Spatiotemporal pattern formation occurs in a variety of nonequilibrium physical and chemical systems.Here we show that a microfluidic device designed to produce reverse micelles can generate complex, ordered patterns as it is continuously operated far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Flow in a microfluidic system is usually simple -viscous effects dominate and the low Reynolds number leads to laminar flow. Self-assembly of the vesicles into patterns depends on channel geometry and relative fluid pressures, enabling the production of motifs ranging from monodisperse droplets to helices and ribbons.

Zebrafish possess a unique yet poorly understood capacity for cardiac regeneration. Here, we show that regeneration proceeds through two coordinated stages following resection of the ventricular apex. First a blastema is formed, comprised of progenitor cells that express precardiac markers, undergo differentiation, and proliferate. Second, epicardial tissue surrounding both cardiac chambers induces developmental markers and rapidly expands, creating a new epithelial cover for the exposed myocardium. A subpopulation of these epicardial cells undergoes epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), invades the wound, and provides new vasculature to regenerating muscle. During regeneration, the ligand fgf17b is induced in myocardium, while receptors fgfr2 and fgfr4 are induced in adjacent epicardial-derived cells. When fibroblast growth factors (Fgf) signaling is experimentally blocked by expression of a dominant-negative Fgf receptor, epicardial EMT and coronary neovascularization fail, prematurely arresting regeneration. Our findings reveal injury responses by myocardial and epicardial tissues that collaborate in an Fgf-dependent manner to achieve cardiac regeneration.

Covalent fusions between an mRNA and the peptide or protein that it encodes can be generated by in vitro translation of synthetic mRNAs that carry puromycin, a peptidyl acceptor antibiotic, at their 3 end. The stable linkage between the informational (nucleic acid) and functional (peptide) domains of the resulting joint molecules allows a specific mRNA to be enriched from a complex mixture of mRNAs based on the properties of its encoded peptide. Fusions between a synthetic mRNA and its encoded myc epitope peptide have been enriched from a pool of random sequence mRNA-peptide fusions by immunoprecipitation. Covalent RNA-peptide fusions should provide an additional route to the in vitro selection and directed evolution of proteins.