Developmental Biology

Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in Sertoli cells regulates age-dependent changes in sperm DNA methylation

1. Saira Amir
2. Olatunbosun Arowolo
3. Ekaterina Mironova
4. Joseph McGaunn
5. Oladele Oluwayiose
6. Oleg Sergeyev
7. J Richard Pilsner
8. Alexander Suvorov

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This potentially important study addresses the effects of aging on the sperm epigenome and its consequences for reproductive health. The evidence supporting the main claim remains incomplete. This study will be of interest to researchers working on aging and reproductive health.

Reviewed by eLife

Sox9 marks limbal stem cells and is required for asymmetric cell fate switch in the corneal epithelium

1. Gabriella Rice
2. Olivia Farrelly
3. Sixia Huang
4. Paola Kuri
5. Ezra Curtis
6. Lisa Ohman
7. Ning Li
8. Christopher Lengner
9. Vivian Lee
10. Panteleimon Rompolas

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This fundamental work advances our understanding of the regulation of corneal stem cell fate and differentiation, identifying Sox9 as a player in this process. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with rigorous genomic experiments and genetic mouse models that are state-of-the-art in the field. The work will be of broad interest to developmental, stem cell, and transcriptional biologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Caudal fin shape imprinted during late zebrafish embryogenesis is re-patterned by the Sonic hedgehog pathway

1. Eric Surette
2. Joan Donahue
3. Crisvely Soto Martinez
4. Stephanie Robinson
5. Deirdre McKenna
6. Brendan Fitzgerald
7. Katherine Backus
8. Rolf O. Karlstrom
9. Nicolás Cumplido
10. Sarah K. McMenamin

Reviewed by preLights

Lateral/caudal ganglionic eminence makes limited contribution to cortical oligodendrocytes

1. Jialin Li
2. Feihong Yang
3. Yu Tian
4. Ziwu Wang
5. Dashi Qi
6. Zhengang Yang
7. Jiangang Song
8. Jing Ding
9. Xin Wang
10. Zhuangzhi Zhang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors provide solid evidence that any contribution of oligodendrocyte precursors to the developing cortex from the lateral ganglionic eminence is minimal in scope. The methods used support the conclusions, with some technical concerns that the authors can address with further experimentation. These are considered valuable additions to our understanding of the origins of oligodendrocytes in the forebrain during development.

Reviewed by eLife

Cell-autonomous timing drives the vertebrate segmentation clock’s wave pattern

1. Laurel A Rohde
2. Arianne Bercowsky-Rama
3. Guillaume Valentin
4. Sundar Ram Naganathan
5. Ravi A Desai
6. Petr Strnad
7. Daniele Soroldoni
8. Andrew C Oates

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study demonstrates that the behavior of the cells in the presomitic mesoderm in zebrafish embryos depend on both an intrinsic program and external information, providing new insight into the biology underlying embryo axis segmentation. There is convincing support for the findings with a thorough and quantitative single-cell real-time imaging approach, both in vitro and in vivo, developed by the authors.

Reviewed by eLife

H2A.Z deposition at meiotic prophase I underlies homologous recombination and pachytene genome activation during male meiosis

1. Shenfei Sun
2. Yamei Jiang
3. Ning Jiang
4. Qiaoli Zhang
5. Hongjie Pan
6. Fujing Huang
7. Xinna Zhang
8. Yuxuan Guo
9. Xiaoyu You
10. Kai Gong
11. Wei Wei
12. Hanmin Liu
13. Zhenju Song
14. Yuanlin Song
15. Xiaofang Tang
16. Miao Yu
17. Runsheng Li
18. Xinhua Lin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study shows that Znhit1, a regulator of chromatin and of the histone variant H2A.Z, is required for progression through meiotic prophase. It is an important observation that describes the role of epigenetics and gene expression during meiosis. The analysis is based on complementary approaches at the cytological, single-cell, and genomic levels that provide solid evidence for the role of Znhit1 in the control of gene expression and in the loading of H2A.Z in mouse spermatocytes.

Reviewed by eLife

sisterless A is required for activation of Sex lethal in the Drosophila germline

1. Raghav Goyal
2. Ellen Baxter
3. Mark Van Doren

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This useful study reports that the Drosophila transcription factor sisterless A (sisA) regulates the expression of Sex-lethal (Sxl) in female germ cells. The data supporting claims regarding the genetic requirement of sisA are convincing, but the characterization of the cis-regulatory elements controlling Sxl expression in the female germline is viewed as incomplete. The work will be of significant interest to colleagues studying reproductive biology and sex determination.

Reviewed by eLife

TAK1 operates at the primary cilium in non-canonical TGFB/BMP signaling to control heart development

1. Canan Doganli
2. Daniel A. Baird
3. Yeasmeen Ali
4. Oskar Kaaber Thomsen
5. Enrique Audain
6. Line Jessen
7. Pauline Munck Truelsen
8. Johanne Bay Mogensen
9. Maria Schrøder Holm
10. Kateřina Apolínová
11. Lorenzo Buttò
12. Maria Diamanti
13. Jindřiška Leischner Fialová
14. Emma M. Wade
15. Stephen P. Robertson
16. Lotte Bang Pedersen
17. Laurent Argiro
18. Fabienne Lescroart
19. Marc-Phillip Hitz
20. Søren Tvorup Christensen
21. Lars Allan Larsen

Reviewed by preLights

Glial ferritin maintains neural stem cells via transporting iron required for self-renewal in Drosophila

1. Zhixin Ma
2. Wenshu Wang
3. Xiaojing Yang
4. Menglong Rui
5. Su Wang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study, which seeks to identify factors from the glial niche that support and maintain neural stem cells, reports a novel role for ferritin in this process. The authors provide solid evidence that defects in larval brain development in Drosophila, resulting from ferritin knockdown, can be attributed to impaired Fe-S cluster activity and ATP production. The findings of this well-conducted study will be of interest to oncologists and neurobiologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Evaluating the transcriptional regulators of arterial gene expression via a catalogue of characterized arterial enhancers

1. Svanhild Nornes
2. Susann Bruche
3. Niharika Adak
4. Ian R McCracken
5. Sarah De Val

Reviewed by Review Commons