Z. Zack Ma , Michael A. Hale , Bishakha Mona , Ana Uruena , Jane E. Johnson
{"title":"PRDM13 is required for specification of PAX2 lineage inhibitory neurons in the developing cerebellum","authors":"Z. Zack Ma , Michael A. Hale , Bishakha Mona , Ana Uruena , Jane E. Johnson","doi":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.012","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Shared genetic developmental programs in which specific transcription factors affect similar cell fate decisions in distinct tissues are common. In the developing dorsal neural tube and cerebellum, PTF1A is essential for specification of GABAergic inhibitory neurons and suppression of alternative glutamatergic excitatory neuronal fates. Previous studies in the mouse dorsal neural tube identified the transcriptional repressor PRDM13 as a transcriptional target of PTF1A that functions to suppress the alternate cell fates to ensure precision in neuronal cell identity. The presence of PRDM13 in PTF1A + cerebellar progenitors suggests a similar role for PRDM13 in cerebellar neuronal specification. Cerebellar agenesis in humans with missense mutations in <em>PRDM13</em>, and perturbations in cerebellar development in <em>Prdm13</em> mutant mice and zebrafish, confirm PRDM13 requirement in this tissue. Here we add to these findings showing additional mutant alleles in mouse <em>Prdm13</em> phenocopy the perturbation in cerebellar cell fates seen with the absence of PTF1A, including loss of PAX2+ interneuron and Purkinje cell inhibitory neuronal lineages, increases in TLX3+ excitatory neuronal lineages, increased apoptosis, and reduced cerebellar size. Additional defects are seen in the placement of TBR1+ cerebellar cells. Thus, using <em>Prdm13</em> mutant mice, we support conclusions that PRDM13 functions to specify balanced numbers of inhibitory and excitatory neuronal progenitors in the developing cerebellum.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11070,"journal":{"name":"Developmental biology","volume":"527 ","pages":"Pages 17-25"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144728527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Potentials of RNA biosensors in developmental biology","authors":"Ehsan Pashay Ahi , Mehran Khorshid","doi":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>RNA-based/associated biosensors represent a rapidly expanding area of research, providing highly sensitive tools for detecting and monitoring RNA in diverse biological contexts. These sensors offer the ability to track RNA localization, modifications, and interactions in real-time, making them particularly well-suited for developmental biology research. Despite their demonstrated utility in fields such as diagnostics, synthetic biology and environmental science, the application of RNA biosensors in developmental biology has only begun to emerge within the past decade. This gap is notable given the potential of these tools to address key questions about spatiotemporal RNA regulation and cellular signaling during development. This perspective review presents a selection of RNA biosensors, including fluorescent RNA aptamers, CRISPR-Cas-based systems, riboswitches, and catalytic RNA sensors, which have gained attraction in other scientific disciplines. These tools can be used not only to study intrinsic RNA biology, such as RNA expression, splicing, and localization, but also to detect the effects of extrinsic physical and chemical factors, including pH, temperature, redox state, and mechanical stress, on RNA behavior during developmental processes. These examples illustrate how RNA biosensors could be adapted to study developmental mechanisms in model organisms, enabling investigations into RNA dynamics and their role in shaping developmental processes. By revisiting these underutilized tools, this review highlights their relevance for advancing the understanding of molecular mechanisms in developmental biology studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11070,"journal":{"name":"Developmental biology","volume":"526 ","pages":"Pages 173-188"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144722135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jessica Benito , Elizabeth McCulla , Raisa Sumaiya, Jia L. Song
