Collection 15 February 2023

Developmental Timing Across Scales

Submission status: Closed
Submission deadline: 29 February 2024

The arrow of time is an intrinsic dimension of any biological process, but it plays its most transformative role in development. Temporal transcription factor cascades drive cell fate acquisition across intermediate states and through checkpoints. Nutrients are harnessed to feed chemical reactions that power cellular metabolism, while accumulating signals function as timers and molecular clocks for tissue proliferation and patterning as part of morphogenesis. The editors of Nature Communications and Communications Biology invite submissions of primary research that showcase the intricate ways space and time intersect to craft organisms.

This joint Collection between Nature Communications and Communications Biology welcomes submissions of primary research that aim to understand how development events are regulated at the cellular and organismal levels by temporal cues.

Articles

Core clock genes adjust growth cessation time to day-night switches in poplar

Alique et al. show that poplar trees adjust their seasonal growth timing by finely tuning the daily expression level of the photoperiodic integrator FT2 through a mechanism governed by the circadian clock’s core genes.
- Daniel Alique
- Arturo Redondo López
- Mariano Perales
ArticleOpen Access27 Feb 2024 Nature Communications
Interplay between coding and non-coding regulation drives the Arabidopsis seed-to-seedling transition

Seed germination in plants is a tightly controlled process relying on translation of stored RNAs. Here, Tremblay et al. show that nascent transcriptome and epigenome reprogramming are detected from initial stages of germination.
- Benjamin J. M. Tremblay
- Cristina P. Santini
- Julia I. Qüesta
ArticleOpen Access26 Feb 2024 Nature Communications
The emergence of circadian timekeeping in the intestine

Circadian rhythms are present in cells throughout the body but how these develop is poorly understood. Here, using Drosophila genetics and single cell analysis, authors find that the intestinal clock emerges after development is complete, and that differentiation disrupts its function.
- Kathyani Parasram
- Amy Zuccato
- Phillip Karpowicz
ArticleOpen Access27 Feb 2024 Nature Communications
Time-integrated BMP signaling determines fate in a stem cell model for early human development

The interpretation of the key developmental signal BMP remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show that the total time-integrated signaling controls differentiation in a stem cell embryo model and provide a possible mechanism.
- Seth Teague
- Gillian Primavera
- Idse Heemskerk
ArticleOpen Access17 Feb 2024 Nature Communications
Developmental progression continues during embryonic diapause in the roe deer

Changes in epiblast morphology, cell polarity, and correlating gene expression patterns indicate continuous developmental progression during diapause in the roe deer.
- Anna B. Rüegg
- Vera A. van der Weijden
- Susanne E. Ulbrich
ArticleOpen Access5 Mar 2024 Communications Biology
Gliomas: a reflection of temporal gliogenic principles

This review provides an overview of how normal glial developmental trajectories are reflected in various gliomas.
- Caitlin Sojka
- Steven A. Sloan
Review ArticleOpen Access6 Feb 2024 Communications Biology
Contractile ring mechanosensation and its anillin-dependent tuning during early embryogenesis

Contractile ring formation, positioning, and closure is influenced by tissue mechanics, though how this information is transmitted is unclear. Here they show that Anillin is critical for a mechanosensitive pathway that drives cytokinesis and contractile ring closure.
- Christina Rou Hsu
- Gaganpreet Sangha
- Kenji Sugioka
ArticleOpen Access8 Dec 2023 Nature Communications
Maintenance of appropriate size scaling of the C. elegans pharynx by YAP-1

Imbalance in the growth rate of two organs can perturb their appropriate scaling. Here, Stojanovski et al., identify a mechanism involving the mechanotransducer YAP-1 which ensures proper proportions of the pharynx and the body length of C. elegans.
- Klement Stojanovski
- Ioana Gheorghe
- Benjamin D. Towbin
ArticleOpen Access20 Nov 2023 Nature Communications
Isochronic development of cortical synapses in primates and mice

How synapse development correlates with lifespan is unknown. Here, the authors show isochronic synapse development in mouse and primate despite disparate lifespans. As a result, synapse accumulation and reduction finishes in neonatal primates but spans nearly the entire life of the mouse.
- Gregg Wildenberg
- Hanyu Li
- Narayanan Kasthuri
ArticleOpen Access4 Dec 2023 Nature Communications
Optogenetic control of YAP reveals a dynamic communication code for stem cell fate and proliferation

The transcriptional regulator YAP controls cellular decisions such as proliferation, differentiation, and pluripotency. Here, the authors show a concentration-dependent and temporal communication code for YAP that enables cells to choose between these programs.
- Kirstin Meyer
- Nicholas C. Lammers
- Orion D. Weiner
ArticleOpen Access30 Oct 2023 Nature Communications
Fgf signalling triggers an intrinsic mesodermal timer that determines the duration of limb patterning

The limb bud is patterned by crosstalk between the mesoderm and the overlying apical ectodermal ridge, but it has been difficult to determine the requirement for different ligands in this process. Here the authors use a chick wing explant system to show that fibroblast growth factors trigger a mesodermal programme that is key for timing limb bud patterning.
- Sofia Sedas Perez
- Caitlin McQueen
- Matthew Towers
ArticleOpen Access20 Sep 2023 Nature Communications
Self-organized and directed branching results in optimal coverage in developing dermal lymphatic networks

The lymphatic system is a transport network that controls immune response and tissue fluid circulation in the body. Here the authors combine experiment and theory to reveal that developing lymphatic capillary networks exploit complementary branching strategies to optimize tissue coverage.
- Mehmet Can Uçar
- Edouard Hannezo
- Kari Vaahtomeri
ArticleOpen Access21 Sep 2023 Nature Communications
Non-uniform temporal scaling of developmental processes in the mammalian cortex

