Cells and Development最新文献

{"title":"The evolutionary origin and mechanism of chordate tail regeneration. An ancient tale?","authors":"Wouter Masselink ,&nbsp;Prayag Murawala","doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2024.203988","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cdev.2024.203988","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Chordate tail regeneration represents the remarkable ability of some chordates to partially or completely regenerate a significant portion of their primary body axis. In this review we will discuss the chordate regenerative ability, what is known about the cellular sources which contribute to the regenerating tail, how various structures such as the spinal cord and vertebral column are re-established, and how scaling of the regenerating tail is regulated. Finally, we propose that tail regeneration is evolutionarily conserved and is fundamentally different from tail development however the origin and mechanism of this process remain elusive.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36123,"journal":{"name":"Cells and Development","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 203988"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142872630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comments on the Hox timer and related issues","authors":"Denis Duboule,&nbsp;Hocine Rekaik","doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2024.203991","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cdev.2024.203991","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>2024 not only marked the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the organizer by Hilde Pröscholdt-Mangold and Hans Spemann, but also the 40th anniversary of the discovery of the homeobox, a DNA region encoding a DNA binding peptide present in several transcription factors of critical importance for the gastrulating embryo. In particular, this sequence is found in the 39 members of the amniote <em>Hox</em> gene family, a series of genes activated in mid-gastrulation and involved in organizing morphologies along the extending anterior to posterior (AP) body axis. Over the past 30 years, the study of their coordinated regulation in various contexts has progressively revealed their surprising regulatory strategies, based on mechanisms acting in-cis, which can translate a linear distribution of series of genes along the chromatin fiber into the proper sequences of morphologies observed along our various body axes. The first regulatory layer is controlled by the <em>Hox</em> timer, a mechanism implementing a time-sequenced activation of these genes following their chromosomal order. Here, we discuss various aspects of this mechanism, emphasizing some of its singularities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36123,"journal":{"name":"Cells and Development","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 203991"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142903646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Head organizer: Cerberus and IGF cooperate in brain induction in Xenopus embryos","authors":"Yagmur Azbazdar ,&nbsp;Edgar M. Pera ,&nbsp;Edward M. De Robertis","doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2023.203897","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cdev.2023.203897","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Neural induction by cell-cell signaling was discovered a century ago by the organizer transplantations of Spemann and Mangold in amphibians. Spemann later found that early dorsal blastopore lips induced heads and late organizers trunk-tail structures. Identifying region-specific organizer signals has been a driving force in the progress of animal biology. Head induction in the absence of trunk is designated archencephalic differentiation. Two specific head inducers, Cerberus and Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), that induce archencephalic brain but not trunk-tail structures have been described previously. However, whether these two signals interact with each other had not been studied to date and was the purpose of the present investigation. It was found that Cerberus, a multivalent growth factor antagonist that inhibits Nodal, BMP and Wnt signals, strongly cooperated with IGF2, a growth factor that provides a positive signal through tyrosine kinase IGF receptors that activate MAPK and other pathways. The ectopic archencephalic structures induced by the combination of Cerberus and IGF2 are of higher frequency and larger than either one alone. They contain brain, a cyclopic eye and multiple olfactory placodes, without trace of trunk structures such as notochord or somites. A dominant-negative secreted IGF receptor 1 blocked Cerberus activity, indicating that endogenous IGF signals are required for ectopic brain formation. In a sensitized embryonic system, in which embryos were depleted of β-catenin, IGF2 did not by itself induce neural tissue while in combination with Cerberus it greatly enhanced formation of circular brain structures expressing the anterior markers <em>Otx2</em> and <em>Rx2a</em>, but not spinal cord or notochord markers. The main conclusion of this work is that IGF provides a positive signal initially uniformly expressed throughout the embryo that potentiates the effect of an organizer-specific negative signal mediated by Cerberus. The results are discussed in the context of the history of neural induction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36123,"journal":{"name":"Cells and Development","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 203897"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138810532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Towards an integrated view and understanding of embryonic signalling during murine gastrulation","authors":"Rhanna R. Haantjes ,&nbsp;Jeske Strik ,&nbsp;Joëlle de Visser ,&nbsp;Marten Postma ,&nbsp;Renée van Amerongen ,&nbsp;Antonius L. van Boxtel","doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.204028","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.204028","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>At