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The article announces the winners of Development's Outstanding Paper Prize for papers published in 2023. The winning papers focus on developmental and stem cell biology. One paper demonstrates the potential of genome engineering techniques and pharmacological upregulation of the Wnt signaling pathway in treating frizzled 2-associated congenital malformations in mouse models. Another paper explores how Frizzled2 receives WntA signaling during butterfly wing pattern formation, providing insights into the complexity and evolution of signaling pathways. The article also mentions a study on the development of primordial germ cell-like cells using stem cell technologies. Additionally, the article discusses a study on the molecular functioning of WntA in butterfly wing color patterning, which involved collaboration between international teams and faced challenges in rearing and injecting butterflies in the lab. The researchers plan to further investigate butterfly color patterns. [Extracted from the article]

This article is an interview with Charlotte Manser and Ruben Perez-Carrasco, discussing their recent paper on the molecular basis of developmental timing. The authors developed a mathematical framework to explore the tempo of development and identify molecular mechanisms that regulate it. They studied gene expression orbits and used mathematical methods to define function and tempo in a quantitative way. The paper aims to reach experimentalists in the developmental biology community and is published in the journal Development. Manser and Perez-Carrasco plan to continue exploring the role of tempo in different developmental systems and are excited about potential applications in synthetic biology and immunology. Outside of their research, they enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons and have a shared love for music. [Extracted from the article]

This article features an interview with Paul Huber and Carole LaBonne, who conducted a study on the role of BET proteins in the maintenance of pluripotency and establishment of the neural crest in Xenopus laevis. The researchers found that inhibiting BET activity led to a loss of pluripotency in blastula stem cells and neural crest formation. They also discovered that blocking BET activity extended the competence of initially pluripotent cells to respond to lineage inducing cues. The study was published in the journal Development and was chosen for its fit with the journal's focus on important work in the field of developmental biology. [Extracted from the article]

This article features an interview with Andy Yang and Stephane Angers, who discuss their research on the Wnt signaling pathway and its role in neural development. They specifically focus on using selective antibodies to stimulate midbrain progenitor differentiation in human pluripotent stem cells. Andy Yang explains his interest in developmental biology and stem cell research, while Stephane Angers discusses the potential applications of their findings in cancer and regenerative medicine. The article also highlights key results from their paper, including the development of dopaminergic neuron progenitors for Parkinson's disease treatment. After the publication, Andy Yang plans to explore opportunities in biotech and the industrial sector, while Stephane Angers looks forward to further studying the Frizzled antibodies they developed. Outside of the lab, Andy enjoys hiking, traveling, and playing sports like basketball and ultimate frisbee. [Extracted from the article]

This article features an interview with Julie Klepstad and Luciano Marcon, who have proposed a new theoretical framework for understanding the patterning of somites in mice. They developed a set of reaction-diffusion equations called Sevilletor, which can capture the behavior of previous somitogenesis models and exhibit a self-organizing excitable regime. Their extended Clock and Wavefront somitogenesis model successfully explains the changes in gene expression observed during mouse somitogenesis and provides insights into the excitability of presomitic mesoderm cells in vitro. The researchers hope to further validate their model through experimental work and explore the relationship between anterior-posterior axis formation and axis segmentation. [Extracted from the article]

This article features an interview with the authors of a study on the impact of maternal immune activation on embryonic development. The researchers found that embryonic microglia, immune cells in the brain, detect maternal inflammation and cause changes in neighboring brain cells. The study highlights the importance of microglia in regulating the brain's response to maternal inflammation and suggests that targeting microglia could be a potential therapeutic approach for neuropsychiatric conditions related to maternal infection. The authors also discuss their backgrounds, research motivations, and future directions. [Extracted from the article]

This article features an interview with Yongjun Yin and David Ornitz, who conducted a study on lung fibroblasts and alveolar myofibroblasts during alveologenesis. The researchers used unique genetic tools to identify different subtypes of mesenchymal cells in the neonatal lung and discovered a myofibroblast differentiation program that is distinct from other cell types. They also found that the ROSA26 locus can serve as a marker for myofibroblast maturation. The study provides insights into lung development and has implications for understanding and treating lung diseases. [Extracted from the article]

This article features an interview with Margret Bülow and Pilar Carrera, the authors of a study on the role of the scavenger receptor Bez in lipid transport in Drosophila. Margret Bülow is a Group Leader at the University of Bonn and Pilar Carrera is a structural biologist who switched fields to work on fruit fly developmental biology. The researchers discuss their scientific backgrounds, the inspiration for their work, and the key results of their study, which identified Bez as a receptor responsible for supplying ovaries with lipids from adipocytes. They also talk about their experiences and aspirations as researchers, as well as their interests outside of the lab. [Extracted from the article]

