Genetics

SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 encoded protein contains a histone mimic, disrupts chromatin regulation, and enhances replication

1. John Kee
2. Samuel Thudium
3. David Renner
4. Karl Glastad
5. Katherine Palozola
6. Zhen Zhang
7. Yize Li
8. Joseph Cesare
9. Yemin Lan
10. Rachel Truitt
11. Fabian L. Cardenas-Diaz
12. Darrell N. Kotton
13. Konstantinos D. Alysandratos
14. Xianwen Zhang
15. Xuping Xie
16. Pei-Yong Shi
17. Wenli Yang
18. Edward Morrisey
19. Benjamin A. Garcia
20. Shelley L. Berger
21. Susan R. Weiss
22. Erica Korb

Reviewed by ScreenIT

STAT3-mediated allelic imbalance of novel genetic variant Rs1047643 and B-cell-specific super-enhancer in association with systemic lupus erythematosus

1. Yanfeng Zhang
2. Kenneth Day
3. Devin M Absher

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Zhang and colleagues have conduced extensive multi-omic data analyses and functional assays, aiming to identify novel risk variants and to then explore the potential mechanisms with which the identified variants mediate risk of systemic lupus erythematosus. The findings could advance the understanding of the genetic susceptibility and biology of systemic lupus erythematosus.

  (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

Mutating novel interaction sites in NRP1 reduces SARS-CoV-2 spike protein internalization

1. Debjani Pal
2. Kuntal De
3. Timothy B. Yates
4. Jaydeep Kolape
5. Wellington Muchero

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Genetic association of TMPRSS2 rs2070788 polymorphism with COVID-19 case fatality rate among Indian populations

1. Rudra Kumar Pandey
2. Anshika Srivastava
3. Prajjval Pratap Singh
4. Gyaneshwer Chaubey

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Intronization enhances expression of S-protein and other transgenes challenged by cryptic splicing

1. Kärt Tomberg
2. Liliana Antunes
3. YangYang Pan
4. Jacob Hepkema
5. Dimitrios A. Garyfallos
6. Ahmed Mahfouz
7. Allan Bradley

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Role of sleep quality in the acceleration of biological aging and its potential for preventive interaction on air pollution insults: Findings from the UK Biobank cohort

1. Xu Gao
2. Ninghao Huang
3. Xinbiao Guo
4. Tao Huang

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Phylogenetic evidence for asparagine to aspartic acid protein editing of N-glycosylated SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins by NGLY1 deglycosylation/deamidation suggests an unusual vaccination strategy

1. Gary Ruvkun
2. Fei Ji
3. Ruslan I. Sadreyev

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Cre/lox regulated conditional rescue and inactivation with zebrafish UFlip alleles generated by CRISPR-Cas9 targeted integration

1. Fang Liu
2. Sekhar Kambakam
3. Maira P Almeida
4. Zhitao Ming
5. Jordan M Welker
6. Wesley A Wierson
7. Laura E Schultz-Rogers
8. Stephen C Ekker
9. Karl J Clark
10. Jeffrey J Essner
11. Maura McGrail

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This technical paper describes a novel strategy for conditional mutagenesis in zebrafish. The method employs the authors' previously reported GeneWeld CRISPR/Cas9 targeted integration strategy to allow target genes to be "turned off" or "turned on" in a tissue-specific manner. Once fully validated, the approach would provide a valuable new addition to the "zebrafish genetic toolkit" that is likely to be widely used for assessing cell- and tissue-specific gene function in this model organism.

  (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

Common host variation drives malaria parasite fitness in healthy human red cells

1. Emily R Ebel
2. Frans A Kuypers
3. Carrie Lin
4. Dmitri A Petrov
5. Elizabeth S Egan

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper investigates the role of common human genetic variation in explaining the relationship between host genetics, red blood cell physiology, and susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum (the parasite responsible for malaria). It finds evidence that common variants in a small set of red blood cell proteins predict parasite invasion and growth rates. Contrary to hypotheses about ancestry-associated malaria selection, these variants are not more common in African ancestry populations. The approach used to select host factors that impact parasite fitness is pragmatic especially in the context of a small sample size, but the high predictive accuracy (despite moderate within-subject assay replicability) and the uncertain influence of including closely related family members in the analysis, raises some concerns about generalizability beyond the study sample.

  (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

The population frequency of human mitochondrial DNA variants is highly dependent upon mutational bias

1. Cory D. Dunn

Reviewed by Review Commons