the onset of mammalian gastrulation, secreted signalling molecules belonging to the Bmp, Wnt, Nodal and Fgf signalling pathways induce and pattern the primitive streak, marking the start for the cellular rearrangements that generate the body plan. Our current understanding of how signalling specifies and organises the germ layers in three dimensions, was mainly derived from genetic experimentation using mouse embryos performed over many decades. However, the exact spatiotemporal sequence of events is still poorly understood, both because of a lack of tractable models that allow for real time visualisation of signalling and differentiation and because of the molecular and cellular complexity of these early developmental events. In recent years, a new wave of <em>in vitro</em> embryo models has begun to shed light on the dynamics of signalling during primitive streak formation. Here we discuss the similarities and differences between a widely adopted mouse embryo model, termed gastruloids, and real embryos from a signalling perspective. We focus on the gene regulatory networks that underlie signalling pathway interactions and outline some of the challenges ahead. Finally, we provide a perspective on how embryo models may be used to advance our understanding of signalling dynamics through computational modelling.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36123,"journal":{"name":"Cells and Development","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 204028"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143985329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Transcending the hegemony of the molecular machine through an organic renewal of biology and biomedicine","authors":"Amy E. Shyer,&nbsp;Alan R. Rodrigues","doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.204018","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.204018","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The dominant approach to the study of living systems in the 20th century into today has been that of a reductionist approach focused on genetics and biochemistry. The hunt for genes and the elucidation of their biochemical outputs has organized funding in research, educational curricula, academic promotion, and the distribution of prestige through awards. Such reductionism has gone hand in hand with an ontology of the machine. We will discuss how viewing life as if it emanated from a set of molecular machines is the main bottleneck in addressing key questions in biology. We will discuss how moving beyond it is not contingent on new technologies but rather a refreshed perspective of life that can be termed “organic”.</div><div>Furthermore, we suggest that the study of how form arises, morphogenesis, is the key to an organic renewal of biology and biomedicine. Although morphogenesis is currently seen as a subsidiary branch of developmental biology as well as the consequence of molecular patterning processes at the subcellular scale, we will argue that morphology and its self-organizing capacity at the supracellular scale is the fundamental nexus in embryonic development as well as disease. We see the inability to appreciate form through an organic supracellular perspective as the principal bottleneck for making inroads into health issues such as cancer and the chronic disease epidemic.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36123,"journal":{"name":"Cells and Development","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 204018"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143617433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The role of the node in maintaining axial progenitors","authors":"Raffee Wright,&nbsp;Valerie Wilson","doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.204004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.204004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The production of the vertebrate body axis involves the coordinating activity of the organizer, which coincides in amniotes with the node in the gastrulating embryo. This organizer orchestrates nearby axial progenitor populations that produce the spinal cord and musculoskeleton. Various findings, discussed further in this review, suggest that some of these axial progenitors exhibit stem cell-like properties as they display maintenance behaviour such as self-renewal and sustained contribution to derivative tissues. We consider how the node acts to maintain and regulate these progenitor populations by providing mechanical forces and a niche-like signalling environment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36123,"journal":{"name":"Cells and Development","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 204004"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143426278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dynamic behavior of cell-cell adhesion factors in collective cell migration","authors":"Sayuki Hirano ,&nbsp;Kazuhiro Aoki ,&nbsp;Naoto Ueno","doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.203995","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.203995","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Collective cell migration is a fundamental process underlying various biological phenomena, including embryonic development and cancer cell invasion. The cohesive yet flexible movement of cell collectives largely depends on the coordinated regulation of cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesions. In this review, we summarize the regulation of key cell-cell junction components, such as cadherins and zonula occludens proteins during collective cell migration, with a particular focus on the recently discovered multifaceted roles of ZO-1 in both cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36123,"journal":{"name":"Cells and Development","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 203995"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143042587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Temporal regulation of endoderm convergence