RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
INTERVIEW
SPOTLIGHT
- Wolpert's French Flag: what's the problem?
Summary: This Spotlight discusses how and why Wolpert introduced the French Flag metaphor into developmental biology, but how his original idea was probably oversimplified by the community.
REVIEW
- Positional information and tissue scaling during development and regeneration
Summary: Tissue proportions can adjust to altered cell numbers. This Review discusses scaling mechanisms from a molecular and mathematical perspective.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
- Naïve human pluripotent stem cells respond to Wnt, Nodal and LIF signalling to produce expandable naïve extra-embryonic endoderm
Highlighted Article: Exploiting naïve human embryonic stem cells, this study generates an in vitro model for primitive endoderm, its expansion, and demonstrates a conserved role for FGF/ERK signalling in its induction.
- BNC1 regulates cell heterogeneity in human pluripotent stem cell-derived epicardium
Highlighted Article: Single cell analysis of human pluripotent stem cell-derived epicardium revealed that epicardial heterogeneity is regulated by the transcription factor BNC1 and separates the cells into two populations with different properties.
STEM CELLS AND REGENERATION
- Lar maintains the homeostasis of the hematopoietic organ in Drosophila by regulating insulin signaling in the niche
Summary: Lar limits insulin signaling to regulate the size and activity of the larval hematopoietic niche in Drosophila.
- The Paf1 complex and P-TEFb have reciprocal and antagonist roles in maintaining multipotent neural crest progenitors
Highlighted Article: Polymerase-associated factor 1 complex function is required to maintain the neural crest progenitor population in zebrafish.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- The histone demethylase KDM5 controls developmental timing in Drosophila by promoting prothoracic gland endocycles
Summary: Identification of KDM5 as a new transcriptional regulator of the MAPK signaling cascade provides insights into the molecular mechanisms governing the regulation of ecdysone production and developmental growth control.
- PRDM1 controls the sequential activation of neural, neural crest and sensory progenitor determinants
Summary: PRDM1 mediates transcriptional activation of neural and sensory progenitor genes by recruiting histone demethylases such as Kdm4a to their promoters, but must then be repressed to maintain neural, neural crest and placode cell fates.
- E3 ubiquitin ligase MDM2 acts through p53 to control respiratory progenitor cell number and lung size
Summary: The MDM2-p53 axis determines lung progenitor cell number and subsequent organ size, but not airway patterning and cell differentiation.
- A biphasic role of non-canonical Wnt16 signaling during early anterior-posterior patterning and morphogenesis of the sea urchin embryo
Summary: Non-canonical Wnt16 signaling is essential for establishing the position of the early germ layer gene regulatory networks along the anterior-posterior axis, and activates molecular mechanisms necessary for gastrulation and mesenchyme morphogenesis.
- The plakin domain of C. elegans VAB-10/plectin acts as a hub in a mechanotransduction pathway to promote morphogenesis
Summary: CRISPR-derived deletions reveal the roles of distinct domains from the hemidesmosome sprectraplakin VAB-10 in mechanotransduction during C. elegans morphogenesis.
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2019 on the Node
Read about the most-read posts, scientists on tour and a glimpse into what to look our for in 2020.
Interview – Madeleine Linneberg-Agerholm, Yan Fung Wong and Josh Brickman
Three Copenhagen-based researchers discuss their new paper, which exploits naïve human embryonic stem cells to generate in vitro models for the extra-embryonic endoderm.
As 2020 gets well and truly underway, join us as we look back at seven things that shaped preLights in 2019. From launching preLists to getting nominated for an award, it was an exciting year!
Publishing peer review reports
To continue working towards transparency around the editorial process, Development now publishes a ‘Peer review history file’ alongside published papers. Read more about the policy and see the reports for yourself in one the first papers to publish the reports (under the ‘Info & metrics’ tab).