Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Maternal AP determinants in the Drosophila oocyte and embryo
An animal embryo cannot initiate its journey of forming a new life on its own. It must rely on maternally provided resources and inputs to kick‐start its developmental process. In Drosophila, the initial polarities of the embryo along both the anterior–posterior (AP) and dorsal–ventral (DV) axes are also specified by maternal determinants. Over the past several decades, genetic and molecular studies have identified and characterized such determinants, as well as the zygotic genetic regulatory networks that control patterning in the early embryo. Extensive studies of oogenesis have also led to a detailed knowledge of ...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - April 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Jun Ma, Feng He, Gengqiang Xie, Wu‐Min Deng Tags: Advanced Review Source Type: research

Altered development and function of the placental regions in preeclampsia and its association with long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids
The placenta is an essential organ formed during pregnancy that mainly transfers nutrients from the mother to the fetus. Nutrients taken up by the placenta are required for its own growth and development and to optimize fetal growth. Hence, placental function is an important determinant of pregnancy outcome. Among various nutrients, fatty acids, especially long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs), including omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, are essential for placental development from the time of implantation. Studies have associated these LCPUFAs with placental development through their roles in regulating oxidat...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - April 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Alka Rani, Nisha Wadhwani, Preeti Chavan‐Gautam, Sadhana Joshi Tags: Focus Article Source Type: research

Skeletal muscle fiber type: using insights from muscle developmental biology to dissect targets for susceptibility and resistance to muscle disease
Skeletal muscle fibers are classified into fiber types, in particular, slow twitch versus fast twitch. Muscle fiber types are generally defined by the particular myosin heavy chain isoforms that they express, but many other components contribute to a fiber's physiological characteristics. Skeletal muscle fiber type can have a profound impact on muscle diseases, including certain muscular dystrophies and sarcopenia, the aging‐induced loss of muscle mass and strength. These findings suggest that some muscle diseases may be treated by shifting fiber type characteristics either from slow to fast, or fast to slow phenotypes, ...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - April 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Jared Talbot, Lisa Maves Tags: Focus Article Source Type: research

A map of terminal regulators of neuronal identity in Caenorhabditis elegans
Our present day understanding of nervous system development is an amalgam of insights gained from studying different aspects and stages of nervous system development in a variety of invertebrate and vertebrate model systems, with each model system making its own distinctive set of contributions. One aspect of nervous system development that has been among the most extensively studied in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is the nature of the gene regulatory programs that specify hardwired, terminal cellular identities. I first summarize a number of maps (anatomical, functional, and molecular) that describe the terminal id...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - April 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Oliver Hobert Tags: Advanced Review Source Type: research

Issue information
(Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology)
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - April 13, 2016 Category: Biology Tags: Issue Information Source Type: research

Inside Cover Image, Volume 5, Issue 3
The inside cover image, by Kinya G. Ota and Gembu Abe, is based on the Overview Goldfish morphology as a model for evolutionary developmental biology, DOI: 10.1002/wdev.224. The inside cover image, by Kinya G. Ota and Gembu Abe, is based on the Overview Goldfish morphology as a model for evolutionary developmental biology, DOI: 10.1002/wdev.224. (Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology)
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - April 13, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Kinya G. Ota, Gembu Abe Tags: Cover Image Source Type: research

Cover Image, Volume 5, Issue 3
The cover image, by Tudor Fulga et al., is based on the Advanced Review Tiny giants of gene regulation: experimental strategies for microRNA functional studies, DOI: 10.1002/wdev.223. The cover image, by Tudor Fulga et al., is based on the Advanced Review Tiny giants of gene regulation: experimental strategies for microRNA functional studies, DOI: 10.1002/wdev.223. (Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology)
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - April 13, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Bruno R. Steinkraus, Markus Toegel, Tudor A. Fulga Tags: Cover Image Source Type: research

Tiny giants of gene regulation: experimental strategies for microRNA functional studies
The discovery over two decades ago of short regulatory microRNAs (miRNAs) has led to the inception of a vast biomedical research field dedicated to understanding these powerful orchestrators of gene expression. Here we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the methods and techniques underpinning the experimental pipeline employed for exploratory miRNA studies in animals. Some of the greatest challenges in this field have been uncovering the identity of miRNA–target interactions and deciphering their significance with regard to particular physiological or pathological processes. These endeavors relied almost exclusiv...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - March 7, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Bruno R. Steinkraus, Markus Toegel, Tudor A. Fulga Tags: Advanced Review Source Type: research

