RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
SPOTLIGHTS
- Planar cell polarity: moving from single cells to tissue-scale biology
Summary: This Spotlight article describes the major impact and influence Suzanne Eaton's work has had, and still has, on planar cell polarity-associated studies.
- Circulating Hedgehog: a fresh view of a classic morphogen
Summary: This Spotlight describes the contribution of Suzanne Eaton's pioneering work to our understanding of how morphogens such as Hedgehog can travel over long distances through their association with lipoprotein particles.
- Charting the unknown currents of cellular flows and forces
Summary: This Spotlight article reviews how Suzanne Eaton, a pioneer in the field of developmental tissue mechanics, connected quantitative cell behavior with physical modeling to reveal fundamental insights into epithelial morphogenesis.
- Understanding the role of lipids and lipoproteins in development
Summary: This Review highlights Suzanne Eaton's pioneering work on the coordination of lipid metabolism with cellular homeostasis and development signalling pathways in the fruit fly Drosophila.
PRIMER
- A primer for generating and using transcriptome data and gene sets
Summary: This Primer gives an overview of the considerations required when planning and conducting transcriptome profiling experiments, from sample isolation to data analysis and display, and discusses best practice in defining gene sets for use in addressing biological questions.
REVIEW
- Retinal organoids: a window into human retinal development
Summary: Retinal organoid systems derived from human pluripotent stem cells are micro-physiological systems that offer new insights into previously unexplored human retina development.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
- A molecular and cellular analysis of human embryonic optic fissure closure related to the eye malformation coloboma
Highlighted Article: Studies of cell organisation and gene expression during human optic fissure closure support a model in which cells at the fissure margins undergo a transient epithelial-to-mesenchymal-like transition that facilitates cell rearrangement.
STEM CELLS AND REGENERATION
- Decoding an organ regeneration switch by dissecting cardiac regeneration enhancers
Summary: Dual-component mechanisms, including activation and repression, govern regeneration enhancer activity to ensure spatiotemporal gene expression during zebrafish heart regeneration.
- Endocannabinoid signalling in stem cells and cerebral organoids drives differentiation to deep layer projection neurons via CB1 receptors
Summary: Endocannabinoid signalling promotes neuronal maturation and differentiation to deep layer projection neurons in embryonic stem cells and human cerebral organoids via cannabinoid CB1 receptor activation.
- Defining compartmentalized stem cell populations with distinct cell division dynamics in the ocular surface epithelium
Summary: This study provides genetic tools to precisely mark and examine the dynamic behavior of heterogeneous stem cell populations in the ocular surface epithelium.
- Reactive oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (re-)myelinate the regenerating zebrafish spinal cord
Summary: After spinal cord transection, zebrafish oligodendrocytes are transiently lost but re-established by reactive oligodendrocyte progenitor cells.
RESEARCH REPORT
- Morphogenesis is transcriptionally coupled to neurogenesis during peripheral olfactory organ development
Highlighted Article: Morphogenesis and specification of cell types are linked by the proneural factor Neurog1, as seen during development of the zebrafish peripheral olfactory organ.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- The Pax6 master control gene initiates spontaneous retinal development via a self-organising Turing network
Highlighted Article: Pax6 can induce ectopic eye development in vivo, while retinal organoids can self-organise in vitro. We identify a Pax6 Turing network that could explain both phenomena.
- Ciona embryonic tail bending is driven by asymmetrical notochord contractility and coordinated by epithelial proliferation
Highlighted Article: Asymmetrical notochord contractility is essential and sufficient to drive embryonic tail bending in chordates, whereas differential epidermis proliferation is a coordinated mechanism that is also required for embryonic tail bending.
- Coordinated assembly and release of adhesions builds apical junctional belts during de novo polarisation of an epithelial tube
Summary: Using the zebrafish neural tube as a model, we uncover the in vivo mechanisms that allow the generation of two opposing apical epithelial surfaces within the centre of an initially unpolarised solid organ.
- An Irf6-Esrp1/2 regulatory axis controls midface morphogenesis in vertebrates
Summary: Experiments using complementary models indicate that disruption of Irf6 and Esrp1/2 in mouse and zebrafish results in orofacial clefts, with an aberrant mesenchymal/epithelial cell population identified in the cleft of the esrp1/2 zebrafish mutant.
- The second pharyngeal pouch is generated by dynamic remodeling of endodermal epithelium in zebrafish
Summary: Live-imaging and cell-tracing experiments demonstrate that dynamic epithelial remodeling fuses the anterior and posterior pharyngeal pouches, which are generated independently, into a seamless array of pouches in zebrafish embryos.
- Negative feedback by conserved kinases patterns the degradation of Caenorhabditis elegans Raf in vulval fate patterning
Summary: The kinases MPK-1/ERK, GSK-3/GSK3 and CDK-2/CDK2 provide spatial and temporal control of LIN-45/Raf degradation by the ubiquitin ligase SEL-10/FBXW7 during C. elegans vulval precursor cell fate patterning.
- Asynchrony of ovule primordia initiation in Arabidopsis
Summary: Ovule primordia initiation, which determines the maximum ovule number and subsequent seed number in Arabidopsis, is asynchronous and is regulated by PIN1 polar distribution and the auxin response.
- Mechanical and signaling mechanisms that guide pre-implantation embryo movement
Summary: Mouse embryos display unidirectional movement regulated by muscle contractions, followed by bidirectional movement regulated by LPAR3 signaling, as they space out for implantation.
- Postsynaptic cAMP signalling regulates the antagonistic balance of Drosophila glutamate receptor subtypes
Summary: The antagonistic balance of GluR subtypes, which is associated with synaptic plasticity, is regulated by cAMP signalling in postsynaptic muscles of Drosophila NMJ synapses.
- βIII spectrin controls the planarity of Purkinje cell dendrites by modulating perpendicular axon-dendrite interactions
Summary: βIII spectrin suppresses the microtubule dynamics at the neuronal dendrite to inhibit abnormal lateral branching, which causes misoriented branch formation.
- HY5 and phytochrome activity modulate shoot-to-root coordination during thermomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis
Summary: HY5 and phytochrome signaling in the shoot modulates coupling between shoot and root thermomorphogenesis. Auxin biosynthesis and signaling form a further regulatory axis for root responses to temperature.
TECHNIQUES AND RESOURCES
- A developmental stage-specific network approach for studying dynamic co-regulation of transcription factors and microRNAs during craniofacial development
Highlighted Article: Insights into the physical and cellular biology underlying craniofacial development will broaden our understanding of the etiology of orofacial clefts, and guide therapies and prevention strategies for orofacial clefts.
- EPySeg: a coding-free solution for automated segmentation of epithelia using deep learning
Summary: EPySeg is easy-to-use open-source software that applies deep-learning technology for segmentation of membrane-labelled epithelial tissues, either locally or in the cloud.
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Kathryn Virginia Anderson (1952-2020)
Developmental geneticist Kathryn Anderson passed away at home on 30 November 2020. Tamara Caspary, a former postdoc and friend, remembers Kathryn and her remarkable contribution to developmental biology.
Zooming into 2021
In a new Editorial, Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown reflect on the triumphs and tribulations of the last 12 months, and look towards a hopefully calmer and more predictable year.
Read & Publish participation extends worldwide
Over 60 institutions in 12 countries are now participating in our Read & Publish initiative. Here, James Briscoe explains what this means for his institution, The Francis Crick Institute. 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. Sign up to join our next session:
10 February
Time: 13:00 (GMT)
Chaired by: preLights