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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An interview with Swathi Arur
Swathi Arur joined the team at Development as an Academic Editor in 2020. Her lab uses multidisciplinary approaches to understand female germline development and fertility. We met with her over Zoom to hear more about her life, her career and her love for C. elegans.
Jim Wells and Hanna Mikkola join our team of Editors
We are pleased to welcome James (Jim) Wells and Hanna Mikkola to our team of Editors. Jim joins us a new Academic Editor, taking over from Gordan Keller, and Hanna joins our team of Associate Editors. Find out more about their research interests and areas of expertise.
New funding scheme supports sustainable events
As part of our Sustainable Conferencing Initiative, we are pleased to announce funding for organisers that seek to reduce the environmental footprint of their event. The next deadline to apply for a Scientific Meeting grant is 26 March 2021.
Read & Publish participation continues to grow
“I’d heard of Read & Publish deals and knew that many universities, including mine, had signed up to them but I had not previously understood the benefits that these deals bring to authors who work at those universities.”
Professor Sally Lowell (University of Edinburgh) shares her experience of publishing Open Access as part of our growing Read & Publish initiative. We now have over 150 institutions in 15 countries and four library consortia taking part – find out more and view our full list of participating institutions.
Upcoming special issues
Imaging Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration
Submission deadline: 30 March 2021
Publication: mid-2021
The Immune System in Development and Regeneration
Guest editors: Florent Ginhoux and Paul Martin
Submission deadline: 1 September 2021
Publication: Spring 2022
Both special issues welcome Review articles as well as Research articles, and will be widely promoted online and at key global conferences.
Development presents...
Our successful webinar series continues into 2021, with early-career researchers presenting their papers and a chance to virtually network with the developmental biology community afterwards. Here, Brandon Carpenter talks about how inherited histone methylation defines the germline versus soma decision in C. elegans.
Sign up to join our next session:
10 March
Time: TBC
Chaired by: Thomas Lecuit