Development

Haley Brown (left), Justin Kumar (centre) and second author Claude Jean-Guillaume (right)

To find out more about their work, we spoke to the first author, Haley Brown, and the corresponding author, Justin Kumar (@flyeyelab.bsky.social), Professor of Biology at Indiana University Bloomington, USA:

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Read the Research Article "Differential regulation of eye specification in Drosophila by Polycomb Group epigenetic repressors" here:
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Fig. 1. The knockdown of Sfmbt or Scm in addition to toy transforms the eye-antennal disc. (A-G) Third-instar eye-antennal imaginal discs knocking down a PcG member with DE-GAL4; stained for Antp. (A′-G′) Third-instar eye-antennal imaginal discs knocking down a PcG member and toy with DE-GAL4; stained for anti-Antp (green), anti-Elav (blue) and Phalloidin (red). Wild type [DE-GAL4 (A) or DE-GAL4, toy RNAi (A′)] eye-antennal disc from a third-instar wandering larvae. (H) Simplified model of the Pc eye-to-wing transformation (left) proposed in Brown et al. (2023), where the presence of Vg and Sd drives the wing transformation (brown) in the dorsal eye field, while continued presence of Pax6 maintains some eye fate (green). The combined loss of toy and Sfmbt, Scm or Pc (right) leads to an ‘enhanced’ eye-to-wing transformation more drastic than that of ey>Pc RNAi or DE>Pc RNAi alone. Please note that we have idealized the drawing of the ectopic wing for simplicity.

Fig. 3. The eye-to-wing transformation clusters separately from morphologically wild-type eye-antennal discs. (A) CPM normalized transcript counts of 120 h AEL ‘wild-type’ (orange: DE-GAL4, DE-GAL4>UAS-toy RNAi, DE-GAL4>UAS Sfmbt RNAi and DE-GAL4>UAS-Scm RNAi) and transformed (purple: DE-GAL4>UAS-Pc RNAi, DE-toy>UAS-Pc RNAi, DE-toy>UAS-Sfmbt RNAi and DE-toy>UAS-Scm RNAi) eye-antennal discs. Heatmap depicts hierarchical clustering of the top 100 most variable genes. (B) MA plot of differentially expressed genes between wild-type (DE-GAL4) eye-antennal discs and DE-toy RNAi (toyKD) (n=108) eye-antennal discs. (C) Enriched GO analysis of differentially expressed genes between wild-type (DE-GAL4) eye-antennal discs and toyKD eye-antennal discs.

‘Toy’ing with eye fate in Drosophila

Read this Research Highlight showcasing work from Haley E. Brown, Claude Jean-Guillaume, Brandon P. Weasner, Justin P. Kumar:

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Read & Publish agreements: What do authors say about fee-free Open Access publishing in Development?

Authors at institutions participating in our Read & Publish Open Access initiative can publish an uncapped number of fee-free #OpenAcess research articles in Development. Find out about the feedback from authors who've benefitted from the agreements:
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Human Development: Stem Cells, Models, Embryos. 7 - 9 September 2026 University of Warwick, UK. Resgiter your interest. #HumanDev26. Image credit: Susanna Narkilahti, Tampere University, Finland

Save the Date!

Development has teamed up with the Wellcome-funded consortium the Human Developmental Biology Initiative to co-organise a meeting on #HumanDevelopment.

📅7 - 9 Sep 2026
📍University of Warwick, UK

Register your interest for #HumanDev26: www.biologists.com/meetings/dev...

