Model vertebrates articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    We present the ‘zebrafish single-cell atlas of perturbed embryos’, single-cell trancriptomic data of developing zebrafish embryos across various timepoints and with genetic perturbations.

    • Lauren M. Saunders
    • , Sanjay R. Srivatsan
    •  & Cole Trapnell

  • Article |

    Differences in the mechanical properties of individual cardiomyocytes drive their segregation into compact versus trabecular layer, thereby transforming the myocardium in a developing heart from a simple epithelium into an intricately patterned tissue with distinct cell fates.

    • Rashmi Priya
    • , Srinivas Allanki
    •  & Didier Y. R. Stainier

  • Article |

    Identification and characterization, using a comprehensive embryonic phenotyping pipeline, of 410 lethal alleles during the generation of the first 1,751 of 5,000 unique gene knockouts produced by the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium.

    • Mary E. Dickinson
    • , Ann M. Flenniken
    •  & Stephen A. Murray

  • Article |

    In mouse, an axonal connectivity map showing the wiring patterns across the entire brain has been created using an EGFP-expressing adeno-associated virus tracing technique, providing the first such whole-brain map for a vertebrate species.

    • Seung Wook Oh
    • , Julie A. Harris
    •  & Hongkui Zeng

  • Letter |

    A genomic map of nearly 300,000 potential cis-regulatory sequences determined from diverse mouse tissues and cell types reveals active promoters, enhancers and CCCTC-binding factor sites encompassing 11% of the mouse genome and significantly expands annotation of mammalian regulatory sequences.

    • Yin Shen
    • , Feng Yue
    •  & Bing Ren

  • News |

    As approvals for engineered food animals stall, pigs may be US regulators’ next challenge.

    • Amy Maxmen

  • News |

    Supply of research monkeys to Western labs under threat as airlines react to animal-rights campaign.

    • Meredith Wadman

  • Article |

    Genetic programs homologous to three vertebrate signalling centres are present in the hemichordate Saccoglossus kowalevskii and may be components of a complex, ancient genetic regulatory scaffold for deuterostome body patterning that degenerated in amphioxus and ascidians, but was retained to pattern divergent structures in hemichordates and vertebrates.

    • Ariel M. Pani
    • , Erin E. Mullarkey
    •  & Christopher J. Lowe

  • Article |

    Historical and contemporary data of whitefish radiations from pre-alpine European lakes and reconstruction of changes in whitefish genetic species differentiation through time show that species diversity may have evolved in response to ecological opportunity, and that eutrophication, by diminishing this opportunity, has driven extinctions through speciation reversal and demographic decline.

    • P. Vonlanthen
    • , D. Bittner
    •  & O. Seehausen

  • Editorial |

    The bizarre-looking naked mole rat is a worthy member of the genome club.

  • News |

    The Collaborative Cross project will boost diversity and help the hunt for disease genes.

    • Ewen Callaway

  • News & Views |

    Early cell-lineage decisions during embryonic development differ between mice and cows. This finding calls for a re-examination of developmental variations across mammals, but does not undermine use of the mouse as a model organism.

    • Janet Rossant

  • News |

    Decision to relocate colony of ageing research chimpanzees becomes political.

    • Heidi Ledford

  • News |

    Gentler ways of handling the rodents could keep them calm and reduce experimental variability.

    • Janelle Weaver

  • News & Views |

    Advances in stem-cell technology have broken the barrier to gene targeting in mammals other than mice. A wide array of research opportunities now opens up, especially in studies involving the laboratory rat.

    • F. Kent Hamra

  • News |

    Researchers pin down a pathway coming between mammals and the ability to regenerate tissue salamander-style.

    • Alla Katsnelson

  • News |

    Canadian scientists vindicated after being accused of mistreating laboratory animals.

    • Janelle Weaver

  • News |

    Researchers claim outbreaks of unknown haemorrhagic illness are no threat to humans.

    • David Cyranoski

  • Editorial |

    Mouse research for human diseases has grown, and researchers must defend and promote it accordingly.

  • Editorial |

    Rats turn out to be surprisingly useful for research on cognition. But if the goal is to understand the human brain and its many disorders, then primate studies remain essential.

