Microbiology

Variation in the ACE2 receptor has limited utility for SARS-CoV-2 host prediction

1. Nardus Mollentze
2. Deborah Keen
3. Uuriintuya Munkhbayar
4. Roman Biek
5. Daniel G Streicker

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This important study shows that methods currently used to predict which animals species might be at risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2, by looking at features of the host cell receptor the virus binds to, are fundamentally flawed, with exceptionally strong support for this conclusion. Much work on the potential host range of SARS-CoV-2 has focused on measuring the susceptibility of different species' ACE2 receptors to sarbecovirus entry and extending predictions to other unmeasured species based on ACE2 sequence features. Mollentze and colleagues show that ACE2 sequences are not more than a proxy for generic species relationships. In other words, species phylogeny alone can provide equivalent predictive power, allowing for predictions of mammalian susceptibility to sarbecovirus infection for the many species for which ACE2 sequences are not known yet.

  (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, ScreenIT

Differential Evasion of Delta and Omicron Immunity and Enhanced Fusogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/5 and BA.2.12.1 Subvariants

1. Panke Qu
2. Julia N. Faraone
3. John P. Evans
4. Xue Zou
5. Yi-Min Zheng
6. Claire Carlin
7. Joseph S. Bednash
8. Gerard Lozanski
9. Rama K. Mallampalli
10. Linda J. Saif
11. Eugene M. Oltz
12. Peter J. Mohler
13. Richard J. Gumina
14. Shan-Lu Liu

Reviewed by ScreenIT

The giant staphylococcal protein Embp facilitates colonization of surfaces through Velcro-like attachment to fibrillated fibronectin

1. Nasar Khan
2. Hüsnü Aslan
3. Henning Büttner
4. Holger Rohde
5. Thaddeus Wayne Golbek
6. Steven Joop Roeters
7. Sander Woutersen
8. Tobias Weidner
9. Rikke Louise Meyer

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Staphylococcus epidermidis is a commensal that colonizes corneocytes of humans and other mammals. Colonization is crucial for many aspects of health including the development of our immune system and protection against invading pathogens. Embp is a long protein encoded by S. epidermidis on the cell surface that coats implanted foreign devices and host fibronectin, but this study shows that Embp does not bind to fibronectin in its soluble form, instead requiring surface binding to expose other epitopes to bind host fibronectin. This study uses atomic force microscopy to demonstrate these specific molecular interactions and their likely relevance to host-microbe interactions with prospects for pharmaceutical interventions.

  (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

Isolation of bat sarbecoviruses of SARS-CoV-2 clade, Japan

1. Shin Murakami
2. Tomoya Kitamura
3. Hiromichi Matsugo
4. Haruhiko Kamiki
5. Ken Oyabu
6. Wataru Sekine
7. Akiko Takenaka-Uema
8. Yuko Sakai-Tagawa
9. Yoshihiro Kawaoka
10. Taisuke Horimoto

Reviewed by ScreenIT

A SCID Mouse Model To Evaluate the Efficacy of Antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 Infection

1. Rana Abdelnabi
2. Caroline S. Foo
3. Suzanne J. F. Kaptein
4. Robbert Boudewijns
5. Laura Vangeel
6. Steven De Jonghe
7. Dirk Jochmans
8. Birgit Weynand
9. Johan Neyts

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Nanoscale resolution of microbial fiber degradation in action

1. Meltem Tatli
2. Sarah Moraïs
3. Omar E Tovar-Herrera
4. Yannick J Bomble
5. Edward A Bayer
6. Ohad Medalia
7. Itzhak Mizrahi

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The premise behind this manuscript is timely and of interest to a broad scientific community working in the field of microbial recycling of cellulosic biomass. It provides a useful link between the occurrence and molecular aspects of the bacterial 'machinery' named cellulosome, and physiological traits of the same bacteria when grown on micro-crystalline cellulose. The key claims of the manuscript are well supported by the data, and the approaches used are thoughtful and rigorous.

