Versatile system cores as a conceptual basis for generality in cell and developmental biology.

The discovery of general principles underlying the complexity and diversity of cellular and developmental systems is a central and long-standing aim of biology. While new technologies collect data at an ever-accelerating rate, there is growing concern that conceptual progress is not keeping pace. We contend that this is due to a paucity of conceptual frameworks that support meaningful generalizations. This led us to develop the core and periphery (C&P) hypothesis, which posits that many biological systems can be decomposed into a highly versatile core with a large behavioral repertoire and a specific periphery that configures said core to perform one particular function. Versatile cores tend to be widely reused across biology, which confers generality to theories describing them. Here, we introduce this concept and describe examples at multiple scales, including Turing patterning, actomyosin dynamics, multi-cellular morphogenesis, and vertebrate gastrulation. We also sketch its evolutionary basis and discuss key implications and open questions. We propose that the C&P hypothesis could unlock new avenues of conceptual progress in mesoscale biology.

The people behind the papers - Yasmine el Azhar and Ina Sonnen.

Hes proteins are transcription factors that are dynamically expressed during embryonic development, but it remains unclear how the oscillations in Hes expression differ across cell types during development. In this new study, Ina Sonnen and colleagues find that the Notch-driven Hes1 oscillation dynamics in the mouse embryonic tail are cell-type specific. To find out more about the story behind the paper, we caught up with first author Yasmine el Azhar and corresponding author Ina Sonnen, Group Leader at the Hubrecht Institute, The Netherlands.

Human developmental biology - a global perspective.

In the companion Perspective 'Past and future of human developmental biology' (Hopwood, 2024), historian Nick Hopwood proposes that the field of human developmental biology has gone through periods of attention and neglect. Development invited researchers from the field to respond to this idea. In this article, published to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Development's 'From Stem Cells to Human Development' meeting, researchers from eight countries comment on how they believe their local legal, political, regulatory, societal and technological frameworks are influencing the field's trajectory.

Past and future of human developmental biology.

Research directly on human embryos has gone through cycles of interest and neglect. The recent revitalization, including the making of 'human developmental biology', depended on fresh supplies of material and demand for medically relevant work. Human studies relied on mice but rejected simple extrapolation from this model mammal. Now, it is time to take stock while scanning the horizon for further change. Will research on human development be facilitated or frustrated? Will comparative approaches bring a greater variety of animal models into the picture? Will human stem-cell-based embryo models secure ever larger roles as exemplars of vertebrate development?

Meeting report of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Developmental Biologists.

The 57th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Developmental Biologists was held at Miyako Messe and ROHM Theater Kyoto from June 19 to 22, 2024. After the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the first meeting where all restrictions were removed. This year's theme was "Breaking Through Boundaries." It was set to be enjoyed by everyone across academic fields and nationalities. About 600 people from 16 countries participated in this meeting. Four workshops, 117 posters, 16 oral sessions (80 titles), 7 symposia, 2 plenary lectures, and various other formats ware included. I would like to share some of the lively discussions and wonderful sessions that I attended.

The people behind the papers - Joey Ghersi and Stefania Nicoli.

Akt is believed to be important for vascular development, but complex tissue-specific loss-of-function studies have been difficult in mice because of embryonic lethality. In a new study, Wenping Zhou, Joey Ghersi, Stefania Nicoli and colleagues report the phenotype of a complete Akt mutant zebrafish and its role in arterial specification via Notch signaling. To learn more about their work, we spoke with corresponding authors Joey Ghersi, Assistant Professor at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Sainte-Justine, Canada, and Stefania Nicoli, Associate Professor Tenure at Yale University, USA.

Transitions in development - an interview with Margarete Diaz Cuadros.

Margarete is a Junior Fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, USA. Margarete's group (www.diazcuadroslab.org) seeks to reveal the molecular, metabolic and genetic regulation of developmental timing in animals using in vivo and in vitro approaches. We spoke to Margarete over Teams to learn more about her transition to becoming a group leader, her philosophy for creating a positive lab environment and the importance of removing barriers for under-represented communities in science.

The people behind the papers - Carolyn Remsburg and Jia Song.

miR-31, an evolutionarily conserved microRNA, has been studied in different contexts, such as myogenesis, skeletogenesis and cancer; however, its role in post-transcriptional regulation during development is still unclear. In a new study, Jia Song and colleagues find that miR-31 regulates local translation of cytoskeletal remodelling transcripts at the mitotic spindle to ensure proper cell division during sea urchin embryogenesis. To find out more about the story behind the paper, we caught up with first author Carolyn Remsburg and Jia Song, Associate Professor at the University of Delaware, USA.

A personal view on developmental and comparative immunology: What, how and why?

