Developmental Biology

Differential gene regulation in DAPT-treated Hydra reveals candidate direct Notch signalling targets

1. Jasmin Moneer
2. Stefan Siebert
3. Stefan Krebs
4. Jack Cazet
5. Andrea Prexl
6. Qin Pan
7. Celina Juliano
8. Angelika Böttger

Reviewed by Review Commons

Fish primary embryonic pluripotent cells assemble into retinal tissue mirroring in vivo early eye development

1. Lucie Zilova
2. Venera Weinhardt
3. Tinatini Tavhelidse
4. Christina Schlagheck
5. Thomas Thumberger
6. Joachim Wittbrodt

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The experimental system characterized in this paper opens up new avenues for studying mechanisms of retinal patterning and morphogenesis. The data presented make a compelling case for the emergence of complex multicellular structures upon re-aggregation of embryonic teleost cells, but open questions remain regarding the basic underlying principles.

  (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

Apical contacts stemming from incomplete delamination guide progenitor cell allocation through a dragging mechanism

1. Eduardo Pulgar
2. Cornelia Schwayer
3. Néstor Guerrero
4. Loreto López
5. Susana Márquez
6. Steffen Härtel
7. Rodrigo Soto
8. Carl-Philipp Heisenberg
9. Miguel L Concha

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  In this study, Pulgar et al. describe an interesting phenomenon addressing organ integrity in a unique example of collective cell migration. The group focused on the migration of the dorsal forunner cells (DFC), which will constitute the left-right organizer of the zebrafish. The authors show that DFCs retain apical contacts stemming from incomplete delamination and drag detached DFCs to their final destination. The study opens a number of exciting new questions related to the mechanism underlying the 'safeguards' process and the mechanism of coordination between migration and regulation of attachment.

  (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

A functional genetic toolbox for human tissue-derived organoids

1. Dawei Sun
2. Lewis Evans
3. Francesca Perrone
4. Vanesa Sokleva
5. Kyungtae Lim
6. Saba Rezakhani
7. Matthias Lutolf
8. Matthias Zilbauer
9. Emma L Rawlins

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  In this paper Sun and colleagues aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of using CRISPR-based gene editing techniques applied to tissue-derived human fetal lung organoids. While previous studies have used CRISPR-Cas9 to perform knock-in or knock-out studies in organoids (such as intestinal, hepatic or tumor organoids), this is the first report to apply these tools to a tissue-derived lung organoid model. A major strength of this report is the additional use of CRISPRi and CRISPRa technologies. The work is well done, clearly presented and makes an important contribution to the literature.

  (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, preLights

Dual expression of Atoh1 and Ikzf2 promotes transformation of adult cochlear supporting cells into outer hair cells

1. Suhong Sun
2. Shuting Li
3. Zhengnan Luo
4. Minhui Ren
5. Shunji He
6. Guangqin Wang
7. Zhiyong Liu

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript demonstrated the effectiveness of combined activation of Atoh1 and Ikzf2 in converting adult supporting cells to outer hair cell (OHC)-like cells in a mouse model, in which the OHCs were selectively ablated with diphtheria toxin. The authors showed that while the number of regenerated hair cells was low and there was no functional recovery based on ABR, these OHC-like cells do express Prestin and exhibit a genetic profile that resembles nascent hair cells. This paper will be of great interest to researchers interested in hearing restoration, as well as regenerative 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 #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Characterization of cephalic and non-cephalic sensory cell types provides insight into joint photo- and mechanoreceptor evolution

1. Roger Revilla-i-Domingo
2. Vinoth Babu Veedin Rajan
3. Monika Waldherr
4. Günther Prohaczka
5. Hugo Musset
6. Lukas Orel
7. Elliot Gerrard
8. Moritz Smolka
9. Alexander Stockinger
10. Matthias Farlik
11. Robert J Lucas
12. Florian Raible
13. Kristin Tessmar-Raible

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript presents an investigation of receptors in the trunk of Platynereis annelids that express genes involved in both photoreception (e.g. r-Opsin) and mechanosensation. This is particularly interesting in light of other work in model organisms like flies that uncovered broadly similar results. The authors compare gene expression of fly Johnston Organ cells and mouse hearing cells to the worm receptors. Because Platynereis is distantly related to flies and mice, the authors suggest this "hybrid" sensory receptor could be very old and homologous across many animals. The question of what role r-Opsins play outside of photoreceptors is an interesting one that remains poorly understood.

  (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 #4 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Multiscale analysis of single and double maternal-zygotic Myh9 and Myh10 mutants during mouse preimplantation development

1. Markus Frederik Schliffka
2. Anna Francesca Tortorelli
3. Özge Özgüç
4. Ludmilla de Plater
5. Oliver Polzer
6. Diane Pelzer
7. Jean-Léon Maître

Reviewed by Review Commons

Wnt/beta-catenin signalling is dispensable for adult neural stem cell homeostasis and activation

1. Sophie H. L. Austin
2. Rut Gabarró-Solanas
3. Piero Rigo
4. Oana Paun
5. Lachlan Harris
6. François Guillemot
7. Noelia Urbán

Reviewed by Review Commons

T cell self-reactivity during thymic development dictates the timing of positive selection

1. Lydia K Lutes
2. Zoë Steier
3. Laura L McIntyre
4. Shraddha Pandey
5. James Kaminski
6. Ashley R Hoover
7. Silvia Ariotti
8. Aaron Streets
9. Nir Yosef
10. Ellen A Robey

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study is of interest to immunologists as it fills a key knowledge gap in understanding factors involved in determining the duration of intrathymic positive selection of T cells. The findings come from a series of both in vitro and in vivo experiments implicating the self-reactivity of thymocytes in the time to completion of positive selection. An RNA-sequencing analysis suggests that gene expression differences from the pre-selection to the single-positive thymocyte stage is self-reactivity dependent, correlating in particular the level of ion channel expression with positive selection completion rates.

  (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 names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

GAF is essential for zygotic genome activation and chromatin accessibility in the early Drosophila embryo

1. Marissa M Gaskill
2. Tyler J Gibson
3. Elizabeth D Larson
4. Melissa M Harrison

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of interest to a broad audience of developmental biologists and molecular biologists in the field of transcriptional control and epigenetics. It evaluates the pioneer factor activity associated with GAGA-Factor during the process of zygotic genome activation. The experiments are rigorously performed and the data analysis supports the conclusions.

  This manuscript is in revision at eLife.

  (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