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Development (Cambridge, England) Feb 2017Neural tube closure has been studied for many decades, across a range of vertebrates, as a paradigm of embryonic morphogenesis. Neurulation is of particular interest in... (Review)
Review
Neural tube closure has been studied for many decades, across a range of vertebrates, as a paradigm of embryonic morphogenesis. Neurulation is of particular interest in view of the severe congenital malformations - 'neural tube defects' - that result when closure fails. The process of neural tube closure is complex and involves cellular events such as convergent extension, apical constriction and interkinetic nuclear migration, as well as precise molecular control via the non-canonical Wnt/planar cell polarity pathway, Shh/BMP signalling, and the transcription factors Grhl2/3, Pax3, Cdx2 and Zic2. More recently, biomechanical inputs into neural tube morphogenesis have also been identified. Here, we review these cellular, molecular and biomechanical mechanisms involved in neural tube closure, based on studies of various vertebrate species, focusing on the most recent advances in the field.
Topics: Animals; Body Patterning; Cell Movement; Cell Polarity; Embryonic Development; Fibronectins; Humans; Laminin; Morphogenesis; Neural Tube; Neural Tube Defects; Neurulation; Proteoglycans; Risk Factors; Signal Transduction; Stress, Mechanical; Transcription Factors
PubMed: 28196803
DOI: 10.1242/dev.145904 -
Current Opinion in Cell Biology Dec 2021Organoids are three-dimensional structures that self-organize from human pluripotent stem cells or primary tissue, potentially serving as a traceable and manipulatable... (Review)
Review
Organoids are three-dimensional structures that self-organize from human pluripotent stem cells or primary tissue, potentially serving as a traceable and manipulatable platform to facilitate our understanding of organogenesis. Despite the ongoing advancement in generating organoids of diverse systems, biological applications of in vitro generated organoids remain as a major challenge in part due to a substantial lack of intricate complexity. The studies of development and regeneration enumerate the essential roles of highly diversified nonepithelial populations such as mesenchyme and endothelium in directing fate specification, morphogenesis, and maturation. Furthermore, organoids with physiological and homeostatic functions require direct and indirect inter-organ crosstalk recapitulating what is seen in organogenesis. We herein review the evolving organoid technology at the cell, tissue, organ, and system level with a main emphasis on endoderm derivatives.
Topics: Endoderm; Humans; Morphogenesis; Organogenesis; Organoids; Pluripotent Stem Cells
PubMed: 34352726
DOI: 10.1016/j.ceb.2021.06.007 -
Cell Feb 2023Axial development of mammals involves coordinated morphogenetic events, including axial elongation, somitogenesis, and neural tube formation. To gain insight into the...
Axial development of mammals involves coordinated morphogenetic events, including axial elongation, somitogenesis, and neural tube formation. To gain insight into the signals controlling the dynamics of human axial morphogenesis, we generated axially elongating organoids by inducing anteroposterior symmetry breaking of spatially coupled epithelial cysts derived from human pluripotent stem cells. Each organoid was composed of a neural tube flanked by presomitic mesoderm sequentially segmented into somites. Periodic activation of the somite differentiation gene MESP2 coincided in space and time with anteriorly traveling segmentation clock waves in the presomitic mesoderm of the organoids, recapitulating critical aspects of somitogenesis. Timed perturbations demonstrated that FGF and WNT signaling play distinct roles in axial elongation and somitogenesis, and that FGF signaling gradients drive segmentation clock waves. By generating and perturbing organoids that robustly recapitulate the architecture of multiple axial tissues in human embryos, this work offers a means to dissect mechanisms underlying human embryogenesis.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Body Patterning; Embryonic Development; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Mammals; Mesoderm; Morphogenesis; Somites; Wnt Signaling Pathway; Organoids
PubMed: 36657441
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.12.042 -
The International Journal of... 2018Striated muscle is the most abundant tissue in the body of vertebrates and it forms, together with the skeleton, the locomotory system required both for movement and the... (Review)
Review
Striated muscle is the most abundant tissue in the body of vertebrates and it forms, together with the skeleton, the locomotory system required both for movement and the creation of the specific body shape of a species. Research on the embryonic development of muscles has a long tradition both in classical embryology and in molecular developmental biology. While the gene networks regulating muscle development have been discovered mostly in the mouse through genetics, our knowledge on cell lineages, muscle morphogenesis and tissue interactions regulating their formation is to a large extent based on the use of the avian model. This review highlights present knowledge of the development of skeletal muscle in vertebrate embryos. Special focus will be placed on the contributions from chicken and quail embryo model systems.
Topics: Animals; Cell Differentiation; Cell Lineage; Chick Embryo; Chickens; Electroporation; Embryonic Development; Mesoderm; Mice; Morphogenesis; Muscle Development; Quail; Signal Transduction; Somites; Stem Cells
PubMed: 29616720
DOI: 10.1387/ijdb.170312cm -
Mechanisms of Development Jun 2017In "On growth and form", D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1917) stresses the inevitable interactions between physics and developmental biology. With the recent progress in... (Review)
Review
In "On growth and form", D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1917) stresses the inevitable interactions between physics and developmental biology. With the recent progress in molecular genetics, live imaging, micromechanics and modeling, the study of morphogenesis has been rejuvenated in the present century: the activity of developmental genes can be interpreted in terms of mechanical properties to dissect the chain of events behind shape changes; in turn, patterns of shape- and growth-derived mechanical stress are calculated and shown to act as signals controlling cell effectors, in synergy with biochemical cues, thereby channeling morphogenesis. In short, the relation between the mechanics and the biochemistry of shape changes is now addressed more comprehensively. Beyond the legacy left by this unique, elegant, and thought provoking analysis of development, D'Arcy rooted a new field, that one could call "mechano-devo", and used didactic analogies to bridge biology and physics. Here are some subjective take home messages from this seminal book, for the developmental biologist interested in conducting such interdisciplinary research.
