DevelopmentPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-06-02DOI: 10.1242/dev.204775
Kirill Ustyantsev, Mattia Stranges, Filippo Giovanni Volpe, Jan Freark de Boer, Folkert Kuipers, Stijn Mouton, Eugene Berezikov
{"title":"One probe fits all: a highly customizable modular RNA in situ hybridization platform expanding the application of SABER DNA probes.","authors":"Kirill Ustyantsev, Mattia Stranges, Filippo Giovanni Volpe, Jan Freark de Boer, Folkert Kuipers, Stijn Mouton, Eugene Berezikov","doi":"10.1242/dev.204775","DOIUrl":"10.1242/dev.204775","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>RNA in situ hybridization (ISH) is a key method for visualizing gene expression patterns in complex samples. ISH is indispensable for research in development, disease, gene function, and validation of novel cell types identified using single-cell sequencing methods. In non-mammalian models lacking accessibility to a broad spectrum of antibodies, ISH remains a major research tool. Available ISH protocols require different custom hybridization probe types, designs and/or proprietary signal detection chemistry. This makes it difficult for a beginner to navigate and increases research costs when multiple methods need to be applied. Here, we describe OneSABER, a unified open platform connecting commonly used canonical and recently developed single- and multiplex, colorimetric and fluorescent ISH approaches. OneSABER uses a single type of DNA probes adapted from the signal amplification by exchange reaction (SABER) method. We demonstrate the applications, versatility and efficiency of the OneSABER framework in whole-mount samples of the regenerative flatworms Macrostomum lignano and Schmidtea mediterranea and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded mouse intestinal sections. Comprehensive comparison of the most suitable ISH signal development techniques is discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12148028/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144186759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DevelopmentPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-05-29DOI: 10.1242/dev.204922
{"title":"The people behind the papers - Brian Eames.","authors":"","doi":"10.1242/dev.204922","DOIUrl":"10.1242/dev.204922","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Differentiation into the three main cell types of the vertebrate skeleton - immature chondrocytes, mature chondrocytes and osteoblasts - is influenced by two key transcription factors, Sox9 and Runx2. In a new paper in Development, Gomez-Picos et al. perform detailed analysis on the wider skeletal gene regulatory network in mouse embryos to understand how distinct Sox9- and Runx2-containing subnetworks influence skeletal cell fate. We spoke to corresponding author Brian Eames, Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, to find out more about this project he conducted with former lab members and co-first authors Patsy Gomez-Picos, Katie Ovens and Amir Ashique.</p>","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":"152 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144173073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DevelopmentPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-05-27DOI: 10.1242/dev.204361
Silvio A Traba, Lucas Bacigalupo, Daniella Fradin, Irene Talon, Ana C Heidenreich, Daniele Muraro, Jose Garcia-Bernardo, Christopher Gribben, Fatima Lugtu, Juan Ignacio Burgos, Agustín Romero, Mariya Chhatriwala, Adali Pecci, Ludovic Vallier, Santiago A Rodríguez-Seguí
{"title":"Endogenous glucocorticoid receptor activation modulates early-stage cell differentiation in pancreatic progenitors of mice and humans.","authors":"Silvio A Traba, Lucas Bacigalupo, Daniella Fradin, Irene Talon, Ana C Heidenreich, Daniele Muraro, Jose Garcia-Bernardo, Christopher Gribben, Fatima Lugtu, Juan Ignacio Burgos, Agustín Romero, Mariya Chhatriwala, Adali Pecci, Ludovic Vallier, Santiago A Rodríguez-Seguí","doi":"10.1242/dev.204361","DOIUrl":"10.1242/dev.204361","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding pancreatic development is instrumental to diabetes research and β-cell replacement therapies. Here, we investigate glucocorticoid receptor (GR) signaling during early pancreas development in mice and humans. Previous reports suggest that glucocorticoids do not play a significant role in mouse pancreas development before the second transition. In this study, we demonstrate that, under physiological conditions, the GR is selectively active in mouse pro-acinar and early endocrine cells from embryonic day 11.5, silenced in bipotent progenitors, and reactivated during endocrine commitment. In mouse pancreatic explants, ectopic GR activation globally promotes acinar fate. Surprisingly, GR activation in human in vitro-derived multipotent pancreatic progenitors steers lineage commitment toward a bipotent/endocrine trajectory and upregulates genes for which expression profiles resemble those of SOX9 and HES1 during human embryonic pancreatic bipotential and endocrine progenitor fate choice. Our combined epigenomic and single-cell transcriptomic analyses suggest that these newly identified marker genes may play important roles in human pancreas development. Taken together, our findings position the GR pathway as an endogenous developmental modulator of early-stage pancreatic progenitor cell differentiation and provide insights into the underlying transcriptional mechanisms involved.</p>","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143992168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DevelopmentPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-06-12DOI: 10.1242/dev.204583