{"title":"Proteins involved in cell division have broad developmental functions","authors":"Jessica Benito , Elizabeth McCulla , Raisa Sumaiya, Jia L. Song","doi":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Several proteins that are known to play a crucial role in mitosis may have alternative functions in embryogenesis. To test this hypothesis, we examined the spatial and temporal expression of the transcripts that encode proteins involved in mitosis throughout development, including those that encode for motor proteins, cytoskeletal elements and their modulators, vesicular transport, and cell cycle regulators. Results indicate that these transcripts have different expression patterns in various cell types. Interestingly, <em>Cyclin Dependent Kinase 1</em> (<em>CDK1</em>), <em>Polo Like Kinase 1</em> (<em>PLK1</em>), and <em>Aurora kinase</em> (<em>Aurk</em>) transcripts are expressed by endomesodermal cells of the blastula, the multipotent stem cells in coelomic pouches and/or the skeletogenic mesoderm of the gastrula that are not actively dividing. To further test that proteins important for mitosis may perform additional functions during embryogenesis, we treated embryos with CDK1, PLK1, and Aurk inhibitors, which resulted in a dose-dependent developmental arrest or delay and defects in gastrulation, skeletogenesis, and epithelial to mesenchymal transition. Further analysis indicates that the number of mesodermally-derived pigment cells is significantly less in CDK1 and PLK1 inhibited embryos and significantly increased in Aurk inhibited embryos. Importantly, the percentage of pigment cells undergoing cell proliferation in drug-treated embryos was not different than the control, indicating additional functions of CDK1, PLK1, and Aurk. Furthermore, PLK1 and Aurk may regulate ERK signaling to impact various developmental processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11070,"journal":{"name":"Developmental biology","volume":"527 ","pages":"Pages 1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144728528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nathaniel Noblett , Tony Roenspies , Chloe B. Kirezi , Clover Stubbert , Stephane Flibotte , Pavak K. Shah , Antonio Colavita
{"title":"IPPK-1 and IP6 contribute to ventral nerve cord assembly in C. elegans","authors":"Nathaniel Noblett , Tony Roenspies , Chloe B. Kirezi , Clover Stubbert , Stephane Flibotte , Pavak K. Shah , Antonio Colavita","doi":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Inositol phosphates (IPs) are essential for the development and function of the nervous system. Loss-of-function studies, which demonstrate the importance of specific IP isomers, show their critical role in proper neural tube formation. In this study, we show that inositol pentakisphosphate 2-kinase (IPPK-1), the kinase that phosphorylates IP5 to generate IP6, is involved in assembling the ventral nerve cord (VNC) in <em>C. elegans</em>. We show that mutations in <em>ippk-1</em> lead to the mispositioning of motor neurons along the VNC of newly hatched larvae. These positioning defects reflect disruption of VNC assembly during embryogenesis, as VNC neuronal progenitors in <em>ippk-1</em> embryos display a more compact organization after arising on the left and right sides of the embryo, delays in rosette-mediated convergent extension, and defects in cell intercalation. We further show that injection of exogenous IP6 into the gonads of <em>ippk-1</em> mutants can rescue both embryonic and neuron positioning defects. Our findings indicate that IP isomers, particularly IP6, are important for ventral nerve cord formation in <em>C. elegans</em>. Along with their role in neural tube formation in vertebrates, these results suggests that IP isomers play an ancient role in central nerve cord development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11070,"journal":{"name":"Developmental biology","volume":"526 ","pages":"Pages 159-172"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144674069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shubham Kale , Dimitri Traenkner , Ellison J. Goodrich , Satish R. Ghimire , Thomas M. Coate , Michael R. Deans
{"title":"PROX1 is necessary for cellular patterning, innervation and differentiation in the mouse organ of Corti","authors":"Shubham Kale , Dimitri Traenkner , Ellison J. Goodrich , Satish R. Ghimire , Thomas M. Coate , Michael R. Deans","doi":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The organ of Corti is divided into functional compartments responsible for hearing or cochlear amplification. A medial compartment containing inner hair cells innervated by Type I spiral ganglion neurons and a lateral compartment containing outer hair cells innervated by Type II spiral ganglion neurons. Supporting cells also differ, with lateral compartment pillar cells and Deiters' cells developing specialized cellular structures to support outer hair cell electromotility. We bred organ of Corti-restricted <em>Prox1</em> conditional knockout mice to study lateral compartment development because PROX1 is the first transcription factor expressed strictly in lateral compartment supporting cells. In the absence of <em>Prox1</em>, supporting cell numbers increased without corresponding changes in outer hair cells, and they appear incompletely differentiated based on morphological criteria. Outer hair cell number was not impacted but innervation was disrupted with many afferent neurons turning incorrectly towards the cochlear apex. RNAseq revealed no changes in gene expression that could account for the innervation phenotype. Therefore, we propose that PROX1 promotes pillar and Deiters’ cell differentiation and organization that has secondary effects on innervation but is not required for compartment specification.