Molecular Biology

Activation of Pol theta-mediated end joining begins during mitotic commitment

1. Connor P. McBrine
2. Ryan B. Jensen
3. Megan C. King

Reviewed by Review Commons

Divergent evolution of insecticidal protein families across bacteria and ferns

1. Haruka Endo
2. Hokto Kazama

Reviewed by Review Commons

N6-Adenosine Methylation of a Single Site in SARS-CoV-2 5′-UTR Promotes Translation

1. Ammar Aly
2. Gary Scott
3. Mario Calderon
4. A Pejmun Haghighi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study provides solid evidence that N6 methylation of A74 by METTL3 is required for efficient translation directed by the SARS-CoV-2 5′UTR in uninfected cells, likely by limiting access of protein factors to the 5′UTR that are necessary for efficient translation. These findings advance our understanding of the role of RNA modification in coronavirus replication and m6A-mediated regulation of gene expression more broadly, while further supporting METTL3 as a potential anticoronaviral therapeutic target. However, the evidence that m6A acts by destabilizing the third stem-loop (SL3) of the 5′UTR remains incomplete. The impact of the study would be strengthened by biochemical analyses directly assessing structural changes in the 5′UTR induced by A74 methylation.

Reviewed by eLife

Site-Specific Inhibition of Translation Initiation via 2’-O-methylation

1. Adam Suh
2. Stephanie Mou
3. Emmely A. Patrasso
4. Hannah Serio
5. Kevin Vasquez
6. Rui Wang
7. Smriti Sangwan
8. Yang Yi
9. Daniel Arango

Reviewed by preLights

Stochastic splicing and deterministic inclusion of variable exons promote diversification of Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule expression

1. Anna Lassota
2. Thomas C. Dix
3. Deepanshu N. D. Singh
4. Matthias Soller

Reviewed by Review Commons