Anupam Dey, Adam L MacLean
{"title":"Transition paths across the epithelial-mesenchymal transition landscape are dictated by network logic.","authors":"Anupam Dey, Adam L MacLean","doi":"10.1242/dev.204583","DOIUrl":"10.1242/dev.204583","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>During development and oncogenesis, cells transition reversibly from epithelial to mesenchymal states (epithelial-mesenchymal transition; EMT). Tristable EMT can be described by a three-node gene regulatory network in which multiple inputs regulate the transcription factor ZEB. In this network, and more generally, it is not known how to choose combinatorial network logic. Here, we discover that the choice of multiplicative (AND) versus additive (OR) network logic strongly affects EMT phenotypes and leads to opposing predictions regarding factors that control EMT transition paths. We show that strong inhibition of miR-200 destabilizes the epithelial state and initiates EMT for AND logic, in agreement with experimental data. Using single-cell data, stochastic simulations and perturbation analysis, we show how these results can be used to design experiments to infer EMT network logic in live cells. We go on to analyze networks controlling cell fate decisions during embryogenesis and show that, here too, logic changes cell fate landscapes upon perturbation in important ways. Our results stress the importance of considering logic in the construction of models of regulatory networks that govern cell fate decisions.</p>","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12188241/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144109582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DevelopmentPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-06-03DOI: 10.1242/dev.204277
Eleanor Zagoren, Nicolas Dias, Anderson K Santos, Zachary D Smith, Nadia A Ameen, Kaelyn Sumigray
{"title":"Evidence of secondary Notch signaling within the rat small intestine.","authors":"Eleanor Zagoren, Nicolas Dias, Anderson K Santos, Zachary D Smith, Nadia A Ameen, Kaelyn Sumigray","doi":"10.1242/dev.204277","DOIUrl":"10.1242/dev.204277","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The small intestine is well known for its nutrient-absorbing enterocytes; yet equally crucial for homeostasis is a diverse set of secretory cells, all presumed to originate from the same intestinal stem cell. Despite their major roles in intestinal function and health, understanding how the full spectrum of secretory cell types arises remains a longstanding challenge, largely due to their comparative rarity. Here, we investigate the specification of a rare population of small intestinal epithelial cells found in rats and humans but not mice: CFTR high expressers (CHEs). Using pseudotime trajectory analysis of single-cell RNA-sequencing data from rat jejunum, we provide evidence that CHEs are specified along the secretory lineage and appear to employ a second wave of Notch-based signaling to distinguish themselves from other secretory cells. We validate the transcription factors directing these cells from crypt progenitors and demonstrate that Notch signaling is necessary to induce CHE fate in vivo and in vitro. Our findings suggest that Notch reactivation along the secretory lineage specifies CHEs, which may help regulate luminal pH and have direct relevance in cystic fibrosis pathophysiology.</p>","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12188240/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144076655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DevelopmentPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-06-10DOI: 10.1242/dev.204505
Sarah S Soliman, Devan H Shah, Hana El-Samad, Zara Y Weinberg
{"title":"Small molecule- and cell contact-inducible systems for controlling expression and differentiation in mouse embryonic stem cells.","authors":"Sarah S Soliman, Devan H Shah, Hana El-Samad, Zara Y Weinberg","doi":"10.1242/dev.204505","DOIUrl":"10.1242/dev.204505","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Synthetic developmental biology uses engineering approaches to understand multicellularity with goals ranging from recapitulating development to building synthetic organisms. Current approaches include engineering multicellular patterning, controlling differentiation and implementing cooperative cellular behaviors in model systems. Synthetic biology enables these pursuits by providing tools to control cell behavior. Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) offer a well-studied and genetically tractable pluripotent model for pursuing synthetic development questions. However, there is minimal characterization of existing synthetic biology tools in mESCs. Here, we characterize three small molecule- and two cell contact-inducible systems for gene expression in and differentiation of mESCs. We show that small molecule- and cell contact-inducible systems work reliably and efficiently for controlling expression of arbitrary genetic payloads. We identify how these systems function differently across model differentiations. Furthermore, we show that these systems can drive direct differentiation of mESCs into neurons. Each of these systems can be used on their own or in combination, raising many possibilities for studying developmental principles with high precision.</p>","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12188245/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144076659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DevelopmentPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-06-02DOI: 10.1242/dev.204838