Topics: Animals; Developmental Biology; Humans; Models, Biological; Molecular Biology; Morphogenesis; Stress, Mechanical
PubMed: 28315388
DOI: 10.1016/j.mod.2017.02.004 -
Developmental Cell Jan 2021Mechanical forces are integral to development-from the earliest stages of embryogenesis to the construction and differentiation of complex organs. Advances in imaging... (Review)
Review
Mechanical forces are integral to development-from the earliest stages of embryogenesis to the construction and differentiation of complex organs. Advances in imaging and biophysical tools have allowed us to delve into the developmental mechanobiology of increasingly complex organs and organisms. Here, we focus on recent work that highlights the diversity and importance of mechanical influences during morphogenesis. Developing tissues experience intrinsic mechanical signals from active forces and changes to tissue mechanical properties as well as extrinsic mechanical signals, including constraint and compression, pressure, and shear forces. Finally, we suggest promising avenues for future work in this rapidly expanding field.
Topics: Animals; Biomechanical Phenomena; Biophysics; Cell Differentiation; Embryonic Development; Humans; Mechanotransduction, Cellular; Morphogenesis; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 33321105
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2020.11.025 -
Current Topics in Developmental Biology 2020Tunicates are a diverse group of invertebrate marine chordates that includes the larvaceans, thaliaceans, and ascidians. Because of their unique evolutionary position as... (Review)
Review
Tunicates are a diverse group of invertebrate marine chordates that includes the larvaceans, thaliaceans, and ascidians. Because of their unique evolutionary position as the sister group of the vertebrates, tunicates are invaluable as a comparative model and hold the promise of revealing both conserved and derived features of chordate gastrulation. Descriptive studies in a broad range of tunicates have revealed several important unifying traits that make them unique among the chordates, including invariant cell lineages through gastrula stages and an overall morphological simplicity. Gastrulation has only been studied in detail in ascidians such as Ciona and Phallusia, where it involves a simple cup-shaped gastrula driven primarily by endoderm invagination. This appears to differ significantly from vertebrate models, such as Xenopus, in which mesoderm convergent extension and epidermal epiboly are major contributors to involution. These differences may reflect the cellular simplicity of the ascidian embryo.
Topics: Animals; Body Patterning; Cell Lineage; Embryo, Nonmammalian; Endoderm; Evolution, Molecular; Gastrula; Gastrulation; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Morphogenesis; Urochordata
PubMed: 31959289
DOI: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2019.09.001 -
International Journal of Molecular... Jun 2023Developmental biology studies ontogenesis, the individual development of an organism from the time of fertilization in sexual reproduction or its expelling from the...
Developmental biology studies ontogenesis, the individual development of an organism from the time of fertilization in sexual reproduction or its expelling from the maternal organism in asexual reproduction to the end of an organism's life, with all phenotypical characters typical of this biological species and supporting the normal course of all biochemical processes and morphogenesis [...].
Topics: Reproduction; Reproduction, Asexual; Morphogenesis; Developmental Biology
PubMed: 37445614
DOI: 10.3390/ijms241310435 -
Trends in Biotechnology Aug 2020Recent advances in stem cell biology and tissue engineering have laid the groundwork for building complex tissues in a dish. We propose that these technologies are ready... (Review)
Review
Recent advances in stem cell biology and tissue engineering have laid the groundwork for building complex tissues in a dish. We propose that these technologies are ready for a new challenge: recapitulating cardiac morphogenesis in vitro. In development, the heart transforms from a simple linear tube to a four-chambered organ through a complex process called looping. Here, we re-examine heart tube looping through the lens of an engineer and argue that the linear heart tube is an advantageous starting point for tissue engineering. We summarize the structures, signaling pathways, and stresses in the looping heart, and evaluate approaches that could be used to build a linear heart tube and guide it through the process of looping.
Topics: Animals; Heart; Humans; Morphogenesis; Organogenesis; Signal Transduction; Stem Cell Research; Stem Cell Transplantation; Stem Cells; Tissue Engineering
PubMed: 32673587
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.01.006 -
Development (Cambridge, England) Sep 2019The Hippo signalling pathway and its transcriptional co-activator targets Yorkie/YAP/TAZ first came to attention because of their role in tissue growth control. Over the... (Review)
Review
The Hippo signalling pathway and its transcriptional co-activator targets Yorkie/YAP/TAZ first came to attention because of their role in tissue growth control. Over the past 15 years, it has become clear that, like other developmental pathways (e.g. the Wnt, Hedgehog and TGFβ pathways), Hippo signalling is a 'jack of all trades' that is reiteratively used to mediate a range of cellular decision-making processes from proliferation, death and morphogenesis to cell fate determination. Here, and in the accompanying poster, we briefly outline the core pathway and its regulation, and describe the breadth of its roles in animal development.
Topics: Animals; Cell Lineage; Cell Polarity; Embryonic Development; Humans; Morphogenesis; Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 31527062
DOI: 10.1242/dev.167106