Genetics

The seminal odorant binding protein Obp56g is required for mating plug formation and male fertility in Drosophila melanogaster

1. Nora C Brown
2. Benjamin Gordon
3. Caitlin E McDonough-Goldstein
4. Snigdha Misra
5. Geoffrey D Findlay
6. Andrew G Clark
7. Mariana Federica Wolfner

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study describes an atypical role of the odorant binding protein Obp56g in mating plug formation in Drosophila melanogaster suggesting that Obps may play roles in reproduction in addition to their originally described roles in olfaction. Mutant males lacking Obp56g fail to induce the formation of a mating plug in the female reproductive tract-leading to ejaculate loss and reduced sperm storage. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid and compelling. The work will be of interest to biologists studying Obps and seminal fluid protein function and their evolution.

Reviewed by eLife

Identification of CFAP52 as a novel diagnostic target of male infertility with defects of sperm head-tail connection and flagella development

1. Hui-Juan Jin
2. Tiechao Ruan
3. Siyu Dai
4. Xin-Yan Geng
5. Yihong Yang
6. Ying Shen
7. Su-Ren Chen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides useful information on the function of a ciliary and flagellar-associated protein, CFAP52, in the assembly of sperm head-tail connecting apparatus (HTCA) and tail formation in humans and mice. The significance is to identify CFAP52 as a genetic factor for asthenoteratozoospermia with a mixed acephalic spermatozoa syndrome (ASS) and multiple morphological abnormalities of the sperm flagella (MMAF) phenotype. The strength of the study is that the experimental evidence using CFAP52 loss-of-function in mice is solid to support that CFAP52 is essential for sperm motility and male fertility by contributing to HTCA and 9+2 axoneme, corroborating the sperm phenotypes of human patients with compound heterozygous mutations in CFAP52.

Reviewed by eLife

Separating phases of allopolyploid evolution with resynthesized and natural Capsella bursa-pastoris

1. Tianlin Duan
2. Adrien Sicard
3. Sylvain Glémin
4. Martin Lascoux

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study offers new insight into how floral and reproductive phenotypes and gene expression evolve in allopolyploids. The authors marshal compelling evidence, using well-constructed genetic lines, RNA sequencing, and phenotypic analyses to distinguish the roles of hybridization, whole genome duplication, and subsequent evolution in phenotypes associated with the selfing syndrome and in gene expression. The work will be of interest to researchers working in plant speciation and genomics, as well as those more broadly interested in the effects of genome copy number on phenotypic and expression evolution.

Reviewed by eLife

Mitochondrial unfolded protein response transcription factor ATFS-1 increases resistance to exogenous stressors through upregulation of multiple stress response pathways

1. Sonja K. Soo
2. Annika Traa
3. Meeta Mistry
4. Jeremy M. Van Raamsdonk

Reviewed by Review Commons

A systematic approach identifies p53-DREAM pathway target genes associated with blood or brain abnormalities

1. Jeanne Rakotopare
2. Vincent Lejour
3. Carla Duval
4. Eliana Eldawra
5. Hugues Escoffier
6. Franck Toledo

Reviewed by Review Commons

A randomized multiplex CRISPRi-Seq approach for the identification of critical combinations of genes

1. Nicole A Ellis
2. Kevin S Myers
3. Jessica Tung
4. Anne Davidson Ward
5. Kathryn Johnston
6. Katherine E Bonnington
7. Timothy J Donohue
8. Matthias P Machner

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study uses CRISPRi to silence multiple effectors in the pathogen, Legionella pneumophila. It provides a technique that will allow researchers to address functional redundancy amongst effectors, a problem that has persisted even after decades of study. The methodology used is convincing, and further improvement (such as using multiple guides per gene) can lead to the identification of novel virulence factors.

Reviewed by eLife

Specific photoreceptor cell fate pathways are differentially altered in NR2E3-associated diseases

