Zebrafish mutants and TEAD reporters reveal essential functions for Yap and Taz in posterior cardinal vein development.

As effectors of the Hippo signaling cascade, YAP1 and TAZ are transcriptional regulators playing important roles in development, tissue homeostasis and cancer. A number of different cues, including mechanotransduction of extracellular stimuli, adhesion molecules, oncogenic signaling and metabolism modulate YAP1/TAZ nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling. In the nucleus, YAP1/TAZ tether with the DNA binding proteins TEADs, to activate the expression of target genes that regulate proliferation, migration, cell plasticity, and cell fate.

Regulation of posterior body and epidermal morphogenesis in zebrafish by localized Yap1 and Wwtr1.

The vertebrate embryo undergoes a series of dramatic morphological changes as the body extends to form the complete anterior-posterior axis during the somite-forming stages. The molecular mechanisms regulating these complex processes are still largely unknown. We show that the Hippo pathway transcriptional coactivators Yap1 and Wwtr1 are specifically localized to the presumptive epidermis and notochord, and play a critical and unexpected role in posterior body extension by regulating Fibronectin assembly underneath the presumptive epidermis and surrounding the notochord.

Reciprocal analyses in zebrafish and medaka reveal that harnessing the immune response promotes cardiac regeneration.

Zebrafish display a distinct ability to regenerate their heart following injury. However, this ability is not shared by another teleost, the medaka. In order to identify cellular and molecular bases for this difference, we performed comparative transcriptomic analyses following cardiac cryoinjury.

Pushing Yap into the Nucleus with Shear Force.

Endothelial cells line blood vessels and experience shear stress from blood flow. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Nakajima and colleagues (2017) show that in zebrafish Yap responds to blood flow by translocating into the nucleus, where it drives a genetic program to maintain vascular stability.

Insights into the genetic structure and diversity of 38 South Asian Indians from deep whole-genome sequencing.

South Asia possesses a significant amount of genetic diversity due to considerable intergroup differences in culture and language. There have been numerous reports on the genetic structure of Asian Indians, although these have mostly relied on genotyping microarrays or targeted sequencing of the mitochondria and Y chromosomes. Asian Indians in Singapore are primarily descendants of immigrants from Dravidian-language-speaking states in south India, and 38 individuals from the general population underwent deep whole-genome sequencing with a target coverage of 30X as part of the Singapore Sequencing Indian Project (SSIP).