Developmental Biology

Bidirectional redistribution of actomyosin drives epithelial invagination in ascidian siphon tube morphogenesis

1. Jinghan Qiao
2. Pengyu Yu
3. Hongzhe Peng
4. Wenjie Shi
5. Bo Li
6. Bo Dong

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study uses a combination of experimental and modeling approaches to investigate the role of actomyosin in epithelial invagination during Ciona siphon tube morphogenesis. Several types of solid quantitative analyses and modeling approaches are presented that support a model in which bidirectional relocation of actomyosin drives invagination. Since epithelial invagination contributes to the morphogenesis of many developing organs, this work has the potential to appeal to both cell biologists and developmental biologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Spatial activation of Kinesin-1 by Ensconsin shapes microtubule networks via ncMTOCs recruitment

1. Anne-Marie Berisha
2. Aude Pascal
3. Marine Guelle
4. Clément Bousquet
5. Denis Chrétien
6. Laetitia Bataillé
7. Régis Giet

Reviewed by Review Commons

Quantitative computerized analysis demonstrates strongly compartmentalized tissue deformation patterns underlying mammalian heart tube formation

1. Morena Raiola
2. Miquel Sendra
3. Jorge Nicolás Dominguez
4. Miguel Torres

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental work substantially advances our understanding of tissue deformation and growth patterns during the earliest stages of mammalian heart development. One of the strengths of the work is the compelling quantitative approach to analyzing time-lapse imaging data using an original computational pipeline, which goes beyond the current state of the art and provides new insights into heart tube formation. Overall, this rigorous study will be of broad interest to computational and developmental biologists studying tissue dynamics.

Reviewed by eLife

Single-cell spatial mapping reveals reproducible cell type organization and spatially-dependent gene expression in gastruloids

1. Catherine G Triandafillou
2. Pranav Sompalle
3. Yael Heyman
4. Arjun Raj

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work presents important findings on quantifying gene coexpression from spatial omics. These quantification methods have been applied to gastruloid to describe how genes are spatialised. The description of the quantifying tools might be incomplete, which also weakens the biological message. Clearer formalization and justification of quantification will improve the study.

Reviewed by eLife

Hox – Meis -relayed gene regulatory transition underlies cardiopharyngeal neural crest diversification

1. Akiyasu Iwase
2. Yasunobu Uchijima
3. Daiki Seya
4. Mayuko Kida
5. Hiroki Higashiyama
6. Kazuhiro Matsui
7. Akashi Taguchi
8. Yukihiro Harada
9. Yunce Wang
10. Shogo Yamamoto
11. Shiro Fukuda
12. Seitaro Nomura
13. Takahide Kohro
14. Chisa Shukunami
15. Haruhiko Akiyama
16. Masahide Seki
17. Akinori Kanai
18. Yutaka Suzuki
19. Teruhisa Kawamura
20. Osamu Nakagawa
21. Hiroto Katoh
22. Shumpei Ishikawa
23. Youichiro Wada
24. Hiroyuki Aburatani
25. Yukiko Kurihara
26. Sachiko Miyagawa-Tomita
27. Hiroki Kurihara

Reviewed by Review Commons

Genotype-phenotype correlations and de novo induction of cancer stem cells in Wilms tumor initiation

1. N.S. Pop
2. D. Koot
3. C.M. Brouwers
4. M.M. Linssen
5. J.W.C. Claassens
6. C.W.J. Cartlidge
7. D.D. Özdemir
8. K.S. Dolt
9. P. Hohenstein

Reviewed by Review Commons

The neurotrophin DNT-2 regulates cell survival and connectivity via the Toll-2 receptor during visual system development of Drosophila

1. Naser Alshamsi
2. Francisca Rojo-Cortés
3. Bangfu Zhu
4. Samaher Fahy
5. Guiyi Li
6. Anna Lassota
7. Marta Moreira
8. Alicia Hidalgo

Reviewed by Review Commons

Paternal over- and under-nutrition program fetal and placental development in a sex-specific manner in mice

1. Hannah L Morgan
2. Nader Eid
3. Nadine Holmes
4. Matthew Carlile
5. Sonal Henson
6. Fei Sang
7. Victoria Wright
8. Marcos Castellanos-Uribe
9. Iqbal Khan
10. Nazia Nazar
11. Sean T May
12. Rod T Mitchell
13. Federica Lopes
14. Robert S Robinson
15. Antonio Augusto Coppi
16. Vipul Batra
17. Adam J Watkins

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study demonstrates that paternal diet influences not only testicular morphology but also placental and fetal development, supporting a role for paternal contributions to offspring health. The study also considers potential links between the microbiome and male reproductive health. By combining transcriptomic and histological analyses across multiple tissues, the evidence supporting the central conclusions of the study is convincing.

Reviewed by eLife

The co-repressor Groucho limits progression through the early transcription elongation checkpoint in vivo

1. María Lorena Martínez Quiles
2. Barbara H Jennings

Reviewed by Review Commons

Functional Separation of mRNA Domains Coordinates Pluripotent Cell Behavior

1. Ze Yang
2. Shaoyi Ji
3. Kristina Ivanov
4. Priyanka Kadav
5. Mengmeng Song
6. Leonardi Gozali
7. Sophie Parsa
8. Barry Behr
9. Mary A Hynes

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides fundamental insights by demonstrating that the Nanog mRNA coding sequence (CDS) and 3′UTR domains are spatially segregated and functionally distinct in pluripotent stem cells and blastocysts, with 3′UTR-enriched border cells primarily influencing morphogenesis and CDS-enriched inner cells largely regulating transcription and epigenetic programs. The work opens a novel conceptual avenue for understanding how separable mRNA domains can differentially control cell behavior and differentiation. However, the evidence is incomplete, as key aspects of the molecular nature, biogenesis, and precise characterization of the separated 3′UTR and CDS RNA species, as well as causal links between their perturbation and the observed phenotypes (e.g., via rescue and deeper characterization of 3′UTR elements), remain to be fully established.

Reviewed by eLife