【Publications】Extraembryonic tissues: exploring concepts, definitions and functions across the animal kingdom

October 18 2022

Theme issue title:
Extraembryonic tissues: exploring concepts, definitions and functions across the animal kingdom

Authors:
Guojun Sheng, Thorsten E. Boroviak, Urs Schmidt-Ott and Shankar Srinivas

Description:
Dr. Guojun Sheng of IRCMS, together with Dr. Thorsten Boroviak of University of Cambridge, Dr. Urs Schmidt-Ott of University of Chicago and Dr. Shankar Srinivas of University of Oxford, edited a theme issue on extraembryonic tissues for the journal "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B". The issue was published yesterday.

Brief Summary: 
The fertilized egg generates the multitude of cells in our body, but also transient tissues with a vital role only during embryogenesis. One example is the placenta, which enables the fetus to draw nutrients from the mother's womb. A wide variety of other animals have evolved specialized tissues to support embryogenesis. This is well documented in insects but in many species the developmental fate of bona fide extraembryonic tissue remains poorly known and questions have been raised about where to draw conceptual and physical boundaries between embryonic and extraembryonic tissue. In this theme issue, vertebrate and invertebrate developmental biologists throw a spotlight on the most pressing questions and highlight the exciting ongoing developments in this field.

Special issue link:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/377/1865 (introduction)
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2021.0250  (articles)