Developmental Biology

Nr2f1a maintains atrial nkx2.5 expression to repress pacemaker identity within venous atrial cardiomyocytes of zebrafish

1. Kendall E Martin
2. Padmapriyadarshini Ravisankar
3. Manu Beerens
4. Calum A MacRae
5. Joshua S Waxman

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript will be of interest to developmental biologists and pediatric cardiologists. Addressing the role of NR2F transcription factors in the fish heart, it provides novel insight into atrial chamber patterning and the formation of pacemaker cells. High-quality data are presented supporting the novel finding of a requirement of nr2f1a for restricting the production of pacemaker cells. Yet, data are currently not conclusive in claiming transdifferentiation of atrial cells in the mutants.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Cross-modality synthesis of EM time series and live fluorescence imaging

1. Anthony Santella
2. Irina Kolotuev
3. Caroline Kizilyaprak
4. Zhirong Bao

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper very nicely tackles a methodological problem in aligning different types of datasets (EM and light microscopy) to image embryonic nervous system development in the nematode C.elegans. The paper is important not just from a methodological standpoint, but also provides novel insights into nervous system development that will be of general interest to the reader. The latter deserves more attention in the manuscript.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Loss of Elp1 disrupts trigeminal ganglion neurodevelopment in a model of familial dysautonomia

1. Carrie E Leonard
2. Jolie Quiros
3. Frances Lefcort
4. Lisa A Taneyhill

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study uses a combination of conditional knockout mouse embryos with targeted deletion of Elp1 in neural crest cells and neuron-specific antibodies to identify the onset of neural defects associated with the trigeminal ganglion. This manuscript is of potential interest to developmental biologists studying neurodevelopment disorders and, with additional quantification and experimentation, is likely to provide important insights into the mechanisms underlying Familial Dysautonomia in the cranial sensory ganglia.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Identification and classification of cis-regulatory elements in the amphipod crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis

1. Dennis A. Sun
2. Jessen V. Bredeson
3. Heather S. Bruce
4. Nipam H. Patel

Reviewed by Review Commons

Control of craniofacial development by the collagen receptor, discoidin domain receptor 2

1. Fatma F Mohamed
2. Chunxi Ge
3. Shawn A Hallett
4. Alec C Bancroft
5. Randy T Cowling
6. Noriaki Ono
7. Abdul-Aziz Binrayes
8. Barry Greenberg
9. Benjamin Levi
10. Vesa M Kaartinen
11. Renny T Franceschi

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The authors report that discoidin domain receptor 2 (DDR2), a non-integrin collagen receptor, is required in Gli1+ cells for the development of the craniofacial skeleton. It is known that mutations in DDR2 are associated with craniofacial abnormalities, such as midface hypoplasia and open fontanels. This paper is of potential interest to craniofacial skeletal developmental researchers. While the data quality is high, the paper helps to confirm what has been recently published by the same authors.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Murine endothelial serine palmitoyltransferase 1 (SPTLC1) is required for vascular development and systemic sphingolipid homeostasis

1. Andrew Kuo
2. Antonio Checa
3. Colin Niaudet
4. Bongnam Jung
5. Zhongjie Fu
6. Craig E Wheelock
7. Sasha A Singh
8. Masanori Aikawa
9. Lois E Smith
10. Richard L Proia
11. Timothy Hla

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study reveals the importance of sphingolipids in endothelial cell biology. The authors have examined the role of the Sptlc1 gene in retinal injury as well as in the production of sphingolipid metabolites. These studies provide key insight into how endothelial cell production of sphingolipids alters vascular repair and systemic metabolism.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

SRSF10 is essential for progenitor spermatogonia expansion by regulating alternative splicing

1. Wenbo Liu
2. Xukun Lu
3. Zheng-Hui Zhao
4. Ruibao SU
5. Qian-Nan Li Li
6. Yue Xue
7. Zheng Gao
8. Si-Min Sun Sun
9. Wen-Long Lei
10. Lei Li
11. Geng An
12. Hanyan Liu
13. Zhiming Han
14. Ying-Chun Ouyang
15. Yi Hou
16. Zhen-Bo Wang
17. Qing-Yuan Sun
18. Jianqiao Liu

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript describes an extensive molecular and cellular analysis of spermatogenesis in male mice in the absence of splicing factor Srsf10; a factor known to be involved in alternative splicing. Loss of Srf10 did not prevent formation of spermatogonia in testes, but did inhibit spermatogonia from entering meiosis and producing meiotic spermatocytes. These results should be of interest to molecular, developmental, and reproductive biologists. However, the conclusions require additional experimental support and the molecular basis of the observations need to be more clearly defined.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Gill developmental program in the teleost mandibular arch

1. Mathi Thiruppathy
2. Peter Fabian
3. J Andrew Gillis
4. J Gage Crump

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  In this manuscript, the authors use zebrafish histological staining, lineage tracing, enhancer transgenes, and mutants to find evidence for the gill origin of the vertebrate jaws hypothesis. This study nicely integrates into the literature on the origins of the mandibular jaw including discussion of fossil evidence and work in chondrichthyans and tests the hypotheses that the pseudobranch is derived from the mandibular arch, and that the pseudobranch is a segmental homolog of the gills. This paper will be impactful to the field of developmental biology both because the fate mapping methods used are generally applicable to a range of other lineage questions and because evidence for a gill arch origin of the jaw is an important contribution to vertebrate evolutionary biology.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Generation and timing of graded responses to morphogen gradients

1. Shari Carmon
2. Felix Jonas
3. Naama Barkai
4. Eyal D. Schejter
5. Ben-Zion Shilo

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This is an interesting study addressing an overlooked feature of morphogen gradient interpretation. By studying transcriptional activation of early zygotic genes during early Drosophila development the authors' findings suggest that morphogens, which are known to pattern tissues in distinct domain of gene expression, can also induce a graded transcriptional response within these domains.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

ECM-integrin signalling instructs cellular position sensing to pattern the early mouse embryo

1. Esther Jeong Yoon Kim
2. Lydia Sorokin
3. Takashi Hiiragi

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The importance of extracellular matrix (ECM) in multicellular organization has been studied in many different contexts. This study investigates the role of the ECM in the formation of the very first cell types to form in a mammalian embryo. The authors find that it may help stabilize the cell fate of early inside cells and play a role in promoting the epithelial organization of the next cell type to form within the inner cell mass. With appropriate extended experimental analysis, this study could be of interest to the specialist mammalian development community .

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife