Efficient absorption of nutrients by the intestine is essential for life. In mammals and birds, convolution of the intestinal surface into finger-like projections called villi is an important adaptation that ensures the massive surface area for nutrient contact that is required to meet metabolic demands. Each villus projection serves as a functional absorptive unit: it is covered by a simple columnar epithelium that is derived from endoderm and contains a mesodermally derived core with supporting vasculature, lacteals, enteric nerves, smooth muscle, fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, and immune cells. In cross section, the consistency of structure in the billions of individual villi of the adult intestine is strikingly beautiful. Villi are generated in fetal life, and work over several decades has revealed that villus morphogenesis requires substantial "crosstalk" between the endodermal and mesodermal tissue components, with soluble signals, cell-cell contacts, and mechanical forces providing specific dialects for sequential conversations that orchestrate villus assembly. A key part of this process is the formation of subepithelial mesenchymal cell clusters that act as signaling hubs, directing overlying epithelial cells to cease proliferation, thereby driving villus emergence and simultaneously determining the location of future stem cell compartments. Interestingly, distinct species-specific differences govern how and when tissue-shaping signals and forces generate mesenchymal clusters and control villus emergence. As the details of villus development become increasingly clear, the emerging picture highlights a sophisticated local self-assembled cascade that underlies the reproducible elaboration of a regularly patterned field of absorptive villus units. This article is categorized under: Vertebrate Organogenesis > From a Tubular Primordium: Non-Branched Comparative Development and Evolution > Organ System Comparisons Between Species Early Embryonic Development > Development to the Basic Body Plan.

Why sexual reproduction is so common despite major costs remains a widely debated evolutionary question. One of the most plausible potential explanations is the Red Queen hypothesis, which proposes that coevolving parasites can generate a selective advantage for sex. This hypothesis predicts that sexual reproduction should be most common where individuals experience a relatively high risk of parasitic infection. Here, we test this prediction at a very fine spatial scale by evaluating whether variation in the frequency of infection by sterilising trematode parasites within a single New Zealand lake population is positively associated with similar variation in the relative frequency of sexually vs. asexually reproducing Potamopyrgus antipodarum, a native New Zealand snail. We found that sexual snails were significantly more common in sites within the lake that were subject to a higher frequency of parasite infection, consistent with the prediction of the Red Queen hypothesis. This result extends previous research on the connection between sexual reproduction and infection in P. antipodarum to a new lake and a finer spatial scale than previously documented.