Articles

The role of Zic transcription factors in regulating hindbrain retinoic acid signaling

The reiterated architecture of cranial motor neurons aligns with the segmented structure of the embryonic vertebrate hindbrain. Anterior-posterior identity of cranial motor neurons depends, in part, on retinoi...

Authors: Danna L Drummond, Caroline S Cheng, Lyndsay G Selland, Jennifer C Hocking, Lisa B Prichard and Andrew J Waskiewicz

Erratum to: Histamine is a modulator of metamorphic competence in Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (Echinodermata: Echinoidea)

Authors: Josh Sutherby, Jamie-Lee Giardini, Julia Nguyen, Gary Wessel, Mariana Leguia and Andreas Heyland

Stage-specific transcription during development of Aedes aegypti

Aedes aegypti is the most important global vector of dengue virus infection in humans. Availability of the draft genome sequence of this mosquito provides unique opportunities to study different aspects of its bi...

Authors: Brent W Harker, Susanta K Behura, Becky S deBruyn, Diane D Lovin, Akio Mori, Jeanne Romero-Severson and David W Severson

The Ecdysone receptor constrains wingless expression to pattern cell cycle across the Drosophilawing margin in a cyclin B-dependent manner

Ecdysone triggers transcriptional changes via the ecdysone receptor (EcR) to coordinate developmental programs of apoptosis, cell cycle and differentiation. Data suggests EcR affects cell cycle gene expression...

Authors: Naomi C Mitchell, Jane I Lin, Olga Zaytseva, Nicola Cranna, Amanda Lee and Leonie M Quinn

An ancient process in a modern mollusc: early development of the shell in Lymnaea stagnalis

The morphological variety displayed by the molluscan shell underlies much of the evolutionary success of this phylum. However, the broad diversity of shell forms, sizes, ornamentations and functions contrasts ...

Authors: Jennifer Hohagen and Daniel J Jackson

Evolution of Hoxgene clusters in deuterostomes

Hox genes, with their similar roles in animals as evolutionarily distant as humans and flies, have fascinated biologists since their discovery nearly 30 years ago. During the last two decades, reports on Hox gene...

Authors: Juan Pascual-Anaya, Salvatore D’Aniello, Shigeru Kuratani and Jordi Garcia-Fernàndez

Tc-knirps plays different roles in the specification of antennal and mandibular parasegment boundaries and is regulated by a pair-rule gene in the beetle Tribolium castaneum

The Drosophila larval head is evolutionarily derived at the genetic and morphological level. In the beetle Tribolium castaneum, development of the larval head more closely resembles the ancestral arthropod condit...

Authors: Andrew D Peel, Julia Schanda, Daniela Grossmann, Frank Ruge, Georg Oberhofer, Anna F Gilles, Johannes B Schinko, Martin Klingler and Gregor Bucher

Live imaging and analysis of postnatal mouse retinal development

The explanted, developing rodent retina provides an efficient and accessible preparation for use in gene transfer and pharmacological experimentation. Many of the features of normal development are retained in...

Authors: Philip EB Nickerson, Kara M Ronellenfitch, Nicklaus F Csuzdi, Jamie D Boyd, Perry L Howard, Kerry R Delaney and Robert L Chow

FishFace: interactive atlas of zebrafish craniofacial development at cellular resolution

The vertebrate craniofacial skeleton may exhibit anatomical complexity and diversity, but its genesis and evolution can be understood through careful dissection of developmental programs at cellular resolution...

Authors: B Frank Eames, April DeLaurier, Bonnie Ullmann, Tyler R Huycke, James T Nichols, John Dowd, Marcie McFadden, Mark M Sasaki and Charles B Kimmel

External and internal shell formation in the ramshorn snail Marisa cornuarietisare extremes in a continuum of gradual variation in development

Toxic substances like heavy metals can inhibit and disrupt the normal embryonic development of organisms. Exposure to platinum during embryogenesis has been shown to lead to a “one fell swoop” internalization ...

