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Featured
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Letter |
Neural crest regulates myogenesis through the transient activation of NOTCH
- Anne C. Rios
- , Olivier Serralbo
- & Christophe Marcelle
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Letter |
Acetylation-dependent regulation of endothelial Notch signalling by the SIRT1 deacetylase
- Virginia Guarani
- , Gianluca Deflorian
- & Michael Potente
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Article |
Self-organizing optic-cup morphogenesis in three-dimensional culture
Organogenesis relies on the orchestration of many cellular interactions to create the collective cell behaviours that progressively shape developing tissues. Using a three-dimensional embryonic stem cell culture system, this study successfully generated neural retinal tissues that formed a fully stratified neural retinal structure with all the major components located in their proper spatial location as seen during optic-cup development in vivo. This approach might have important implications for stem cell therapy for retinal repair.
- Mototsugu Eiraku
- , Nozomu Takata
- & Yoshiki Sasai
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Letter |
A tension-induced mechanotransduction pathway promotes epithelial morphogenesis
This study describes a mechanotransduction pathway that links the body wall with the epidermis in Caenorhabditis elegans. The pathway involves the p21 activated kinase PAK 1, an adaptor GIT 1 and its partner PIX 1. Tension exerted by muscles or external pressure keeps GIT 1 on station at hemidesmosomes — the small rivet like bodies that attach epidermal cells to the underlying musculature — and stimulates PAK 1 through PIX 1 and Rac GTPase. The C. elegans hemidesmosome is more than a passive attachment structure, therefore, but a sensor that responds to tension by triggering signalling processes.
- Huimin Zhang
- , Frédéric Landmann
- & Michel Labouesse
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Letter |
Directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into intestinal tissue in vitro
Using a temporal series of growth factor manipulations to mimic embryonic intestinal development in culture, this study has successfully directed the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (both embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells) into intestinal tissue. This approach may provide therapeutic benefit for disease studies.
- Jason R. Spence
- , Christopher N. Mayhew
- & James M. Wells
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Letter |
Gene expression divergence recapitulates the developmental hourglass model
For two hundred years, scientists have noticed that the appearance of embryos in related species converge in their appearance mid-way in development, diverging thereafter. But is this 'phylotypic stage' real, and how is it connected with the genetic basis of development? Here, a method linking the genes transcribed at various stages of development (the transcriptome) with the evolutionary history of those genes is used. Genes transcribed in the phylotypic stage are, in evolutionary terms, the oldest and most conserved. This suggests that the phylotypic stage does represent the body plans of related species at their most unadorned, selection having sculpted the earlier and later stages of embryonic form to suit the particulars of each creature.
- Alex T. Kalinka
- , Karolina M. Varga
- & Pavel Tomancak
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Letter |
Planar polarized actomyosin contractile flows control epithelial junction remodelling
Here, germ-band extension in Drosophila is studied in which epithelial cells undergo an ordered process of intercalation resulting in tissue extension through remodelling of cell junctions. Cell junction shrinkage is driven by polarized flow of medial Myosin-II pulses towards junctions which organizes the whole process of intercalation. The flow of Myosin II is driven by the polarized distribution of E-cadherin complexes at adherens junctions. Thus, epithelial morphogenesis is driven by polarized contractile actomyosin flows emerging from interactions between E-cadherin and actomyosin networks.
- Matteo Rauzi
- , Pierre-François Lenne
- & Thomas Lecuit
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News & Views |
50 & 100 years ago
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Letter |
Systematic genetic analysis of muscle morphogenesis and function in Drosophila
A genome-wide RNA interference screen to systematically test the genetic basis for formation and function of the Drosophila muscle is described. A role in muscle for 2,785 genes is identified; many of these genes are phylogenetically conserved.
- Frank Schnorrer
- , Cornelia Schönbauer
- & Barry J. Dickson
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News |
Chicken's split sex identity revealed
Half-male, half-female fowl explain sex determination.
- Janet Fang
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Brief Communications Arising |
Location of corneal epithelial stem cells
- Tung-Tien Sun
- , Scheffer C. Tseng
- & Robert M. Lavker