Featured
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Article
| Open AccessA human embryonic limb cell atlas resolved in space and time
Using single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, human embryonic limb development across space and time and the diversification and cross-species conservation of cells are demonstrated.
- Bao Zhang
- , Peng He
- & Sarah A. Teichmann
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Article
| Open AccessHypoblast from human pluripotent stem cells regulates epiblast development
Authentic hypoblast cells created from naive human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) spontaneously assemble with naive hPSCs to form a three-dimensional bilaminar structure (bilaminoids) with a pro-amniotic-like cavity.
- Takumi Okubo
- , Nicolas Rivron
- & Yasuhiro Takashima
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Article
| Open AccessMSL2 ensures biallelic gene expression in mammals
After loss of MSL2, a class of dosage-sensitive genes transitions from biallelic to monoallelic expression, whereby one allele remains active, retaining active histone modifications and transcription factor binding, and the other allele is silenced, exhibiting loss of promoter–enhancer contacts and the acquisition of DNA methylation.
- Yidan Sun
- , Meike Wiese
- & Asifa Akhtar
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Article
| Open AccessSingle-cell, whole-embryo phenotyping of mammalian developmental disorders
A study reports single-cell RNA-sequencing profiles for more than 1.6 million cell nuclei from 101 whole mouse embryos including 22 mutant and 4 wild-type genotypes, from one experiment.
- Xingfan Huang
- , Jana Henck
- & Malte Spielmann
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Article
| Open AccessEmbryo-scale reverse genetics at single-cell resolution
We present the ‘zebrafish single-cell atlas of perturbed embryos’, single-cell trancriptomic data of developing zebrafish embryos across various timepoints and with genetic perturbations.
- Lauren M. Saunders
- , Sanjay R. Srivatsan
- & Cole Trapnell
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Article
| Open AccessCD201+ fascia progenitors choreograph injury repair
Spatiotemporal regulation of wound healing in mice and humans occurs via retinoic acid and hypoxia signalling, which regulate the differentiation of CD201+ fibroblast progenitors into proinflammatory and myofibroblast states.
- Donovan Correa-Gallegos
- , Haifeng Ye
- & Yuval Rinkevich
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News |
This hybrid baby monkey is made of cells from two embryos
The work paves the way for scientists to use chimeric primates to study human diseases.
- Carissa Wong
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Nature Video |
How would a starfish wear trousers? Science has an answer
Gene expression reveals the story behind starfishes’ strange five-armed body plans
- Shamini Bundell
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News & Views |
A radical evolutionary makeover gave echinoderms their unusual body plan
Echinoderms such as starfish are unusual for their five-fold body symmetry. Maps of gene-expression patterns show how this body plan was acquired, and that the genes specifying head structures do the heavy lifting.
- Thurston Lacalli
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Article |
Molecular evidence of anteroposterior patterning in adult echinoderms
RNA tomography and in situ hybridization in echinoderms suggest a new ambulacral-anterior model to relate echinoderm pentaradial symmetry to the ancestral bilateral symmetry.
- L. Formery
- , P. Peluso
- & C. J. Lowe
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Obituary |
Ian Wilmut, embryologist who helped to produce Dolly the sheep (1944–2023)
Developmental biologist who led team that cloned the first mammal using adult cells.
- Sarah Franklin
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News & Views |
Stem cells used to model a two-week-old human embryo
Researchers have used stem cells to create models that resemble human embryos at two weeks old, but bypass the earliest developmental stages — paving the way for studies that are not possible in human embryos.
- Naomi Moris
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News |
Anti-ageing molecule boosts fertility in ageing mice
‘Undeniably groundbreaking’ work shows that declining egg quality in older mice can be reversed with a dietary supplement.
- Gemma Conroy
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Article
| Open AccessAn extra-erythrocyte role of haemoglobin body in chondrocyte hypoxia adaption
Haemoglobin produced by chondrocytes forms eosin-positive haemoglobin bodies in their cytoplasm, and deletion of these bodies causes severe hypoxia.
- Feng Zhang
- , Bo Zhang
- & Qiang Sun
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Comment |
Why researchers should use human embryo models with caution
Scientists should carefully consider whether embryo models based on human stem cells are essential to their work because of the associated practical and ethical challenges.
- Janet Rossant
- & Jianping Fu
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News |
The brain cells linked to protection against dementia
People with an abundance of specific neurons are more likely to escape cognitive decline despite having signs of Alzheimer’s in their brains.
- Sara Reardon
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Nature Video |
The very first beat: how a heart starts to pulse
Hours of footage of zebrafish embryos let researchers capture and study this key moment in development.