To find out more about this work, we caught up with first author Bénédicte Marie Lefèvre @drosopachea.bsky.social and corresponding author Michael Lang, CNRS researcher at the Laboratoire - Evolution, Génomes, Comportement, Ecologie (EGCE):

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Evolution of a novel left-right asymmetry in organ size by co-option of a tissue rotation process

A Research Highlight showcasing new work from Bénédicte M. Lefèvre, Marine Delvigne, Aurélie Camprodon, Josué Vidal, Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo, Michael Lang

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Development presents… Wednesday 13 August 16:00 BST Chair: Yuchuan Miao Image of Toshi Yamada Toshi Yamada (University of California San Francisco) ‘Synthetic organizer cells guide development via spatial and biochemical instructions’ Image of Chrysanthi-Maria (Anthie) Moysidou (Max Delbrück Center) Chrysanthi-Maria (Anthie) Moysidou (Max Delbrück Center) ‘Bioelectronics meet neuromuscular organoids: novel tools for enhancing the maturation and complexity of organoids’’ Image of Daniel Medina-Cano Daniel Medina-Cano (MSKCC) ‘A mouse organoid platform for modeling cerebral cortex development and cis-regulatory evolution in vitro’ #DevPres |@dev-journal.bsky.social Thenode.biologists.com/devprev The Company of Biologists logo Development logo QR code to register

Our upcoming #DevPres webinar focusses on stem cells and organoids, with talks from Toshi Yamada (UCSF), Chrysanthi-Maria (Anthie) Moysidou (Max Delbrück Center @mdc-berlin.bsky.social) and Daniel Medina-Cano (MSKCC).

13 August 16:00 BST

Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Fig. 6. DMD-4 is required for repression of GLR glia genes in the HMC. (A) Representative images showing expression of nep-2prom7::gfp in control and dmd-4(RNAi) animals. Red arrowhead indicates HMC. (B) Percentage of animals with ectopic HMC expression of the GLR-specific reporter nep-2prom7::gfp upon dmd-4 RNAi. n=25 animals for each condition. (C) Timeline of DMD-4 auxin inducible degradation for L1 stage animals (L1 stage DMD-4 AID), showing time points relevant for D and E. (D) Quantification of DMD-4 degradation, based on wrmScarletI3 expression in HMC, at different time points for L1 stage DMD-4 AID. (E) Percentage of animals with ectopic HMC expression of the GLR-specific reporter nep-2prom7::gfp upon L1 stage DMD-4 AID at different time points. For D and E, three replicate experiments were performed, with n=20 animals per replicate for each condition. Error bars show standard deviation between replicates.

Read the Research Article, 'Caenorhabditis elegans LET-381 and DMD-4 control development of the mesodermal HMC endothelial cell' here:

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Fig. 2. A let-381 autoregulatory motif is required to maintain LET-381 expression in the HMC. (A) Schematics showing details of let-381 autoregulatory motif deletion mutant alleles. Both alleles remove a sequence containing the let-381 autoregulatory motif (yellow line), located at −333 bp from the ATG, but let-381(ns1026) also has an insertion. (B) Images of let-381::gfp shown for bean, 2-fold and 3-fold embryonic stages, L1 larva and young adults for each genotype. The let-381(ns1023) allele (upper panel row) affects maintenance of let-381::gfp expression in both HMC and GLR glia. let-381(ns1026) (lower panel row) affects maintenance only in GLR glia. Anterior is left, dorsal is up. Red dashed lines indicate the HMC nucleus. Gray dashed lines outline the animal and the pharynx. Scale bars: 10 μm.

Left, right, spin around: evolution of organ size asymmetry

A Research Highlight showcasing new work from Nikolaos Stefanakis, Jasmine Xi, Jessica Jiang, Shai Shaham

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Fig. 2. Fbxw7 deficiency causes ductal dysgenesis in the secondary transition pancreas. (A,B,E,F) Sections of pancreas (splenic and gastric lobes) from E15.5 control (A,E) or Fbxw7ΔFoxa2 (B,F) littermates stained for Sox9, Ngn3 and chromogranin A (A,B: n=5 from three litters) or Sox9, Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA) and Muc1 (E,F: n=3 from two litters) using IF. The epithelial periphery is indicated by dashed lines. Scale bars: 100 μm (main panels); 25 μm (insets). (C,D) Ratio of Sox9+ cells to Ngn3+ cells (C) and Sox9+ Ngn3+ cells as a percentage of Sox9+ cells (D) expressed for proximal (Ptf1a−) Sox9+ cells or for proximal (Ptf1a−) and distal (Ptf1a+) Sox9+ cells (all Sox9+ cells) in splenic and gastric lobes of E15.5 embryos (n=3 from three litters indicated by individual data point symbols; data are mean±s.d.; P-values were calculated using a paired Student’s t-test).

