Chicken
- Long non-coding RNAs regulate Wnt signaling during feather regeneration
Summary: Analysis of the role of lncRNAs in feather regeneration reveal that lncRNAs can modulate Wnt signaling and regulate feather regeneration, suggesting that feather follicles can be used to functionally annotate chicken genome lncRNAs.
- Leukocyte receptor tyrosine kinase interacts with secreted midkine to promote survival of migrating neural crest cells
Summary: Midkine secreted from the ectoderm acts as a survival factor by binding to the extracellular region of LTK, triggering a signaling pathway that is crucial for neural crest development in chicken.
- Coupling of apical-basal polarity and planar cell polarity to interpret the Wnt signaling gradient in feather development
Summary: In chicken, feather keratinocytes interpret the global Wnt signaling gradient through coupling with the local apical-basal polarity cue and change their shape accordingly.
- Collagen 18 and agrin are secreted by neural crest cells to remodel their microenvironment and regulate their migration during enteric nervous system development
Summary: ECM heparan sulfate proteoglycans are cell-autonomous regulators of ENS development in mouse and chick, with Col18 expression at the wavefront being permissive and agrin expression post-colonization being inhibitory to ENCDC migration.
- Genome and epigenome engineering CRISPR toolkit for in vivo modulation of cis-regulatory interactions and gene expression in the chicken embryo
Summary: The use of an optimised toolkit for efficient genome and epigenome engineering using CRISPR in chicken embryos is demonstrated, focussing on probing gene regulatory interactions during neural crest development.
- The developmental and genetic basis of ‘clubfoot’ in the peroneal muscular atrophy mutant mouse
Highlighted Article: The mutation in the PMA mouse model of human clubfoot was mapped and a candidate gene, Limk1, identified that was shown to cause sciatic nerve and limb abnormalities when overexpressed.
- NFIA and GATA3 are crucial regulators of embryonic articular cartilage differentiation
Summary: Chicken NFIA prevents hypertrophic differentiation in the interzone/articular region, whereas GATA3 activates articular cartilage-specific gene expression in concert with other transcription factors, possibly OSR1/2, c-JUN and Wnts.
- Restricted intra-embryonic origin of bona fide hematopoietic stem cells in the chicken
Summary: Bona fide hematopoietic stem cells originate from the aorta – and not the yolk sac, allantois or head – during embryonic development in chick.
- Efficient TALEN-mediated gene targeting of chicken primordial germ cells
Summary: TALE nucleases are used to target the DDX4 (vasa) locus in chicken primordial germ cells and generate DDX4 knockouts, which provide insights into DDX4 function in early chick development.
- BMP regulates regional gene expression in the dorsal otocyst through canonical and non-canonical intracellular pathways
Summary: BMP signaling regulates the expression of Dlx5 and Hmx3, transcription factors essential for vestibular development, through the canonical pSMAD pathway and a non-canonical pathway, respectively.