling other midline structures important for maintaining the bilateral organization of the neural tube.
- Fgf10+ progenitors give rise to the chick hypothalamus by rostral and caudal growth and differentiation
Summary: Anterior and then mammillary hypothalamic cells differentiate from Fgf10+ progenitors that are retained as central tuberal hypothalamic cells. Shh is required for anterior regionalisation and also for integrated hypothalamic/pituitary development.
- A systems-level approach reveals new gene regulatory modules in the developing ear
Summary: Transcriptome analysis and knock down of select transcription factors reveals a genetic hierarchy as cells become committed to inner ear fate.
- The assembly of developing motor neurons depends on an interplay between spontaneous activity, type II cadherins and gap junctions
Highlighted article: A network of interactions between cadherins, gap junctions and spontaneous activity governs the assembly of cranial motor neurons into functional groups in the chick brainstem.
- Intrinsic properties of limb bud cells can be differentially reset
Summary: Grafting experiments in chick wing buds show that autopod fate is intrinsically defined, while early but not late autopod cells can adopt host proliferation rates when transplanted into the zeugopod.
- TGFβ and FGF promote tendon progenitor fate and act downstream of muscle contraction to regulate tendon differentiation during chick limb development
Summary: During chick limb development, FGF and TGFβ act independently of each other and downstream of mechanical forces to control tendon formation.
- Identification of STAM1 as a novel effector of ventral projection of spinal motor neurons
Summary: The spinal motor neuron-specifying LIM complex controls ventral motor axonal projection by activating the expression of STAM1, which in turn regulates the chemokine receptor CXCR4.
- Disruption of CXCR4 signaling in pharyngeal neural crest cells causes DiGeorge syndrome-like malformations
Summary: SDF1/CXCR4 signaling lies downstream of Tbx1 during pharyngeal neural crest development, and inactivating CXCR4 causes defects that phenocopy the human DiGeorge syndrome.