Competence
- Capacitation of human naïve pluripotent stem cells for multi-lineage differentiation
Highlighted Article: Human naïve pluripotent stem cells acquire competence for multilineage differentiation following a developmental trajectory that is comparable with the primate embryonic epiblast, and is facilitated by inhibition of the Wnt pathway.
- Reduced expression of the Nodal co-receptor Oep causes loss of mesendodermal competence in zebrafish
Summary: Zebrafish prospective ectoderm cells lose responsiveness to Nodal between shield stage and 75% epiboly owing to embryo-wide degradation of maternally provided oep mRNA, at least partially mediated by an abundance of destabilizing codons.
- Photoreceptor cell fate specification in vertebrates
Summary: This Review discusses recent progress in the understanding of the mechanisms of photoreceptor specification from neural progenitors and their implications for the treatment of retinal diseases.