Developmental Biology

Decoding the activated stem cell phenotype of the neonatally maturing pituitary

1. Emma Laporte
2. Florian Hermans
3. Silke De Vriendt
4. Annelies Vennekens
5. Diether Lambrechts
6. Charlotte Nys
7. Benoit Cox
8. Hugo Vankelecom

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This is a well conducted study on development of neonatal mouse pituitary using multiple ScRNA Seq and organoid culture models. Some weaknesses include accuracy of the language used, lack of data demonstrating the role of Wnt signaling, and lack of follicle-stellate markers and lack of characterization of pituitary defects in IL6 null mice.

  (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

A transcriptome atlas of the mouse iris at single-cell resolution defines cell types and the genomic response to pupil dilation

1. Jie Wang
2. Amir Rattner
3. Jeremy Nathans

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Using single nucleus RNA sequencing, the authors have characterized all major cell types in the mouse iris and ciliary body, defined new types of iris stromal and sphincter cells, and shown cell-specific transcriptome responses in the resting, constricted, and dilated states and identified and validated antibodies and in situ hybridization probes for visualization of major iris cell types. This work will be a valuable reference for investigations of iris development, disease, and pharmacology.

  (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, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

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The transcription factor Xrp1 orchestrates both reduced translation and cell competition upon defective ribosome assembly or function

1. Marianthi Kiparaki
2. Chaitali Khan
3. Virginia Folgado-Marco
4. Jacky Chuen
5. Panagiotis Moulos
6. Nicholas E Baker

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  A growing body of literature substantiates the physiological importance of the phenomenon of 'cell competition' induced by differences in the copy number of ribosomal proteins (Rp) in adjacent cells. Yet, the molecular players that effect cell competition in 'loser' cells have been elusive and poorly studied; the current study by Kiparaki et al makes significant headway in the field by demonstrating that a little known transcription factor, Xrp1, is the common effector of cell death in loser cells when competition is induced by Rp haplo-insufficiency. While differences in cellular translation levels were thought to be the main driver of cell death in loser cells, this work dissects this premise in detail to unequivocally show that in the absence of Xrp1, translation differences alone is not sufficient to induce loser cell death.

  (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.)

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Synthetic reconstruction of the hunchback promoter specifies the role of Bicoid, Zelda and Hunchback in the dynamics of its transcription

1. Gonçalo Fernandes
2. Huy Tran
3. Maxime Andrieu
4. Youssoupha Diaw
5. Carmina Perez Romero
6. Cécile Fradin
7. Mathieu Coppey
8. Aleksandra M Walczak
9. Nathalie Dostatni

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The authors combine the study of synthetic transcriptional enhancers with theoretical models to understand the role of Bicoid, Hunchback and Zelda during syncytial cycles. They conclude that Bcd exists in active and inactive forms; that Hb regulates transcription during some stage after initiation; and that an equilibrium model captures the relevant behaviors, implying energy expenditure during DNA binding/transcription interaction with RNAP is theoretically unnecessary.

  (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

Identification of bipotent progenitors that give rise to myogenic and connective tissues in mouse

1. Alexandre Grimaldi
2. Glenda Comai
3. Sebastien Mella
4. Shahragim Tajbakhsh

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The paper will be of interest to a broad audience of developmental biologists, as it provides evidence for a population of novel bipotent cells, which possess a signature of both muscle and connective tissue. This work implies an adjustment to our current understanding of cell fate decision in myogenesis and fibrogenesis. Combining the sophisticated lineage tracing and single-cell RNAseq analysis, the key claims of the paper are well supported.

  (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

Role of YAP in early ectodermal specification and a Huntington's Disease model of human neurulation

1. Francesco M Piccolo
2. Nathaniel R Kastan
3. Tomomi Haremaki
4. Qingyun Tian
5. Tiago L Laundos
6. Riccardo De Santis
7. Andrew J Beaudoin
8. Thomas S Carroll
9. Ji-Dung Luo
10. Ksenia Gnedeva
11. Fred Etoc
12. AJ Hudspeth
13. Ali H Brivanlou

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript harnesses an organoid model of human neurulation to unravel the role of the Hippo signalling pathway in the specification of the three key ectodermal cell types. The authors then investigate how these mechanisms are dysregulated in an organoid model of Huntington’s disease. The overall conclusions of this work are mostly supported by the data, though the implications of the regulatory relationships studied here to Huntington's Disease in adults would need further elucidation. With some clarifications of data acquisition and experimental logic, this work will be of broad interest to readers interested in the process of neurulation and how dysregulation of developmental mechanisms may lead to disease conditions in adulthood.

  (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 #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

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Using multi-modal neuroimaging to characterise social brain specialisation in infants

1. Maheen Siddiqui
2. Paola Pinti
3. Sabrina Brigadoi
4. Sarah Lloyd-Fox
5. Clare E Elwell
6. Mark H Johnson
7. Ilias Tachtsidis
8. Emily JH Jones

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study provides a state-of-the-art framework to explore the coupling of complementary cerebral measures (neural, hemodynamic, and metabolic) during development by providing an interesting roadmap for multimodal neuroimaging in infants. The methodological contribution is compelling with an original setup for simultaneous EEG and NIRS recording and solid data analyses. However, the claims about functional specialization and the role of the temporal-parietal junction in social processing are only partially supported by the results. This work will be of interest to a broad audience of scientists interested in multimodal neuroimaging and cognitive development.

Reviewed by eLife

A constraints-based theory of the primary cause of senescence: imbalance of epigenetic and non-epigenetic information in histone crosstalk

1. Felipe A. Veloso

Reviewed by PeerRef

Skeletal dysplasia-causing TRPV4 mutations suppress the hypertrophic differentiation of human iPSC-derived chondrocytes

1. Amanda R Dicks
2. Grigory I Maksaev
3. Zainab Harissa
4. Alireza Savadipour
5. Ruhang Tang
6. Nancy Steward
7. Wolfgang Liedtke
8. Colin G Nichols
9. Chia-Lung Wu
10. Farshid Guilak

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  TRPV4 is an ion channel protein and mutations in TRPV4 gene resulted in different types of skeletal defects. In this study, the authors created two types of TRPV4 mutations (mild V620I and lethal T89I mutations) in human iPS cells through CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. They identified key molecules potentially involved in TRPV4 mutation-induced changes in chondrocyte activities and concluded that the inhibition of chondrocyte hypertrophy induced by the mutations may cause the bone diseases.

  (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 #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

A Notch-dependent transcriptional mechanism controls expression of temporal patterning factors in Drosophila medulla

1. Alokananda Ray
2. Xin Li

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  In Drosophila neural progenitors (neuroblasts), sequentially-expressed transcription factors (known as temporal transcription factors) ensure the generation of various types of neurons and glia as they divide. However, the mechanisms regulating and finetuning the speed of temporal factor transitions has remained unclear and under-investigated. Here the authors concentrate on a specific temporal transition occurring in medulla neuroblasts and demonstrate that lineage-intrinsic Notch signaling facilitates this transition via at least two identified enhancers. This work provides important insights on the signals and mechanisms that promote temporal transitions in neural progenitors, and therefore regulate cellular diversity in the brain.

  (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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife