Ecology

Optimising predictive models to prioritise viral discovery in zoonotic reservoirs

1. Daniel J Becker
2. Gregory F Albery
3. Anna R Sjodin
4. Timothée Poisot
5. Laura M Bergner
6. Binqi Chen
7. Lily E Cohen
8. Tad A Dallas
9. Evan A Eskew
10. Anna C Fagre
11. Maxwell J Farrell
12. Sarah Guth
13. Barbara A Han
14. Nancy B Simmons
15. Michiel Stock
16. Emma C Teeling
17. Colin J Carlson

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, ScreenIT

Gastrointestinal helminths increase Bordetella bronchiseptica shedding and host variation in supershedding

1. Nhat TD Nguyen
2. Ashutosh K Pathak
3. Isabella M Cattadori

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Nguyen et al. examine how helminth co-infection alters shedding from a respiratory bacterial infection (Bordetella bronchiseptica), fitting a model to data from experimentally infected rabbits to link the presence/absence of two helminth species with immune responses (neutrophil and two antibody classes) and bacterial shedding. The authors find a larger frequency of intense bacterial shedding-supershedding events-among helminth-infected rabbits, and model results suggest that triple infection may be associated with faster bacterial replication in the respiratory tract and more rapid shedding of bacteria. Linking immune responses with infection outcomes is of enormous practical interest, as is identifying why certain hosts are superspreaders, but there are some limits to what can be gained from this data set and model framework.

  (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

Gaps in global wildlife trade monitoring leave amphibians vulnerable

1. Alice C Hughes
2. Benjamin Michael Marshall
3. Colin T Strine

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  These are pressing times for nature, standing alone the impact of multiple (human-based) ecological stressors. Wildlife trade is one of these stressors. And, although it is an acute one, it is the easiest solvable global ecological problem. The authors increase dramatically our understanding of legal and illegal trade of amphibians, and offer a wider methodology (however, and importantly, not necessarily a more complex one) to gain a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences) of amphibians' trade. The work will inspire in conservation biologists similar approaches to learn about the trade of other taxa.

  (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

Environmental selection overturns the decay relationship of soil prokaryotic community over geographic distance across grassland biotas

1. Biao Zhang
2. Kai Xue
3. Shutong Zhou
4. Kui Wang
5. Wenjing Liu
6. Cong Xu
7. Lizhen Cui
8. Linfeng Li
9. Qinwei Ran
10. Zongsong Wang
11. Ronghai Hu
12. Yanbin Hao
13. Xiaoyong Cui
14. Yanfen Wang

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study, which is of interest to students of microbial biogeography, explores the distance-decay relationship for soil prokaryotic communities in alpine and temperate grasslands. Although the experimental scale and conclusions are fairly substantial, there are concerns about the methods, as well as several concerns related to the inferences and presented results.

  (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

A beta-glucosidase of an insect herbivore determines both toxicity and deterrence of a dandelion defense metabolite

1. Meret Huber
2. Thomas Roder
3. Sandra Irmisch
4. Alexander Riedel
5. Saskia Gablenz
6. Julia Fricke
7. Peter Rahfeld
8. Michael Reichelt
9. Christian Paetz
10. Nicole Liechti
11. Lingfei Hu
12. Zoe Bont
13. Ye Meng
14. Wei Huang
15. Christelle AM Robert
16. Jonathan Gershenzon
17. Matthias Erb

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper is of interest to a broad audience interested in the coevolutionary arms race between plants and their herbivores. In a thoroughly investigated case study, the detoxification strategy of cockchafer larvae towards the major defensive compound of one of their preferred host plants, dandelion, is revealed and effects on the behavior of the larvae are described.

  (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 names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Living with relatives offsets the harm caused by pathogens in natural populations

1. Hanna M Bensch
2. Emily A O'Connor
3. Charlie Kinahan Cornwallis

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Group living may be beneficial for many reasons, but has costs in terms of increased rates of parasitism, in particular if group members are highly related. In this meta analysis, many original studies on questions related to parasitism, relatedness and group living are brought together in one unifying framework. The authors conclude that living in groups can indeed facilitate the spread of infectious diseases, but that these costs can be overcompensated by the benefits of group living.

  (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

First evidence of SARS-CoV-2 genome detection in zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha)

1. Antoine Le Guernic
2. Mélissa Palos Ladeiro
3. Nicolas Boudaud
4. Julie Do Nascimento
5. Christophe Gantzer
6. Jean-Christophe Inglard
7. Jean-Marie Mouchel
8. Cécile Pochet
9. Laurent Moulin
10. Vincent Rocher
11. Prunelle Waldman
12. Sébastien Wurtzer
13. Alain Geffard

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Evaluating the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to bats using a decision analytical framework

1. Jonathan D. Cook
2. Evan H. Campbell Grant
3. Jeremy T. H. Coleman
4. Jonathan M. Sleeman
5. Michael C. Runge

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Rapid spread of a densovirus in a major crop pest following wide-scale adoption of Bt-cotton in China

1. Yutao Xiao
2. Wenjing Li
3. Xianming Yang
4. Pengjun Xu
5. Minghui Jin
6. He Yuan
7. Weigang Zheng
8. Mario Soberón
9. Alejandra Bravo
10. Kenneth Wilson
11. Kongming Wu

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript will be of interest to a broad audience of researchers interested in microbe-insect interactions and how they may affect adaptation to pesticides. It presents data supporting that infection with a mutualistic virus enhances fitness in a moth, and that selection pressure represented by transgenic crops may be driving the spread of this mutualistic infection in Chinese moth populations. Specificially, infection with a densovirus appears to improve the ability of the cotton bollworm to survive on transgenic cotton expressing insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The widely-grown Bt-transgenic crops control insect pests with great reductions in chemical insecticides, and anything that could reduce their efficacy is of relevance to the agricultural biotechnology community and to growers. This work suggests that virus infection of the insect pest can have unexpected interactions with the ongoing selection for Bt resistance that threatens the sustainability of Bt-transgenic crops. The impact of the work would be clearer if there was a better distinction between pest resistance (the evolution of increased tolerance due to genetic changes in the pest population) and other mechanisms of increased pest tolerance (e.g., virus infection).

  (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

Key informant perceptions on wildlife hunting during the first COVID-19 lockdown in India

1. Uttara Mendiratta
2. Munib Khanyari
3. Nandini Velho
4. Kulbhushansingh Ramesh Suryawanshi
5. Nirmal Kulkarni

Reviewed by ScreenIT