Developmental Biology

Tissue mechanics and systemic signaling safeguard epithelial tissue against spindle misorientation

1. Floris Bosveld
2. Baptiste Tesson
3. Eric van Leen
4. Sam Amirebrahimi
5. Raphael Thinat
6. Yohanns Bellaïche

Reviewed by preLights

Dynamics of bicoid mRNA localisation and translation dictate morphogen gradient formation

1. T. Athilingam
2. E.L. Wilby
3. P. Bensidoun
4. A. Trullo
5. M. Verbrugghe
6. X. Shi
7. M. Lagha
8. T.E. Saunders
9. T.T. Weil

Reviewed by Review Commons

Human spinal cord organoids reveal cell intercalation as a conserved mechanism for secondary neurulation

1. José Blanco-Ameijeiras
2. Yara El Majzoub
3. Mar García-Valero
4. Mariana M Faustino
5. Elena Rebollo
6. Javier Macho-Rendón
7. Jorge Corbacho
8. Juan Ramón Martínez-Morales
9. Elisa Martí

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a valuable human stem cell-derived organoid model that captures key morphological and cellular features of spinal cord development and provides evidence for a YAP-dependent mechanism of lumen formation relevant to secondary neurulation. Overall, the evidence is convincing, using strong and validated approaches consistent with the current state of the art, including systematic protocol optimisation across multiple cell lines and quantitative analysis of tissue architecture. However, some claims regarding precise anterior-posterior and dorsoventral spinal cord identity, as well as several novelty claims, are at times overstated and would benefit from more direct validation and more careful positioning. The work will be of interest to developmental biologists and researchers studying neural tube defects.

Reviewed by eLife

Patient-specific iPSC models of neural tube defects identify underlying deficiencies in neuroepithelial cell shape regulation and differentiation

1. Ioakeim Ampartzidis
2. Elliott M Thompson
3. Yashica Gupta
4. Andrea Krstevski
5. Nicola Elvassore
6. Eirini Maniou
7. Paolo de Coppi
8. Gabriel L Galea

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors used genetic mutations in VANGL2 to study cell morphological changes during differentiation of hPSCs and understand the mechanisms underlying neural tube closure defects. The findings are important as they establish a quantitative, reproducible 2D human iPSC-to-neural-progenitor platform for analyzing cell-shape dynamics during differentiation. The convincing evidence provided, combined with the relative simplicity of the model and its tractability as a patient-specific and reverse genetic platform, make it attractive.

  [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

Human pluripotent stem cell-derived macrophages modify development of human kidney organoids

1. Filipa M. Lopes
2. Ioannis Bantounas
3. Alexandra Sarov
4. Adrian S. Woolf
5. Susan J. Kimber

Reviewed by preLights