Technological advances have driven many recent advances in developmental biology. Light
sheet imaging can reveal single-cell dynamics in living three-dimensional tissues, whereas …

It has long been known that FGF signaling contributes to mesoderm formation, a germ layer
found in triploblasts that is composed of highly migratory cells that give rise to muscles and …

Developmental patterning networks are regulated by multiple inputs and feedback
connections that rapidly reshape gene expression, limiting the information that can be …

In this article, we provide detailed protocols on using optogenetic dimerizers to acutely
perturb activities of guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) specific to Ras, Rac or Rho …

Transcriptional control is fundamental to cellular function. However, despite knowing that
transcription factors can repress or activate specific genes, how these functions are …

The past decade has witnessed enormous progress in optogenetics, which uses photo‐
sensitive proteins to control signal transduction in live cells and animals. The ever …

Cells reside in a dynamic microenvironment that presents them with regulatory signals that
vary in time, space, and amplitude. The cell, in turn, interprets these signals and accordingly …

Positional information in development often manifests as stripes of gene expression, but
how stripes form remains incompletely understood. Here, we use optogenetics and live-cell …

Modern studies of embryogenesis are increasingly quantitative, powered by rapid advances
in imaging, sequencing and genome manipulation technologies. Deriving mechanistic …

Morphogen gradients convey essential spatial information during tissue patterning. While
both concentration and timing of morphogen exposure are crucial, how cells interpret these …