Developmental Biology

TET knockout cells transit between pluripotent states and exhibit precocious germline entry

1. Raphaël Pantier
2. Elisa Barbieri
3. Sara Gonzalez Brito
4. Ella Thomson
5. Tülin Tatar
6. Douglas Colby
7. Man Zhang
8. Ian Chambers

Reviewed by preLights

Life-cycle-related gene expression patterns in the brown algae

1. Pélagie Ratchinski
2. Olivier Godfroy
3. Benjamin Noel
4. Jean-Marc Aury
5. J Mark Cock

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript presents an in-depth analysis of gene expression across multiple brown algal species with differing life histories, providing convincing evidence for the conservation of life cycle-specific gene expression. While largely descriptive, the study is an important step forward in understanding the core cellular processes that differ between life cycle phases, and its findings will be of broad interest to developmental and evolutionary biologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Inverted Assembly of the Lens Within Ocular Organoids Reveals Alternate Paths to Ocular Morphogenesis

1. Elin Stahl
2. Miguel Angel Delgado-Toscano
3. Ishwariya Saravanan
4. Anastasija Paneva
5. Joachim Wittbrodt
6. Lucie Zilova

Reviewed by Review Commons

ANKRD5: a key component of the axoneme required for sperm motility and male fertility

1. Shuntai Yu
2. Guoliang Yin
3. Peng Jin
4. Weilin Zhang
5. Yingchao Tian
6. Xiaotong Xu
7. Tianyu Shao
8. Yushan Li
9. Fei Sun
10. Yun Zhu
11. Fengchao Wang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study provides evidence supporting a critical role of the axonemal protein ANKRD5 in male infertility. The data generally supports the conclusions and is considered solid, although there are concerns about the cryo-ET analysis. This work will be of interest to biomedical researchers studying ciliogenesis and fertility.

Reviewed by eLife

Smed-pou4-2 regulates mechanosensory neuron regeneration and function in planarians

1. Ryan A McCubbin
2. Mohammad A Auwal
3. Shengzhou Wang
4. Sarai Alvarez Zepeda
5. Roman Sasik
6. Robert W Zeller
7. Kelly G Ross
8. Ricardo M Zayas

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is a valuable study that explores the role of the conserved transcription factor POU4-2 in the maintenance, regeneration, and function of planarian mechanosensory neurons. The authors provide solid evidence provided by gene expression and functional studies to demonstrate that POU4-2 is required for the maintenance and regeneration of functional mechanosensory neurons in planarians. Furthermore, the authors identify conserved genes associated with human auditory and rheosensory neurons as potential targets of this transcription factor.

Reviewed by eLife

Massively parallel reporter assay for mapping gene-specific regulatory regions at single nucleotide resolution

1. Alastair J Tulloch
2. Ryan N Delgado
3. Rinaldo Catta-Preta
4. Constance L Cepko

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript presents a valuable methodological approach for investigating context-dependent activity of cis-regulatory elements within defined genomic loci. The authors combine a locus-specific massively parallel reporter assay, enabling unbiased and high-coverage profiling of enhancer activity across large genomic regions, with a degenerate reporter assay to identify nucleotides critical for enhancer function. The data supporting the conclusions are solid, highlighted by the successful identification and characterization of both previously known and new regulatory elements across multiple developmental stages, cell types, and species; however, concerns regarding assay sensitivity, statistical rigor in distinguishing active regions, and limitations inherent to the design of the reporter assays remain to be addressed. With strengthened quantitative analysis, statistical validation, and additional functional experiments to directly establish regulatory element-gene relationships, this study will be of broad interest to researchers investigating gene regulation mechanisms in development and disease.

Reviewed by eLife

Superoxide Dismutases maintain niche homeostasis in stem cell populations

1. Olivia Majhi
2. Aishwarya Chhatre
3. Tanvi Chaudhary
4. Devanjan Sinha

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this work, the authors intend to assess the existence of a redox potential across germline stem cells and neighboring somatic stem cells in the Drosophila testis. Some aspects of the manuscript are solid, like the clear effect of SOD KD on cyst cell differentiation state. Other conclusions of the work, such as the non-autonomous effect of this KD in germ cells are not sufficiently supported by the data. The work is potentially useful if the critiques of the reviewers are fully addressed; the strength of the evidence of the manuscript as it stands is incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Synergistic and independent roles for Nodal and FGF in zebrafish CPC migration and asymmetric heart morphogenesis

1. Vanessa Gonzalez
2. Meagan G. Grant
3. Makoto Suzuki
4. Briana Christophers
5. Jessica Rowland Williams
6. Rebecca D Burdine

Reviewed by preLights

The microtubule-binding protein EML3 is required for mammalian embryonic growth and cerebral cortical development; Eml3 null mice are a model of cobblestone brain malformation

1. Isabelle Carrier
2. Eduardo Diez
3. Valerio EC Piscopo
4. Susanne Bechstedt
5. Hans van Bokhoven
6. Myriam Srour
7. Albert Berghuis
8. Stefano Stifani
9. Yojiro Yamanaka
10. Roderick R McInnes

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study is the first characterization of the phenotype caused by a lack of Eml3 expression in mice. Mutant animals present a disrupted pial basement membrane, leading to focal extrusions from the cerebral cortex, called ectopias. The methodology is convincing and the conclusions are solid, although further investigations on the mechanisms and inclusion of the experiments performed, but not presented, will improve the manuscript. This work would be of interest to neural development biologists and human geneticists working on brain disorders.

Reviewed by eLife

Gene regulatory mechanisms guiding bifurcation of inhibitory and excitatory neuron lineages in the mouse anterior brainstem

1. Sami Kilpinen
2. Lassi Virtanen
3. Silvana Bodington Celma
4. Amos Bonsdorff
5. Heidi Heliölä
6. Kaia Achim
7. Juha Partanen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work is a important resource for hypothesis testing of candidate upstream transcriptional regulatory factors that control the spatiotemporal expression of selector genes and their targets for GABAergic vs glutamatergic neuron fate in the anterior brainstem. Extensive high-quality datasets were generated and state of the art computational methods were convincingly implemented to identify candidate regulatory elements. The work will be of interest to biologists working to understand neuronal gene regulatory networks.

Reviewed by eLife