Pattern formation articles from across Nature Portfolio

Rare disease DEDSSH1-associated DPH1 mutations impair eEF2 diphthamide modification that leads to eEF2 as a transcriptional coactivator for p53 to enhance expression of the cell proliferation inhibitor p21, resulting in birth defects.

Organs develop unique vascular architectures to support physiological functions. Here, authors show that organo-typical vascular networks may arise from specific parenchymal cues activating unique endothelial subtypes and angiogenic sprouting processes.

Children’s faces resemble their parents to various degrees. Here they show that the maternal diet affects the facial appearances of newborns and that inherited and adaptive mechanisms sculpturing facial bones are linked via dietary protein levels and the mTOR signaling pathway.

Development of hindlimbs and external genitalia share several regulatory factors. Lozovska et al. show that Tgfbr1 controls the response to those factors; embryos lacking Tgfbr1 develop two sets of hindlimbs at the expense of the external genitalia.

Retinoic acid signaling is involved in patterning the embryonic antero-posterior axis, and also regulates hindbrain segmentation in jawed vertebrates. Here they show that retinoic acid signaling plays important roles in hindbrain segmentation in a jawless vertebrate, the lamprey, thus indicating this feature of hindbrain development is conserved in all vertebrates.

Two new methods enable the study of the mechanics of tissue development.

An article in Nature Communications presents a method to provide local mechanical stimulation to organoids using magnetic nanoparticles.

Intestinal organoids have been used to model development of the crypt–villus axis and uncover signalling pathways that govern the stem-cell niche and induce differentiation. Two studies now take advantage of intestinal organoids to measure the mechanical forces that drive morphogenesis of the crypt and fate specification of its resident cells.

Hox genes are known to regulate head-tail axis patterning but their molecular role in animals diverged from the bilaterian lineage is unclear. Here, Fabian Rentzsch and Thomas W. Holstein comment on a paper by Mark Martindale and colleagues on the functional role of two Hox genes in axial patterning of the sea anemone.

A new approach uses beams of light to direct cytoplasmic flows.