5/6
Lumenogenesis coincides with circular expression of gastrulation marker Brachyury prior to AP-axis formation suggesting a novel role of Brachyury preceding #gastrulation

4/6
We suggest alternative anterior-posterior #patterning regulation in chameleons with anterior marker genes Cerberus expressed in the middle (arrows) and on the posterior (asterisks) of the embryo but not on the anterior side, while Lefty is completely absent.
#AP-axis

3/6
A purse string mechanism through supra-cellular actin cables closes the epiblast lumen dorsally suggesting a novel form of epiblast lumenogenesis and amniotic cavity formation.

2/6
The #squamate chameleon diverges from what has been reported for #chicken pre-gastrulation morphogenesis
Starting off as flat plate the chameleon hollows and adopts a dome-like shape. Hinge points at the side of the dome result in the formation of amniotic folds.
#devbio #evodevo

1/6
Preprint Alert
Ever thought that humans & chameleons look alike?
We follow chameleon development from fertilisation to oviposition & uncover the process through which they form an epiblast lumen that exhibits striking similarity to human embryos
#devbio #evodevo

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

Honouring our friend Dr. Svetlana Jovanic who passed away after battling cancer for almost 3 years.

a passionate researcher
a keen photographer
a generous and loyal friend.

She investigated #zebrafish & #gastruloids using #lightsheet #microscopy.

We will not forget her.

I'm over the moon to announce that my first novel "Leopold - the Boy at the Lake" will be published later this year at Wichern Verlag in Germany.

Just got the cover in - now, it starts to feel real...

Freue mich wahnsinnig, dass mein #Erstling dieses Jahr im Wichern Verlag erscheinen wird!

5/6
We also used our staging system to follow the establishment of the central nervous system and the migration of neural crest cells. Our dataset enables cross species comparison of these developmental steps with other studies focussing on the veiled chameleon and common wall lizard.

4/6
We provide whole embryo cross sections of consecutive time points of anole development. Our dataset enables investigations into the development of specific organs e.g. eye or heart. This lays the basis for cross-clade comparative studies to compare & contrast morphogenesis of different organs.

3/6
Chicken form a monolayered epiblast disk, which then gastrulates. The anole develops very differently and gives rise to a multilayered, hollow dome. This dome establishes its anterior-posterior axis and gastrulates. Do non-avian reptiles follow chicken peri-gastrulation morphogenesis?

2/6
Early non-avian reptile development is difficult to access. It occurs before the egg is laid & spans from fertilisation to limb-bud formation when eye pigmentation starts. The brown anole passes through 26 developmental stages & exhibits striking divergence from the common reptile model chicken

1/6
New Preprint
Reptiles comprise ~23,000 species with an incredible range of diversity. The basis is laid during embryogenesis but is severely understudied.
We study the brown anole, a model for evolutional studies & describe its early embryogenesis for the first time:
biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...