Genetics

SARS-CoV-2 variant evolution in the United States: High accumulation of viral mutations over time likely through serial Founder Events and mutational bursts

1. Rafail Nikolaos Tasakis
2. Georgios Samaras
3. Anna Jamison
4. Michelle Lee
5. Alexandra Paulus
6. Gabrielle Whitehouse
7. Laurent Verkoczy
8. F. Nina Papavasiliou
9. Marilyn Diaz

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, ScreenIT

Activation of innate immune signalling during development predisposes to inflammatory intestine and shortened lifespan

1. Kyoko Yamashita
2. Ayano Oi
3. Hina Kosakamoto
4. Toshitaka Yamauchi
5. Hibiki Kadoguchi
6. Takayuki Kuraishi
7. Masayuki Miura
8. Fumiaki Obata

Reviewed by Review Commons

Distinct spermiogenic phenotypes underlie sperm elimination in the Segregation Distorter meiotic drive system

1. Marion Herbette
2. Xiaolu Wei
3. Ching-Ho Chang
4. Amanda M. Larracuente
5. Benjamin Loppin
6. Raphaëlle Dubruille

Reviewed by Review Commons

Whole-organism eQTL mapping at cellular resolution with single-cell sequencing

1. Eyal Ben-David
2. James Boocock
3. Longhua Guo
4. Stefan Zdraljevic
5. Joshua S. Bloom
6. Leonid Kruglyak

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The authors use a pooled single cell sequencing approach to simultaneously genotype and phenotype C. elegans. This allows them to begin to query the genetic architecture of cell specific eQTLs in a multi-cellular 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. Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Somatic drift and rapid loss of heterozygosity suggest small effective population size of stem cells and high somatic mutation rate in asexual planaria

1. Hosseinali Asgharian
2. Joseph Dunham
3. Paul Marjoram
4. Sergey V. Nuzhdin

Reviewed by Review Commons

Stress resets ancestral heritable small RNA responses

1. Leah Houri-Zeevi
2. Guy Teichman
3. Hila Gingold
4. Oded Rechavi

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  In humans, extreme stresses, such as famine, can trigger multi-generational physiological responses through altered metabolism. In C. elegans, environmental stresses, such as heat shock, can similarly promote changes in gene expression and physiology. Here, the authors convincingly show that environmental stress can alter small RNA populations in such a manner that can alter gene expression over multiple generations. The work is beginning to tease out some of the mechanisms by which non-genetic information can regulate descendants 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. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife, preLights

Polygenic prediction of school performance in children with and without psychiatric disorders

1. Veera M. Rajagopal
2. Betina B Trabjerg
3. Jakob Grove
4. Henriette T. Horsdal
5. Liselotte Petersen
6. Cynthia M. Bulik
7. Jonas Bybjerg-Grauholm
8. Marie Bækvad-Hansen
9. David M Hougaard
10. Ole Mors
11. Merete Nordentoft
12. Thomas Werge
13. Preben Bo Mortensen
14. Esben Agerbo
15. Anders D. Borglum
16. Ditte Demontis

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: This is an interesting study researching how educational achievement (EA) can be predicted using genomic data when the sample is stratified to those without and those with diagnoses of common psychiatric disorders. The study is well powered using an impressive and representative sample and offers insights into the etiology of associations between psychiatric traits and educational achievement. The authors find evidence that the influence of common variants on EA is attenuated in individuals with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or ADHD.

Reviewed by eLife

A home and rescue gene drive efficiently spreads and persists in populations

1. Nikolay P. Kandul
2. Junru Liu
3. Jared B. Bennett
4. John M. Marshall
5. Omar S. Akbari

Reviewed by eLife

Quantitative spatial and temporal assessment of regulatory element activity in zebrafish

1. Shipra Bhatia
2. Dirk Jan Kleinjan
3. Kirsty Uttley
4. Anita Mann
5. Nefeli Dellepiane
6. Wendy A Bickmore

Reviewed by Review Commons

Mutation density changes in SARS-CoV-2 are related to the pandemic stage but to a lesser extent in the dominant strain with mutations in spike and RdRp

1. Doğa Eskier
2. Aslı Suner
3. Gökhan Karakülah
4. Yavuz Oktay

Reviewed by PeerJ, ScreenIT