Developmental Biology

eLife Assessment

This important study reports a novel function of ATG14 in preventing pyroptosis and inflammation in oviduct cells, thus allowing smooth transport of the early embryo to the uterus and implantation. The data supporting the main conclusion are convincing. This work will be of interest to reproductive biologists and physicians practicing reproductive medicine.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study reports the critical role of two cyclin-dependent kinases, CDK8 and CDK19, in spermatogenesis. The data presented are generally supportive of the main conclusion and are considered solid. This work may be of interest to reproductive biologists and physicians working on male fertility.

eLife Assessment

The study is a valuable contribution to the question of evolutionary shifts in neuronal proliferation patterns and the timing of developmental progressions. The authors present convincing data which confirm the presence of type-II NB lineages in beetle with the same molecular characteristics as the Drosophila counterparts but differing in lineage size and number. The data lay the foundation for future analysis of the role and molecular characteristics of individual lineages and of whether differences in the identity, proliferation pattern and timing of developmental progression can be linked to differences in the development of functionality of the central complex.

eLife Assessment

This important study presents a method to visualize the location of the cell types discovered through single-cell RNA sequencing. The data allowed the authors to build spatial tissue atlases of the fly head and body, and to identify the location of previously unknown cell types. The data are convincing and appropriate, and the authors validate the methodology in line with the current state-of-the-art.

eLife Assessment

The results from this study, which investigates the mechanisms necessary for initiating tissue invagination using a cellular Potts modelling approach, suggest that apical constriction is not sufficient to drive the process by itself. The study highlights how choices inherent to modelling - such as permitting straight or curved cell edges - may affect the outcome of simulations and, consequently, their biophysical interpretation. Despite incomplete evidence supporting their major claims due to a rather coarse-grained exploration of the model, this work is useful for biophysicists investigating complex tissue deformation through computational frameworks.

eLife Assessment

Shah and colleagues take advantage of the presence of maternal and somatic ribosomes in zebrafish and confirm their differential expression during development. The authors convincingly show that ribosomes previously found expressed during oogenesis are also expressed in primordial germ cells and that hybrid maternal and somatic ribosomes are formed during development. The question of ribosome heterogeneity, the expression and function of maternal versus somatically provided ribosomes are of broad interest and this fundamental work sets new directions for future functional studies of this interesting phenomenon.

eLife Assessment

In this important study, Li and others identified cell membrane receptors for juvenile hormone (JH), a terpenoid hormone in insects that regulates their development and reproduction. While intracellular receptors for JH are well characterized, membrane receptors for JH have remained elusive for many years. The authors provide convincing evidence indicating that two receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), CAD96CA and FGFR1, modulate the genomic effects of JH by phosphorylating the intracellular receptors in the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera. Although differential functions of the two RTKs and potential effects of the other endogenous ligands of these RTKs on JH signaling remain unclear, this study lays a foundation for future studies.

eLife Assessment

You et al. present an important study that applied a high-resolution transposon-based barcoding system to show the clonal contribution of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells during aging, after 5-FU treatment, and upon transplantation. The results are convincing and show that there are different categories of multipotent progenitors that are either active or indolent, and that long-term fates are dominated by clones that either favor differentiation or self-renewal. This study will be of broad interest to stem-cell biologists and could reach an even wider audience with a clearer and more concise presentation and discussion of the results.

eLife Assessment

This useful study by Gao et al identifies Hspa2 as a heterogeneous transcript in the early embryo and proposes a plausible mechanism showing interactions with Carm1. The authors propose that variability in HSPA2 levels among blastomeres at the 4-cell stage skews their relative contribution to the embryonic lineage. Given only 4 other heterogeneous transcripts/non-coding RNA have been proposed to act similarly at or before the 4-cell stage, this would be a key addition to our understanding of how the first cell fate decision is made. While this is a solid study, further data are needed to fully support the conclusions.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript describes a resource detailing the econstitution of Holothuria glaberrima gut following self-evisceration in response to a potassium chloride injection, using scRNAseq and fluorescent RNA localization in situ. It provides some new findings about organ regeneration, as well as the origins of pluripotent cells, and places these findings in the context of regeneration across species. The paper's schematic model and HCR images are a valuable foundation for future work. The authors provide convincing RNA localization images to validate their data and to provide spatial context. These validation experiments are of good quality but remain challenging to connect to the complex spatial organization of complex tissues. This resource will be of interest to the field of regeneration, particularly in invertebrates, but also in comparative studies in other species, including evolutionary studies.