Authors: Leonie Marschner, Julian Staniek, Silke Schuster, Rita Triebskorn and Heinz-R Köhler

The C. elegans gene pan-1encodes novel transmembrane and cytoplasmic leucine-rich repeat proteins and promotes molting and the larva to adult transition

Extracellular leucine-rich repeat (eLRR) proteins are a highly diverse superfamily of membrane-associated or secreted proteins. In the membrane-associated eLRR proteins, the leucine-rich repeat motifs interact...

Authors: Chris R Gissendanner and Tram Do Kelley

Functional modelling of planar cell polarity: an approach for identifying molecular function

Cells in some tissues acquire a polarisation in the plane of the tissue in addition to apical-basal polarity. This polarisation is commonly known as planar cell polarity and has been found to be important in d...

Authors: Lee D Hazelwood and John M Hancock

Development of human hip joint in the second and the third trimester of pregnancy; a cadaveric study

The purpose of the study was an evaluation of fetal hip joint morphology during the second and the third trimester of pregnancy. Serial sections were performed on 23 cadaver infants.

Authors: Adrian Masłoń, Marcin Sibiński, Mirosław Topol, Karol Krajewski and Andrzej Grzegorzewski

Expression of phosphatase of regenerating liver family genes during embryogenesis: an evolutionary developmental analysis among Drosophila, amphioxus, and zebrafish

Phosphatase of regenerating liver (PRL) family is classified as class IVa of protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP4A) that removes phosphate groups from phosphorylated tyrosine residues on proteins. PRL phosphatas...

Authors: Ming-Der Lin, Hsun-Tzu Lee, Szu-Chieh Wang, Han-Ru Li, Hsin-Lun Hsien, Kai-Wen Cheng, Yu-Di Chang, Min-Lang Huang, Jr-Kai Yu and Yau-Hung Chen

Foamy virus for efficient gene transfer in regeneration studies

Molecular studies of appendage regeneration have been hindered by the lack of a stable and efficient means of transferring exogenous genes. We therefore sought an efficient integrating virus system that could ...

Authors: Shahryar Khattak, Tatiana Sandoval-Guzmán, Nicole Stanke, Stephanie Protze, Elly M Tanaka and Dirk Lindemann

Expression pattern of Protein Kinase C ε during mouse embryogenesis

Protein kinase C epsilon (PKCϵ) belongs to the novel PKC subfamily, which consists of diacylglycerol dependent- and calcium independent-PKCs. Previous studies have shown that PKCϵ is important in different con...

Authors: Sergio Carracedo, Ursula Braun and Michael Leitges

A bright single-cell resolution live imaging reporter of Notch signaling in the mouse

Live imaging provides an essential methodology for understanding complex and dynamic cell behaviors and their underlying molecular mechanisms. Genetically-encoded reporter expressing mouse strains are an impor...

Authors: Sonja Nowotschin, Panagiotis Xenopoulos, Nadine Schrode and Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis

Development, organization, and remodeling of phoronid muscles from embryo to metamorphosis (Lophotrochozoa: Phoronida)

The phoronid larva, which is called the actinotrocha, is one of the most remarkable planktotrophic larval types among marine invertebrates. Actinotrochs live in plankton for relatively long periods and undergo...

Authors: Elena N Temereva and Eugeni B Tsitrin

miRNA regulated pathways in late stage murine lung development

MicroRNAs play important roles in regulating biological processes, including organ morphogenesis and maturation. However, little is known about specific pathways regulated by miRNA during lung development. Bet...

Authors: Sana Mujahid, Tanya Logvinenko, MaryAnn V Volpe and Heber C Nielsen

Mef2A, a homologue of animal Mef2 transcription factors, regulates cell differentiation in Dictyostelium discoideum

Transcription factors from the MADS-box family play a relevant role in cell differentiation and development and include the animal SRF (serum response factor) and MEF2 (myocyte enhancer factor 2) proteins. The...

