Developmental Biology

Bruce suppresses autophagy-regulated caspase activity and wing tissue growth in Drosophila

1. Natsuki Shinoda
2. Yutaro Hama
3. Nozomi Hanawa
4. Masayuki Miura

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study reports insights into how the caspase Dcp-1, best known for cell death, can also promote tissue growth in Drosophila, extending the authors' earlier work by identifying regulatory factors that shape this non-lethal activity. The compelling findings identify a physical and functional interaction between Dcp-1 and Bruce, as well as new Dcp-1-interacting proteins that function in autophagy: Sirt1, Fkbp59, Debcl, Buffy, Atg2, and Atg8a. This work helps broaden the understanding of the non-lethal roles of Dcp-1.

Reviewed by eLife

Simple methods to acutely measure multiple timing metrics among the sexual repertoire of male Drosophila

1. Yutong Song
2. Hongyu Miao
3. Dongyu Sun
4. Xiao Liu
5. Fan Jiang
6. Xuejiao Yang
7. 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 convincingly shown to perform as well as expert human assessments, across a wide range of conditions. While it is not suitable yet for posed based classification of individual actions, and its utility with respect to new deep learning-based tools such as DeepLabCut, SLEAP have yet to be assessed, the efficient coarse-grained detection of behavioral states in low resolution videos offered by DrosoMating represents a very helpful addition to analytical tools available for assessing courtship behaviour in Drosophila.

Reviewed by eLife

Nucleation-dependent propagation of Polycomb modifications emerges during the Drosophila maternal to zygotic transition

1. Natalie Gonzaga-Saavedra
2. Eleanor A Degen
3. Isabella V Soluri
4. Corinne Croslyn
5. Shelby A Blythe

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study employs state-of-the-art quantitative imaging and genomics approaches to address a fundamental question regarding the establishment of Polycomb domains during Drosophila embryogenesis. The authors identify the maternal-to-zygotic transition, rather than earlier developmental stages, as the critical window for Polycomb domain establishment, providing significant clarification of the timing of this process and they further investigate the roles of Zelda and GAGA factor, demonstrating that Zelda, but not GAGA factor, contributes to Polycomb domain establishment. Overall, the conclusions are well supported by the experimental evidence presented. These compelling findings advance our understanding of how Polycomb domains are established during early embryogenesis and have broad implications for chromatin regulation and developmental biology.

Reviewed by eLife

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

1. Catherine 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 is characterized by exceptional evidence after a thorough revision.

Reviewed by eLife

Dissecting PADI6 function defines oocyte cytoplasmic lattices as regulatory hubs for fundamental cellular processes

1. Jack P. C. Williams
2. Tania Auchynnikava
3. Afshan McCarthy
4. M. Teresa Bertran
5. Obah A. Ojarikre
6. Anne E. Weston
7. Daniel Leonce
8. Jessica Olsen
9. Kathy K. Niakan
10. Mark Skehel
11. James M. A. Turner
12. Louise J. Walport

Reviewed by Review Commons

Trpv4 links environmental temperature to testicular differentiation in hermaphroditic 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 for Western blotting.

Reviewed by eLife

Paternal over- and under-nutrition programme 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. A 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

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 Sendra
3. Jorge N Domínguez
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

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