Body patterning articles within Nature

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    An insertion of an Alu element into an intron of the TBXT gene is identified as a genetic mechanism of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes, with implications for human health today.

    • Bo Xia
    • , Weimin Zhang
    •  & Itai Yanai

  • Article |

    A 3D model of human segmentation and somitogenesis derived from induced pluripotent stem cells captures the oscillatory dynamics of the segmentation clock as well as morphological and molecular features of the developing embryonic axis and tail.

    • Yoshihiro Yamanaka
    • , Sofiane Hamidi
    •  & Cantas Alev

  • Article |

    A mechanism involving intracellular recycling of the morphogen Decapentaplegic (Dpp) underlies the scaling of the Dpp gradient in the Drosophila wing disc, and this is modulated by the extracellular factors Pentagone and Dally.

    • Maria Romanova-Michaelides
    • , Zena Hadjivasiliou
    •  & Marcos Gonzalez-Gaitan

  • Article |

    The rate of scale regeneration in zebrafish is controlled by the frequency of rhythmic travelling waves of Erk activity, which are broadcast from a central source to induce ring-like patterns of osteoblast tissue growth.

    • Alessandro De Simone
    • , Maya N. Evanitsky
    •  & Stefano Di Talia

  • Article |

    Monitoring cells of the mouse presomitic mesoderm using the Achilles reporter fused to HES7 sheds light on the mechanisms that underpin synchronous oscillations in the expression of clock genes between neighbouring cells.

    • Kumiko Yoshioka-Kobayashi
    • , Marina Matsumiya
    •  & Ryoichiro Kageyama

  • Article |

    Tissue shape changes in the posterior endoderm of the early Drosophila embryo are driven by actomyosin contractions emerging from a transcriptional induction followed by a mechanically-driven propagation of RhoI–myosin II activation.

    • Anaïs Bailles
    • , Claudio Collinet
    •  & Thomas Lecuit

  • Article |

    Alx3-induced modulation of Mitf expression alters melanocyte differentiation and gives rise to the hair colour differences underlying the repeated evolution of dorsal stripes in rodents.

    • Ricardo Mallarino
    • , Corneliu Henegar
    •  & Hopi E. Hoekstra

  • Letter |

    Genetically encoded probes for the non-peptidic morphogen retinoic acid allow the quantitative measurement of physiological RA concentration in vivo; the results support the source–sink diffusion model of morphogen dynamics proposed by Francis Crick in 1970.

    • Satoshi Shimozono
    • , Tadahiro Iimura
    •  & Atsushi Miyawaki

  • Comment |

    We are only beginning to see the impact of Turing's influential work on morphogenesis, says John Reinitz.

    • John Reinitz

  • Letter |

    For two hundred years, scientists have noticed that the appearance of embryos in related species converge in their appearance mid-way in development, diverging thereafter. But is this 'phylotypic stage' real, and how is it connected with the genetic basis of development? Here, a method linking the genes transcribed at various stages of development (the transcriptome) with the evolutionary history of those genes is used. Genes transcribed in the phylotypic stage are, in evolutionary terms, the oldest and most conserved. This suggests that the phylotypic stage does represent the body plans of related species at their most unadorned, selection having sculpted the earlier and later stages of embryonic form to suit the particulars of each creature.

    • Alex T. Kalinka
    • , Karolina M. Varga
    •  & Pavel Tomancak

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