Developmental biology articles within Nature

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• Review Article | 27 January 2010

  Chromatin remodelling during development

  • Lena Ho
  •  & Gerald R. Crabtree

• Article | 27 January 2010

  Direct conversion of fibroblasts to functional neurons by defined factors

  Mouse and human fibroblasts can be reprogrammed to a pluripotent state with a combination of four transcription factors. Here, mature differentiated cells are directed, via a combination of a few transcription factors (distinct from those described for generating iPS cells), to form functional neurons in vitro, without having to revert the fibroblasts to an embryonic state.

  • Thomas Vierbuchen
  • , Austin Ostermeier
  •  & Marius Wernig

• Letter | 22 January 2010

  Genome-wide erasure of DNA methylation in mouse primordial germ cells is affected by AID deficiency

  The extent of epigenetic reprogramming in mammalian primordial germ cells (PGCs) and in early embryos, and its molecular mechanisms, are poorly understood. DNA methylation profiling in PGCs now reveals a genome–wide erasure of methylation, with female PGCs being less methylated than male ones. A deficiency of the cytidine deaminase AID interferes with the genome–wide erasure of DNA methylation, indicating that AID has a critical function in epigenetic reprogramming.

  • Christian Popp
  • , Wendy Dean
  •  & Wolf Reik

• News | 19 January 2010

  Health benefits of red-wine chemical unclear

  Sceptics continue to ask whether resveratrol really can delay the effects of ageing.

  • Lizzie Buchen

• Letter | 17 January 2010

  DNMT1 maintains progenitor function in self-renewing somatic tissue

  Progenitor cells sustain the capacity of self-renewing tissues for proliferation while suppressing cell cycle exit and terminal differentiation. DNA methylation is one potential epigenetic mechanism for the cellular memory needed to preserve the somatic progenitor state through cell divisions. The DNA methyltransferase 1 and other regulators of DNA methylation are now shown to be essential for epidermal progenitor cell function.

  • George L. Sen
  • , Jason A. Reuter
  •  & Paul A. Khavari

• Research Highlights | 13 January 2010

  Molecular biology: Flowering time unravelled

• Books & Arts | 13 January 2010

  The art of animal colouring

  • Leena Lindström

• Letter | 13 January 2010

  Role of conserved non-coding DNA elements in the Foxp3 gene in regulatory T-cell fate

  Immune homeostasis relies on tight control over the size of a population of regulatory T cells (T_reg) that can suppress over-exuberant immune responses. Cells commit to the T_reg lineage by upregulating the transcription factor Foxp3. Conserved non-coding DNA sequence elements at the Foxp3 locus are now shown to control the composition, size and maintenance of the T_reg cell population.

  • Ye Zheng
  • , Steven Josefowicz
  •  & Alexander Y. Rudensky

• Article | 06 January 2010

  Opposing microRNA families regulate self-renewal in mouse embryonic stem cells

  The differentiation of an embryonic stem cell (ESC) requires both suppression of the self-renewal process and activation of the specific differentiation pathway. The let-7 family of microRNAs (miRNAs) are now shown to suppress the self-renewal program in cells that are normally unable to silence this program, whereas introduction of ESC cell cycle regulating miRNAs blocks the action of let-7. Thus, the interplay between these two groups of miRNAs dictates cell fate.

  • Collin Melton
  • , Robert L. Judson
  •  & Robert Blelloch