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RNA binding proteins in cardiovascular development and disease
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;156:51-119. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2024.01.007. Epub 2024 Mar 15.ABSTRACTCongenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect affecting>1.35 million newborn babies worldwide. CHD can lead to prenatal, neonatal, postnatal lethality or life-long cardiac complications. RNA binding protein (RBP) mutations or variants are emerging as contributors to CHDs. RBPs are wizards of gene regulation and are major contributors to mRNA and protein landscape. However, not much is known about RBPs in the developing heart and their contributions to CHD. In this chapter, we will discuss our current knowledge...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Sunil K Verma Muge N Kuyumcu-Martinez Source Type: research

The organizer: What it meant, and still means, to developmental biology
This article is about how the famous organizer experiment has been perceived since it was first published in 1924. The experiment involves the production of a secondary embryo under the influence of a graft of a dorsal lip from an amphibian gastrula to a host embryo. The early experiments of Spemann and his school gave rise to a view that the whole early amphibian embryo was "indifferent" in terms of determination, except for a special region called "the organizer". This was viewed mainly as an agent of neural induction, also having the ability to generate an anteroposterior body pattern. Early biochemical efforts to isola...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Jonathan Slack Source Type: research

Transport and gradient formation of Wnt and Fgf in the early zebrafish gastrula
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;157:125-153. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2023.12.003. Epub 2023 Dec 27.ABSTRACTWithin embryonic development, the occurrence of gastrulation is critical in the formation of multiple germ layers with many differentiative abilities. These cells are instructed through exposure to signalling molecules called morphogens. The secretion of morphogens from a source tissue creates a concentration gradient that allows distinct pattern formation in the receiving tissue. This review focuses on the morphogens Wnt and Fgf in zebrafish development. Wnt has been shown to have critical roles throughout gastrulation, includi...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Emma J Cooper Steffen Scholpp Source Type: research

The organizer and neural induction in birds and mammals
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;157:43-65. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2024.02.004. Epub 2024 Feb 21.ABSTRACTIn avian and mammalian embryos the "organizer" property associated with neural induction of competent ectoderm into a neural plate and its subsequent patterning into rostro-caudal domains resides at the tip of the primitive streak before neurulation begins, and before a morphological Hensen's node is discernible. The same region and its later derivatives (like the notochord) also have the ability to "dorsalize" the adjacent mesoderm, for example by converting lateral plate mesoderm into paraxial (pre-somitic) mesoderm. Both neural...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Claudio D Stern Source Type: research

Tissues and signals with true organizer properties in craniofacial development
In conclusion, craniofacial, neural crest-derived mesenchyme is competent to respond to tissues with organizer properties, also originating in the head. In future, we can exploit such well defined systems to dissect the molecular changes that ultimately lead to patterning of the upper and lower jaw.PMID:38556459 | DOI:10.1016/bs.ctdb.2023.12.002 (Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology)
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Shruti S Tophkhane Joy M Richman Source Type: research

Organizing activities of axial mesoderm
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;157:83-123. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2024.02.007. Epub 2024 Mar 15.ABSTRACTFor almost a century, developmental biologists have appreciated that the ability of the embryonic organizer to induce and pattern the body plan is intertwined with its differentiation into axial mesoderm. Despite this, we still have a relatively poor understanding of the contribution of axial mesoderm to induction and patterning of different body regions, and the manner in which axial mesoderm-derived information is interpreted in tissues of changing competence. Here, with a particular focus on the nervous system, we review the e...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Elizabeth Manning Marysia Placzek Source Type: research

Macrophage lineages in heart development and regeneration
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;156:1-17. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2024.01.004. Epub 2024 Feb 24.ABSTRACTDuring development, macrophage subpopulations derived from hematopoietic progenitors take up residence in the developing heart. Embryonic macrophages are detectable at the early stages of heart formation in the nascent myocardium, valves and coronary vasculature. The specific subtypes of macrophages present in the developing heart reflect the generation of hematopoietic progenitors in the yolk sac, aorta-gonad-mesonephros, fetal liver, and postnatal bone marrow. Ablation studies have demonstrated specific requirements for embryonic...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Na Xu Brittany A Gonzalez Katherine E Yutzey Source Type: research