- Shamini Bundell
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News & Views |
Coordinating the first heartbeat
An impressive combination of computational modelling and experimental techniques in live zebrafish embryos reveals how the heart initiates its organized and rhythmic beating.
- Joshua Bloomekatz
- & Neil C. Chi
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Article |
A bioelectrical phase transition patterns the first vertebrate heartbeats
The first heartbeat of a zebrafish was captured, and development of cardiac excitability and conduction around this singular event were analysed, showing how development of single-cell properties produces a transition from quiescence to coordinated beating.
- Bill Z. Jia
- , Yitong Qi
- & Adam E. Cohen
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Article
| Open AccesspiRNA processing by a trimeric Schlafen-domain nuclease
The endoribonuclease PUCH, a trimer of Schlafen-like-domain proteins, initiates piRNA processing in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans through 5′-end piRNA precursor cleavage.
- Nadezda Podvalnaya
- , Alfred W. Bronkhorst
- & René F. Ketting
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News & Views |
Dual stem-cell populations interact in the skull
The discovery that the skull has two groups of stem cell that produce similar types of descendant cell has big implications for the field of stem-cell research — and casts light on a developmental disorder that affects many children.
- Andrei S. Chagin
- & Dana Trompet
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Article
| Open AccessTransgenic ferret models define pulmonary ionocyte diversity and function
Conditional genetic ferret models enable ionocyte lineage tracing, ionocyte ablation and ionocyte-specific deletion of CFTR to elucidate the roles of pulmonary ionocyte biology and function during human health and disease.
- Feng Yuan
- , Grace N. Gasser
- & John F. Engelhardt
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Article |
A multi-stem cell basis for craniosynostosis and calvarial mineralization
The calvarial stem cell niche is populated by a cathepsin K-expressing cell lineage and a newly identified discoidin domain-containing receptor 2-expressing lineage, both of which are required for proper calvarial mineralization.
- Seoyeon Bok
- , Alisha R. Yallowitz
- & Matthew B. Greenblatt
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Article
| Open AccessSingle-cell brain organoid screening identifies developmental defects in autism
We develop a high-throughput CRISPR screening system in cerebral organoids and identify vulnerable cell types and gene regulatory networks associated with autism spectrum disorder from single-cell transcriptomes and chromatin modalities.
- Chong Li
- , Jonas Simon Fleck
- & Juergen A. Knoblich
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Article
| Open AccessComplete human day 14 post-implantation embryo models from naive ES cells
The culture of genetically unmodified human naive embryonic stem cells in specific growth conditions gives rise to structures that recapitulate those of post-implantation human embryos up to 13–14 days after fertilization.
- Bernardo Oldak
- , Emilie Wildschutz
- & Jacob H. Hanna
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News & Views |
From the archive: enchanting insects, and John Stuart Mill’s will
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
What is an embryo? Scientists say definition needs to change
Lab-grown structures with the potential to develop into fetuses should be defined — and regulated — as embryos, some researchers say.
- Philip Ball
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Article
| Open AccessTransient naive reprogramming corrects hiPS cells functionally and epigenetically
A new reprogramming strategy used to produce human induced pluripotent stem cells from somatic cells results in epigenetic and functional profiles that are highly similar to those of human embryonic stem cells.
- Sam Buckberry
- , Xiaodong Liu
- & Ryan Lister
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Article |
Neuronal migration prevents spatial competition in retinal morphogenesis
Experiments in zebrafish and human tissues show that, during retinal morphogenesis, emerging photoreceptor cells migrate in a bidirectional manner, which lessens competition for space and helps to ensure that the retina is formed correctly.
- Mauricio Rocha-Martins
- , Elisa Nerli
- & Caren Norden
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Article
| Open AccessMitochondrial integrated stress response controls lung epithelial cell fate
This study highlights the role of mitochondrial complex I-dependent NAD+ regeneration in directing lung epithelial cell fate during postnatal alveolar development by preventing pathological integrated stress response induction.
- SeungHye Han
- , Minho Lee
- & Navdeep S. Chandel
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Obituary |
Donald D. Brown, groundbreaking embryologist (1931–2023)
Molecular biologist whose work on isolated genes helped launch the era of recombinant DNA and gene editing.
- Susan A. Gerbi
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News & Views |
How the cGAS–STING system links inflammation and cognitive decline
When DNA is misplaced inside cells, the cGAS–STING molecular system triggers inflammation. It emerges that stimulation of this mechanism in microglial cells of the brain during ageing contributes to cognitive decline.
- Bart J. L. Eggen
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Article
| Open AccessEvolutionary histories of breast cancer and related clones
By using phylogenetic analyses of multiple microdissected samples from both cancer and non-cancer lesions, unique evolutionary histories of breast cancers harbouring a common driver alteration are shown, providing new insight into how breast cancer evolves.