  • News Feature |

    Studying primates is the only way to understand human cognition — or so neuroscientists thought. But there may be much to learn from rats and mice, finds Alison Abbott.

    • Alison Abbott

  • Letter |

    How large groups of animals move in a coordinated way has defied complete explanation. Inability to track each member of a flock has hampered understanding of the behavioural rules governing flocks of birds. This, however, has been achieved for a small group of homing pigeons fitted with lightweight GPS loggers. A well–defined hierarchy is revealed — the average position of a pigeon within the flock strongly correlates with is position in the social hierarchy (a kind of airborne pecking order).

    • Máté Nagy
    • , Zsuzsa Ákos
    •  & Tamás Vicsek

  • Letter
    | Open Access

    The genome of the zebra finch — a songbird and a model for studying the vertebrate brain, behaviour and evolution — has been sequenced. Comparison with the chicken genome, the only other bird genome available, shows that genes that have neural function and are implicated in the cognitive processing of song have been evolving rapidly in the finch lineage. Moreover, vocal communication engages much of the transcriptome of the zebra finch brain.

    • Wesley C. Warren
    • , David F. Clayton
    •  & Richard K. Wilson

  • Letter |

    Zebrafish are able to replace lost heart muscle efficiently, and are used as a model to understand why natural heart regeneration — after a heart attack, for instance — is blocked in mammals. Here, and in an accompanying paper, genetic fate-mapping approaches reveal which cell population contributes prominently to cardiac muscle regeneration after an injury approximating myocardial infarction. The results show that cardiac muscle regenerates through activation and expansion of existing cardiomyocytes, without involving a stem-cell population.

    • Kazu Kikuchi
    • , Jennifer E. Holdway
    •  & Kenneth D. Poss

  • Letter |

    Zebrafish are able to replace lost heart muscle efficiently, and are used as a model to understand why natural heart regeneration — after a heart attack, for instance — is blocked in mammals. Here, and in an accompanying paper, genetic fate-mapping approaches reveal which cell population contributes prominently to cardiac muscle regeneration after an injury approximating myocardial infarction. The results show that cardiac muscle regenerates through activation and expansion of existing cardiomyocytes, without involving a stem-cell population.

    • Chris Jopling
    • , Eduard Sleep
    •  & Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte

  • Letter |

    Male pregnancy is restricted to seahorses, pipefishes and their relatives, in which young are nurtured in the male's brood pouch. It is now clear that the brood pouch has a further function. Studies of Gulf pipefish show that males can selectively abort embryos from females perceived as less attractive, saving resources for more hopeful prospects later. This is the only known example of post-copulatory sexual conflict in a sex-reversed species.

    • Kimberly A. Paczolt
    •  & Adam G. Jones

  • Letter |

    Evidence for hominin activity on Flores, Indonesia, has been thought to go back at least 800,000 years, as shown by fission-track dating at Mata Menge in the Soa Basin. However, new research at another locality in the Soa Basin uses the more accurate technique of 40Ar/39Ar dating to show that hominins were living on Flores at least a million years ago.

    • Adam Brumm
    • , Gitte M. Jensen
    •  & Michael Storey

  • Letter |

    An extensive genome-wide survey of over 48,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms in dogs and their wild progenitor, the grey wolf, was conducted to shed light on the process of dog diversification. The results reveal that much of genome diversity came from Middle Eastern progenitors, combined with interbreeding with local wolf populations, and that recent evolution involved limited genetic variation to create the phenotypic diversity of modern dogs.

    • Bridgett M. vonHoldt
    • , John P. Pollinger
    •  & Robert K. Wayne

  • Article |

    In mammals, embryos are considered to be sexually indifferent until the action of a sex-determining gene initiates gonadal differentiation. Here it is demonstrated that this situation is different for birds. Using rare, naturally occurring chimaeric chickens where one side of the animal appears male and the other female, it is shown that avian somatic cells possess an inherent sex identity and that, in birds, sexual differentiation is cell autonomous.

    • D. Zhao
    • , D. McBride
    •  & M. Clinton

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