Cardiac construction-Recent advances in morphological and transcriptional modeling of early heart development
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;156:121-156. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2024.02.005. Epub 2024 Feb 24.ABSTRACTDuring human embryonic development the early establishment of a functional heart is vital to support the growing fetus. However, forming the embryonic heart is an extremely complex process, requiring spatiotemporally controlled cell specification and differentiation, tissue organization, and coordination of cardiac function. These complexities, in concert with the early and rapid development of the embryonic heart, mean that understanding the intricate interplay between these processes that help shape the early heart remains hig...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Emily S No ël Source Type: research

The cardiac conduction system: History, development, and disease
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;156:157-200. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2024.02.006. Epub 2024 Mar 6.ABSTRACTThe heart is the first organ to form during embryonic development, establishing the circulatory infrastructure necessary to sustain life and enable downstream organogenesis. Critical to the heart's function is its ability to initiate and propagate electrical impulses that allow for the coordinated contraction and relaxation of its chambers, and thus, the movement of blood and nutrients. Several specialized structures within the heart, collectively known as the cardiac conduction system (CCS), are responsible for this phenomenon. ...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Carissa Lee Sidra Xu Tahmina Samad William R Goodyer Alireza Raissadati Paul Heinrich Sean M Wu Source Type: research

Computational approaches for mechanobiology in cardiovascular development and diseases
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;156:19-50. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2024.01.006. Epub 2024 Feb 5.ABSTRACTThe cardiovascular development in vertebrates evolves in response to genetic and mechanical cues. The dynamic interplay among mechanics, cell biology, and anatomy continually shapes the hydraulic networks, characterized by complex, non-linear changes in anatomical structure and blood flow dynamics. To better understand this interplay, a diverse set of molecular and computational tools has been used to comprehensively study cardiovascular mechanobiology. With the continual advancement of computational capacity and numerical techniqu...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Aaron L Brown Zachary A Sexton Zinan Hu Weiguang Yang Alison L Marsden Source Type: research

The role of metabolism in cardiac development
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;156:201-243. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2024.01.005. Epub 2024 Feb 9.ABSTRACTMetabolism is the fundamental process that sustains life. The heart, in particular, is an organ of high energy demand, and its energy substrates have been studied for more than a century. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in understanding the role of metabolism in the early differentiation of pluripotent stem cells and in cancer research. Studies have revealed that metabolic intermediates from glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle act as co-factors for intracellular signal transduction, playing crucial role...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Haruko Nakano Atsushi Nakano Source Type: research

The genetics of cardiomyocyte polyploidy
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;156:245-295. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2024.01.008. Epub 2024 Feb 6.ABSTRACTThe regulation of ploidy in cardiomyocytes is a complex and tightly regulated aspect of cardiac development and function. Cardiomyocyte ploidy can range from diploid (2N) to 8N or even 16N, and these states change during key stages of development and disease progression. Polyploidization has been associated with cellular hypertrophy to support normal growth of the heart, increased contractile capacity, and improved stress tolerance in the heart. Conversely, alterations to ploidy also occur during cardiac pathogenesis of diseases,...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Tyler Buddell Alexandra L Purdy Michaela Patterson Source Type: research

Genetics and etiology of congenital heart disease
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024;156:297-331. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2024.01.009. Epub 2024 Feb 15.ABSTRACTCongenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common severe birth anomaly, affecting almost 1% of infants. Most CHD is genetic, but only 40% of patients have an identifiable genetic risk factor for CHD. Chromosomal variation contributes significantly to CHD but is not readily amenable to biological follow-up due to the number of affected genes and lack of evolutionary synteny. The first CHD genes were implicated in extended families with syndromic CHD based on the segregation of risk alleles in affected family members. These have b...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - March 31, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Priyanka Narayan Felix Richter Sarah Morton Source Type: research