Articles

Distinct functions of the laminin β LN domain and collagen IV during cardiac extracellular matrix formation and stabilization of alary muscle attachments revealed by EMS mutagenesis in Drosophila

The Drosophila heart (dorsal vessel) is a relatively simple tubular organ that serves as a model for several aspects of cardiogenesis. Cardiac morphogenesis, proper heart function and stability require structural...

Authors: Dominik Hollfelder, Manfred Frasch and Ingolf Reim

Targeted germ line disruptions reveal general and species-specific roles for paralog group 1 hox genes in zebrafish

The developing vertebrate hindbrain is transiently segmented into rhombomeres by a process requiring Hox activity. Hox genes control specification of rhombomere fates, as well as the stereotypic differentiation o...

Authors: Steven E Weicksel, Ankit Gupta, Denise A Zannino, Scot A Wolfe and Charles G Sagerström

Detection of differential fetal and adult expression of chloride intracellular channel 4 (CLIC4) protein by analysis of a green fluorescent protein knock-in mouse line

Chloride Intracellular Channel 4 (CLIC4) is one of seven members in the closely related CLIC protein family. CLIC4 is involved in multiple cellular processes including apoptosis, cellular differentiation, infl...

Authors: VC Padmakumar, Katelyn E Masiuk, Dror Luger, Christina Lee, Vincenzo Coppola, Lino Tessarollo, Shelley B Hoover, Irina Karavanova, Andres Buonanno, R Mark Simpson and Stuart H Yuspa

Erratum to: evidence for the requirement of 14-3-3eta (YWHAH) in meiotic spindle assembly during mouse oocyte maturation

Authors: Santanu De and Douglas Kline

A detailed staging scheme for late larval development in Strongylocentrotus purpuratus focused on readily-visible juvenile structures within the rudiment

The purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, has long been the focus of developmental and ecological studies, and its recently-sequenced genome has spawned a diversity of functional genomics approaches.

Authors: Andreas Heyland and Jason Hodin

G1 checkpoint establishment in vivo during embryonic liver development

The DNA damage-mediated cell cycle checkpoint is an essential mechanism in the DNA damage response (DDR). During embryonic development, the characteristics of cell cycle and DNA damage checkpoint evolve from a...

Authors: Xiao Qi Wang, Kwok Kin Chan, Xiaoyan Ming, Vincent CH Lui, Randy YC Poon, Chung Mau Lo, Chris Norbury and Ronnie TP Poon

TGF-β1 induces senescence of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells via increase of mitochondrial ROS production

Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (bmMSCs) are multipotent cells that can differentiate into diverse cell types, including cardiomyocytes. BmMSC-based transplantation is capable of repairing acute and...

Authors: Junfang Wu, Jie Niu, Xiaopeng Li, Xianwei Wang, Zhikun Guo and Fenxi Zhang

Interaction of light regimes and circadian clocks modulate timing of pre-adult developmental events in Drosophila

Circadian clocks have been postulated to regulate development time in several species of insects including fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster. Previously we have reported that selection for faster pre-adult deve...

Authors: Pankaj Yadav, Madhumohan Thandapani and Vijay Kumar Sharma

Multiple modes of proepicardial cell migration require heartbeat

The outermost layer of the vertebrate heart, the epicardium, forms from a cluster of progenitor cells termed the proepicardium (PE). PE cells migrate onto the myocardium to give rise to the epicardium. Impaire...

Authors: Jessica S Plavicki, Peter Hofsteen, Monica S Yue, Kevin A Lanham, Richard E Peterson and Warren Heideman

Multiple transcription factors directly regulate Hox gene lin-39 expression in ventral hypodermal cells of the C. elegans embryo and larva, including the hypodermal fate regulators LIN-26 and ELT-6

Hox genes encode master regulators of regional fate specification during early metazoan development. Much is known about the initiation and regulation of Hox gene expression in Drosophila and vertebrates, but ...

Authors: Wan-Ju Liu, John S Reece-Hoyes, Albertha JM Walhout and David M Eisenmann

Construction of a cDNA library for miniature pig mandibular deciduous molars

The miniature pig provides an excellent experimental model for tooth morphogenesis because its diphyodont and heterodont dentition resembles that of humans. However, little information is available on the proc...

Authors: Tieli Song, Tingting Wu, Fulan Wei, Ang Li, Fu Wang, Yilin Xie, Dayong Liu, Zhipeng Fan, Xuejiu Wang, Shan Cheng, Chunmei Zhang, Junqi He and Songlin Wang

Integrated proteomic and transcriptomic analysis of the Aedes aegyptieggshell

Mosquito eggshells show remarkable diversity in physical properties and structure consistent with adaptations to the wide variety of environments exploited by these insects. We applied proteomic, transcriptomi...

Authors: Osvaldo Marinotti, Tuan Ngo, Bianca B Kojin, Shao-Pei Chou, Brian Nguyen, Jennifer Juhn, Rebeca Carballar-Lejarazú, Pedro N Marinotti, Xiaofang Jiang, Marika F Walter, Zhijian Tu, Paul D Gershon and Anthony A James

Mechanisms underlying dual effects of serotonin during development of Helisoma trivolvis(Mollusca)

Serotonin (5-HT) is well known as widely distributed modulator of developmental processes in both vertebrates and invertebrates. It is also the earliest neurotransmitter to appear during neuronal development. ...

Authors: Konstantin Glebov, Elena E Voronezhskaya, Marina Yu Khabarova, Evgeny Ivashkin, Leonid P Nezlin and Evgeni G Ponimaskin

Erratum to: Desmosomal cadherins in zebrafish epiboly and gastrulation

Authors: Alexander Goonesinghe, Xing-Ming Luan, Adam Hurlstone and David Garrod

Craniofacial divergence by distinct prenatal growth patterns in Fgfr2 mutant mice

Differences in cranial morphology arise due to changes in fundamental cell processes like migration, proliferation, differentiation and cell death driven by genetic programs. Signaling between fibroblast growt...

Authors: Susan M Motch Perrine, Theodore M Cole III, Neus Martínez-Abadías, Kristina Aldridge, Ethylin Wang Jabs and Joan T Richtsmeier

Regular heartbeat rhythm at the heartbeat initiation stage is essential for normal cardiogenesis at low temperature

The development of blood flow in the heart is crucial for heart function and embryonic survival. Recent studies have revealed the importance of the extracellular matrix and the mechanical stress applied to the...

Authors: Tomomi Watanabe-Asaka, Yoshio Sekiya, Hironori Wada, Takako Yasuda, Ikuya Okubo, Shoji Oda and Hiroshi Mitani

Primary culture of avian embryonic heart forming region cells to study the regulation of vertebrate early heart morphogenesis by vitamin A

Important knowledge about the role of vitamin A in vertebrate heart development has been obtained using the vitamin A-deficient avian in ovo model which enables the in vivo examination of very early stages of ver...

Authors: Inese Cakstina, Una Riekstina, Martins Boroduskis, Ilva Nakurte, Janis Ancans, Maija H Zile and Indrikis Muiznieks

Chitosan/siRNA nanoparticle targeting demonstrates a requirement for single-minded during larval and pupal olfactory system development of the vector mosquito Aedes aegypti

Essentially nothing is known about the genetic regulation of olfactory system development in vector mosquitoes, which use olfactory cues to detect blood meal hosts. Studies in Drosophila melanogaster have identif...

Authors: Keshava Mysore, Emily Andrews, Ping Li and Molly Duman-Scheel

Functional modifications associated with gastrointestinal tract organogenesis during metamorphosis in Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus)

Flatfish metamorphosis is a hormone regulated post-embryonic developmental event that transforms a symmetric larva into an asymmetric juvenile. In altricial-gastric teleost fish, differentiation of the stomach...

Authors: Ana S Gomes, Yuko Kamisaka, Torstein Harboe, Deborah M Power and Ivar Rønnestad

Electroablation: a method for neurectomy and localized tissue injury

Tissue injury has been employed to study diverse biological processes such as regeneration and inflammation. In addition to physical or surgical based methods for tissue injury, current protocols for localized...

Authors: José Moya-Díaz, Oscar A Peña, Mario Sánchez, Daniela A Ureta, Nicole G Reynaert, Consuelo Anguita-Salinas, Gonzalo Marín and Miguel L Allende

Dual roles for ubiquitination in the processing of sperm organelles after fertilization

The process of fertilization involves a cell fusion event between the sperm and oocyte. Although sperm contain mitochondria when they fuse with the oocyte, paternal mitochondrial genomes do not persist in offs...

Authors: Connie Hajjar, Katherine M Sampuda and Lynn Boyd

Metabolomic insights into system-wide coordination of vertebrate metamorphosis

After completion of embryogenesis, many organisms experience an additional obligatory developmental transition to attain a substantially different juvenile or adult form. During anuran metamorphosis, the aquat...

Authors: Taka-Aki Ichu, Jun Han, Christoph H Borchers, Mary Lesperance and Caren C Helbing

The natural insect peptide Neb-colloostatin induces ovarian atresia and apoptosis in the mealworm Tenebrio molitor

The injection of Neb-colloostatin into T. molitor females causes gonadoinhibitory effects on ovarian development. This peptide inhibits intercellular space formation (patency) in follicular epithelium and results...

Authors: Elżbieta Czarniewska, Grzegorz Rosiński, Elżbieta Gabała and Mariola Kuczer

Distinct contextual roles for Notch signalling in skeletal muscle stem cells

Notch signalling acts in virtually every tissue during the lifetime of metazoans. Recent studies have pointed to multiple roles for Notch in stem cells during quiescence, proliferation, temporal specification,...

Authors: Philippos Mourikis and Shahragim Tajbakhsh

Neural crest-specific deletion of Ldb1 leads to cleft secondary palate with impaired palatal shelf elevation

LIM domain binding protein 1 (LDB1) is a transcriptional co-factor, which interacts with multiple transcription factors and other proteins containing LIM domains. Complete inactivation of Ldb1 in mice resulted in...

Authors: Asma Almaidhan, Jeffry Cesario, Andre Landin Malt, Yangu Zhao, Neeti Sharma, Veronica Choi and Juhee Jeong

Reviewer acknowledgement 2013

The editors of BMC Developmental Biology would like to thank all our reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 13 (2013).

Authors: Philippa K Harris

The precise timeline of transcriptional regulation reveals causation in mouse somitogenesis network

In vertebrate development, the segmental pattern of the body axis is established as somites, masses of mesoderm distributed along the two sides of the neural tube, are formed sequentially in the anterior-poste...

Authors: Bernard Fongang and Andrzej Kudlicki

Erratum to: The dermomyotome ventrolateral lip is essential for the hypaxial myotome formation

Authors: Qin Pu, Aisha Abduelmula, Maryna Masyuk, Carsten Theiss, Dieter Swandulla, Michael Hans, Ketan Patel, Beate Brand-Saberi and Ruijin Huang

The Krüppel-like factor 2 and Krüppel-like factor 4 genes interact to maintain endothelial integrity in mouse embryonic vasculogenesis

Krüppel-like Factor 2 (KLF2) plays an important role in vessel maturation during embryonic development. In adult mice, KLF2 regulates expression of the tight junction protein occludin, which may allow KLF2 to ...

Authors: Aditi R Chiplunkar, Benjamin C Curtis, Gabriel L Eades, Megan S Kane, Sean J Fox, Jack L Haar and Joyce A Lloyd

Differential requirement for Dab2 in the development of embryonic and extra-embryonic tissues

Disabled-2 (Dab2) is an endocytic adaptor protein involved in clathrin-mediated endocytosis and cargo trafficking. Since its expression is lost in several cancer types, Dab2 has been suggested to be a tumor su...

Authors: Robert Moore, Kathy Qi Cai, Wensi Tao, Elizabeth R Smith and Xiang-Xi Xu

c-kit expression profile and regulatory factors during spermatogonial stem cell differentiation

It has been proven that c-kit is crucial for proliferation, migration, survival and maturation of spermatogenic cells. A periodic expression of c-kit is observed from primordial germ cells (PGCs) to spermatogenet...

Authors: Lei Zhang, Jiangjing Tang, Christopher J Haines, Huai Feng, Liangxue Lai, Xiaoming Teng and Yibing Han

The dermomyotome ventrolateral lip is essential for the hypaxial myotome formation

The myotome is the primitive skeletal muscle that forms within the embryonic metameric body wall. It can be subdivided into an epaxial and hypaxial domain. It has been shown that the formation of the epaxial m...

Authors: Qin Pu, Aisha Abduelmula, Maryna Masyuk, Carsten Theiss, Dieter Schwandulla, Michael Hans, Ketan Patel, Beate Brand-Saberi and Ruijin Huang

NumbL is essential for Xenopusprimary neurogenesis

Members of the vertebrate Numb family of cell fate determinants serve multiple functions throughout early embryogenesis, including an essential role in the development of the nervous system. The Numb proteins ...

Authors: Frank Nieber, Marie Hedderich, Olaf Jahn, Tomas Pieler and Kristine A Henningfeld

The expression of diacylglycerol kinase theta during the organogenesis of mouse embryos

Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) is a key enzyme that regulates diacylglycerol (DG) turnover and is involved in a variety of physiological functions. The isoform DGKθ has a unique domain structure and is the sole m...

Authors: Shuji Ueda, Becky Tu-Sekine, Minoru Yamanoue, Daniel M Raben and Yasuhito Shirai

Human amniotic fluid stem cells have a potential to recover ovarian function in mice with chemotherapy-induced sterility

Human amniotic fluid cells (hAFCs) may differentiate into multiple cell lineages and thus have a great potential to become a donor cell source for regenerative medicine. The ability of hAFCs to differentiate i...

Authors: Dongmei Lai, Fangyuan Wang, Yifei Chen, Li Wang, Yanlin Wang and Weiwei Cheng

Conditional and constitutive expression of a Tbx1-GFP fusion protein in mice

Velo-cardio-facial syndrome/DiGeorge syndrome (VCFS/DGS) is caused by a 1.5-3 Mb microdeletion of chromosome 22q11.2, frequently referred to as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS). This region includes TBX1, a T-...

Authors: Laina Freyer, Sonja Nowotschin, Melinda K Pirity, Antonio Baldini and Bernice E Morrow

Changes in sub-cellular localisation of trophoblast and inner cell mass specific transcription factors during bovine preimplantation development

Preimplantation bovine development is emerging as an attractive experimental model, yet little is known about the mechanisms underlying trophoblast (TE)/inner cell mass (ICM) segregation in cattle. To gain an ...

Authors: Zofia E Madeja, Jaroslaw Sosnowski, Kamila Hryniewicz, Ewelina Warzych, Piotr Pawlak, Natalia Rozwadowska, Berenika Plusa and Dorota Lechniak

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