Ror proteins are a conserved family of tyrosine kinase receptors that function in developmental processes, including skeletal and neuronal development, cell movement, and cell polarity. While Ror (receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor) proteins were originally named because the associated ligand and signaling pathway were unknown, recent studies in multiple species now establish that Ror proteins are Wnt receptors. Depending on the cellular context, Ror proteins can either activate or repress transcription of Wnt target genes and can modulate Wnt signaling by sequestering Wnt ligands. New evidence implicates Ror proteins in planar cell polarity (PCP), an alternative Wnt pathway. Here, we review the progress made in understanding these mysterious proteins and in particular we focus on their function as Wnt receptors.

Temperature affects both the timing and outcome of animal development, but the detailed effects of temperature on the progress of early development have been poorly characterized. To determine the impact of temperature on the order and timing of events during Drosophila melanogaster embryogenesis, we used time-lapse imaging to track the progress of embryos from shortly after egg laying through hatching at seven precisely maintained temperatures between 17.5°C and 32.5°C. We employed a combination of automated and manual annotation to determine when 36 milestones occurred in each embryo. D. melanogaster embryogenesis takes 33 hours at 17.5°C, and accelerates with increasing temperature to a low of 16 hours at 27.5°C, above which embryogenesis slows slightly. Remarkably, while the total time of embryogenesis varies over two fold, the relative timing of events from cellularization through hatching is constant across temperatures. To further explore the relationship between temperature and embryogenesis, we expanded our analysis to cover ten additional Drosophila species of varying climatic origins. Six of these species, like D. melanogaster, are of tropical origin, and embryogenesis time at different temperatures was similar for them all. D. mojavensis, a sub-tropical fly, develops slower than the tropical species at lower temperatures, while D. virilis, a temperate fly, exhibits slower development at all temperatures. The alpine sister species D. persimilis and D. pseudoobscura develop as rapidly as tropical flies at cooler temperatures, but exhibit diminished acceleration above 22.5°C and have drastically slowed development by 30°C. Despite ranging from 13 hours for D. erecta at 30°C to 46 hours for D. virilis at 17.5°C, the relative timing of events from cellularization through hatching is constant across all species and temperatures examined here, suggesting the existence of a previously unrecognized timer controlling the progress of embryogenesis that has been tuned by natural selection as each species diverges.

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The C. elegans MS blastomere, born at the 7-cell stage of embryogenesis, generates primarily mesodermal cell types, including pharynx cells, body muscles and coelomocytes. A presumptive null mutation in the T-box factor gene tbx-35, a target of the MED-1 and MED-2 divergent GATA factors, was previously found to result in a profound decrease in the production of MS-derived tissues, although the tbx-35(-) embryonic arrest phenotype was variable. We report here that the NK-2 class homeobox gene ceh-51 is a direct target of TBX-35 and at least one other factor, and that CEH-51 and TBX-35 share functions. Embryos homozygous for a ceh-51 null mutation arrest as larvae with pharynx and muscle defects, although these tissues appear to be specified correctly. Loss of tbx-35 and ceh-51 together results in a synergistic phenotype resembling loss of med-1 and med-2. Overexpression of ceh-51 causes embryonic arrest and generation of ectopic body muscle and coelomocytes. Our data show that TBX-35 and CEH-51 have overlapping function in MS lineage development. As T-box regulators and NK-2 homeodomain factors are both important for heart development in Drosophila and vertebrates, our results suggest that these regulators function in a similar manner in C. elegans to specify a major precursor of mesoderm.

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Overexpression of RhoA may play a role in hypertension-related OAB. Inhibition of Rho-kinase activity with Y-27632 produced a significant suppression of bladder overactivity. Identification of Rho-kinase isoforms that are bladder-tissue specific and their selective inhibitors may help to disassociate the unwanted hypotensive effects of this approach.

Supporting Information Fluorescence Assay for Enzymatic Activity from DPN-Written Arrays of Horseradish Peroxidase:As a proof of principle showing that enzymes can be patterned on glass surfaces with DPN without loss of functionality, we immobilized avidin-linked horseradish peroxidase (HRP) to maleimide PEO 2 -biotin-written areas on MPTMS-silanized glass and directly characterized enzymatic activity from the sites with a fluorescence-based assay involving the conversion of fluorogenic substrate molecules to fluorescent products. We used DPN to write four 1x1 µm regions of biotin on silanized glass, separated by 30 µm in a square array. After passivation of the unwritten areas of the MPTMS surface with PEGmaleimide, incubation with HRP-avidin, and washing steps, we added one 40 µL drop of an aqueous solution consisting of 40 µM amplex red and 800 µM hydrogen peroxide onto the patterned glass coverslip with a micropipette, while monitoring fluorescence with an epi-fluorescence microscope.Images were captured by a high-resolution CCD camera every 200 msec. Frame A in Figure S1 shows the probable locations of the written areas. The camera started capturing images as soon as the drop was delivered to the surface. It was difficult to define a sharp starting time for this reaction, however, since we could not characterize the effects that convective mixing had on the concentration profile of the reagents after the drop was pipetted on the glass. The areas of the fluorescent regions merged much

BackgroundAbout 11% of all human genetic diseases are caused by nonsense mutations that generate premature translation termination codons (PTCs) in messenger RNAs (mRNA). PTCs not only lead to the production of truncated proteins, but also often result in  decreased mRNA abundance due to  nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). Although pharmacological inhibition of NMD could be an attractive therapeutic approach for the treatment of diseases caused by nonsense mutations, NMD also regulates the expression of 10–20% of the normal transcriptome.ResultsHere, we investigate whether NMD can be inhibited to stabilize mutant mRNAs, which may subsequently produce functional proteins, without having a major impact on the normal transcriptome. We develop antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to systematically deplete each component in the NMD pathway. We find that ASO-mediated depletion of each NMD factor elicits different magnitudes of NMD inhibition in vitro and are differentially tolerated in normal mice. Among all of the NMD factors, Upf3b depletion is well tolerated, consistent with previous reports that UPF3B is not essential for development and regulates only a subset of the endogenous NMD substrates. While minimally impacting the normal transcriptome, Upf3b-ASO treatment significantly stabilizes the PTC-containing dystrophin mRNA in mdx mice and coagulation factor IX mRNA in a hemophilia mouse model.Furthermore, when combined with reagents promoting translational read-through, Upf3b-ASO treatment leads to the production of functional factor IX protein in hemophilia mice.ConclusionsThese data demonstrate that ASO-mediated reduction of the NMD factor Upf3b could be an effective and safe approach for the treatment of diseases caused by nonsense mutations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13059-017-1386-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.