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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

Crosstalk between the mTOR pathway and primary cilia in human diseases
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2023;155:1-37. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2023.09.004. Epub 2023 Nov 4.ABSTRACTAutophagy is a fundamental catabolic process whereby excessive or damaged cytoplasmic components are degraded through lysosomes to maintain cellular homeostasis. Studies of mTOR signaling have revealed that mTOR controls biomass generation and metabolism by modulating key cellular processes, including protein synthesis and autophagy. Primary cilia, the assembly of which depends on kinesin molecular motors, serve as sensory organelles and signaling platforms. Given these pathways' central role in maintaining cellular and physiologica...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - December 3, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Philipp P Prosseda Svenja Dannewitz Prosseda Matthew Tran Paloma B Liton Yang Sun Source Type: research

Patient stem cell-derived in vitro disease models for developing novel therapies of retinal ciliopathies
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2023;155:127-163. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2023.09.003. Epub 2023 Nov 4.ABSTRACTPrimary cilia are specialized organelles on the surface of almost all cells in vertebrate tissues and are primarily involved in the detection of extracellular stimuli. In retinal photoreceptors, cilia are uniquely modified to form outer segments containing components required for the detection of light in stacks of membrane discs. Not surprisingly, vision impairment is a frequent phenotype associated with ciliopathies, a heterogeneous class of conditions caused by mutations in proteins required for formation, maintenance and/or f...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - December 3, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Kamil Kruczek Anand Swaroop Source Type: research

Control of protein and lipid composition of photoreceptor outer segments-Implications for retinal disease
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2023;155:165-225. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2023.09.001. Epub 2023 Oct 5.ABSTRACTVision is arguably our most important sense, and its loss brings substantial limitations to daily life for affected individuals. Light is perceived in retinal photoreceptors (PRs), which are highly specialized neurons subdivided into several compartments with distinct functions. The outer segments (OSs) of photoreceptors represent highly specialized primary ciliary compartments hosting the phototransduction cascade, which transforms incoming light into a neuronal signal. Retinal disease can result from various pathomechanisms ori...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - December 3, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Markus Masek Ruxandra Bachmann-Gagescu Source Type: research

Functions of the primary cilium in the kidney and its connection with renal diseases
Curr Top Dev Biol. 2023;155:39-94. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2023.07.001. Epub 2023 Aug 16.ABSTRACTThe nonmotile primary cilium is a sensory structure found on most mammalian cell types that integrates multiple signaling pathways involved in tissue development and postnatal function. As such, mutations disrupting cilia activities cause a group of disorders referred to as ciliopathies. These disorders exhibit a wide spectrum of phenotypes impacting nearly every tissue. In the kidney, primary cilia dysfunction caused by mutations in polycystin 1 (Pkd1), polycystin 2 (Pkd2), or polycystic kidney and hepatic disease 1 (Pkhd1), resu...
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - December 3, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Kelsey R Clearman Courtney J Haycraft Mandy J Croyle James F Collawn Bradley K Yoder Source Type: research

The complex relationship of Wnt-signaling pathways and cilia
This article addresses these new insights and different links and relationships between cilia and Wnt signaling.PMID:38043953 | DOI:10.1016/bs.ctdb.2023.09.002 (Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology)
Source: Current Topics in Developmental Biology - December 3, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Linh T Vuong Marek Mlodzik Source Type: research