- Tomomi Nishimura
- , Nobuyuki Kakiuchi
- & Seishi Ogawa
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Article |
Evolutionarily divergent mTOR remodels translatome for tissue regeneration
Rapid activation of protein synthesis in the axolotl highlights the unanticipated impact of a translatome on orchestrating the early steps of wound healing and provides a missing link in our understanding of vertebrate regenerative potential.
- Olena Zhulyn
- , Hannah D. Rosenblatt
- & Maria Barna
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Article
| Open AccessA spatially resolved timeline of the human maternal–fetal interface
A multiomics approach is used to produce a spatiotemporal atlas of the human maternal–fetal interface in the first half of pregnancy, revealing relationships among gestational age, extravillous trophoblasts and spiral artery remodelling.
- Shirley Greenbaum
- , Inna Averbukh
- & Michael Angelo
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News & Views |
Sleeping embryonic genomes are awoken by OBOX proteins
Activation of gene transcription is precisely regulated in early embryos. The identification of key transcription factors now shows how the transcription machinery is guided to the right place at the right time in mice.
- Edlyn Wu
- & Nadine L. Vastenhouw
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Article |
OBOX regulates mouse zygotic genome activation and early development
OBOX, PRD-like homeobox domain transcription factors (OBOX1–OBOX8), are key regulators of mouse zygotic genome activation and early embryogenesis.
- Shuyan Ji
- , Fengling Chen
- & Wei Xie
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Nature Podcast |
ChatGPT can write a paper in an hour — but there are downsides
A roundup of stories from the Nature Briefing, including the pros and cons of writing a paper with AI, record-breaking global temperatures, and a protein that boosts monkeys’ memories.
- Noah Baker
- , Benjamin Thompson
- & Dan Fox
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News |
Anti-ageing protein injection boosts monkeys’ memories
First primate studies to show cognitive benefits of the protein klotho could be a step towards clinical applications.
- Lilly Tozer
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Article
| Open AccessPluripotent stem cell-derived model of the post-implantation human embryo
Co-culture of wild-type human embryonic stem cells with two types of extraembryonic-like cell engineered to overexpress specific transcription factors results in an embryoid model that recapitulates multiple features of the post-implantation human embryo.
- Bailey A. T. Weatherbee
- , Carlos W. Gantner
- & Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz
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Article
| Open AccessSelf-patterning of human stem cells into post-implantation lineages
Human pluripotent stem cells can be triggered to self-organize into structures recapitulating early human post-implantation embryonic development.
- Monique Pedroza
- , Seher Ipek Gassaloglu
- & Berna Sozen
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Article
| Open AccessSingle-cell quantification of ribosome occupancy in early mouse development
A single-cell ribosome profiling method can provide data at the level of allele-specific ribosome engagement in early development.
- Hakan Ozadam
- , Tori Tonn
- & Can Cenik
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Article
| Open AccessInjury prevents Ras mutant cell expansion in mosaic skin
Following skin injury, wild-type epithelial cells outcompete oncogenic Ras G12V mutant cells owing to differential activation of the EGFR signalling pathway during injury repair.
- Sara Gallini
- , Karl Annusver
- & Valentina Greco
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News Explainer |
Most advanced synthetic human embryo models yet spark controversy
A pair of studies raises ethical and legal questions about the status of lab-grown human embryo models.
- Philip Ball
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News |
Taurine supplement makes animals live longer — what it means for people is unclear
The energy-drink ingredient offers striking health benefits in mice, monkeys and worms. But more work is needed to investigate its link with ageing.
- Myriam Vidal Valero
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Outlook |
RNA splicing targets age-related diseases
Manipulating genetic molecules could return cells to a younger state.
- Christine Evans-Pughe
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News & Views |
Molecule in mothers’ milk nurses pups’ heart cells to maturity
A fatty acid in the milk of nursing mice has been found to trigger a transformation in the metabolic pathways that are active in pups’ heart muscle cells, enabling the cells to rapidly mature after birth.
- Pingzhu Zhou
- & William T. Pu
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News |
Mother’s milk helps baby mouse hearts to develop
A component of the milk consumed by newborn mice triggers a crucial shift in heart cells’ metabolism.
- Elissa Welle
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Article
| Open AccessA median fin derived from the lateral plate mesoderm and the origin of paired fins
We identify that the larval zebrafish unpaired pre-anal fin fold is derived from the lateral plate mesoderm, can be readily duplicated, and thus may represent a developmental intermediate between median and paired fins.
- Keh-Weei Tzung
- , Robert L. Lalonde
- & Tom J. Carney
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