Marsupial mammals take much longer to develop than similarly sized placental mammals, though how brain development occurs across these different periods is unclear. Here they show that the neurodevelopmental events of cortical neurogenesis, cell migration and axon extension do not all temporally scale to the same extent.
- Annalisa Paolino
- Elizabeth H. Haines
- Laura R. Fenlon
ArticleOpen Access23 Sep 2023 Nature Communications
Early-adulthood spike in protein translation drives aging via juvenile hormone/germline signaling

The transient elevation in protein translation during early-adulthood in Drosophila imposes long-lasting negative impacts on future aging trajectories by triggering proteostatic dysfunction at old ages.
- Harper S. Kim
- Danitra J. Parker
- Andrew M. Pickering
ArticleOpen Access18 Aug 2023 Nature Communications
Hdac1 and Hdac2 regulate the quiescent state and survival of hair-follicle mesenchymal niche

Cell division and stem cell maintenance are tightly linked. Here they show that in the hair follicle an epigenetic mechanism maintains mesenchymal niche dormancy in a highly proliferative microenvironment while repurposing mitogenic signaling to orchestrate the hair cycle clock.
- Hadas Sibony-Benyamini
- Emil Aamar
- David Enshell-Seijffers
ArticleOpen Access10 Aug 2023 Nature Communications
Reprogramming of the transcriptome after heat stress mediates heat hormesis in Caenorhabditis elegans

Xu and colleagues report that the poly-U-specific endoribonuclease ENDU-2/ENDOU activates a transcriptional reprogramming after a brief heat shock and this has a long-term beneficial effect in the model organism C. elegans.
- Fan Xu
- Ruoyao Li
- Wenjing Qi
ArticleOpen Access13 Jul 2023 Nature Communications
Ripply suppresses Tbx6 to induce dynamic-to-static conversion in somite segmentation

During somitogenesis, the dynamic oscillation of the molecular clock is converted into static spatial patterns. Here, the authors show that persistent suppression of Tbx6 expression triggered by periodical Ripply1/2 gene expression is a key to this conversion.
- Taijiro Yabe
- Koichiro Uriu
- Shinji Takada
ArticleOpen Access13 Apr 2023 Nature Communications
Intercellular exchange of Wnt ligands reduces cell population heterogeneity during embryogenesis

Neuromesodermal progenitor (NMP) cells produce and receive Wnt ligands. Here, the authors show that mutual intercellular exchange of Wnt ligands reduces heterogeneity between NMP cells and makes NMP populations robust to environmental stress.
- Yudai Hatakeyama
- Nen Saito
- Shinji Takada
ArticleOpen Access6 Apr 2023 Nature Communications
Mobilization of cholesterol induces the transition from quiescence to growth in Caenorhabditis elegans through steroid hormone and mTOR signaling

During the dauer state, when worms are quiescent and do not need to feed, their gut becomes a storage unit for cholesterol. This sterol is later needed to exit quiescence via a transcriptional change and activation of growth by mTOR.
- Kathrin Schmeisser
- Damla Kaptan
- Teymuras V. Kurzchalia
ArticleOpen Access24 Jan 2024 Communications Biology
Sound suppresses earliest visual cortical processing after sight recovery in congenitally blind humans

An EEG study reports sound-induced suppression of the earliest visual cortical activity in a rare group of humans who were born pattern vision blind but regained sight, indicating persistent crossmodal visual cortical activation after sight recovery.
- Suddha Sourav
- Ramesh Kekunnaya
- Brigitte Röder
ArticleOpen Access22 Jan 2024 Communications Biology
Coevolution of the Tlx homeobox gene with medusa development (Cnidaria: Medusozoa)

Analysis of the homeobox gene Tlx across cnidarian genomes highlights the presence of Tlx only in clades featuring the medusa life cycle stage, linking the loss of the gene to loss of the medusa in Hydrozoa evolution.
- Matthew Travert
- Reed Boohar
- Paulyn Cartwright
ArticleOpen Access11 Jul 2023 Communications Biology

Developmental Timing Across Scales

Articles

Core clock genes adjust growth cessation time to day-night switches in poplar

Interplay between coding and non-coding regulation drives the Arabidopsis seed-to-seedling transition

The emergence of circadian timekeeping in the intestine

Time-integrated BMP signaling determines fate in a stem cell model for early human development

Developmental progression continues during embryonic diapause in the roe deer

Gliomas: a reflection of temporal gliogenic principles

Contractile ring mechanosensation and its anillin-dependent tuning during early embryogenesis

Maintenance of appropriate size scaling of the C. elegans pharynx by YAP-1

Isochronic development of cortical synapses in primates and mice

Optogenetic control of YAP reveals a dynamic communication code for stem cell fate and proliferation

Fgf signalling triggers an intrinsic mesodermal timer that determines the duration of limb patterning

Self-organized and directed branching results in optimal coverage in developing dermal lymphatic networks

Non-uniform temporal scaling of developmental processes in the mammalian cortex

Early-adulthood spike in protein translation drives aging via juvenile hormone/germline signaling

Hdac1 and Hdac2 regulate the quiescent state and survival of hair-follicle mesenchymal niche

Reprogramming of the transcriptome after heat stress mediates heat hormesis in Caenorhabditis elegans

Ripply suppresses Tbx6 to induce dynamic-to-static conversion in somite segmentation

Intercellular exchange of Wnt ligands reduces cell population heterogeneity during embryogenesis

Mobilization of cholesterol induces the transition from quiescence to growth in Caenorhabditis elegans through steroid hormone and mTOR signaling

Sound suppresses earliest visual cortical processing after sight recovery in congenitally blind humans

Coevolution of the Tlx homeobox gene with medusa development (Cnidaria: Medusozoa)

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