Goldfish morphology as a model for evolutionary developmental biology
Morphological variation of the goldfish is known to have been established by artificial selection for ornamental purposes during the domestication process. Chinese texts that date to the Song dynasty contain descriptions of goldfish breeding for ornamental purposes, indicating that the practice originated over one thousand years ago. Such a well‐documented goldfish breeding process, combined with the phylogenetic and embryological proximities of this species with zebrafish, would appear to make the morphologically diverse goldfish strains suitable models for evolutionary developmental (evodevo) studies. However, few mode...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - March 7, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Kinya G. Ota, Gembu Abe Tags: Overview Source Type: research

The molecular basis of craniofacial placode development
The sensory organs of the vertebrate head originate from simple ectodermal structures known as cranial placodes. All cranial placodes derive from a common domain adjacent to the neural plate, the preplacodal region, which is induced at the border of neural and non‐neural ectoderm during gastrulation. Induction and specification of the preplacodal region is regulated by the fibroblast growth factor, bone morphogenetic protein, WNT, and retinoic acid signaling pathways, and characterized by expression of the EYA and SIX family of transcriptional regulators. Once the preplacodal region is specified, different combinations o...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - March 7, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Sunita Singh, Andrew K. Groves Tags: Advanced Review Source Type: research

The specification and wiring of mammalian cutaneous low‐threshold mechanoreceptors
The mammalian cutaneous low‐threshold mechanoreceptors (LTMRs) are a diverse set of primary somatosensory neurons that function to sense external mechanical force. Generally, LTMRs are composed of Aβ‐LTMRs, Aδ‐LTMRs, and C‐LTMRs, which have distinct molecular, physiological, anatomical, and functional features. The specification and wiring of each type of mammalian cutaneous LTMRs is established during development by the interplay of transcription factors with trophic factor signalling. In this review, we summarize the cohort of extrinsic and intrinsic factors generating the complex mammalian cutaneous LTMR circu...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - March 1, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: William Olson, Peter Dong, Michael Fleming, Wenqin Luo Tags: Advanced Review Source Type: research

β‐catenin‐driven binary cell fate decisions in animal development
The Wnt/β‐catenin pathway plays key roles during animal development. In several species, β‐catenin is used in a reiterative manner to regulate cell fate diversification between daughter cells following division. This binary cell fate specification mechanism has been observed in animals that belong to very diverse phyla: the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the annelid Platynereis, and the ascidian Ciona. It may also play a role in the regulation of several stem cell lineages in vertebrates. While the molecular mechanism behind this binary cell fate switch is not fully understood, it appears that both secreted Wnt lig...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - March 1, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Vincent Bertrand Tags: Advanced Review Source Type: research

Understanding craniosynostosis as a growth disorder
Craniosynostosis is a condition of complex etiology that always involves the premature fusion of one or multiple cranial sutures and includes various anomalies of the soft and hard tissues of the head. Steady progress in the field has resulted in identifying gene mutations that recurrently cause craniosynostosis. There are now scores of mutations on many genes causally related to craniosynostosis syndromes, though the genetic basis for the majority of nonsyndromic cases is unknown. Identification of these genetic mutations has allowed significant progress in understanding the intrinsic properties of cranial sutures, includ...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - February 29, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Kevin Flaherty, Nandini Singh, Joan T. Richtsmeier Tags: Advanced Review Source Type: research

The rise of the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis as a model system to investigate development and regeneration
Reverse genetics and next‐generation sequencing unlocked a new era in biology. It is now possible to identify an animal(s) with the unique biology most relevant to a particular question and rapidly generate tools to functionally dissect that biology. This review highlights the rise of one such novel model system, the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. Nematostella is a cnidarian (corals, jellyfish, hydras, sea anemones, etc.) animal that was originally targeted by EvoDevo researchers looking to identify a cnidarian animal to which the development of bilaterians (insects, worms, echinoderms, vertebrates, mollusks...
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - February 20, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Michael J. Layden, Fabian Rentzsch, Eric Röttinger Tags: Overview Source Type: research

Issue information
(Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology)
Source: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology - February 19, 2016 Category: Biology Tags: Issue Information Source Type: research