This article features an interview with Emily Bulger and Benoit Bruneau, discussing their study on the role of the transcription factor brachyury (TBXT) in early human gastrulation. They found that TBXT dosage directly correlates with the timing of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process that enables cells to become more migratory. The study used in vitro models and single-nucleus sequencing to gain more precise insights into gene regulation and embryonic development. The researchers hope to further investigate transcription factor haploinsufficiency in human systems and understand its mechanisms. Outside of their work, Bruneau enjoys catching live music shows and eating spicy food, while Bulger is passionate about art and spending time outdoors. [Extracted from the article]

A new paper in the journal Development explores the role of chemokines in embryonic development. The study focuses on an atypical chemokine receptor called ACKR3, which is found in the placenta. The researchers found that ACKR3 prevents a chemokine called CXCL12 from entering the embryonic bloodstream, ensuring proper haematopoiesis in the embryo. Interfering with ACKR3 function led to impaired bone marrow haematopoiesis, compromised fetal growth, and impaired immune and inflammatory responses in offspring. The researchers plan to further investigate the impact of interfering with placental ACKR3 on animals as they develop into adulthood and explore potential connections to human ACKR3 polymorphisms. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses a study conducted by Julia Grzymkowski and Nanette Nascone-Yoder on the causes of intestinal malrotation, a common birth anomaly. The researchers found that exposure to the herbicide atrazine can disrupt cellular metabolism in developing Xenopus embryos and lead to intestinal malrotation. The study also suggests that antioxidant supplementation during pregnancy may be beneficial in preventing malrotation. The researchers plan to further investigate the cellular-level events that coordinate tissue elongation and left-right asymmetric morphogenesis in the intestine. [Extracted from the article]

This article is an interview with Fay Cooper and Anestis Tsakiridis, who conducted a study on neuromesodermal progenitors (NMPs) and their role in the development of neural and mesodermal tissues. The study focused on the role of Notch signaling in NMP differentiation and Hox gene expression. The researchers found that Notch signaling plays a crucial role in the induction of pro-mesodermal and Hox genes in NMPs, as well as in determining cell fate decisions and positional identity acquisition. The study provides insights into the complex mechanisms involved in embryonic development. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses a study on asymmetric cell divisions in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos and their role in cell fate decisions. The authors, Thomas Mullan and Richard Poole, explore the relationship between unequal cell cleavage and cell fate determination. They found that unequal cleavages precede the expression of a key transcription factor required for neuroblast specification. However, equalizing the cleavages did not affect cell fate, suggesting that daughter cell size does not significantly influence cell fate in this lineage. The study suggests that embryonic neuroblast cell size is regulated by the same mechanisms that regulate neuronal fate acquisition. [Extracted from the article]