Fbxw7 regulates N1ICD and Sox9 perdurance during pancreas development to ensure proper cell lineage allocation and segregation

Read this Research Article by Diana Wichmann Graff, Emilie Liv Bang-Jensen and Philip A. Seymour's group

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Fig. 5. Emergence of cellular orientation parallel to the tissue interface originates in the basal epithelium and propagates to the internal mesenchymal cells. (A) Diagrams showing explant interface and predicted axis of elongation and sectioned explant showing apical epithelium, basal epithelium and first layer of inner mesenchymal cells in the z-axis. (B) Images and segmentations with cell orientation representation for three z-positions at time point ti. (C) Representative close-up of segmented cells and corresponding nematic order Q score for each z-position. Data are mean±s.d. N=3. No outer mesenchymal cells were quantified at this time point as mesenchymal cells are predominantly covered by epithelium. (D) Images and segmentations with cell orientation representation for three z-positions and at time point 2. (E) Representative close-up of segmented cells and corresponding nematic order Q score for each z-position Data are mean±s.d. N=3.

Read the Research Article, 'Epithelial-mesenchymal interface guides cell shapes and axis elongation in embryonic explants' here:
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Fig. 2. Elongation behaviors of isolated and recombined explants in different conditions. (A) Table of isolation and recombined tissue experiments. Tissues are isolated with Activin or not and tested for elongation in isolation or recombined. This yields a total of eight conditions. (B-C′) Isolated mesenchyme and epithelial tissue experiments and their respective aspect ratio plots. N=5. (D-G′) Recombination experiments and their respective plots. Data are mean±s.d. N=5 for all conditions. Scale bars: 100 µm

Explant elongation initiates in the epithelium

A Research Highlight showcasing new work from @katiabarrett.bsky.social, Shalabh Anand, Virginie Thome, Laurent Kodjabachian, @merkellab.bsky.social, @pflenne.bsky.social

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Transitions in development – an interview with Jeffrey Farrell

@jeffreyafarrell.bsky.social talks about becoming a group leader, his insights on advocacy for developmental biology and his belief in unifying single-cell biology with classical approaches.

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Fig. 8. Schematic illustrating the role of SETD2 in regulating odontoblast differentiation and dentinogenesis. SETD2 catalyzes the trimethylation of H3K36. SETD2-mediated H3K36me3 is correlated with the expression of Col11a2 and Sema3e, upregulation of which facilitates AKT1 activation, promoting odontoblast differentiation and dentin formation.

H3K36me3 modification by SETD2 is essential for Col11a2 and Sema3e transcription to maintain dentinogenesis in mice.

Read this Research Article by Jiaxin Niu and Guohua Yuan's group:
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The gain-of-function phenotype of miR-137 does not exhibit domain constraint. (A-D) Gain of function of miR-137 in the dorsal half of the adult eye (A,C, marked by white dotted lines) using the DE-Gal4 driver (domain marked by GFP reporter) marked by expression of mini-white reporter (red, white dotted line outlines the domain). (C,D) The gain of function of miR-137 in the background of DE-Gal4 (DE>miR-137) reduces the dorsal domain of the eye field in (C) the adult eye and (D) the eye-imaginal disc. (B,D) Eye-antennal imaginal disc of third-instar larvae stained for Elav (red), Dlg (blue) and GFP (green) reporter. (E) Dorsal half expression of DE>miR-137 (n=10) normalized to the control DE-Gal4 (n=10).

miR-137 targets Myc to regulate growth during eye development.

