the community site for and by developmental biologists
the community site for and by developmental biologists
Posted by ChemaMD on March 11th, 2019
Background Mutualistic relationships between bacteria and complex organisms have repeatedly evolved and this has allowed host organisms to exploit new environments and foods. One of the most extreme and fascinating cases of symbiosis in the animal kingdom is observed in annelid worms of the genus Riftia and Osedax. These animals are able to live in particularly[…]
Posted by the Node on March 5th, 2019
Alexander Blackwell and James Gahan At the beginning of November 2018, thirty researchers congregated at Wiston House to attend a workshop titled ‘Evo-chromo: towards an integrative approach of chromatin dynamics across eukaryotes’. The workshop was organised by Frederic Berger (Gregor Mendel Institute) and Ines Anna Drinnenberg (Institut Curie), and was the 27th workshop hosted[…]
Posted by the Node Interviews on February 8th, 2019
This interview, the 57th in our series, was recently published in Development The molecular regulation of pluripotency has been most intensively studied in early mammalian development, but whether the transcriptional networks revealed in mouse and man also regulate pluripotency in other deuterostomes has remained unclear. A paper in this issue of Development now addresses the evolution of pluripotency[…]
Posted by Daniel Smith-Paredes on December 20th, 2018
Birds are a dominant group of land Vertebrates (probably the largest in numbers with +10000 species described), highly successful and diverse. Birds originated from members of the Theropoda: the meat-eating dinosaurs that included famous forms like T. rex or Velociraptor, well-known from the movies. The fact that birds are a kind of dinosaur has been[…]
Posted by Shinichi on December 10th, 2018
I am Shinichi Morita, a postdoctoral researcher in Teruyuki Niimi’s lab at the National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan (Fig. 1A, B). Our research interests focus on the evolutionary novelties that insects have acquired, and how various insect morphologies have arisen during evolution (Fig. 1C-P). Beetle horns are thought to be an evolutionary[…]
Posted by JNMalagon on November 14th, 2018
Using computer simulations and mathematical modeling to study the evolution of morphogenesis Juan N. Malagon and Ernest Ho tell the story behind their recent paper in PLOS Computational Biology. In the Larsen lab, we are interested in testing a 50-year old question: How do sex combs rotate in fruit flies? Despite extensive studies of the[…]
Posted by rorylcooper on November 7th, 2018
Understanding how complex biological patterns arise is a long standing and fascinating area of scientific research. The patterning, or spatial arrangement, of vertebrate skin appendages (such as feathers, hair and scales) has enabled diverse adaptations, allowing animals to both survive and thrive in varied and challenging environments. Such adaptations include temperature control of mammalian hair1[…]
Posted by chrisbonatto on October 15th, 2018
There is a vast amount of information known about how some animals pattern their bodies into repeated segments, especially in the fruit-fly Drosophila melanogaster. However, when compared to other arthropods, there are several characteristics that are derived in the fruit fly. It has a very short development time, a syncytium at the blastoderm stage allowing[…]
Posted by Stefania Gutierrez on August 28th, 2018
Have you heard of an animal that can lose most of its body tissues and the remnant tissues aggregate to regenerate the lost parts and recovery its original form? Do you know an animal that can quickly colonize marine surfaces by asexual reproduction, just like weed would in terrestrial environments ? Do you know an[…]
Posted by alexislanza on July 10th, 2018
It’s undoubtedly the middle of summer here in Saint Augustine, Florida. Daily temperatures are soaring into the 90s, and we’re grateful if the humidity dips below 70%. Thankfully, the Seaver lab doesn’t have to contend with much of this heat. Instead, our members are inside, comfortable though busier than ever, mentoring summer interns, piloting new[…]
