Developmental Biology

Trpv4 mediates temperature induced sex change in ricefield eel

1. Zhi Yang
2. Tingting Luo
3. Yimin Zhang
4. Yuhua Sun

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents useful findings on the molecular mechanisms driving female-to-male sex reversal in the ricefield eel (Monopterus albus) during aging, which would be of interest to biologists studying sex determination. The manuscript describes an interesting mechanism potentially underlying sex differentiation in M. albus. However, the current data are incomplete and would benefit from more rigorous experimental approaches.

Reviewed by eLife

FuChi: A cell cycle biosensor for investigating cell-cycle kinetics during avian development

1. Zoe R. Sudderick
2. Tiernan Briggs
3. Shirooza Mubarak
4. Melinda Van Kerckvoorde
5. Ana R. Hernandez-Rodriguez
6. Sudeepta K. Panda
7. Jon Riddell
8. Cameron Batho-Samblas
9. Lorna Taylor
10. Lynn McTeir
11. Dominique Meunier
12. Amy Findlay
13. Flossie Roberts
14. Anna Raper
15. Asako Sakaue-Sawano
16. Atsushi Miyawaki
17. Joe Rainger
18. Jeffrey J. Schoenebeck
19. Cornelis J. Weijer
20. Mike J. McGrew
21. Denis J. Headon
22. Megan G. Davey
23. Richard L. Mort
24. James D. Glover

Reviewed by Review Commons

Trehalose metabolism regulates transcriptional control of muscle development in lepidopteran insects

1. Sharada Mohite
2. Tanaji Devkate
3. Prashant Kalaskar
4. Prashant Singh
5. Abhishek Subramanian
6. Rakesh Shamsunder Joshi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study examines whether the sugar trehalose, coordinates energy supply with the gene programs that build muscle in the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera). The evidence for this currently is incomplete. The central claim - that trehalose specifically regulates an E2F/Dp-driven myogenic program - is not supported by the specificity of the data: perturbations and sequencing are systemic, alternative explanations such as general energy or amino-acid scarcity remain plausible, and mechanistic anchors are also limited. The work will interest researchers in insect metabolism and development; focused, tissue-resolved measurements together with stronger mechanistic controls would substantially strengthen the conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

PRMT1-SFPQ regulates intron retention to control matrix gene expression during craniofacial development

1. Julia Raulino Lima
2. Nicha Ungvijanpunya
3. Qing Chen
4. Hoang Quoc Hai Pham
5. Tal Rosen
6. Greg Park
7. Mohammadreza Vatankhah
8. Steven Yen
9. Yang Chai
10. Amy E Merrill
11. Zhaoyang Liu
12. Jian-Fu Chen
13. Yanzhong Yang
14. Weiqun Peng
15. Jian Xu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work establishes a connection between PRMT1 and SFPQ by identifying common phenotypes downstream of their inactivation. In the resubmission, authors now include NMD as a contributor to aberrant gene expression underpinning craniofacial development. The complementary experiments help strengthen some solid conclusions. This paper describes an interesting mechanism for the regulation of RNA levels, which is of interest to the readers of eLife.

Reviewed by eLife

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. Augusto A 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 authors combine transcriptomic and histological analyses across multiple tissues, and the evidence supporting the central conclusions is convincing. While aspects of the paternal gut phenotype remain largely descriptive, and the paternal and fetoplacental findings are discussed separately, clearer integration of these elements and additional methodological clarification would strengthen interpretation.

Reviewed by eLife

Imp1 acts as a dosage- and stage-dependent temporal rheostat orchestrating radial glial fate transitions and cortical morphogenesis

1. Romie Angelo G Azur
2. Daniel Feliciano
3. Isabel Espinosa-Medina
4. Raghabendra Adhikari
5. Joaquin Lilao-Garzón
6. Ella Jansen
7. Ching-Po Yang
8. Tzumin Lee

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study presents new insights into the post-transcriptional mechanisms that govern cortical development. Through state-of-the-art methodology to track neuronal birth order, the data provide compelling evidence that Imp1 (Igf2bp1/Zbp1) orchestrates radial glia fate transitions and cortical neurogenesis. The findings establish a new framework for understanding how post-transcriptional mechanisms integrate with transcriptional and epigenetic regulatory layers to control cortical temporal patterning.

Reviewed by eLife

Simple Methods to Acutely Measure Multiple Timing Metrics among Sexual Repertoire of Male Drosophila

1. Yutong Song
2. Dongyu Sun
3. Xiao Liu
4. Fan Jiang
5. Xuejiao Yang
6. Woo Jae Kim

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful paper describes a software tool, "DrosoMating", which allows automated, high-throughput quantification of 6 common metrics of courtship and mating behaviors in Drosophila melanogaster. The validity of the tool is quite convincingly demonstrated by comparing expert human assessments with those made by DrosoMating. The work, however, does not address how DrosoMating compares with or advances on other existing tools for exactly the same purpose, whether it can be used for studies of other Drosophila species, and/or whether finer aspects of courtship response timing - which depend on proximal female signals to the male - could be extracted with more detailed analyses. Some additional statistical analyses would also help further strengthen the authors' current conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Heterochronic scaling of neurogenesis for species-specific dosing of cortical excitatory subtypes

1. Yuki Y. Yamauchi
2. Xuanhao D. Sheu
3. Rafat Tarfder
4. Takuma Kumamoto
5. Jun Hatakeyama
6. Haruka Sato
7. Pauline Rouillard
8. Merve Bilgic
9. Shuto Deguchi
10. Tomonori Nakamura
11. Yusuke Kishi
12. Kazuo Emoto
13. Ikuo K. Suzuki

Reviewed by Review Commons

Jam2 Signaling Functions Downstream of Hand2 To Initiate The Formation Of Organ-Specific Vascular Progenitors In Zebrafish

1. Martyna Griciunaite
2. Julius Martinkus
3. Sanjeeva Metikala
4. Ricardo DeMoya
5. Suman Gurung
6. Diandra Rufin Florat
7. Saulius Sumanas

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study addresses the question of how organ-specific blood vessels form during different stages of development, and how specific genes may regulate these processes. New genetic tools were developed to label distinct endothelial cell populations and track them over time in different mutant backgrounds. The results are solid; however, additional data quantification, lineage tracing, and cell autonomy experiments would further strengthen the conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Genetic Network Shaping Kenyon Cell Identity and Function in Drosophila Mushroom Bodies

1. Pei-Chi Chung
2. Kai-Yuan Ku
3. Sao-Yu Chu
4. Chen Chen
5. Hung-Hsiang Yu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental study uses the Drosophila mushroom body as a model to understand the molecular machinery that controls the temporal specification of neuronal cell types. With convincing experimental evidence, the authors make the finding that the Pipsqueak domain-containing transcription factor Eip93F plays a central role in specifying a later-born neuronal subtype while repressing gene expression programs for earlier subtypes.

Reviewed by eLife