Authors: María Galardi-Castilla, Irene Fernandez-Aguado, Teresa Suarez and Leandro Sastre

Expression of SHH signaling molecules in the developing human primary dentition

Our current knowledge on tooth development derives primarily from studies in mice. Very little is known about gene expression and function during human odontogenesis. Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling has been de...

Authors: Xuefeng Hu, Shuo Zhang, Guimiao Chen, Chensheng Lin, Zhen Huang, YiPing Chen and Yanding Zhang

Evidence for the requirement of 14-3-3eta (YWHAH) in meiotic spindle assembly during mouse oocyte maturation

The 14-3-3 (YWHA) proteins are central mediators in various cellular signaling pathways regulating development and growth, including cell cycle regulation. We previously reported that all seven mammalian 14-3-...

Authors: Santanu De and Douglas Kline

Mouse Tenm4 is required for mesoderm induction

Tenm4 is a mouse homolog of the Drosophila gene Tenascin-m (Ten-m (Odd oz)), which functions in motor neuron routing. Recently, a genome-wide association analysis for bipolar disorder identified a new susceptibil...

Authors: Hisashi Nakamura, Rita N Cook and Monica J Justice

In situ hybridization protocol for enhanced detection of gene expression in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea

The freshwater planarian Schmidtea mediterranea has emerged as a powerful model for studies of regenerative, stem cell, and germ cell biology. Whole-mount in situ hybridization (WISH) and whole-mount fluorescent

Authors: Ryan S King and Phillip A Newmark

Histone modifications in the male germ line of Drosophila^a

In the male germ line of Drosophila chromatin remains decondensed and highly transcribed during meiotic prophase until it is rapidly compacted. A large proportion of the cell cycle-regulated histone H3.1 is repla...

Authors: Wolfgang Hennig and Alexandra Weyrich

Reviewer acknowledgement 2012

The editors of BMC Developmental Biology would like to thank all our reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 12 (2012).

Authors: Philippa K Harris

Thyroid hormone increases fibroblast growth factor receptor expression and disrupts cell mechanics in the developing organ of corti

Thyroid hormones regulate growth and development. However, the molecular mechanisms by which thyroid hormone regulates cell structural development are not fully understood. The mammalian cochlea is an intrigui...

Authors: Katherine B Szarama, Núria Gavara, Ronald S Petralia, Richard S Chadwick and Matthew W Kelley

SOX11 contributes to the regulation of GDF5 in joint maintenance

Individual skeletal elements of the vertebrate limbs arise through a segmentation process introducing joints in specific locations. However, the molecular pathways controlling joint formation and subsequent jo...

Authors: Akinori Kan, Toshiyuki Ikeda, Atsushi Fukai, Takumi Nakagawa, Kozo Nakamura, Ung-il Chung, Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Clifford J Tabin

Plasma membrane events associated with the meiotic divisions in the amphibian oocyte: insights into the evolution of insulin transduction systems and cell signaling

Insulin and its plasma membrane receptor constitute an ancient response system critical to cell growth and differentiation. Studies using intact Rana pipiens oocytes have shown that insulin can act at receptors o...

Authors: Gene A Morrill, Adele B Kostellow, Richard D Moore and Raj K Gupta

Expression pattern of protein kinase C δ during mouse embryogenesis

The members of the protein kinase C (PKC) family consist of serine/threonine kinases classified according to their regulatory domain. Those that belong to the novel PKC subfamily, such as PKCδ, are dependent o...

Authors: Sergio Carracedo, Ursula Braun and Michael Leitges

Identifying targets of the Sox domain protein Dichaete in the Drosophila CNS via targeted expression of dominant negative proteins

Group B Sox domain transcription factors play important roles in metazoan central nervous system development. They are, however, difficult to study as mutations often have pleiotropic effects and other Sox fam...

Authors: Shih Pei Shen, Jelena Aleksic and Steven Russell

Standardised classification of pre-release development in male-brooding pipefish, seahorses, and seadragons (Family Syngnathidae)

Members of the family Syngnathidae share a unique reproductive mode termed male pregnancy. Males carry eggs in specialised brooding structures for several weeks and release free-swimming offspring. Here we des...

