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The accuracy by which phenotype can be reproduced by genotype potentially is important in determining the stability, environmental sensitivity, and evolvability of morphology and other phenotypic traits. Becau...
Signals from the extracellular environment control many aspects of cell behaviour including proliferation, survival, differentiation, adhesion and migration. It is increasingly evident that these signals can b...
In eutherian mammals, genomic imprinting is critical for normal placentation and embryo survival. Insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) is imprinted in the placenta of both eutherians and marsupials, but its functi...
During natural fertilization, sperm fusion with the oocyte induces long lasting intracellular calcium oscillations which in turn are responsible for oocyte activation. PLCZ1 has been identified as the factor t...
Aberrant activation of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway in different organisms has shown the importance of this family of morphogens during development. Genetic screens in zebrafish have assigned specific r...
Aberrant reprogramming of donor somatic cell nuclei may result in many severe problems in animal cloning. To assess the extent of abnormal epigenetic modifications and gene expression in clones, we simultaneou...
Many studies in the vertebrate retina have characterized the differentiation of amacrine cells as a homogenous class of neurons, but little is known about the genes and factors that regulate the development of...
Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important crop economically and nutritionally, and is one of the most susceptible host crops to colonization of Aspergillus parasiticus and subsequent aflatoxin contamination. K...
Mammalian Delta-like 1 (Dlk-1) protein shares homology with Notch ligands but lacks a critical receptor-binding domain. Thus it is unclear whether it is able to interact with Notch in vivo. Unlike mammals, Drosop...
Transforming Growth Factor-β1 stimulated clone-22 (TSC-22) is assumed to act as a negative growth regulator and tumor suppressor. TSC-22 belongs to a family of putative transcription factors encoded by four di...
Identical DNA methylation differences between maternal and paternal alleles in gametes and adults suggest that the inheritance of genomic imprints is strictly due to the embryonic maintenance of DNA methylatio...
NADPH-cytochrome-P450 oxidoreductase (CPR) is a ubiquitous enzyme that belongs to a family of diflavin oxidoreductases and is required for activity of the microsomal cytochrome-P450 monooxygenase system. CPR g...
In the morphogenetic furrow (MF) of the Drosophila developing eye, all cells arrest in G1 and photoreceptor cell differentiation initiates. As the cells exit the MF, Notch signaling is required for the uncommitte...
Mammary gland development culminates in lactation and is orchestrated by numerous stimuli and signaling pathways. The Src family of nonreceptor tyrosine kinases plays a pivotal role in cell signaling. In order...
MyoD is a transcription factor implicated in the regulation of adult muscle gene expression. Distinguishing the expression of MyoD in satellite myoblasts and muscle fibres has proved difficult in vivo leading to ...
Extracellular domains of the Notch family of signalling receptors contain many EGF repeat domains, as do their major ligands. Some EGF repeats are modified by O-fucosylation, and most have no identified role in l...
The FERM domain containing protein Mosaic Eyes (Moe) interacts with Crumbs proteins, which are important regulators of apical identity and size. In zebrafish, loss-of-function mutations in moe result in defects i...
Interaction with the surrounding mesenchyme is necessary for development of endodermal organs, and Fibroblast growth factors have recently emerged as mesenchymal-expressed morphogens that direct endodermal mor...
Environmental toxicants, whose actions are often mediated through the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) pathway, pose risks to the health and well-being of exposed species, including humans. Of particular concer...
The actin cytoskeleton plays critical roles in early development in Caenorhabditis elegans. To further understand the complex roles of actin in early embryogenesis we use RNAi and in vivo imaging of filamentous a...
The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the cloned sheep "Dolly" and nine other ovine clones produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) was reported to consist only of recipient oocyte mtDNA without any detecta...
The extraembryonic tissues, visceral endoderm (VE) and extraembryonic ectoderm (ExE) are known to be important for the induction of primordial germ cells (PGCs) in mice via activation of the bone morphogenetic...
Wnt signaling is a key regulator of development and tumorigenesis. Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), which consists of a catalytic C, a structural A, and a regulatory B subunit, plays diverse roles in Wnt signali...
Human retinoic acid teratogenesis results in malformations of dorsally derived hindbrain structures such as the cerebellum, noradrenergic hindbrain neurons and the precerebellar system. These structures origin...
The trophoblast compartment of the placenta comprises various subpopulations with distinct functions. They interact among each other by secreted signals thus forming autocrine or paracrine regulatory loops. We...