Read this Research Article by Radhika Padma, Manivannan Subramania, Amit Singh &Co:

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Targeted gene expression as a means of altering cell fates and generating dominant phenotypes ABSTRACT. We have designed a system for targeted gene expression that allows the selective activation of any cloned gene in a wide variety of tissueand cell-specific patterns. The gene encoding the ye...

You can read Andrea’s work from 1993, which is @dev-journal.bsky.social‘s most cited paper, here: doi.org/10.1242/dev....

The Company of Biologists 100 logo to the left and QR code to the right. Portrait of Andrea Brand to the left, text to the right 100 extraordinary biologists Andrea Brand Andrea Brand authored Development’s most cited paper, originating the GAL4 system for targeted gene expression. Andrea is the Chair of Department of Cell Biology and Director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute at NYU School of Medicine, USA, investigating neural stem cells in human brain organoids and Drosophila. #100biologists #biologists100

We are also highlighting Andrea Brand, who authored @dev-journal.bsky.social‘s most cited paper, as an extraordinary biologist this week. #100biologists

In preprints: a new preprint curation initiative from Development

In preprints: setting the tempo of development

@gabbov.bsky.social and @mdiazcuadros.bsky.social highlight two preprints that describe how developmental timing is set by cell-intrinsic mechanisms.

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Fig. 6. TFAP2C cooperates with the HIPPO signaling pathway to regulate Sox2 expression. (A) Confocal IF analysis of YAP1 and SOX2 in control siRNA-, Tfap2c siRNA- or Lats2 cRNA-injected, and Lats2 cRNA and Tfap2c siRNA double-injected embryos at the morula stage (E3.25). Two biological replicates were used, with 10-12 embryos per group. An equivalent confocal optical section near the equator of each embryo was used for comparisons. Scale bar: 20 µm. The white arrowheads indicate the nuclear localization of YAP1 or SOX2.

Deciphering the role of cis-regulatory elements and TFAP2C in the activation of zygotic Sox2 expression in mouse preimplantation embryos.

Read this Research Article by Jaehwan Kim and Jason G. Knott's group:
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Fig. 1. Overexpression of starfish hesC in sea urchin embryos. (A-D) Effects of starfish hesC overexpression were observed in H. pulcherrimus embryos. Sea urchin embryos injected with EGFP mRNA and starfish hesC mRNA in concentrations according to upper right numbers of each photo. Brightfield (top) and fluorescence microscopic images (bottom) observed by immunohistochemistry using PMC-specific P4 antibody. The white dashed lines show the outline of embryos. (E-H) In-situ hybridization was conducted in sea urchin embryos to observe spatial expressions of delta (E,F) and tbr1 (G,H) in embryos injected with EGFP mRNA and starfish klf2 mRNA in concentrations of 200 ng/µl. (I) Schematic of sea urchin H. pulcherrimus (Hp) egg injected with starfish P. pectinifera (Pp) mRNA. The numbers shown in each image are the numbers of embryos showing typical pattern/total numbers of examined embryos from two batches. Scale bar: 50 µm

Role of klf2 in innovation of the Pmar1-HesC double-negative gate in echinoderms.

Read this Research Article by Nina Levin, Natalia Gogoleva and the team:
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The Company of Biologists 100 logo to the left and QR code to the right. Portrait of Norbert Perrimon to the left, text to the right 100 extraordinary biologists Norbert Perrimon Norbert Perrimon is a DMM Editorial Advisory Board member and author of one of Development’s most cited papers. Norbert is a FlyBase PI, a Professor at Harvard Medical School, USA, and an HHMI Investigator studying how cells, tissues and organs communicate during development and in mature organisms. #100biologists #biologists100

Our next extraordinary biologist is Norbert Perrimon, a @dmmjournal.bsky.social Editorial Advisory Board member and author of one of @dev-journal.bsky.social's most cited papers. #100biologists
@perrimonlab.bsky.social

Figure 2 (F,H) Section images of WT or nr4a1 mutant ventricles at 30 dpci assessed for muscle recovery (F) and quantification of injured area (H). (G,I) Myocardial regeneration was measured at 60 dpci in WT and nr4a1 mutants, respectively. Ten individual samples in each group were examined. Myocardial regeneration is categorized as follows: 1, complete regeneration of a new myocardial wall; 2, partial regeneration; and 3, a strong block in regeneration.

