The vertebrate skeleton is extraordinarily modular. The axial column is an array of segments grouped into cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and caudal vertebrae, and the limbs are comprised of the upper and lower limb and hand or foot. Growth of the skeleton is also modular; adult human skeletal proportion is strikingly different from that of an infant, and one can imagine stretching the bones of the hand to give rise to the disproportionate wing of a bat.

Beneficial members of the plant microbiome can increase nutrient availability for their hosts, protect their hosts against pathogens, and enhance host resilience against abiotic stress. While previous and ongoing studies of the rhizosphere microbiome have been critical for assessing the impact of specific plant-microbe interactions, their focus has overwhelmingly targeted bacterial and fungal members of the microbiome. Viruses are ubiquitous, outnumbering all other biological entities on the planet, yet they are remarkably understudied in the rhizosphere.

Single cell approaches are causing biologists to re-evaluate classical ideas of cell types and how they arise during embryonic development. One population of particular interest is the neural crest, because it migrates throughout the body to give rise to a huge variety of derivatives such as peripheral neurons, pigment cells and bones of the skull. How do such migratory cells navigate through ever-changing environments yet reliably acquire these diverse fates? Our single cell transcriptomic studies in zebrafish suggest that they do so through a series of lineage bifurcations.

The dynamic interplay between virulence factors of a pathogen and the immune system of a host determines whether disease will occur. A deep understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie host-pathogen arms race is essential for developing durable resistance. Pathogens have evolved a large and diverse complement of virulence proteins, called effectors, which, collectively, are indispensable for disease development. An important feature of effectors is their fast evolution driven by adaptation towards a host.