Inter-species Transplantation of Blastocysts between Medaka and Zebrafish.

Transplantation of blastocysts from a donor to a host blastula constitutes a powerful experimental tool to tackle major developmental biology questions. The technique is widely implemented in diverse biological models including teleost fish, where it is typically used for intra-species blastula transplantations - , labeled blastocysts into a non-labeled host to follow lineages, or mutant blastocysts into a wild-type host to address autonomous vs. non-autonomous roles of a gene of interest.

Growth across scales: Dynamic signaling impacts tissue size and shape.

Organ and tissue growth result from an integration of biophysical communication across biological scales, both in time and space. In this review, we highlight new insight into the dynamic connections between control mechanisms operating at different length scales. First, we consider how the dynamics of chemical and electrical signaling in the shape of gradients or waves affect spatiotemporal signal interpretation.

Self-organized patterning of cell morphology via mechanosensitive feedback.

Tissue organization is often characterized by specific patterns of cell morphology. How such patterns emerge in developing tissues is a fundamental open question. Here, we investigate the emergence of tissue-scale patterns of cell shape and mechanical tissue stress in the wing imaginal disc during larval development.

Genetic developmental timing revealed by inter-species transplantations in fish.

The path from a fertilised egg to an embryo involves the coordinated formation of cell types, tissues and organs. Developmental modules comprise discrete units specified by self-sufficient genetic programs that can interact with each other during embryogenesis. Here, we have taken advantage of the different span of embryonic development between two distantly related teleosts, zebrafish () and medaka () (3 and 9 days, respectively), to explore modularity principles.