Adipocyte Piezo1 mediates obesogenic adipogenesis through the FGF1/FGFR1 signaling pathway in mice.

White adipose tissue (WAT) expansion in obesity occurs through enlargement of preexisting adipocytes (hypertrophy) and through formation of new adipocytes (adipogenesis). Adipogenesis results in WAT hyperplasia, smaller adipocytes and a metabolically more favourable form of obesity. How obesogenic WAT hyperplasia is induced remains, however, poorly understood.

A Conserved Role of the Unconventional Myosin 1d in Laterality Determination.

Anatomical and functional asymmetries are widespread in the animal kingdom [1, 2]. In vertebrates, many visceral organs are asymmetrically placed [3]. In snails, shells and inner organs coil asymmetrically, and in Drosophila, genitalia and hindgut undergo a chiral rotation during development.

Vertebrate Left-Right Asymmetry: What Can Nodal Cascade Gene Expression Patterns Tell Us?

Laterality of inner organs is a wide-spread characteristic of vertebrates and beyond. It is ultimately controlled by the left-asymmetric activation of the Nodal signaling cascade in the lateral plate mesoderm of the neurula stage embryo, which results from a cilia-driven leftward flow of extracellular fluids at the left-right organizer. This scenario is widely accepted for laterality determination in wildtype specimens.

A novel role of the organizer gene Goosecoid as an inhibitor of Wnt/PCP-mediated convergent extension in Xenopus and mouse.

Goosecoid (Gsc) expression marks the primary embryonic organizer in vertebrates and beyond. While functions have been assigned during later embryogenesis, the role of Gsc in the organizer has remained enigmatic. Using conditional gain-of-function approaches in Xenopus and mouse to maintain Gsc expression in the organizer and along the axial midline, neural tube closure defects (NTDs) arose and dorsal extension was compromised.

Symmetry breakage in the frog Xenopus: role of Rab11 and the ventral-right blastomere.

Vertebrates display asymmetric arrangements of inner organs such as heart and stomach. The Nodal signaling cascade in the left lateral plate mesoderm in all cases directs asymmetric morphogenesis and placement during organogenesis. Mechanisms that lead up to left-asymmetric Nodal induction seem to differ between the vertebrates.

Calponin 2 acts as an effector of noncanonical Wnt-mediated cell polarization during neural crest cell migration.

Neural crest cells (NCCs) migrate throughout the embryo to differentiate into cell types of all germ layers. Initial directed NCC emigration relies on planar cell polarity (PCP), which through the activity of the small GTPases RhoA and Rac governs the actin-driven formation of polarized cell protrusions. We found that the actin binding protein calponin 2 (Cnn2) was expressed in protrusions at the leading edge of migratory NCCs in chicks and frogs.