In the developing spinal cord, motor neurons become segregated into important functional units termed motor pools. Now it has been discovered that repertoires of cadherin surface molecules play key roles in motor pool sorting.

Time control is a crucial issue during embryonic development. Nevertheless, little is known about how embryonic cells measure time. Until recently, the only molecular clock known to operate during vertebrate embryonic development was the somitogenesis clock, exclusively functioning in coordinating the precise timing of each new pair of somites formed from the presomitic mesoderm. We have recent...

Drug development as a sensitive thermometer represents the scientific and technical power-engines for any countries. As a result, drug manufacture (highly competitive area) is pillar industry for small-range of developed countries and highest medical expenditures worldwide. Nonetheless, new anticancer drug discovery, development and manufacture were entering into bottleneck stage two decades ag...

Patterning in plants requires defining boundary domains that separate and organize the development of the neighboring organs. Two papers now show how the interplay between brassinosteroid phytohormones and frontier genes contributes to boundary formation in plants.

How do plants generate the optimal spacing of stomatal pores on their surfaces to prevent excessive water-loss, whilst allowing efficient gas exchange? New research into the ERECTA family of receptor-like-kinases has provided an important link in the cell-cell signalling pathways controlling this process.

Cells encounter up to 10 6 DNA damages per day, which can be induced by exogenous physical agents, spontaneous chemical reactions , and products of endogenous metabolism. 1 To cope with these threats, the DNA damage response (DDR) system is employed to detect and repair these damages. if massive DNA damages occur within cells which cannot be repaired properly or promptly, the DDR will cause apo...