Developmental Biology

Identification of key yeast species and microbe–microbe interactions impacting larval growth of Drosophila in the wild

1. Ayumi Mure
2. Yuki Sugiura
3. Rae Maeda
4. Kohei Honda
5. Nozomu Sakurai
6. Yuuki Takahashi
7. Masayoshi Watada
8. Toshihiko Katoh
9. Aina Gotoh
10. Yasuhiro Gotoh
11. Itsuki Taniguchi
12. Keiji Nakamura
13. Tetsuya Hayashi
14. Takane Katayama
15. Tadashi Uemura
16. Yukako Hattori

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is an important study that addresses a significant question in microbiome research. The authors provide convincing evidence that certain bacterial groups within the fly microbiome have critical functions for host development. Additionally, dietary aspects such as microbial community progression in a natural food source are integrated into their host-microbe interaction analyses.

Reviewed by eLife

Core PCP mutations affect short time mechanical properties but not tissue morphogenesis in the Drosophila pupal wing

1. Romina Piscitello-Gómez
2. Franz S Gruber
3. Abhijeet Krishna
4. Charlie Duclut
5. Carl D Modes
6. Marko Popović
7. Frank Jülicher
8. Natalie A Dye
9. Suzanne Eaton

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study provides a combination of experiment and theory to investigate the role of a key signalling pathway as a patterning guide for local and global mechanical properties in a developing tissue. It poses solid evidence that local dynamical effects are not necessarily predictive of global tissue mechanics, although it does not offer an alternative mechanistic explanation. This multidisciplinary work will likely have an impact on the fields of tissue mechanics and developmental biology.

Reviewed by eLife

Regulation of multiple signaling pathways promotes the consistent expansion of human pancreatic progenitors in defined conditions

1. Luka Jarc
2. Manuj Bandral
3. Elisa Zanfrini
4. Mathias Lesche
5. Vida Kufrin
6. Raquel Sendra
7. Daniela Pezzolla
8. Ioannis Giannios
9. Shahryar Khattak
10. Katrin Neumann
11. Barbara Ludwig
12. Anthony Gavalas

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study describes a method to decouple the mechanisms supporting pancreatic progenitor self-renewal and expansion from feed-forward mechanisms promoting their differentiation allowing in vitro expansion of hPSC-derived pancreatic progenitors. The strength of evidence is convincing in that the authors use appropriate and validated methodology in line with current state-of-the-art. The work will be of interest to the field of beta cell replacement therapy in diabetes.

Reviewed by eLife

Steroidogenesis and androgen/estrogen signaling pathways are altered in in vitro matured testicular tissues of prepubertal mice

1. Laura Moutard
2. Caroline Goudin
3. Catherine Jaeger
4. Céline Duparc
5. Estelle Louiset
6. Tony Pereira
7. François Fraissinet
8. Marion Delessard
9. Justine Saulnier
10. Aurélie Rives-Feraille
11. Christelle Delalande
12. Hervé Lefebvre
13. Nathalie Rives
14. Ludovic Dumont
15. Christine Rondanino

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study reports useful information on the limits of the organotypic culture of neonatal mouse testes, which has been regarded as an experimental strategy that can be extended to humans in the clinical setting for the conservation and subsequent re-use of testicular tissue. The evidence that the culture of testicular fragments of 6.5-day-old mouse testes does not allow optimal differentiation of steroidogenic cells is compelling and should enable further optimizations in the future.

Reviewed by eLife

Zn2+ is essential for Ca2+ oscillations in mouse eggs

1. Hiroki Akizawa
2. Emily M Lopes
3. Rafael A Fissore

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript reports an important series of results showing the relationship between oscillatory zinc and calcium fluctuations during egg activation and fertilization. Compelling evidence using several complimentary approaches provides further insight into the signals for proper egg activation that underpin successful fertilization and embryo development. The findings are significant because they may lead to improvements in assisted reproduction methods.

Reviewed by eLife

Metabolic memory of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol exposure in pluripotent stem cells and primordial germ cells-like cells

1. Roxane Verdikt
2. Abigail A Armstrong
3. Jenny Cheng
4. Young Sun Hwang
5. Amander T Clark
6. Xia Yang
7. Patrick Allard

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The study presents valuable findings demonstrating that physiologically relevant concentrations delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is found in cannabis, have metabolic effects on early mouse embryonic cell types. The evidence supporting the claims is convincing. The work will be of interest to researchers in stem cell and epigenetics fields.

Reviewed by eLife

Chromosome-specific maturation of the epigenome in the Drosophila male germline

1. James T Anderson
2. Steven Henikoff
3. Kami Ahmad

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Using a variety of methods including mutant analyses, the authors study chromatin structure during spermatogenesis in Drosophila and transcriptional profiling in single cells/nuclei. This description of the dramatic changes in chromatin structure during spermatogenesis leads to some new observations, with convincing evidence, and it is useful for the field.

Reviewed by eLife

Vertical transmission of maternal DNA through extracellular vesicles associates with altered embryo bioenergetics during the periconception period

1. David Bolumar
2. Javier Moncayo-Arlandi
3. Javier Gonzalez-Fernandez
4. Ana Ochando
5. Inmaculada Moreno
6. Ana Monteagudo-Sanchez
7. Carlos Marin
8. Antonio Diez
9. Paula Fabra
10. Miguel Angel Checa
11. Juan Jose Espinos
12. David K Gardner
13. Carlos Simon
14. Felipe Vilella

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript reports important results on the potential influence of maternally derived extracellular vesicles on embryo metabolism. The study combines convincing techniques for isolating different subtypes of EV, DNA sequencing, embryo culture, and respiration assays performed on human endometrial samples and mouse embryos. These findings set the stage for in-depth studies to elucidate the role of EV contents in embryo energetics and further enhance our understanding on maternal-fetal communication during peri-implantation development.

Reviewed by eLife

Ulk4 promotes Shh signaling by regulating Stk36 ciliary localization and Gli2 phosphorylation

1. Mengmeng Zhou
2. Yuhong Han
3. Jin Jiang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This fundamental study substantially advances our understanding of how the pseudokinase ULK4 interacts with an active member of the same kinase subfamily (STK36) to promote GLI phosphorylation and Hedgehog pathway activation. The evidence supporting the proposed mechanism is compelling, with rigorous biochemical assays and state-of-the-art cell based imaging techniques. The work will be of broad interest to cell biologists and biochemists.

Reviewed by eLife

Ribbon boosts ribosomal protein gene expression to coordinate organ form and function

1. Rajprasad Loganathan
2. Daniel C. Levings
3. Ji Hoon Kim
4. Michael B. Wells
5. Hannah Chiu
6. Yifan Wu
7. Matthew Slattery
8. Deborah J. Andrew

Reviewed by Review Commons