Germ cells arise from a small group of cells that express markers of pluripotency including OCT4. In humans formation of gonadal compartments (cords in testis, nests in ovary) takes place during the 1st trimes...
Dopaminergic neurons form in diverse areas of the vertebrate di- and mesencephalon to constitute several major neuromodulatory systems. While much is known about mammalian mesencephalic dopaminergic neuron dev...
The middle ear of mammals is composed of three endochondrial ossicles, the stapes, incus and malleus. Joints link the malleus to the incus and the incus to the stapes. In the mouse the first arch derived malle...
Fps/Fes and Fer are the only two members of a distinct subclass of cytoplasmic protein tyrosine kinases. Fps/Fes was previously implicated in Semaphorin 3A (Sema3A)-induced growth cone collapse signaling in ne...
Excessive developmental failure occurs during the first week of in vitro embryo development due to elevated levels of cell death and arrest. We hypothesize that permanently arrested embryos enter a stress-induced...
Down syndrome (DS), caused by trisomy of human chromosome 21 (HSA21), is the most common genetic cause of mental retardation in humans. Among complex phenotypes, it displays a number of neural pathologies incl...
The anterior-posterior axis of the vertebrate embryo undergoes a dramatic elongation during early development. Convergence and extension of the mesoderm, occurring during gastrulation, initiates the narrowing ...
The homeodomain transcription factor IPF1/PDX1 exerts a dual role in the pancreas; Ipf1/Pdx1 global null mutants fail to develop a pancreas whereas conditional inactivation of Ipf1/Pdx1 in β-cells leads to impair...
Heart anomalies are the most frequently observed among all human congenital defects. As with the situation for neural tube defects (NTDs), it has been demonstrated that women who use multivitamins containing f...
Huntington's disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by the expansion of an N-terminal polyQ stretch in the huntingtin protein. In order to investigate the hypothesis that huntingtin ...
Nodals are secreted signaling proteins with many roles in vertebrate development. Here, we identify a new role for Nodal signaling in regulating closure of the rostral neural tube of zebrafish.
In bovine maturing oocytes and cleavage stage embryos, gene expression is mostly controlled at the post-transcriptional level, through degradation and deadenylation/polyadenylation. We have investigated how po...
It has been well established that human fetuses will heal cutaneous wounds with perfect regeneration. Insulin-like growth factors are pro-fibrotic fibroblast mitogens that have important roles in both adult wo...
Various histone acetylases (HATs) play a critical role in the regulation of gene expression, but the precise functions of many of those HATs are still unknown. Here we provide evidence that MYST4, a known HAT,...
Dynamic monitoring of protein expression and localization is fundamental to the understanding of biological processes. The paired-class homeodomain-containing transcription factor Otx2 is essential for normal ...
Heparan sulfate proteoglycans modulate signaling by a variety of growth factors. The mammalian proteoglycan Perlecan binds and regulates signaling by Sonic Hedgehog, Fibroblast Growth Factors (FGFs), Vascular ...
Cell movements are essential to the determination of cell fates during development. The zinc-finger transcription factor, Churchill (ChCh) has been proposed to regulate cell fate by regulating cell movements d...
The cell cycles of the Xenopus laevis embryo undergo extensive remodeling beginning at the midblastula transition (MBT) of early development. Cell divisions 2–12 consist of rapid cleavages without gap phases or c...
Keratins make up the largest subgroup of intermediate filaments, and, in chordates, represent the most abundant proteins in epithelial cells. They have been associated with a wide range of functions in the cel...
The number of genes characterized in liver development is steadily increasing, but the origin of liver precursor cells and the molecular control of liver formation remain poorly understood. Existing theories a...
In the last few years, an increase in imprinting anomalies has been reported in children born from Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). Various clinical and experimental studies also suggest alterations of ...
All animals possess some type of tissue repair mechanism. In some species, the capacity to repair tissues is limited to the healing of wounds. Other species, such as echinoderms, posses a striking repair capab...
The retinal vasculature is a capillary network of blood vessels that nourishes the inner retina of most mammals. Developmental abnormalities or microvascular complications in the retinal vasculature result in ...
In Drosophila melanogaster, a pre-mRNA splicing hierarchy controls sexual identity and ultimately leads to sex-specific Doublesex (DSX) transcription factor isoforms. The male-specific DSXM represses genes involv...
Stem cells with the ability to form clonal floating colonies (spheres) were recently isolated from the neonatal murine spiral ganglion. To further examine the features of inner ear-derived neural stem cells an...
