Publications related to RING1 proteins contribute to early proximal-distal specification of the forelimb bud by restricting Meis2 expression

How are cells instructed to form somite boundaries by the zebrafish segmentation clock?

In vertebrate embryos, the elongating body axis is patterned via the sequential and rhyth-mic production of segments from a posterior unsegmented tissue called the presomitic mesoderm (PSM). This process is controlled by a population of cellular oscillator ...

EPFL2023

In vitro endoderm emergence and self-organisation in the absence of extraembryonic tissues and embryonic architecture

Stefano Davide Vianello

In humans, mice, and other mammals key internal organs such as the gut, the lungs, the pancreas, and the liver all derive from the same embryonic tissue: the endoderm. The development of all of these structures thus depends on a same set of early cells, an ...

EPFL2022

Context-dependent enhancer function revealed by targeted inter-TAD relocation

Denis Duboule, Guillaume Andrey, Christopher Chase Bolt, Lucille Delisle, Aurélie Hintermann

Here the authors show that a strong enhancer sequence can be controlled by the chromatin environment provided by a topologically associated domain (TAD) located nearby. An enhancer relocated by homologous recombination takes all the hallmarks of its new ne ...

Nature Portfolio2022

Generation of a Gal4-dependent gene recombination and illuminating mouse

Freddy Radtke

Cell labeling technologies, including the Cre/loxP system, are powerful tools in developmental biology. Although the conventional Cre/loxP system has been extensively used to label the expression of specific genes, it is less frequently used for labeling p ...

INT PRESS EDITING CENTRE INC2022

In vitro modeling of early mouse development

Mehmet Ugur Girgin

Previous attempts to recapitulate embryogenesis in a developmentally relevant context started with aggregates composed of a few thousand ESCs, termed embryoid bodies (EB), that upon induction of differentiation reveal a surprising level of autonomous cell ...

EPFL2020

Chromatin topology and the timing of enhancer function at the HoxD locus

Denis Duboule, Leonardo Beccari, Lucille Delisle, Edgardo Rodriguez Carballo

The HoxD gene cluster is critical for proper limb formation in tetrapods. In the emerging limb buds, different subgroups of Hoxd genes respond first to a proximal regulatory signal, then to a distal signal that organizes digits. These two regulations are e ...

National Academy of Sciences2020

HOX13-dependent chromatin accessibility underlies the transition towards the digit development program

Alexandre Gauthier Aurèle Mayran

Hox genes encode transcription factors (TFs) that establish morphological diversity in the developing embryo. The similar DNA-binding motifs of the various HOX TFs contrast with the wide-range of HOX-dependent genetic programs. The influence of the chromat ...

Nature Research2020

Control of Hox transcription factor concentration and cell-to-cell variability by an auto-regulatory switch

The variability in transcription factor concentration among cells is an important developmental determinant, yet how variability is controlled remains poorly understood. Studies of variability have focused predominantly on monitoring mRNA production noise. ...

The Company of Biologists2019

Coordinated Hoxd genes expression during embryogenesis is dependent on a strict disposition of genes and polarized regulators within the HoxD cluster

Fabrice Daniel Darbellay

HOX transcription factors determine the identity of body regions along the rostro-caudal axis during bilaterian embryogenesis. In vertebrates Hox genes distinctively lie organized in dense clusters, each typically composed of a dozen paralogous transcripti ...

EPFL2018

Heterogeneous combinatorial expression of Hoxd genes in single cells during limb development

Denis Duboule, Marion Leleu, Pierre Raymond Fabre

Background: Global analyses of gene expression during development reveal specific transcription patterns associated with the emergence of various cell types, tissues, and organs. These heterogeneous patterns are instrumental to ensure the proper formation ...

