Developmental Biology

Kap-β2/Transportin mediates β-catenin nuclear transport in Wnt signaling

1. Woong Y Hwang
2. Valentyna Kostiuk
3. Delfina P González
4. C Patrick Lusk
5. Mustafa K Khokha

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Using a heterologous model system of budding yeast, authors find that nuclear translocation of beta-catenin is mediated by Kap104, the ortholog of Transportin (TNPO)1/2. A TNPO1 binding motif was identified in the C-terminal region of beta-catenin, which serves as a nuclear localization signal, and mutation of the motif inhibits beta-catenin mediated transcription. The manuscript serves as a staring point to study how much this motif contributes to nuclear localization of full-length beta-catenin in mammalian cells and to assess whether inhibiting TNPO1 interaction can reduce hyperactivation of beta-catenin signaling.

Reviewed by eLife

Amino acid transporter SLC38A5 regulates developmental and pathological retinal angiogenesis

1. Zhongxiao Wang
2. Felix Yemanyi
3. Alexandra K Blomfield
4. Kiran Bora
5. Shuo Huang
6. Chi-Hsiu Liu
7. William R Britton
8. Steve S Cho
9. Yohei Tomita
10. Zhongjie Fu
11. Jian-xing Ma
12. Wen-hong Li
13. Jing Chen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper will be of interest to those studying retinal angiogenesis and endothelial cell biology. The authors performed rigorous data analysis and presented a logical, well-written report. The key conclusions of the manuscript are supported by the data and uncover a novel factor for retinal endothelial cell growth.

Reviewed by eLife

Nanobodies combined with DNA-PAINT super-resolution reveal a staggered titin nanoarchitecture in flight muscles

1. Florian Schueder
2. Pierre Mangeol
3. Eunice HoYee Chan
4. Renate Rees
5. Jürgen Schünemann
6. Ralf Jungmann
7. Dirk Görlich
8. Frank Schnorrer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The manuscript is of broad interest in the field of muscle physiology and structure. The authors developed nanobodies against different domains of the giant Drosophila proteins Sallimus and Projectin, which are titin homologs, and used them to define their organization along sarcomeres of distinct fly muscles. This is an important contribution to understand the functional architecture of the muscle; it suggests that in invertebrates two proteins fulfil the role of the vertebrate titin in bridging the A-band and the I-band.

  This manuscript was co-submitted with: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.13.488177v1

Reviewed by eLife

Dysregulated H19/Igf2 expression disrupts cardiac-placental axis during development of Silver-Russell syndrome-like mouse models

1. Suhee Chang
2. Diana Fulmer
3. Stella K Hur
4. Joanne L Thorvaldsen
5. Li Li
6. Yemin Lan
7. Eric A Rhon-Calderon
8. Nicolae Adrian Leu
9. Xiaowen Chen
10. Jonathan A Epstein
11. Marisa S Bartolomei

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Igf2 and H19 are the two best-studied imprinted genes in mice. Taking advantage of the varying levels of H19 and Igf2 expression in three existing mouse models, the authors dissect the role of H19 and Igf2 in cardiac and placental development. Their findings suggest that an accurate dosage of both H19 and Igf2 is critical for normal embryonic development, especially the development of the heart and placenta. The work is of interest to colleagues studying imprinting as well as mammalian development.

Reviewed by eLife

Germline protein, Cup, non-cell autonomously limits migratory cell fate in Drosophila oogenesis

1. Banhisikha Saha
2. Sayan Acharjee
3. Gaurab Ghosh
4. Purbasa Dasgupta
5. Mohit Prasad

Reviewed by Review Commons

Mcm2 promotes stem cell differentiation via its ability to bind H3-H4

1. Xiaowei Xu
2. Xu Hua
3. Kyle Brown
4. Xiaojun Ren
5. Zhiguo Zhang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript reports a novel role of Mcm2 licensing factor and helicase subunit of the Mcm2-Mcm7 complex in the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into neuronal lineages. A series of compelling experimental manipulations dissect the abnormalities in the formation of heterochromatin at pluripotent genes and the resolution of bivalent chromatin domains at lineage-specific genes in differentiation in response to mutation of the histone binding domain of Mcm2. These findings provide new insights into the replication-independent roles of Mcm2. This paper will be of interest to scientists working on development and embryonal cell differentiation.

Reviewed by eLife

Hippo pathway-mediated YAP1/TAZ inhibition is essential for proper pancreatic endocrine specification and differentiation

1. Yifan Wu
2. Kunhua Qin
3. Yi Xu
4. Shreya Rajhans
5. Truong Vo
6. Kevin M Lopez
7. Jun Liu
8. Michael H Nipper
9. Janice Deng
10. Xue Yin
11. Logan R Ramjit
12. Zhenqing Ye
13. Yu Luan
14. H Efsun Arda
15. Pei Wang

Reviewed by Review Commons

An EcR probe reveals mechanisms of the ecdysone-mediated switch from repression-to-activation on target genes in the larval wing disc

1. Joanna Wardwell-Ozgo
2. Douglas Terry
3. Colby Schweibenz
4. Michael Tu
5. Ola Solimon
6. David Schofeld
7. Kenneth Moberg

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The manuscript by Wardwell-Ozgo and co-authors describes a thorough and interesting study that explores the mechanisms through which a hormone receptor can both repress and activate gene transcription. They have conducted an impressive number of experiments all aimed at showing that by using their new transgenic tool, and Ecdysone Receptor (EcR) ligand binding domain sponge, they can demonstrate that EcR activity is important for eliciting both types of ecdysone responses, repression, and activation, in the Drosophila wing disc and that the EcR binding partner Smarter is essential for the repressive function. The differences in expression levels have however not been quantified, which would lend greater support to their claims.

Reviewed by eLife

ATP6AP2-to-MMP14, a key pathway for osteoblast to osteocyte transition

1. Lei Xiong
2. Hao-Han Guo
3. Jin-Xiu Pan
4. Xiao Ren
5. Daehoon Lee
6. Lin Mei
7. Wen-Cheng Xiong

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript is of interest to readers in the field of bone biology. It identifies a novel role for the vacuolar ATPase accessory protein ATP6AP2 within the osteoblast lineage and shows that loss of ATP6AP2 in the mature osteoblast results in disorganized bone formation. A similar, but milder, bone disorganization phenotype is also observed when this gene is knocked out in osteocytes. The authors show that this bone phenotype is partially rescued via restoration of MMP14 action.

Reviewed by eLife

A dynamic interplay between chitin synthase and the proteins Expansion/Rebuf reveals that chitin polymerisation and translocation are uncoupled in Drosophila

1. Ettore De Giorgio
2. Panagiotis Giannios
3. M. Lluisa Espinàs
4. Marta Llimargas

Reviewed by Review Commons