All articles tagged with #embryogenesis
Scientists transplanted embryonic organizer tissue from a comb jelly into a sea anemone, producing extra mouths and pharynxes and showing that organizer cells can function across distantly related phyla, suggesting such developmental control mechanisms originated early in animal evolution; the finding rekindles debate about when animals first emerged, though some researchers remain skeptical.
Pan et al. create a comprehensive spatiotemporal atlas of gene expression in 13 human embryos from Carnegie stage 12 to 23 using Stereo-seq and snRNA-seq, mapping 50 organs and 198 substructures, revealing context-specific regulatory networks and tissue identities, uncovering new gene functions in cardiac and brain development, and providing a public resource to visualize the embryonic transcriptional landscape and allelic expression dynamics across development.
A mouse oocyte cytoplasmic lattice (CPL) structure was resolved by cryo-EM, revealing a repeating filament composed of U-shaped baskets and adapter rings built from 14 protein subunits; PADI6 anchors the baskets, while SCMC dimers connect adjacent units, outlining how CPL assembles and supporting its crucial roles in oocyte maturation, early embryogenesis, and potential female reproductive disorders.
Using Pico-C, a low-input Micro-C method, the study maps high-resolution 3D genome architecture across NC9–NC14 in early Drosophila embryos and reveals that chromatin loops and boundaries emerge in an ordered, modular fashion before major ZGA. Transcriptional elongation inhibition preserves some early loops but weakens promoter insulation, while sequence-based models show orthogonal motif-driven contributions to architecture. Co-depleting Zelda and GAF confirms locus-specific regulatory inputs, supporting a layered regulatory logic for genome establishment prior to ZGA.
The article introduces spatial-DMT, a novel technology for simultaneous spatial profiling of DNA methylome and transcriptome in tissue sections at near single-cell resolution, applied to mouse embryos and brains, revealing intricate gene regulation mechanisms during development and tissue-specific epigenetic landscapes.
Researchers have successfully cultivated primate embryos in a lab for 25 days post-fertilization, achieving key developmental landmarks never before observed in culture, including the start of organ development. This breakthrough could help understand congenital birth defects and organ development in humans. The embryos surviving to 25 days had many of the hallmarks of an in utero embryo, such as the three embryonic tissue layers ultimately responsible for the formation of the fetus and the formation of the neural tube, which goes on to form the brain and spinal cord.