2018

Multi-axial self-organization properties of mouse embryonic stem cells into gastruloids

Matthias Lütolf, Denis Duboule, Leonardo Beccari, Mehmet Ugur Girgin, Anne-Catherine Cossy, Alfonso Martinez Arias

The emergence of multiple axes is an essential element in the establishment of the mammalian body plan. This process takes place shortly after implantation of the embryo within the uterus and relies on the activity of gene regulatory networks that coordina ...

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP2018

Probing the distribution of cortical components, including PtdIns(4,5)P2, during asymmetric division of C. elegans embryos

Melina Jasmin Scholze

Asymmetric cell division is crucial for embryonic development and stem cell lineages. In the one-cell C. elegans embryo, a contractile cortical actomyosin network contributes to asymmetric division by segregating PAR proteins to discrete cortical domains. ...

EPFL2018

Integration of Shh and Fgf signaling in controlling Hox gene expression in cultured limb cells

Denis Duboule, Patrick Schorderet, Guillaume Andrey, Nayuta Yakushiji

During embryonic development, fields of progenitor cells form complex structures through dynamic interactions with external signaling molecules. How complex signaling inputs are integrated to yield appropriate gene expression responses is poorly understood ...

National Academy of Sciences2017

The HoxD cluster is a dynamic and resilient TAD boundary controlling the segregation of antagonistic regulatory landscapes

Denis Duboule, Pierre Raymond Fabre, Leonardo Beccari, Lucille Delisle, Edgardo Rodriguez Carballo

The mammalian HoxD cluster lies between two topologically associating domains (TADs) matching distinct enhancer-rich regulatory landscapes. During limb development, the telomeric TAD controls the early transcription of Hoxd genes in forearm cells, whereas ...

2017

From the early steps of whisker formation to its evolutionary disappearance: the (curious) case of Prdm1 and its regulation

Pierluigi Giuseppe Manti

Whiskers (also known as vibrissae) are sensory organs that are thought to have first appeared in Therapsida, a group of synapsids that includes mammals and evolutionary ancestors like the Thrinaxodon(1). They are highly conserved among mammals to the notab ...

EPFL2016

Regulatory Switches Underlie Hoxd Gene Activation in Tetrapod Limbs

Guillaume Andrey

Accurate spatio-temporal control of Hox cluster genes expression is critical for the proper organization of body structures during vertebrate embryogenesis. In the limbs, Hoxd genes are critical in setting up the proximodistal and anteroposterior axes. Sev ...

EPFL2013

Anthrax toxin receptor 2a controls mitotic spindle positioning

Françoise Gisou van der Goot Grunberg, Laurence Gouzi Abrami

Oriented mitosis is essential during tissue morphogenesis. The Wnt/planar cell polarity (Wnt/PCP) pathway orients mitosis in a number of developmental systems, including dorsal epiblast cell divisions along the animal-vegetal (A-V) axis during zebrafish ga ...

Nature Publishing Group2013

A switch between topological domains underlies HoxD genes collinearity in mouse limbs

Denis Duboule, Didier Trono, Guillaume Andrey, Daniël Noordermeer, Marion Leleu

Hox genes are major determinants of the animal body plan, where they organize structures along both the trunk and appendicular axes. During mouse limb development, Hoxd genes are transcribed in two waves: early on, when the arm and forearm are specified, a ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science2013

Asymmetric Cell Division in the Skin

Wan-Hung Fan

An asymmetric cell division (ACD) is defined as a division that gives rise to two daughter cells with different fates. It is the most common type of division during development. Analogous to Drosophila neuroblasts, proteins involved in ACD such as Insc and ...

EPFL2012

The microenvironment patterns the pluripotent mouse epiblast through paracrine Furin and Pace4 proteolytic activities

Daniel Constam, Christophe Fuerer

The fate of pluripotent cells in early mouse embryos is controlled by graded Nodal signals that are activated by the endoproteases Furin and Pace4. Soluble forms of Furin and Pace4 cleave proNodal in vitro and after secretion in transfected cells, but dire ...

2011