What are the future directions of the fields of developmental and comparative immunology? In thinking through this question as I write, I find myself marvelling at the very long ways that we have come since I began as a PhD student some 50 years ago. I think that we cannot know what technical and theoretical advances will emerge in the future, nor will our initial aims survive the realities of what appears in our sights, often from unexpected directions. I feel that we should not allow what we already know about some well-studied systems to blind us to the wide range of possibilities, and that remaining a humble seeker helps the uptake of new realities. Finally, it would be good to try answering the whole range of questions about developmental and comparative immunology, from what to how to why.

Open-source, high-throughput targeted in situ transcriptomics for developmental and tissue biology.

Multiplexed spatial profiling of mRNAs has recently gained traction as a tool to explore the cellular diversity and the architecture of tissues. We propose a sensitive, open-source, simple and flexible method for the generation of in situ expression maps of hundreds of genes. We use direct ligation of padlock probes on mRNAs, coupled with rolling circle amplification and hybridization-based in situ combinatorial barcoding, to achieve high detection efficiency, high-throughput and large multiplexing. We validate the method across a number of species and show its use in combination with orthogonal methods such as antibody staining, highlighting its potential value for developmental and tissue biology studies. Finally, we provide an end-to-end computational workflow that covers the steps of probe design, image processing, data extraction, cell segmentation, clustering and annotation of cell types. By enabling easier access to high-throughput spatially resolved transcriptomics, we hope to encourage a diversity of applications and the exploration of a wide range of biological questions.

Pathway to Independence - an interview with Eirini Maniou.

Eirini Maniou completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Patras, Greece, before moving to the UK to complete a Master's at the University of Bath and a PhD at the University of Dundee. For her postdoctoral work at University College London, Eirini turned her attention to neural tube morphogenesis, and she is now employing engineering principles to explore this developmental process at the University of Padua, Italy, where she is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions postdoctoral fellow. Eirini was selected as one of our 2024 PI fellows, a group of researchers who will be supported by Development's Pathway to Independence Programme as they aim to secure independent positions. We spoke to Eirini to hear more about her career so far, why she decided to apply to the programme and what research questions she would like to address with her own group.

Pathway to Independence - an interview with Keaton Schuster.

Keaton Schuster completed his PhD in the lab of Rachel Smith-Bolton at the University of Illinois, USA, investigating Drosophila wing disc regeneration before joining Lionel Christiaen's lab at New York University, USA, for his postdoc studying heart regeneration in the chordate tunicate Ciona robusta (formerly Ciona intestinalis type A). Keaton is part of the second cohort of Development's Pathway to Independence Programme fellows and we spoke to him over Teams to learn more about his career to date and his future plans for starting his own group continuing to use emerging model systems to study cardiac regeneration.

Pathway to Independence - an interview with Lydia Djenoune.

Lydia Djenoune completed her PhD in the labs of Claire Wyart at the Paris Brain Institute in France and of Hervé Tostivint at the French National Museum of Natural History. She is currently an Instructor in Medicine in Shiaulou Yuan's lab at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School. Lydia is interested in the role of calcium signalling, cilia and polycystin channels in cardiac development using the zebrafish model. This year, Lydia became one of Development's second cohort of Pathway to Independence Programme fellows. We spoke to her over Teams to learn more about her career path so far, the importance of outreach and representation in science, and her plans for her own research group.

The people behind the papers - James O'Sullivan and Zoë Mann.

To build a functional inner ear, hair cell morphology must be precisely controlled along the proximo-distal axis. A new paper in Development shows that differential mitochondrial dynamics in proximal versus distal cells impacts on the apical cell surface area - a key aspect of morphology. To find out more about this work, we spoke to first author James O'Sullivan and senior author Zoë Mann, both at King's College London, UK.

Pathway to Independence - an interview with Clémentine Villeneuve.

Clémentine Villeneuve is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Germany, where her research focuses on the role of mechanobiology in driving stem cell fate specification and tissue patterning during development. Clémentine is one of the fellows of Development's Pathway to Independence Programme, and we caught up with her over Zoom to find out more about her research background, her hopes for the programme and her future research questions.

Uncovering developmental diversity in the field.

Many developmental biologists seldom leave the lab for research, relying instead on establishing colonies of traditional and emerging model systems. However, to fully understand the mechanisms and principles of development and evolution, including the role of ecology and the environment, it is important to study a diverse range of organisms in context. In this Perspective, we hear from five research teams from around the world about the importance and challenges of going into the field to study their organisms of interest. We also invite you to share your own fieldwork stories on the Node.

Transitions in development - an interview with Sonia Sen.

Sonia Sen is Group Leader at the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society in Bangalore, India. Her group is interested in understanding neurodevelopment and behaviour in Drosophila and Anopheles. We spoke to Sonia over a video call to talk about her research career, her transition to becoming a group leader, and the work that the Indian Society of Developmental Biologists is doing.