Developmental Biology

DMRT1 is a testis-determining gene in rabbits and is also essential for female fertility

1. Emilie Dujardin
2. Marjolaine André
3. Aurélie Dewaele
4. Béatrice Mandon-Pépin
5. Francis Poulat
6. Anne Frambourg
7. Dominique Thépot
8. Luc Jouneau
9. Geneviève Jolivet
10. Eric Pailhoux
11. Maëlle Pannetier

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  In this important study, the rabbit was used as a non-rodent mammalian model to show that DMRT1 has a testicular promoting function as it does in humans. The experiments are meticulous and compelling, and the arguments are clear and convincing. These results may explain the gonadal dysgenesis associated with mutations in human DMRT1 and highlight the need for mammalian models other than mice to better understand the process of gonadal sex determination in humans.

Reviewed by eLife

Dynamic compartmentalization of the pro-invasive transcription factor NHR-67 reveals a role for Groucho in regulating a proliferative-invasive cellular switch in C. elegans

1. Taylor N Medwig-Kinney
2. Brian A Kinney
3. Michael AQ Martinez
4. Callista Yee
5. Sydney S Sirota
6. Angelina A Mullarkey
7. Neha Somineni
8. Justin Hippler
9. Wan Zhang
10. Kang Shen
11. Christopher Hammell
12. Ariel M Pani
13. David Q Matus

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable data study presents convincing data that expression of the C. elegans transcription factor NHR-67 is sufficient to drive an invasive fate, and that the alternative proliferative fate is associated with NHR-67 transcriptional down-regulation. While the observation that NHR-67 forms punctae associated with transcriptional repressors in non-invasive cells is intriguing, the work does not yet established a clear link between the formation and dissolution of NHR-67 condensates with the activation of downstream genes that NHR-67 is actively repressing. The work will be of interest to developmental biologists studying transcriptional control of cell fate specification in animals, especially once issues around the functional significance of the NHR-67 contiaining punctae are resolved.

Reviewed by eLife

Automated staging of zebrafish embryos with deep learning

1. Rebecca A Jones
2. Matthew J Renshaw
3. David J Barry

Reviewed by Review Commons

Modulation of protein-DNA binding reveals mechanisms of spatiotemporal gene control in early Drosophila embryos

1. Sahla Syed
2. Yifei Duan
3. Bomyi Lim

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable work explores how transcription factors regulate transcription through cooperative binding to enhancers. Through experiments and modeling, the authors show convincingly that the cooperativity of transcription factor binding regulates transcriptional bursting and the extent of the amount of time that the target promoter remains in an active state.

Reviewed by eLife

Hierarchical morphogenesis of swallowtail butterfly wing scale nanostructures

1. Kwi Shan Seah
2. Vinodkumar Saranathan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study reports how swallowtail butterflies pattern structures composed of chitin at the nanometer scale to produce structural colors. The work uses state-of-the-art microscopy techniques to convincingly show that F-actin is utilized in these butterflies in a novel way to produce structure, paving the way for further studies on growth regulation leading to precise ultrastructures and structural colors.

Reviewed by eLife

Conditional blastocyst complementation of a defective Foxa2 lineage efficiently promotes the generation of the whole lung

1. Akihiro Miura
2. Hemanta Sarmah
3. Junichi Tanaka
4. Youngmin Hwang
5. Anri Sawada
6. Yuko Shimamura
7. Takehiro Otoshi
8. Yuri Kondo
9. Yinshan Fang
10. Dai Shimizu
11. Zurab Ninish
12. Jake Le Suer
13. Nicole C Dubois
14. Jennifer Davis
15. Shinichi Toyooka
16. Jun Wu
17. Jianwen Que
18. Finn J Hawkins
19. Chyuan-Sheng Lin
20. Munemasa Mori

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This current study provides a new model of lung agenesis to explore the generation of the ability of blastocyst complementation to generate an entire organ. These studies will provide new avenues for organ bioengineering and additional insight into early contribution of mesoendoderm to lung development.

Reviewed by eLife

Neuronal IL-17 controls Caenorhabditis elegans developmental diapause through CEP-1/p53

1. Abhishiktha Godthi
2. Sehee Min
3. Srijit Das
4. Johnny Cruz-Corchado
5. Andrew Deonarine
6. Kara Misel-Wuchter
7. Priya D. Issuree
8. Veena Prahlad

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Widespread regulation of the maternal transcriptome by Nanos in Drosophila

1. Mohammad Marhabaie
2. Tammy H. Wharton
3. Sung Yun Kim
4. Robin P. Wharton

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Transcriptomic profiling of tissue environments critical for post-embryonic patterning and morphogenesis of zebrafish skin

1. Andrew J Aman
2. Lauren M Saunders
3. August A Carr
4. Sanjay Srivatasan
5. Colten Eberhard
6. Blake Carrington
7. Dawn Watkins-Chow
8. William J Pavan
9. Cole Trapnell
10. David M Parichy

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides a clearly presented and thoughtfully analyzed single cell-resolution dataset of gene expression in wildtype and mutant zebrafish skin. These data are used by the authors to develop and test hypotheses about cell lineage relationships and signaling interactions between cell types in the skin, allowing them to identify roles for several signaling pathways and the hypodermis in scale and pigment cell development. These findings constitute a fundamental contribution to the field, and the rigor of the analyses make this manuscript compelling.

Reviewed by eLife

C-type natriuretic peptide improves maternally aged oocytes quality by inhibiting excessive PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy

1. Hui Zhang
2. Chan Li
3. Qingyang Liu
4. Jingmei Li
5. Hao Wu
6. Rui Xu
7. Yidan Sun
8. Ming Cheng
9. Xiaoe Zhao
10. Menghao Pan
11. Qiang Wei
12. Baohua Ma

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment:

  This study presents valuable findings on the impact of C-natriuretic peptide (CNP) treatment in vivo on the fertility of aged mice. Solid data indicate CNP induces the cAMP-PKA pathway, causing reduced recruitment of Parkin protein to mitochondria in oocytes, resulting in reduced mitophagy, which may be significant for increased mitochondrial bioenergetics and improved cytoplasmic and nuclear maturation. The authors make additional claims regarding the mechanisms by which CNP impacts oocyte quality in vivo for which the evidence is inconclusive. This work will be of interest to reproductive biologists and clinical infertility specialists.

Reviewed by eLife