Early industrialization and the development of cheap production processes for paper have led to an exponential accumulation of paper-based documents during the last two centuries. Archives and libraries harbor vast amounts of ancient and modern documents and have to undertake extensive endeavors to protect them from abiotic and biotic deterioration. While services for mechanical preservation such as ex post de-acidification of historic documents are already commercially available, the possibilities for long-term protection of paper-based documents against fungal attack (apart from temperature and humidity control) are very limited. Novel processes for mechanical enhancement of damaged cellulosic documents use Ionic Liquids (IL) as essential process components. With some of these ILs having azole-functionalities similar to well-known fungicides such as Clotrimazole, the possibility of antifungal activities of these ILs was proposed but has not yet been experimentally confirmed. We evaluated the potency of four ILs with potential application in paper restoration for suppression of fungal growth on five relevant paper-infesting molds. The results revealed a general antifungal activity of all ILs, which increased with the size of the non-polar group. Physiological experiments and ultimate elemental analysis allowed to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration of each IL as well as the residual IL concentration in process-treated paper. These results provide valuable guidelines for IL-applications in paper restoration processes with antifungal activity as an added benefit. With azoles remaining in the paper after the process, simultaneous repair and biotic protection in treated documents could be facilitated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distinction between worker and reproductive castes of social insects is receiving increased attention from a developmental rather than adaptive perspective. In the wasp genus Polistes, colonies are founded by one or more females, and the female offspring that emerge in that colony are either non-reproducing workers or future reproductives of the following generation (gynes). A growing number of studies now indicate that workers emerge with activated reproductive physiology, whereas the future reproductive gynes do not. Low nourishment levels for larvae during the worker-rearing phase of the colony cycle and higher nourishment levels for larvae when gynes are reared are now strongly suspected of playing a major role in this difference. Here, we present the results of a laboratory rearing experiment in which Polistes metricus single foundresses were held in environmental conditions with a higher level of control than in any previously published study, and the amount of protein nourishment made available to feed larvae was the only input variable. Three experimental feeding treatments were tested: restricted, unrestricted, and hand-supplemented. Analysis of multiple response variables shows that wasps reared on restricted protein nourishment, which would be the case for wasps reared in field conditions that subsequently become workers, tend toward trait values that characterize active reproductive physiology. Wasps reared on unrestricted and hand-supplemented protein, which replicates higher feeding levels for larvae in field conditions that subsequently become gynes, tend toward trait values that characterize inactive reproductive physiology. Although the experiment was not designed to test for worker behavior per se, our results further implicate activated reproductive physiology as a developmental response to low larval nourishment as a fundamental aspect of worker behavior in Polistes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper mulberry is one of the multifunctional tree species in agroforestry systems and is also commonly utilized in traditional medicine in China and other Asian countries. However, little is known about its molecular genetics, which hinders research on and exploitation of this valuable resource. To discern the correlation between gene expression and the essential properties of the paper mulberry, we performed a transcriptomics analysis, assembling a total of 37,725 unigenes from 54,638,676 reads generated by RNA-seq. Among these, 22,692 unigenes showed greater than 60% similarity with genes from other species. The lengths of 13,566 annotated unigenes were longer than 1,000 bp. Functional clustering analysis with COG (Cluster of Orthologous Groups) revealed that 17,184 unigenes are primarily involved in transcription, translation, signal transduction, carbohydrate metabolism, secondary metabolism, and energy metabolism. GO (Gene Ontology) annotation suggests enrichment of genes encoding antioxidant activity, transporter activity, biosynthesis, metabolism and stress response, with a total of 30,659 unigenes falling in these categories. KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) metabolic pathway analysis showed that 7,199 unigenes are associated with 119 metabolic pathways. In addition to the basic metabolism, these genes are enriched for plant pathogen interaction, flavonoid metabolism and other secondary metabolic processes. Furthermore, differences in the transcriptomes of leaf, stem and root tissues were analyzed and 7,233 specifically expressed unigenes were identified. This global expression analysis provided novel insights about the molecular mechanisms of the biosynthesis of flavonoid, lignin and cellulose, as well as on the response to biotic and abiotic stresses including the remediation of contaminated soil by the paper mulberry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our understanding of lineage decisions in early human development has been greatly aided by embryonic stem cell lines, which avoid many of the practical and ethical difficulties of in vivo material. A new paper in Development exploits naïve human embryonic stem cells to generate in vitro models for the extra-embryonic endoderm. We caught up with first authors Madeleine Linneberg-Agerholm and Yan Fung Wong, and their supervisor Josh Brickman, Professor of Stem Cell and Developmental Biology at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology (DanStem) in Copenhagen, to hear more about the work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From mathematical models of growth to computer simulations of pigmentation, the study of shell formation has given rise to an abundant number of models, working at various scales. Yet, attempts to combine those models have remained sparse, due to the challenge of combining categorically different approaches. In this paper, we propose a framework to streamline the process of combining the molecular and tissue scales of shell formation. We choose these levels as a proxy to link the genotype level, which is better described by molecular models, and the phenotype level, which is better described by tissue-level mechanics. We also show how to connect observations on shell populations to the approach, resulting in collections of molecular parameters that may be associated with different populations of real shell specimens. The approach is as follows: we use a Quality-Diversity algorithm, a type of black-box optimization algorithm, to explore the range of concentration profiles emerging as solutions of a molecular model, and that define growth patterns for the mechanical model. At the same time, the mechanical model is simulated over a wide range of growth patterns, resulting in a variety of spine shapes. While time-consuming, these steps only need to be performed once and then function as look-up tables. Actual pictures of shell spines can then be matched against the list of existing spine shapes, yielding a potential growth pattern which, in turn, gives us matching molecular parameters. The framework is modular, such that models can be easily swapped without changing the overall working of the method. As a demonstration of the approach, we solve specific molecular and mechanical models, adapted from available theoretical studies on molluscan shells, and apply the multiscale framework to evaluate the characteristics of spines from three distinct populations of Turbo sazae. Author summary: Connecting genotype to phenotype is a fundamental goal in developmental biology. While many studies examine this link in model organisms for which gene regulatory networks are well known, for non-model organisms, different techniques are required, and multiscale computational modeling offers a promising direction. In this paper, we develop a framework linking molecular-scale interactions to tissue-level growth and mechanics to organ-level characteristics in order to investigate spine formation in T. sazae, a species of mollusc that displays remarkable phenotypic plasticity in spine form. Our analysis uncovers a subtle but statistically significant difference in spine form between shell specimens collected from three different localities in Japan. Moreover, by tracing the difference in form through parametric differences in the multiscale framework, we provide mechanistic insight as to how environmental differences may translate to a change in form. The methodology we present may readily be extended to more detailed modeling of this system, and the conceptual framework is amenable for multiscale analysis in other systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Regulatory pathways in solitary species provide the raw materials for the evolution of sociality. Therefore, comparing the mechanisms that mediate reproductive plasticity in social species and their solitary ancestors can provide insight into the evolutionary origin of sociality. In many solitary insects, the effect of juvenile hormone (JH) on fertility is mediated through the fat body; individuals in good physical condition show a stronger fertility response to JH than individuals in poor physical condition. Here, we test whether a similar, condition-dependent JH response mediates fertility in workers of the primitively eusocial Polistes dominulus wasps. We test how body weight, JH, and adult nutrition influence worker ovarian development. Both JH-treatment and adult nutrition dramatically increased ovarian development. Body weight also influenced ovarian development, as large workers developed more eggs than smaller workers. Body weight and fat are strongly linked in P. dominulus workers, so these results suggest that the fat-dependent JH responsiveness common in solitary insects is conserved in social wasps. The simple, ancestral relationship between reproductive investment and physical condition may facilitate cooperation by allowing workers to adaptively allocate energy into reproduction based on their probability of successfully becoming a queen. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Peter Rugg-Gunn, a Group Leader and Head of Public Engagement at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK, discusses his career path and research interests in an interview. He focuses on the epigenome during early human development and is involved in establishing guidance in stem cell-based embryomodels. Rugg-Gunn highlights his research on the epigenetic stability of human embryonic stem cells and his postdoctoral work in Canada. He also discusses the differences in stem cell research policies between the US and Canada and his findings on bivalent chromatin modifications in embryonic stem cells. Rugg-Gunn emphasizes the importance of public engagement and policy-making in scientific research and his involvement in these areas. The text also provides an overview of the research activities of Rugg-Gunn's group, which focuses on understanding the establishment of the epigenome in human development and its impact on embryo development. They use human stem cells, embryo models, and embryos to study the molecular pathways involved in the initiation of epigenetic processes. The group is part of the HDBI, a consortium funded by Wellcome that supports research on human developmental biology and promotes collaboration among research groups. The group leader is also an Editor at Development, a journal that publishes important papers in the field. They believe that the field of human development will continue to grow and evolve, with diverse areas of expertise and the development of embryo models contributing to new insights. [Extracted from the article]

