Ecology

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

Pandemic danger to the deep: the risk of marine mammals contracting SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater

1. Sabateeshan Mathavarajah
2. Amina K. Stoddart
3. Graham A. Gagnon
4. Graham Dellaire

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Shark conservation risks associated with the use of shark liver oil in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development

1. Catherine Macdonald
2. Joshua Soll

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Rapid behavioural response of urban birds to COVID-19 lockdown

1. Oscar Gordo
2. Lluís Brotons
3. Sergi Herrando
4. Gabriel Gargallo

Reviewed by ScreenIT

A comparison of DNA/RNA extraction protocols for high-throughput sequencing of microbial communities

1. Justin P. Shaffer
2. Clarisse Marotz
3. Pedro Belda-Ferre
4. Cameron Martino
5. Stephen Wandro
6. Mehrbod Estaki
7. Rodolfo A. Salido
8. Carolina S. Carpenter
9. Livia S. Zaramela
10. Jeremiah J. Minich
11. MacKenzie Bryant
12. Karenina Sanders
13. Serena Fraraccio
14. Gail Ackermann
15. Gregory Humphrey
16. Austin D. Swafford
17. Sandrine Miller-Montgomery
18. Rob Knight

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Ruling the Roost: Avian Species Reclaim Urban Habitat During India’s COVID Lockdown

1. Raahil Madhok
2. Sumeet Gulati

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Many bat species are not potential hosts of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2: Evidence from ACE2 receptor usage

1. Huan Yan
2. Hengwu Jiao
3. Qianyun Liu
4. Zhen Zhang
5. Xin Wang
6. Ming Guo
7. Bing-Jun Wang
8. Ke Lan
9. Yu Chen
10. Huabin Zhao

Reviewed by ScreenIT