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Reposted by Aurélien Villedieu

Denis Duboule @denisduboule.bsky.social · 22d

Out today. 🙏 again to everyone for this wonderful piece of work, in particular to Aurelie @aurhin.bsky.social Chase @chasebolt.bsky.social and Brent @homeobox.bsky.social. 🙏 also to the Harris lab @fish4walking.bsky.social and @neilshubin.bsky.social @biology-unige.bsky.social @college-de-france.fr

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paveltomancak.bsky.social @paveltomancak.bsky.social · Sep 4

We are all super happy and proud to see our work on the function and evolution of the #cephalic #furrow published in @nature.com. Let me say a few things about the background and history of this work on the #Evolution_of_Morphogenesis (1/12)

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James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · Aug 26

Our latest: We developed a chemo-optogenetic system for precise spatiotemporal control of morphogen production. Using dual light + small molecule control of Sonic Hedgehog production, we recapitulated neural tube patterning in vitro & measured spread of Shh

🧵

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Investigating morphogen and patterning dynamics with optogenetic control of morphogen production

Morphogen gradients provide the patterning cues that instruct cell fate decisions during development. Here, we establish an optogenetic system for the…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Aurélien Villedieu

Michalis Averof @michalis-averof.bsky.social · Aug 8

Latest paper elifesciences.org/articles/107... closes an important cycle in our efforts to study regeneration: week-long recordings allow us to observe the behaviour of cells during the entire course of regeneration in a crustacean leg – bright objects in movie are fluorescent nuclei of cells. 1/6

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Anaïs Bailles @anaisbailles.bsky.social · Aug 6

Very happy that the first article from my postdoc work in the Tomancak lab is now published @PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... We studied the self-organization of actin in aggregates made from Hydra cells. Thread below (1/9)

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Juliane Glaser @julianeg.bsky.social · Jul 9

Finally out! 🥳 Our paper showing how a transposable element (TE) insertion can cause developmental phenotypes is now published @natgenet.nature.com 🧬🦠🐁
Below is a brief description of the major findings. Check the full version of the paper for more details: www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02248-5

Enhancer adoption by an LTR retrotransposon generates viral-like particles, causing developmental limb phenotypes - Nature Genetics

Activation of an LTR retrotransposon inserted upstream of the Fgf8 gene produces viral-like particles in the mouse developing limb, triggering apoptosis and causing limb malformation. This phenotype c...

www.nature.com

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epithelial mechanics fan club @epimechfc.bsky.social · Jul 20

If you’ve been following this account closely, you might already know methods to probe mechanics in vitro, but what about in live embryos?

I’m @amichaut.bsky.social, and I’m going to share a few great papers on this aspect of #EpithelialMechanics.

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Julia Pfanzelter @juliapfanzelter.bsky.social · Jul 20

Here is what I have been up to in the lab of @stephangrill.bsky.social together with @neipel.bsky.social and many others.
Intrigued by avian left right symmetry breaking we found that a tissue-scale active torque drives chiral flow and requires mechanical coupling to the underlying tissue.

Jonas Neipel @neipel.bsky.social · Jul 20

(1/10)
I am excited to finally share our work on avian left/right symmetry breaking with you. We reveal a tissue-scale active torque dipole generated at the Hensen’s node, thanks to crazy experiments by Julia @juliapfanzelter.bsky.social and some analysis by me.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

An active torque dipole across tissue layers drives avian left-right symmetry breaking

Unlike in mice, frogs, and fish, left-right (L/R) body axis formation in avian embryos does not arise from the chiral beat of cilia. Instead, a counter-clockwise tissue rotation around Hensen′ node, t...

doi.org

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Nature Cell Biology @natcellbio.nature.com · Jul 14

🏳️‍🌈Our editor @slefkopoulos.bsky.social discussed with @jzylicz.bsky.social about the importance of celebrating Pride, representation in science, and more! Happy Pride!
Read here: rdcu.be/ewfba
bit.ly/3Uc72TO

Coming out is not a one-time event - Nature Cell Biology

June is the month celebrating Pride in the USA and other countries around the world to honour the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, as well as all progress and current strives claiming equal justice for mem...

bit.ly

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · Jul 10

Many thanks to Ruoheng Li and @prelights.bsky.social for featuring our preprint!

preLights @prelights.bsky.social · Jul 9

Seeing and (not) believing! On the role of hypoblast in primitive streak induction.

In her second #preLight, Ruoheng Li covers the #preprint by
@aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social and the @jeromegros.bsky.social's research team.