In light of the post-genomic era, epigenetics brings about an opportunity to better understand how the molecular machinery works and is led by a complex dynamic set of mechanisms, often intricate and complementary in many aspects. In particular, epigenetics links developmental biology and genetics, as well as many other areas of knowledge. The present work highlights substantial scopes and relevant discoveries related to the development of the term from its first notions. To our understanding, the concept of epigenetics needs to be revisited, as it is one of the most relevant and multifaceted terms in human knowledge. To redirect future novel experimental or theoretical efforts, it is crucial to compile all significant issues that could impact human and ecological benefit in the most precise and accurate manner. In this paper, the reader can find one of the widest compilations of the landmarks and epistemic considerations of the knowledge of epigenetics across the history of biology from the earliest epigenetic formulation to genetic determinism until the present. In the present work, we link the current body of knowledge and earlier pre-genomic concepts in order to propose a new definition of epigenetics that is faithful to its regulatory nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dr. Martha Jane Powell was a distinguished chytrid taxonomist and mentor who made significant contributions to the field of mycology. She began her career studying chytrid fungi and later focused on using zoospore ultrastructure to revise chytrid taxonomy. She also conducted research on host-parasite interactions and worked with various organisms including oomycetes and the clade that includes Rozella. Throughout her career, she mentored numerous students and authored over 160 papers and book chapters. Dr. Powell's impact on the field of mycology and her dedication to her students are remembered and celebrated. [Extracted from the article]