Authors: Stefan Sommer, Camilla M Whittington and Anthony B Wilson

In ovo serial skeletal muscle diffusion tractography of the developing chick embryo using DTI: feasibility and correlation with histology

Magnetic resonance imaging is a noninvasive method of evaluating embryonic development. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), based on the directional diffusivity of water molecules, is an established method of eval...

Authors: Zien Zhou, Zachary DelProposto, Lianming Wu, Jianrong Xu, Jia Hua, Yan Zhou, Yongquan Ye, Zishu Zhang, Jiani Hu and E Mark Haacke

Pax4 is not essential for beta-cell differentiation in zebrafish embryos but modulates alpha-cell generation by repressing arx gene expression

Genetic studies in mouse have demonstrated the crucial function of PAX4 in pancreatic cell differentiation. This transcription factor specifies β- and δ-cell fate at the expense of α-cell identity by repressing A...

Authors: Joachim Djiotsa, Vincianne Verbruggen, Jean Giacomotto, Minaka Ishibashi, Elisabeth Manning, Silke Rinkwitz, Isabelle Manfroid, Marianne L Voz and Bernard Peers

R-spondins are involved in the ovarian differentiation in a teleost, medaka (Oryzias latipes)

In mammals, R-spondin (Rspo), an activator of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, has been shown to be involved in ovarian differentiation. However, the role of the Rspo/Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in fis...

Authors: Linyan Zhou, Tapas Charkraborty, Xiangguo Yu, Limin Wu, Gang Liu, Sipra Mohapatra, Deshou Wang and Yoshitaka Nagahama

The lack of autophagy triggers precocious activation of Notch signaling during Drosophila oogenesis

The proper balance of autophagy, a lysosome-mediated degradation process, is indispensable for oogenesis in Drosophila. We recently demonstrated that egg development depends on autophagy in the somatic follicle c...

Authors: Julia MI Barth, Ernst Hafen and Katja Köhler

Cell proliferation is necessary for the regeneration of oral structures in the anthozoan cnidarian Nematostella vectensis

The contribution of cell proliferation to regeneration varies greatly between different metazoan models. Planarians rely on pluripotent neoblasts and amphibian limb regeneration depends upon formation of a pro...

Authors: Yale J Passamaneck and Mark Q Martindale

Global gene expression of the inner cell mass and trophectoderm of the bovine blastocyst

The first distinct differentiation event in mammals occurs at the blastocyst stage when totipotent blastomeres differentiate into either pluripotent inner cell mass (ICM) or multipotent trophectoderm (TE). Her...

Authors: Manabu Ozawa, Miki Sakatani, JiQiang Yao, Savita Shanker, Fahong Yu, Rui Yamashita, Shunichi Wakabayashi, Kenta Nakai, Kyle B Dobbs, Mateus José Sudano, William G Farmerie and Peter J Hansen

Heat shock factor-1 intertwines insulin/IGF-1, TGF-β and cGMP signaling to control development and aging

Temperature affects virtually all cellular processes. A quick increase in temperature challenges the cells to undergo a heat shock response to maintain cellular homeostasis. Heat shock factor-1 (HSF-1) functio...

Authors: János Barna, Andrea Princz, Mónika Kosztelnik, Balázs Hargitai, Krisztina Takács-Vellai and Tibor Vellai

Role of the Skp1 prolyl-hydroxylation/glycosylation pathway in oxygen dependent submerged development of Dictyostelium

Oxygen sensing is a near universal signaling modality that, in eukaryotes ranging from protists such as Dictyostelium and Toxoplasma to humans, involves a cytoplasmic prolyl 4-hydroxylase that utilizes oxygen and...

Authors: Yuechi Xu, Zhuo A Wang, Rebekah S Green and Christopher M West

3D-FISH analysis of embryonic nuclei in mouse highlights several abrupt changes of nuclear organization during preimplantation development

Embryonic development proceeds through finely tuned reprogramming of the parental genomes to form a totipotent embryo. Cells within this embryo will then differentiate and give rise to all the tissues of a new...