Live imaging and functional characterization of the avian hypoblast redefine the mechanisms of primitive streak induction - preLights

Seeing and (not) believing the role of hypoblast in primitive streak induction

prelights.biologists.com

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · Jul 3

🚨 A very interesting conference on gastrulation coming up soon 🚨 Don't miss the chance to interact with these renowned speakers! Early bird deadline: July 15th

Jérôme Gros @jeromegros.bsky.social · Apr 15

Registration is now open!

Gastrulation Reloaded: Developing, engineering & evolving the body plan

📅 October 14–17, 2025
📍 Paris, France
🗓️ Abstract & early bird deadline: July 15, 2025

www.gastrulation-reloaded.conferences-pasteur.org/home

Exceptional lineup of speakers & many selected talks

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Robin Journot 🔬| 🎾 @robinjournot.bsky.social · Jul 1

🧵Just out !
We reveal how 4 branched epithelia—mammary, lacrimal, salivary & prostate—use a conserved YAP–Notch–p63 circuit to self-organize during development & regeneration.
Here’s the story👇
authors.elsevier.com/c/1lM285Sx5g...
Work done in @frelab.bsky.social at ‪
‪ @institutcurie.bsky.social

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Denis Krndija @deniskrndija.bsky.social · Apr 6

🥳 Thrilled to share our lab's first preprint, led by our talented postdoc Justine Creff! 👩🏻‍🔬 We tackled a fundamental question: how the epithelium withstands mechanical stress at the interface of cells with distinct geometries and mechanics, such as enterocytes (E) and goblet cells (G) (1/9)

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Bardin Lab @bardinlab.bsky.social · Jun 5

Very happy to share our latest lab publication!
The hard work of @bboumard.bsky.social, Gwenn Le Meur and collaborators!
Cell-type-specific nucleotide sharing through gap junctions impacts sensitivity to replication stress in Drosophila: Developmental Cell
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lDFi_Yv6z...

Cell-type-specific nucleotide sharing through gap junctions impacts sensitivity to replication stress in Drosophila

Boumard et al. demonstrate gap-junction-dependent tissue-scale nucleotide sharing, which impacts cellular sensitivity to perturbation of nucleotide homeostasis and replication stress. Drosophila wing ...

www.cell.com

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · May 24

Thanks a lot Diana !!

Reposted by Aurélien Villedieu

Tom Cumming @tomcumming.bsky.social · May 21

The effector caspases drive cell death, but their activation can often be survived, so how do cells make this decision? Our new preprint from @levayerr.bsky.social shows that instantaneous caspase activity is important, but past activation has a key role to play!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · May 19

Our results thus show that primitive streak formation is induced by NODAL activation in the posterior hypoblast. The movement of the hypoblast (which is a counter-rotating movement) is a consequence of primitive streak formation – and not a cause of it, as previously thought.

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · May 19

Finally, we investigated whether the anterior hypoblast could inhibit primitive streak formation, as previously thought. By grafting the anterior hypoblast onto the forming primitive streak, we could show that it does not. On the contrary, the grafted hypoblast starts to express NODAL.

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · May 19

In this movie, you can for example see that the full ablation of the hypoblast completely inhibits primitive streak formation, while a partial ablation that leaves a piece of posterior hypoblast on each side leads to the formation of two embryonic axes (forming conjoined twins).

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · May 19

Using functional analyses and tissue-recombination experiments, we confirmed that the posterior hypoblast is indeed the inducer of primitive streak formation through NODAL signaling activation.

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · May 19

Using HCR-RNA-FISH, we observed that the expression of NODAL, a master activator of primitive streak formation, initiates in the posterior hypoblast and then spreads to the entire posterior blastoderm.

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · May 19

The hypoblast thus remains in constant contact with the epiblast, which is incompatible with the idea that its movement controls primitive streak formation by locally lifting NODAL inhibition. This contradiction led us to reinvestigate the molecular mechanisms underlying primitive streak formation.

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · May 19

By intercalating a porous filter between the epiblast and the hypoblast, we further showed that the hypoblast requires physical contact with the epiblast to achieve counter-rotating flows. Thus, forces generated in the epiblast propagate by mechanical coupling to the hypoblast, setting it in motion.

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · May 19

By generating a two-color chimera, we observed that the counter-rotating flows of the epiblast and hypoblast are highly synchronized. As a result, the hypoblast and epiblast move very little in relation to each other.

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Aurélien Villedieu @aurelienvilledieu.bsky.social · May 19

We have adapted live-imaging techniques previously used to characterize tissue flows in the avian epiblast to describe, this time, tissue flows in the hypoblast. This allowed us to discover that, like the epiblast, the hypoblast exhibits counter-rotating flows (also known as Polonaise movements).

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