1. Izarbe Aísa-Marín
2. Quirze Rovira
3. Noelia Díaz
4. Laura Calvo-López
5. Juan M. Vaquerizas
6. Gemma Marfany

Reviewed by Review Commons

Stable population structure in Europe since the Iron Age, despite high mobility

1. Margaret L Antonio
2. Clemens L Weiß
3. Ziyue Gao
4. Susanna Sawyer
5. Victoria Oberreiter
6. Hannah M Moots
7. Jeffrey P Spence
8. Olivia Cheronet
9. Brina Zagorc
10. Elisa Praxmarer
11. Kadir Toykan Özdoğan
12. Lea Demetz
13. Pere Gelabert
14. Daniel Fernandes
15. Michaela Lucci
16. Timka Alihodžić
17. Selma Amrani
18. Pavel Avetisyan
19. Christèle Baillif-Ducros
20. Željka Bedić
21. Audrey Bertrand
22. Maja Bilić
23. Luca Bondioli
24. Paulina Borówka
25. Emmanuel Botte
26. Josip Burmaz
27. Domagoj Bužanić
28. Francesca Candilio
29. Mirna Cvetko
30. Daniela De Angelis
31. Ivan Drnić
32. Kristián Elschek
33. Mounir Fantar
34. Andrej Gaspari
35. Gabriella Gasperetti
36. Francesco Genchi
37. Snežana Golubović
38. Zuzana Hukeľová
39. Rimantas Jankauskas
40. Kristina Jelinčić Vučković
41. Gordana Jeremić
42. Iva Kaić
43. Kevin Kazek
44. Hamazasp Khachatryan
45. Anahit Khudaverdyan
46. Sylvia Kirchengast
47. Miomir Korać
48. Valérie Kozlowski
49. Mária Krošláková
50. Dora Kušan Špalj
51. Francesco La Pastina
52. Marie Laguardia
53. Sandra Legrand
54. Tino Leleković
55. Tamara Leskovar
56. Wiesław Lorkiewicz
57. Dženi Los
58. Ana Maria Silva
59. Rene Masaryk
60. Vinka Matijević
61. Yahia Mehdi Seddik Cherifi
62. Nicolas Meyer
63. Ilija Mikić
64. Nataša Miladinović-Radmilović
65. Branka Milošević Zakić
66. Lina Nacouzi
67. Magdalena Natuniewicz-Sekuła
68. Alessia Nava
69. Christine Neugebauer-Maresch
70. Jan Nováček
71. Anna Osterholtz
72. Julianne Paige
73. Lujana Paraman
74. Dominique Pieri
75. Karol Pieta
76. Stefan Pop-Lazić
77. Matej Ruttkay
78. Mirjana Sanader
79. Arkadiusz Sołtysiak
80. Alessandra Sperduti
81. Tijana Stankovic Pesterac
82. Maria Teschler-Nicola
83. Iwona Teul
84. Domagoj Tončinić
85. Julien Trapp
86. Dragana Vulović
87. Tomasz Waliszewski
88. Diethard Walter
89. Miloš Živanović
90. Mohamed el Mostefa Filah
91. Morana Čaušević-Bully
92. Mario Šlaus
93. Dušan Borić
94. Mario Novak
95. Alfredo Coppa
96. Ron Pinhasi
97. Jonathan K Pritchard

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper will be of considerable interest to population geneticists and other scholars in the field of paleogenomics. The study provides an impressive dataset containing 200+ novel human ancient genome sequences and a very creative, robust, and novel approach for studying human migration across time using ancient DNA. The authors find that the population structure in Europe has been remarkably stable over time. The conclusions are well supported by the data and the methods used are thoughtful and rigorous.

Reviewed by eLife

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor signaling maintains epithelial barrier integrity

1. Nadja S Katheder
2. Kristen C Browder
3. Diana Chang
4. Ann De Maziere
5. Pekka Kujala
6. Suzanne van Dijk
7. Judith Klumperman
8. Tzu-Chiao Lu
9. Hongjie Li
10. Zijuan Lai
11. Dewakar Sangaraju
12. Heinrich Jasper

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study reveals a novel mechanism of Acetylcholine- Acetylylcholine receptor signaling in regulating gut barrier function in Drosophila, which provides important implications on the pathway played in human diseases, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary DiseaseCOPD. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid.

Reviewed by eLife

Broad functional profiling of fission yeast proteins using phenomics and machine learning

1. María Rodríguez-López
2. Nicola Bordin
3. Jon Lees
4. Harry Scholes
5. Shaimaa Hassan
6. Quentin Saintain
7. Stephan Kamrad
8. Christine Orengo
9. Jürg Bähler

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study combines extensive phenotyping of genome-wide deletion mutants and machine learning-based prediction to generate a large scale resource for understanding the functions of thousands of fission yeast protein-coding genes. This resource is supported by convincing phenotyping data and state-of-the-art bioinformatic analyses and will be of interest to many geneticists.

Reviewed by eLife