Development & Differentiation
- Rejuvenating Tithonus
- 1 Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
- 2 Genome Institute of Singapore, Stem Cell & Developmental Biology Group, Department of Haematology/Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre and Harvard Medical School, Singapore Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Four recent publications, including one in this issue by Surani and colleagues, report that Prdm14 preserves the pluripotent stem cell state by inhibiting FGF signalling and global DNA methylation.
- Copyright © 2013 European Molecular Biology Organization
- Prdm14 promotes germline fate and naive pluripotency by repressing FGF signalling and DNA methylation
- Nils Grabole1,
- Julia Tischler1,
- Jamie A Hackett1,
- Shinseog Kim1,
- Fuchou Tang1,†,
- Harry G Leitch1,
- Erna Magnúsdóttir1 and
- M Azim Surani*,1
- 1 Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, and Wellcome Trust Medical Research Council Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1QN, UK
- ↵*Corresponding author. Tel:+44 (0)1223 334136; Fax:+44 (0)1223 334182; E-mail: a.surani{at}gurdon.cam.ac.uk
The transcription factor Prdm14 is a critical regulator of pluripotency and germline development. This study shows that Prdm14 represses DNA methylation and FGF signaling, thereby promoting both germ cell fate and naive pluripotency in ESC.
- Received November 22, 2012.
- Revision received April 17, 2013.
- Accepted April 18, 2013.
- Copyright © 2013 European Molecular Biology Organization
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Autophagy modulates miRNA‐mediated gene silencing and selectively degrades AIN‐1/GW182 in C. elegans
- 1 College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875
- 2 National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, 102206
- 3 State Key Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, PR China
- ↵*Corresponding author. Tel:+86 10 64848238; Fax:+86 10 64853925; E-mail: hongzhang{at}sun5.ibp.ac.cn
This study shows that during Caenorhabditis elegans development autophagy modulates miRNA‐mediated cell fate specification and that a key component of the miRISC, GW182, is selectively degraded by autophagy.
- Received November 30, 2012.
- Revision received April 8, 2013.
- Accepted April 9, 2013.
- Copyright © 2013 European Molecular Biology Organization
- The role of doublesex in the evolution of exaggerated horns in the Japanese rhinoceros beetle
- Yuta Ito1,†,
- Ayane Harigai1,†,
- Moe Nakata1,
- Tadatsugu Hosoya2,
- Kunio Araya2,
- Yuichi Oba3,
- Akinori Ito1,
- Takahiro Ohde1,
- Toshinobu Yaginuma1 and
- Teruyuki Niimi*,1
- 1 Laboratory of Sericulture & Entomoresources, Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464‐8601, Japan
- 2 Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Fukuoka, 819‐0395, Japan
- 3 Laboratory of Molecular Function Modeling, Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa Nagoya, 464‐8601, Japan
- ↵*Corresponding author. Tel:+81 52 789 4038; Fax:+81 52 789 4036; E-mail: niimi{at}agr.nagoya-u.ac.jp
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↵† These authors contributed equally to this work.
The doublesex (dsx) gene controls sex‐specific morphologies in a wide variety of animals. This study shows that dsx has an antagonistic role in male and female rhinoceros beetle head horn formation and suggests that this sex‐specific regulation of dsx was crucial for the evolution of exaggerated male horns.
- Received November 22, 2012.
- Revision received March 25, 2013.
- Accepted March 25, 2013.
- Copyright © 2013 European Molecular Biology Organization
- Brk regulates wing disc growth in part via repression of Myc expression
- Nikolaos Doumpas1,
- Marina Ruiz‐Romero2,
- Enrique Blanco2,
- Bruce Edgar3,
- Montserrat Corominas2 and
- Aurelio A Teleman*,1
- 1 German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Im Neuenheimer Feld 580, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany
- 2 Departament de Genètica and Institut de Biomedicina (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 643, Barcelona, 08028, Spain
- 3 German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) & Center for Molecular Biology Heidelberg (ZMBH), Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany
- ↵*Corresponding author. Tel:+49 6221 42 1620; Fax:+49 6221 42 1629; E-mail: a.teleman{at}dkfz-heidelberg.de
Dpp promotes Drosophila wing growth via inhibition of the transcriptional repressor Brinker. This study identifies Myc as a Brinker target, and shows that repression of Myc and the miRNA bantam explains part of the growth‐inhibiting activity of Brinker.
- Received August 14, 2012.
- Revision received December 14, 2012.
- Accepted December 17, 2012.
- Copyright © 2013 European Molecular Biology Organization
- Cellular promiscuity: explaining cellular fidelity in vivo against unrestrained pluripotency in vitro
- Gerald Schatten1
The differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into various progeny is perplexing. In vivo, nature imposes strict fate constraints. In vitro, PSCs differentiate into almost any phenotype. Might the concept of ‘cellular promiscuity’ explain these surprising behaviours?
- Copyright © 2013 European Molecular Biology Organization
- Repair or regenerate—how can we tip the balance?
The EMBO conference on ‘The Molecular & Cellular Basis of Regeneration and Repair’ was held in September 2012 and brought together researchers from the regeneration and wound healing fields. The meeting spanned a wide range of research topics from basic science to clinical applications.
- Copyright © 2012 European Molecular Biology Organization
- Lamins in development, tissue maintenance and stress
- 1 Department of Genetics, Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel
- ↵*Corresponding author. Tel: +972 2 6585995; Fax: +972 2 6586975; E-mail: gru{at}vms.huji.ac.il
Lamins are nuclear intermediate filament proteins. This review highlights some of the recent insights into the roles of different lamins in development, differentiation and tissue response to various cellular stresses.
- Received July 5, 2012.
- Accepted October 1, 2012.
- Copyright © 2012 European Molecular Biology Organization
- Regulation of mammalian cell differentiation by long non‐coding RNAs
- 1 Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142, USA
- 2 Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- 3 Department of Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- ↵*Corresponding author. Tel: +1 617 258 5216; Fax: +1 617 258 6768; E-mail: lodish{at}wi.mit.edu
Many long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are expressed in mammalian cells but their function is not well understood. This review discusses specific examples of lncRNAs that play a role in cell fate decisions/cellular differentiation and synthesizes emerging principles of lncRNA function.
- Received July 3, 2012.
- Accepted September 12, 2012.
- Copyright © 2012 European Molecular Biology Organization
- The flies of Icarus: science with wings in Crete
The eighteenth EMBO Conference on ‘The Molecular and Developmental Biology of Drosophila’ took place in Crete in June 2012. The talks highlighted the synergy of combining methods, approaches and disciplines in this increasingly versatile model system.
- Copyright © 2012 European Molecular Biology Organization
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