Authors: Tiphaine Aguirre-Lavin, Pierre Adenot, Amélie Bonnet-Garnier, Gaétan Lehmann, Renaud Fleurot, Claire Boulesteix, Pascale Debey and Nathalie Beaujean

Protein interactions of the transcription factor Hoxa1

Hox proteins are transcription factors involved in crucial processes during animal development. Their mode of action remains scantily documented. While other families of transcription factors, like Smad or Sta...

Authors: Barbara Lambert, Julie Vandeputte, Sophie Remacle, Isabelle Bergiers, Nicolas Simonis, Jean-Claude Twizere, Marc Vidal and René Rezsohazy

Distinct patterns of notochord mineralization in zebrafish coincide with the localization of Osteocalcin isoform 1 during early vertebral centra formation

In chondrichthyans, basal osteichthyans and tetrapods, vertebral bodies have cartilaginous anlagen that subsequently mineralize (chondrichthyans) or ossify (osteichthyans). Chondrocytes that form the vertebral...

Authors: Anabela Bensimon-Brito, João Cardeira, Maria Leonor Cancela, Ann Huysseune and Paul Eckhard Witten

Prolonged FGF signaling is necessary for lung and liver induction in Xenopus

FGF signaling plays numerous roles during organogenesis of the embryonic gut tube. Mouse explant studies suggest that different thresholds of FGF signaling from the cardiogenic mesoderm induce lung, liver, and...

Authors: Emily T Shifley, Alan P Kenny, Scott A Rankin and Aaron M Zorn

Regulation of multiple tip formation by caffeine in cellular slime molds

The multicellular slug in Dictyostelium has a single tip that acts as an organising centre patterning the rest of the slug. High adenosine levels at the tip are believed to be responsible for this tip dominance a...

Authors: Pundrik Jaiswal, Shashi Prakash Singh, Prasad Aiyar, Rakhil Akkali and Ramamurthy Baskar

Loss of sfrp1 promotes ductal branching in the murine mammary gland

Secreted frizzled-related proteins (SFRPs) are a family of proteins that block the Wnt signaling pathway and loss of SFRP1 expression is found in breast cancer along with a multitude of other human cancers. Ac...

Authors: Kelly J Gauger, Akihiko Shimono, Giovanna M Crisi and Sallie Smith Schneider

An amputation resets positional information to a proximal identity in the regenerating zebrafish caudal fin

Zebrafish has emerged as a powerful model organism to study the process of regeneration. This teleost fish has the ability to regenerate various tissues and organs like the heart, spinal cord, retina and fins....

Authors: Ana Sofia Azevedo, Sara Sousa, António Jacinto and Leonor Saúde

Conserved cis-regulatory regions in a large genomic landscape control SHH and BMP-regulated Gremlin1expression in mouse limb buds

Mouse limb bud is a prime model to study the regulatory interactions that control vertebrate organogenesis. Major aspects of limb bud development are controlled by feedback loops that define a self-regulatory ...

Authors: Aimée Zuniga, Frédéric Laurent, Javier Lopez-Rios, Christian Klasen, Nicolas Matt and Rolf Zeller

Loss of muscleblind-like 1 promotes invasive mesenchyme formation in endocardial cushions by stimulating autocrine TGFβ3

Valvulogenesis and septation in the developing heart depend on the formation and remodeling of endocardial cushions in the atrioventricular canal (AVC) and outflow tract (OFT). These cushions are invaded by a ...

Authors: Kathryn E LeMasters, Yotam Blech-Hermoni, Samantha J Stillwagon, Natalie A Vajda and Andrea N Ladd

Expression of canonical WNT/β-CATENIN signaling components in the developing human lung

The WNT/β-CATENIN signaling cascade is crucial for the patterning of the early lung morphogenesis in mice, but its role in the developing human lung remains to be determined. In this study, expression patterns...

Authors: Mingfeng Zhang, Jueping Shi, Yide Huang and Laijun Lai