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11070,"journal":{"name":"Developmental biology","volume":"526 ","pages":"Pages 133-146"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144665619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quantifying convergent extension: Shih and Keller's quintessential work in developmental cell biology","authors":"Robert J. Huebner, John B. Wallingford","doi":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Few biological fields have become more intertwined in recent years than cell and developmental biology, a fact made clear by the departments of cell and developmental biology across the United States. And few papers better demonstrate the marriage of these fields than a pair of back-to-back papers in <em>Development</em> by John Shih and Ray Keller in 1992. The first describes the subcellular dynamics and cell movements that occur during amphibian axis elongation. The second takes a zoomed-out view, explaining how these cell movements are patterned across space and time to shape the early embryo. This triumph of description not only highlights the blurred line between cell and developmental biology but has been foundational for the field of animal morphogenesis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11070,"journal":{"name":"Developmental biology","volume":"526 ","pages":"Pages 128-132"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144658606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Outside Back Cover - Graphical abstract TOC/TOC in double column/Cover image legend if applicable, Bar code, Abstracting and Indexing information","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/S0012-1606(25)00194-0","DOIUrl":"10.1016/S0012-1606(25)00194-0","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11070,"journal":{"name":"Developmental biology","volume":"525 ","pages":"Page OBC"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144595995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chunmin Dong , Hongbing Liu , Jessica Chang , Eric Yang , Eddie Xu , Samir El-Dahr , Fenglei He
{"title":"Rac1 in nephron progenitor cells is essential for kidney development","authors":"Chunmin Dong , Hongbing Liu , Jessica Chang , Eric Yang , Eddie Xu , Samir El-Dahr , Fenglei He","doi":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Renal hypoplasia is a common congenital condition characterized by abnormally small kidneys with a reduced number of nephrons. During embryonic development, nephron formation relies on repetitive interactions between nephron progenitor cells (NPCs) and surrounding epithelial and stromal tissue, a process tightly regulated by genetic factors. NPCs are crucial to kidney development due to their self-renewal and multipotent abilities. Rac1 is a small GTPase and its mutation is implicated in multiple events of development and disease. While aberrant Rac1 activity has been linked to various kidney diseases, its role in NPCs remains unclear. In this study, we generated tissue-specific Rac1 knockout models in NPCs. Our data demonstrate that Rac1 deficiency disrupts cell cycle progression and reduces cell proliferation rates. Consequently, Rac1 conditional knockout kidneys exhibit fewer NPCs and nascent nephrons, resulting in a hypoplastic phenotype. Using qPCR and immunostaining, we further show that JNK signaling activity is downregulated in both Rac1-deficient NPCs and in vivo models. Conversely, expression of an autoactivated form of Rac1 (Rac1<sup>G12V</sup>) in NPCs increases NPC numbers per ureteric bud and enhances cell proliferation, accompanied by upregulated JNK signaling. We conclude that Rac1 plays a critical role in maintaining NPC proliferation and self-renewal, likely through the JNK signaling pathway.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11070,"journal":{"name":"Developmental biology","volume":"526 ","pages":"Pages 147-158"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144625577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Whitney J. Walker , Kirsten L. Underwood , Patrick I. Garrett , Kathryn B. Lorbacher , Shannon M. Linch , Thomas P. Rynes , Chloe Sloop , Karen Mruk
