Developmental Biology

Emerging cooperativity between Oct4 and Sox2 governs the pluripotency network in early mouse embryos

1. Yanlin Hou
2. Zhengwen Nie
3. Qi Jiang
4. Sergiy Velychko
5. Sandra Heising
6. Ivan Bedzhov
7. Guangming Wu
8. Kenjiro Adachi
9. Hans R Scholer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a valuable finding on how the interplay between transcription factors SOX2 and OCT4 establishes the pluripotency network in early mouse embryos. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although inclusion of additional omics data would further strengthen the study. The work will be of interest to biologists working on embryonic development and gene regulation.

Reviewed by eLife

Sex chromosomes shape the transcriptional landscape of the preimplantation mouse embryo

1. Daniel M. Snell
2. Wazeer Varsally
3. Aurélien Courtois
4. Sergio Menchero
5. Prabhakaran Munusamy
6. Richelle Rietdijk
7. Obah A. Ojarikre
8. Stephanie Strohbuecker
9. Haskan Kaya
10. Mahesh N. Sangrithi
11. James M.A. Turner

Reviewed by preLights

The chromatin remodeler DEK promotes proliferation of mammary epithelium and is associated with H3K27me3 epigenetic modifications

1. Megan Johnstone
2. Ashley Leck
3. Taylor Lange
4. Katherine Wilcher
5. Miranda S. Shephard
6. Aditi Paranjpe
7. Sophia Schutte
8. Susanne Wells
9. Ferdinand Kappes
10. Nathan Salomonis
11. Lisa M. Privette Vinnedge

Reviewed by Review Commons

Identification of neurodevelopmental organization of the cell populations of juvenile Huntington’s disease using dorso-ventral HD organoids and HD mouse embryos

1. Karolina Świtońska-Kurkowska
2. Jakub Kubiś
3. Joanna Delimata-Raczek
4. Bart Krist
5. Magda Surdyka
6. Żaneta Kalinowska-Pośka
7. Piotr Piasecki
8. Luiza Handschuh
9. Jan Podkowiński
10. Magdalena Rakoczy
11. Anna Samelak-Czajka
12. Michael Hayden
13. Nicholas S Caron
14. Maciej Figiel

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript describes the generation of a fused dorsal-ventral organoid system to model interactions between the cortex and striatum to study the onset and progression of Huntington's disease (HD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. While this approach is valuable, further methodological and analytical work is needed to fully support the interpretations and claims of the authors. Incomplete evidence suggests choroid plexus (ChP) abnormalities form a significant component of HD pathogenesis.

Reviewed by eLife

Chromosomal instability in human trophoblast stem cells and placentas

1. Danyang Wang
2. Andrew Cearlock
3. Katherine Lane
4. Chongchong Xu
5. Ian Jan
6. Stephen McCartney
7. Ian Glass
8. Rajiv McCoy
9. Min Yang

Reviewed by preLights

Reconstruction of functional olfactory sensory tissue from embryonic nasal stem cells

1. Kazuya Suzuki
2. Fumi Wagai
3. Mototsugu Eiraku

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript presents a valuable study utilizing an in vitro organoid system to recapitulate the developmental process of the olfactory epithelium. The authors provided solid evidence indicating that a combination of niche factors can induce organoid development and give rise to multiple cell types. However, the calcium imaging part of the study could be seen as a limitation.

Reviewed by eLife

Volumetric trans-scale imaging of massive quantity of heterogeneous cell populations in centimeter-wide tissue and embryo

1. Taro Ichimura
2. Taishi Kakizuka
3. Yoshitsugu Taniguchi
4. Satoshi Ejima
5. Yuki Sato
6. Keiko Itano
7. Kaoru Seiriki
8. Hitoshi Hashimoto
9. Ko Sugawara
10. Hiroya Itoga
11. Shuichi Onami
12. Takeharu Nagai

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The important study established a large-scale objective and integrated multiple optical microscopy systems to demonstrate their potential for long-term imaging of the developmental process. The convincing imaging data cover a wide range of biological applications, such as organoids, mouse brains, and quail embryos, but enhancing image quality can further enhance the method's effectiveness. This work will appeal to biologists and imaging technologists focused on long-term imaging of large fields.

Reviewed by eLife

Mitochondrial metabolism in Drosophila macrophage-like cells regulates body growth via modulation of cytokine and insulin signaling

1. Shrivani Sriskanthadevan-Pirahas
2. Abdul Qadeer Tinwala
3. Michael J Turingan
4. Shahoon Khan
5. Savraj S Grewal

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental work demonstrates that compartmentalized cellular metabolism is a dominant input into cell size control in a variety of mammalian cell types and in Drosophila. The authors show that increased pyruvate import into the mitochondria in liver-like cells and in primary hepatocytes drives gluconeogenesis but reduces cellular amino acid production, suppressing protein synthesis. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with a variety of genetic and pharmacologic assays rigorously testing each step of the proposed mechanism. This work will be of interest to cell biologists, physiologists, and researchers interested in cell metabolism, and is significant because stem cells and many cancers exhibit metabolic rewiring of pyruvate metabolism.

Reviewed by eLife

Naa10 regulates hippocampal neurite outgrowth via Btbd3 N-α-acetylation-mediated actin dynamics

1. Chien-Te Chou
2. Ming-Lun Kang
3. Chen-Cheng Lee
4. Pang-Hung Hsu
5. Li-Jung Juan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study suggests that Naa10, an N-α-acetyltransferase with known mutations that disrupt neurodevelopment, acetylates Btbd3, which has been implicated in neurite outgrowth and obsessive-compulsive disorder, in a manner that regulates F-actin dynamics to facilitate neurite outgrowth. While the study provides promising insights and biochemical, co-immunoprecipitation, and proteomic data that enhance our understanding of protein N-acetylation in neuronal development, the evidence supporting larger claims is incomplete. Nonetheless, the implications of these findings are noteworthy, particularly regarding neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions tied to altered expression of Naa10 or Btbd3.

Reviewed by eLife

Dorsal/NF-κB exhibits a dorsal-to-ventral mobility gradient in the Drosophila embryo

1. Hadel Al Asafen
2. Natalie M Clark
3. Etika Goyal
4. Thomas Jacobsen
5. Sadia Siddika Dima
6. Hung-Yuan Chen
7. Rosangela Sozzani
8. Gregory T Reeves

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides valuable quantitative data and analysis that reveals variations in 'Dorsal' nuclear dynamics along the dorso-ventral axis in the early Drosophila embryo. The evidence that supports that these variations are due to Dorsal/Cactus interactions in dorsal nuclei is convincing, albeit incomplete to understand the biological implications of these findings for developmental patterning.

Reviewed by eLife