  (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

Low immune response after 1.5 years of primary SARS-CoV-2 infection and Covishield vaccination lead to SARS-CoV-2 reinfection

1. Anita M. Shete
2. Deepak Y. Patil
3. Rima R. Sahay
4. Gajanan N. Sapkal
5. Gururaj R. Deshpande
6. Pragya D. Yadav

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Biochemical Characterization of Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Nsp15 Endoribonuclease Variants

1. Isha M. Wilson
2. Meredith N. Frazier
3. Jian-Liang Li
4. Thomas A. Randall
5. Robin E. Stanley

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, ScreenIT

Biosynthetic proteins targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike as anti-virals

1. Stéphanie Thébault
2. Nathalie Lejal
3. Alexis Dogliani
4. Amélie Donchet
5. Agathe Urvoas
6. Marie Valerio-Lepiniec
7. Muriel Lavie
8. Cécile Baronti
9. Franck Touret
10. Bruno Da Costa
11. Clara Bourgon
12. Audrey Fraysse
13. Audrey Saint-Albin-Deliot
14. Jessica Morel
15. Bernard Klonjkowski
16. Xavier de Lamballerie
17. Jean Dubuisson
18. Alain Roussel
19. Philippe Minard
20. Sophie Le Poder
21. Nicolas Meunier
22. Bernard Delmas

Reviewed by ScreenIT

SARS-CoV-2 spike N-terminal domain modulates TMPRSS2-dependent viral entry and fusogenicity

1. Bo Meng
2. Rawlings Datir
3. Jinwook Choi
4. Stephen Baker
5. Gordon Dougan
6. Christoph Hess
7. Nathalie Kingston
8. Paul J. Lehner
9. Paul A. Lyons
10. Nicholas J. Matheson
11. Willem H. Owehand
12. Caroline Saunders
13. Charlotte Summers
14. James E.D. Thaventhiran
15. Mark Toshner
16. Michael P. Weekes
17. Patrick Maxwell
18. Ashley Shaw
19. Ashlea Bucke
20. Jo Calder
21. Laura Canna
22. Jason Domingo
23. Anne Elmer
24. Stewart Fuller
25. Julie Harris
26. Sarah Hewitt
27. Jane Kennet
28. Sherly Jose
29. Jenny Kourampa
30. Anne Meadows
31. Criona O’Brien
32. Jane Price
33. Cherry Publico
34. Rebecca Rastall
35. Carla Ribeiro
36. Jane Rowlands
37. Valentina Ruffolo
38. Hugo Tordesillas
39. Ben Bullman
40. Benjamin J. Dunmore
41. Stuart Fawke
42. Stefan Gräf
43. Josh Hodgson
44. Christopher Huang
45. Kelvin Hunter
46. Emma Jones
47. Ekaterina Legchenko
48. Cecilia Matara
49. Jennifer Martin
50. Federica Mescia
51. Ciara O’Donnell
52. Linda Pointon
53. Joy Shih
54. Rachel Sutcliffe
55. Tobias Tilly
56. Carmen Treacy
57. Zhen Tong
58. Jennifer Wood
59. Marta Wylot
60. Ariana Betancourt
61. Georgie Bower
62. Chiara Cossetti
63. Aloka De Sa
64. Madeline Epping
65. Stuart Fawke
66. Nick Gleadall
67. Richard Grenfell
68. Andrew Hinch
69. Sarah Jackson
70. Isobel Jarvis
71. Ben Krishna
72. Francesca Nice
73. Ommar Omarjee
74. Marianne Perera
75. Martin Potts
76. Nathan Richoz
77. Veronika Romashova
78. Luca Stefanucci
79. Mateusz Strezlecki
80. Lori Turner
81. Eckart M.D.D. De Bie
82. Katherine Bunclark
83. Masa Josipovic
84. Michael Mackay
85. John Allison
86. Helen Butcher
87. Daniela Caputo
88. Debbie Clapham-Riley
89. Eleanor Dewhurst
90. Anita Furlong
91. Barbara Graves
92. Jennifer Gray
93. Tasmin Ivers
94. Emma Le Gresley
95. Rachel Linger
96. Sarah Meloy
97. Francesca Muldoon
98. Nigel Ovington
99. Sofia Papadia
100. Isabel Phelan
101. Hannah Stark
102. Kathleen E. Stirrups
103. Paul Townsend
104. Neil Walker
105. Jennifer Webster
106. Ingrid Scholtes
107. Sabine Hein
108. Rebecca King
109. John R. Bradley
110. Kenneth G.C. Smith
111. Joo Hyeon Lee
112. Ravindra K. Gupta

Reviewed by ScreenIT