and extension by the BMP activity gradient through mesoderm-dependent and independent mechanisms","authors":"Chia-Teng Chang,&nbsp;Tony Tsai,&nbsp;Lila Solnica-Krezel","doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.204021","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.204021","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>One hundred years ago, Spemann and Mangold identified the organizer, a critical embryonic region that establishes vertebrate body axes by directing cell fate and morphogenesis. A conserved vertebrate mechanism involves the regulation of a ventral-to-dorsal BMP activity gradient during gastrulation by the organizer-expressed molecules. In zebrafish, BMP signaling controls mesodermal cell convergence and extension (C&amp;E) by inhibiting Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) signaling and regulating cell adhesion. This allows lateral cells to converge toward the dorsal midline while directing ventral cells toward the tail bud. However, BMP's role in endodermal cell movements and the temporal precision of its regulatory functions remain poorly understood.</div><div>Using optogenetics and other loss- and gain-of-function approaches, we investigated BMP's role in mesoderm and endoderm C&amp;E. We found that low BMP signaling promotes extension in both germ layers, whereas high BMP signaling inhibits their C&amp;E. Remarkably, BMP signaling activation for 1 h rapidly redirected dorsal to ventral migration of both mesodermal and endodermal cells. However, when BMP signaling was selectively elevated in endoderm in embryos with reduced BMP signaling, endoderm still mimicked mesodermal cell movements, indicating that endodermal responses to BMP are non-cell autonomous. We show that movements of endodermal cells in gastrulae with normal or elevated BMP signaling are not entirely dependent on mesoderm or the Cxcl12b/Cxcr4a GPCR pathway, suggesting additional mechanisms underlie endoderm C&amp;E.</div><div>Our findings highlight the critical role of the BMP morphogen gradient in coordinated C&amp;E movements of mesodermal and endodermal cells. BMP employs both direct and indirect mechanisms to ensure robust embryonic patterning and morphogenesis of germ layers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36123,"journal":{"name":"Cells and Development","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 204021"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143639900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A modular organization of mammalian gastrulation and the Spemann-Mangold organizer","authors":"Alfonso Martinez Arias ,&nbsp;André Dias ,&nbsp;Alexandra E. Wehmeyer ,&nbsp;Sebastian J. Arnold ,&nbsp;Ulla-Maj Fiúza","doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.204031","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cdev.2025.204031","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Studies in amphibian embryos revealed the existence of groups of cells, organizers, that play a central role in laying down the body plan. One, the Spemann-Mangold Organizer (SMO) is associated with the induction of the nervous system and the development of the head, whereas a second one has been linked with the development of the trunk and the tail. Homologues of these organizers have been described in other vertebrates. In the mouse, the SMO organizer has been associated with a region of the mid- early gastrula and the tail-trunk Organizer with the node. Altogether these observations suggest a modular organization of the vertebrate body plan into three domains. One, most anterior, competent to form the brain, a middle one, associated with neural induction and the head, and one dedicated to axial extension. Work with gastruloids, pluripotent stem cell models of mammalian development, reveal that these modules are independent developmental units. Here we discuss the relationship of the gastruloids findings to the activity of organizers in embryos and the implications of this modular organization for the evolution of the vertebrate body plan.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36123,"journal":{"name":"Cells and Development","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 204031"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144142541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"‘Three signals - three body axes’ as patterning principle in bilaterians","authors":"Christof Niehrs ,&nbsp;Ettore Zapparoli ,&nbsp;Hyeyoon Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2024.203944","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cdev.2024.203944","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In vertebrates, the three orthogonal body axes, anteroposterior (AP), dorsoventral (DV) and left-right (LR) are determined at gastrula and neurula stages by the Spemann-Mangold organizer and its equivalents. A common feature of AP and DV axis formation is that an evolutionary conserved interplay between growth factors (Wnt, BMP) and their extracellular antagonists (e.g. Dkk1, Chordin) creates signaling gradients for axial patterning. Recent work showed that LR patterning in <em>Xenopus</em> follows the same principle, with R-spondin 2 (Rspo2) as an extracellular FGF antagonist, which creates a signaling gradient that determines the LR vector. That a triad of anti-FGF, anti-BMP, and anti-Wnt governs LR, DV, and AP axis formation reveals a unifying principle in animal development. We discuss how cross-talk between these three signals confers integrated AP-DV-LR body axis patterning underlying developmental robustness, size scaling, and harmonious regulation. We propose that <em>Urbilateria</em> featured three orthogonal body axes that were governed by a Cartesian coordinate system of orthogonal Wnt/AP, BMP/DV, and FGF/LR signaling gradients.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36123,"journal":{"name":"Cells and Development","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 203944"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141914182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}