Jacinta I Kalisch-Smith
{"title":"Feto-placental blood vessel development.","authors":"Jacinta I Kalisch-Smith","doi":"10.1242/dev.204838","DOIUrl":"10.1242/dev.204838","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Development of the feto-placental blood vessels (human), or chorio-allantoic vasculature (mouse), is crucial for embryonic and fetal survival. While the processes governing embryonic vascular development are fairly well established, our understanding of feto-placental vascular formation is lagging decades behind. There are many unanswered questions in the field regarding potential progenitor populations, the timing of arterio-venous differentiation, the molecular cues that induce angiogenesis and the sources of these factors. In humans, particularly, there is little information on first-trimester placental vascular development or what pathologies may be caused by poor vascularisation. This Review discusses known processes of feto-placental blood vessel development in mice and humans, including their progenitors and derivatives (with their molecular markers), genetic knockouts and associated vascular phenotypes, trophoblast-endothelial signalling, co-occurrence with embryonic heart defects, genetic tools and imaging modalities targeting these vessels and pathologies that are impacted by vascular defects. Recent insight into early human placental vascularisation suggests it is more similar to the mouse than previously appreciated.</p>","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":"152 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12243455/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144198537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DevelopmentPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-06-10DOI: 10.1242/dev.204920
{"title":"The people behind the papers - Sarah Soliman and Zara Weinberg.","authors":"","doi":"10.1242/dev.204920","DOIUrl":"10.1242/dev.204920","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Tools built in synthetic biology can recapitulate developmental processes through spatial and temporal control of cellular behaviour, allowing researchers to study the principles of developmental biology. In this new study, Sarah Soliman, Zara Weinberg and colleagues present a collection of small molecule- and cell contact-inducible systems for controlling gene expression and differentiation in mouse embryonic stem cells. To find out more about this work, we caught up with first author Sarah Soliman and corresponding author Zara Weinberg, Staff Scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, USA.</p>","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":"152 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144257614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DevelopmentPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-05-29DOI: 10.1242/dev.204925
Karina Pombo-Garcia, Alexander Mietke
{"title":"In preprints: an evo-devo approach integrates multicellular shape diversity and active surface mechanics.","authors":"Karina Pombo-Garcia, Alexander Mietke","doi":"10.1242/dev.204925","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.204925","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":"152 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144173065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DevelopmentPub Date : 2025-06-01Epub Date: 2025-06-10DOI: 10.1242/dev.204606
Jonas Malkmus, Angela Morabito, Lucille Lopez-Delisle, Laura Avino-Esteban, Alexandre Mayran, Aimee Zuniga, James Sharpe, Rolf Zeller, Rushikesh Sheth
{"title":"WNT signaling coordinately controls mouse limb bud outgrowth and establishment of the digit-interdigit pattern.","authors":"Jonas Malkmus, Angela Morabito, Lucille Lopez-Delisle, Laura Avino-Esteban, Alexandre Mayran, Aimee Zuniga, James Sharpe, Rolf Zeller, Rushikesh Sheth","doi":"10.1242/dev.204606","DOIUrl":"10.1242/dev.204606","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Self-organization, such as the emergence of a pattern from a homogenous state, is a fascinating property of biological systems. Early limb bud outgrowth and patterning in mice are controlled by a robust and self-regulatory signaling system, and initiation of the periodic digit-interdigit pattern appears to be under the control of a self-regulatory Turing system. Previous studies established the requirement of WNT and BMP signaling for both early limb bud and digit-interdigit morphogenesis, but the molecular changes underlying the transition from early limb bud signaling to the digit-interdigit patterning system remained unknown. Here, we have used small molecule inhibitors to rapidly but transiently block WNT signaling to identify the early transcriptional targets that are altered during disruption and recovery of limb bud and digit development. Together, this study highlights the overarching role of WNT signaling in controlling early limb bud outgrowth and patterning, and the establishment of the periodic digit-interdigit pattern. Finally, the transient WNT signaling disruption approach reveals the plasticity and robustness of these self-organizing limb bud- and digit-patterning systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12188246/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144186761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}