Nr4a1 modulates inflammation and heart regeneration in zebrafish

Read this #LifelongDevSI Research Article by Dong Feng, Yanhan Dong, Jiandong Liu and colleagues from University of North Carolina:
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Figure 6 (A) Representative images of the gastrointestinal tract from Ctrl and Mst3cKO mice at P0 and P14 (left). Bar graph (right) shows the ratio of SI length to the average SI length of Ctrl littermates at each time point. (B) Representative images of body sizes and organs from Ctrl and Mst3cKO mice at P14 (left). Bar graph (right) shows body weight ratios of Mst3cKO (n=10) relative to the average body weight of Ctrl littermates (n=13) at P14. (C) Double immunofluorescence staining for YAP (red) and β-catenin (green) in small intestines from Ctrl and Mst3cKO mice at E15.5, P0 and P14 (Ctrl: n=3, n=4 and n=3; Mst3cKO: n=3, n=3 and n=3, at respective time points). Scale bars: 50 μm. Bar graph (right) shows the percentage of YAP+ nuclei relative to total DAPI+ cells per field. (D) Western blotting with small intestine mesenchyme from P7 (left) and P14 (right) Ctrl and Mst3cKO mice, respectively. Values below the bands indicate the gray value ratio of p-YAPS127 to total YAP.

Mesenchymal SLMAP coordinates with MST3 to govern gut elongation during development

Read this #LifelongDevSI Research Article by Yuwei Pan, Shiyang Wang, Wuqi Yang, Zhengquan Yu and colleagues:
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Development logo - Browse by subject: Explore Development's content, now easily accessible by subject area. The ad has a black background with three vibrant scientific images: a developing embryo on the left, a green plant-like structure in the center, and a gastruloid (a circular cell with a bright pink center and blue outer ring) on the right. [Blue button: browse content].

Did you know we have a new 'Browse by subject' page?

Explore Development's content, now easily accessible by subject area:
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Also in Issue 13:
▪️3 Research highlights on FGF, WT1 & morphogen gradients
▪️Perspective on the transition from academic to industry
▪️3 people behind the papers interviews
▪️Transitions in development interview
▪️'Development at a Glance' on astrocytes
journals.biologists.com/dev/issue/15...

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) in a 5 days postfertilization zebrafish early larva labelled with a myb RNAscope probe (magenta spots, bottom). Endothelial cells (eGFP, green) are delineated in yellow (dorsal aorta), blue (vein) and white (supra-intestinal artery; a niche hosting HSPCs). See Research Article by Torcq et al.

Issue 13 is complete!

On the cover: HSPCs in a 5dpf zebrafish early larva labelled with a myb RNAscope probe (magenta spots, bottom). Endothelial cells (green) are delineated in yellow (dorsal aorta), blue (vein) and white (supra-intestinal artery). See
journals.biologists.com/dev/issue/15...

From left to right: Justina Stark, Ivo Sbalzarini and Michael Brand.

To learn more about the people behind this work, we caught up with first author Justina Stark, and corresponding authors Ivo Sbalzarini (@mosaicgroup.bsky.social @csbdresden.bsky.social) and Michael Brand (@tudresden.bsky.social):
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Read the #OpenAccess Research Article "Morphogen gradients are regulated by porous media characteristics of the developing tissue" here:
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Figure 1 (D-G) Visualization of the sparse-grid discretization of the ECS at ≈60% epiboly.

Mind the pores: studying morphogen gradients

Read this Research Highlight showcasing work from Justina Stark, Rohit Krishnan Harish, Ivo Sbalzarini @mosaicgroup.bsky.social and Michael Brand @tudresden.bsky.social:
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