EDITORIAL
- Into the blue: the importance of murine lacZ gene expression profiling in understanding and treating human disease
Summary: A recent report by White et al. highlights the utility of lacZ reporter gene expression profiling as a powerful means of elucidating the role of genes in health and disease.
A MODEL FOR LIFE
REVIEW
- Exploring the HIFs, buts and maybes of hypoxia signalling in disease: lessons from zebrafish models
Summary: Hypoxia signalling, mediated by HIF, is a crucial pathway in many disease processes. Here, we review current knowledge of HIF signalling and disease, focusing on recent findings from zebrafish models.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- A hypermorphic epithelial β-catenin mutation facilitates intestinal tumorigenesis in mice in response to compounding WNT-pathway mutations
Summary: The gpA33ΔN-Bcat mice provide a model that better mimics some aspects of sporadic colon cancer induction in humans in terms of tumor multiplicity and latency and site-specific (i.e. colon) tumor occurrence that coincides with upregulation of markers for human colorectal cancer progression.
- A zebrafish larval model reveals early tissue-specific innate immune responses to Mucor circinelloides
Summary: We use zebrafish larval models to delineate the temporospatial patterns of innate immune responses to fungal infections with mucormycete spores.
- Loss of the Coffin-Lowry syndrome-associated gene RSK2 alters ERK activity, synaptic function and axonal transport in Drosophila motoneurons
Summary: Mutations in the human kinase RSK2 are associated with severe mental retardation (Coffin-Lowry syndrome). Here, the function of Drosophila RSK in synaptic plasticity is described, which might help in understanding the complex pathophysiology.
- T-cell number and subtype influence the disease course of primary chronic lymphocytic leukaemia xenografts in alymphoid mice
Summary: Manipulation of T cells can enhance current CLL xenograft models, expanding their utility for investigation of tumour biology and pre-clinical drug assessment.
- Modelling staphylococcal pneumonia in a human 3D lung tissue model system delineates toxin-mediated pathology
Summary: Use of a human 3D lung tissue model system identifies the combined effects of α-toxin and Panton-Valentine leukocidin in tissue injury and clinical outcome in staphylococcal pneumonia.
- Heterozygous disruption of activin receptor-like kinase 1 is associated with increased arterial pressure in mice
Summary: Mice haploinsufficient for Alk1, a receptor for the TGF-β family, show hypertension, based on overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system and a reduction in the number of cholinergic neurons in the CNS.
- Xenobiotics that affect oxidative phosphorylation alter differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells at concentrations that are found in human blood
Summary: Some medical drugs and environmental chemical pollutants acting on the oxidative phosphorylation system can alter adipocyte differentiation and adipogenesis and, thus, have important consequences for human health.
- Hyperactivity and attention deficits in mice with decreased levels of stress-inducible phosphoprotein 1 (STIP1)
Summary: Here, using a series of behavioral tests including touchscreen tasks we show that decreased levels of stress-inducible phosphoprotein 1 (STIP1) lead to attention deficits and hyperactivity in mice.
RESOURCE ARTICLES
- A gene expression resource generated by genome-wide lacZ profiling in the mouse
Editor's Choice: The report presents an open-access adult mouse expression resource, in which the expression profile of 424 genes has been assessed in up to 47 different organs, tissues and sub-structures using a lacZ reporter gene.
- A simple method for in vivo labelling of infiltrating leukocytes in the mouse retina using indocyanine green dye
Summary: We show here that peripheral leukocytes can be labelled with ICG in vivo and then directly imaged as they invade the retina after inflammatory stimuli.
This issue
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
Editor’s choice – Perturbed development of cranial neural crest cells in association with reduced sonic hedgehog signaling underlies the pathogenesis of retinoic-acid-induced cleft palate
Takashi Yamashiro and colleagues identify the critical role of the retinoic acid-Sonic hedgehog signalling pathway in cranial neural crest and palate development.
A new Resource article by Nguyen et al. describes CFIN, a novel deep learning image analysis platform to assess cardiac function in embryonic zebrafish.
Yuyu Niu and colleagues summarise the history of genome editing in non-human primates and discusses the challenges and prospects of the technology.
Have you seen our interviews with the early-career first authors of our papers? Recently, we caught up with Alexander Akerberg and Jocelyn Wessels.
Travelling Fellowship – New imaging approach unveils a bigger picture
Find out how Pamela Imperadore’s Travelling Fellowship grant from The Company of Biologists took her to Germany, where she used new imaging techniques to investigate the cellular machinery underlying octopus arm regeneration. Don’t miss the next application deadline for 2020 travel, coming up on 29 November. Where will you go?
preLights – HSP110 dependent HSP70 disaggregation machinery mediates prion-like propagation of amyloidogenic proteins in metazoa
Highlighted by Tessa Sinnige, a recent preprint from Carmen Nussbaum-Krammer and co-workers shows that Hsp110 activity protects against amorphous protein aggregation but promotes amyloid aggregation and toxicity in C. elegans models.