Molecular Biology

Uncoupling the TFIIH Core and Kinase Modules Leads To Misregulated RNA Polymerase II CTD Serine 5 Phosphorylation

1. Gabriela Giordano
2. Robin Buratowski
3. Célia Jeronimo
4. Christian Poitras
5. François Robert
6. Stephen Buratowski

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work demonstrates the role of physically linking the core and CTD kinase modules of TFIIH via separate domains of subunit Tfb3 in confining RNA Polymerase II Serine 5 CTD phosphorylation to promoter regions of transcribed genes in budding yeast. The main findings, resulting from analyses of viable Tfb3 mutants in which the linkage between TFIIH core and kinase modules has been severed, are supported by solid evidence from in vitro and in vivo experiments. There is an intriguing possibility that the Tfb3-mediated connection between core and kinase modules of TFIIH is an evolutionary addition to an ancestral state of physically unconnected enzymes, which could be examined more rigorously with additional evolutionary analyses.

Reviewed by eLife

Impacts of DNA Methylation on H2A.Z Deposition and Nucleosome Stability

1. Rochelle M Shih
2. Yasuhiro Arimura
3. Hide A Konishi
4. Hironori Funabiki

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides valuable mechanistic insight into the mutually exclusive distributions of the histone variant H2A.Z and DNA methylation by testing two hypotheses: (i) that DNA methylation destabilizes H2A.Z nucleosomes, thereby preventing H2A.Z retention, and (ii) that DNA methylation suppresses H2A.Z deposition by ATP-dependent chromatin remodelling complexes. Through a series of well-designed and carefully executed experiments, findings are presented in support of both hypotheses. However, the evidence in support of either hypothesis is incomplete, so that the proposed mechanisms underlying the enrichment of H2A.Z on unmethylated DNA remain somewhat speculative.

Reviewed by eLife

Specialization of ubiquitin ligases to distinct nucleic acid sensors

1. Ibrahim Syed
2. Sheng Chen
3. David J. Peeler
4. Paul F. McKay
5. Marco A. Briones-Orta
6. Jennifer A. Bohn
7. Robin J. Shattock
8. Daniel Gonçalves-Carneiro

Reviewed by Review Commons

The chromatin remodeller CHD4 regulates transcription factor binding to both prevent activation of silent enhancers and maintain active regulatory elements

1. Andria Koulle
2. Oluwaseun Ogundele
3. Devina Shah
4. India Baker
5. Maya Lopez
6. David Lando
7. Nicola Reynolds
8. Ramy Ragheb
9. Ernest D Laue
10. Brian Hendrich

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work offers important insights into the protein CHD4's function in chromatin remodeling and gene regulation in embryonic stem cells, supported by extensive biochemical, genomic, and imaging data. The use of an inducible degron system allows precise functional analysis, and the datasets generated represent a key resource for the field. The revised study offers compelling evidence and makes a significant contribution to understanding CHD4's role in epigenetic regulation. This work will be of interest to the epigenetics and stem biology fields.

Reviewed by eLife

A novel high-throughput single-cell DNA sequencing method reveals hidden genomic heterogeneity in the unicellular eukaryote Leishmania

1. Gabriel H Negreira
2. Pieter Monsieurs
3. Jean-Claude Dujardin
4. Malgorzata A Domagalska

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study, which tackles the challenge of analyzing genome integrity and instability in unicellular pathogens by introducing a novel single-cell genomics approach, presents compelling evidence that this new tool outperforms standard whole-genome amplification techniques. While thorough and rigorous, the work's impact would increase by providing scripts and data, as well as a description of the biological relevance that would make this method more appealing to the broad community studying genetic heterogeneity in diverse organisms.

Reviewed by eLife

HP1β and H3K9me3 Regulate Olfactory Receptor Choice and Transcriptional Identity

1. Martín Escamilla-del-Arenal
2. Rachel Duffié
3. Hani Shayya
4. Valentina Loconte
5. Axel Ekman
6. Lena Annika Street
7. Adan Horta
8. Daniele Canzio
9. Kevin Monahan
10. Carolyn Larabell
11. Marko Jovanovic
12. Stavros Lomvardas

Reviewed by PREreview

Translational response to mitochondrial stresses is orchestrated by tRNA modifications

1. Sherif Rashad
2. Shadi Al-Mesitef
3. Abdulrahman Mousa
4. Yuan Zhou
5. Daisuke Ando
6. Guangxin Sun
7. Tomoko Fukuuchi
8. Yuko Iwasaki
9. Jingdong Xiang
10. Shane R Byrne
11. Jingjing Sun
12. Masamitsu Maekawa
13. Daisuke Saigusa
14. Thomas J Begley
15. Peter C Dedon
16. Kuniyasu Niizuma

Reviewed by PREreview

Development of Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification for Rapid and Sensitive Detection of Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC)

1. Alazar Amare Amdiyee
2. Tesfaye Sisay Tessema

Reviewed by PREreview

Orphan nuclear receptors recruit TRIM28 to promote telomeric H3K9me3 for the alternative lengthening of telomeres pathway

1. Chia-Tsen Tsai
2. Venus Marie Gaela
3. Hsuan-Yu Hsia
4. Yu-Chen Huang
5. Liuh-Yow Chen

Reviewed by Review Commons

Competition for the conserved branch point sequence influences physiological outcomes in pre-mRNA splicing

1. Karen Larissa Pereira de Castro
2. Jose M Abril
3. Kuo-Chieh Liao
4. Haiping Hao
5. John Paul Donohue
6. William K Russell
7. W Samuel Fagg

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important manuscript provides insights into the competition between Splicing Factor 1 (SF1) and Quaking (QKI) for binding at the ACUAA branch point sequence in a model intron, regulating exon inclusion. The study employs convincing, rigorous transcriptomic, proteomic, and reporter assays, with both mammalian cell culture and yeast models.

Reviewed by eLife