{"title":"Effects of age on the response to spinal cord injury: optimizing the larval zebrafish model","authors":"Whitney J. Walker , Kirsten L. Underwood , Patrick I. Garrett , Kathryn B. Lorbacher , Shannon M. Linch , Thomas P. Rynes , Chloe Sloop , Karen Mruk","doi":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Zebrafish are an increasingly popular model to study regeneration after spinal cord injury (SCI). The transparency of larval zebrafish makes them ideal to study cellular processes in real time. Standardized approaches, including age at the time of injury, are not readily available making comparisons of the results with other models challenging. In this study, we systematically examined the response to spinal cord transection of larval zebrafish at three different larval ages (3-, 5-, or 7-days post fertilization (dpf)) to determine whether the developmental complexity of the larvae affects the overall response to SCI. We then used imaging and behavioral analysis to evaluate whether differences existed based on the age of injury. Injury led to increased expression of cytokines associated with the immune response; however, we found that the timing of specific inflammatory markers changed with the age of the injury. We also observed changes in glial and axonal bridging with age. Young larvae (3 dpf) were better able to regenerate axons independent of the glial bridge, unlike older larvae (7 dpf), consistent with results seen in adult zebrafish. Finally, locomotor experiments demonstrated that some swimming behavior occurs independent of glial bridge formation, further highlighting the need for standardization of this model and functional recovery assays. Overall, we found differences based on the age of transection in larval zebrafish, underlining the importance of considering age when designing experiments aimed at understanding regeneration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11070,"journal":{"name":"Developmental biology","volume":"526 ","pages":"Pages 111-127"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144567260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Erica M. Nadolski, Isabel G. Manley, Sukhmani Gill, Armin P. Moczek
{"title":"Divergent Hox cluster collinearity in horned beetles reveals adult head patterning function of labial","authors":"Erica M. Nadolski, Isabel G. Manley, Sukhmani Gill, Armin P. Moczek","doi":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.07.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Hox</em> genes play critical roles in specifying the regionalization of the body axis across metazoa, with the exception of the anterior dorsal head of bilaterian animals, which instead is instructed by a deeply conserved set of non-<em>Hox</em> regulators. The anterior dorsal head is also a hot spot of evolutionary diversification, raising the question as to the developmental-genetic underpinnings of such innovation. Onthophagine dung beetles develop evolutionarily novel and highly diversified horns on the dorsal head used as weapons during intrasexual conflicts. Preliminary RNAseq data unexpectedly documented <em>Hox</em> gene expression in the dorsal head of premetamorphic onthophagine larvae. Motivated by this observation, we aimed to (i) investigate the genomic content and arrangement of the <em>Hox</em> cluster across three onthophagine species, and (ii) assess expression patterns and (iii) potential functions of the anterior Hox genes <em>labial, proboscipedia</em>, and <em>Deformed</em> in patterning the adult beetle head and cephalic horns. We document an unexpected derived <em>Hox</em> cluster configuration in the <em>Onthophagus sagittarius</em> genome, a species with apomorphic cephalic horn morphology. Yet despite this genomic rearrangement, embryonic expression patterns of <em>labial</em> and <em>proboscipedia</em> as well as the adult segment patterning functions of <em>proboscipedia</em> and <em>Deformed</em> were found to be conserved. In contrast, <em>labial</em> RNAi revealed an adult head patterning function outside horn-forming regions previously undescribed for any insect. Lastly, we show that electrosurgical ablation of the presumptive larval <em>labial</em>-expressing head region phenocopies this conspicuous adult <em>labial</em> RNAi defect. We discuss the implications of these data for current models of insect head development and diversification.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11070,"journal":{"name":"Developmental biology","volume":"526 ","pages":"Pages 70-81"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144567259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}