Molecular Biology

PURA syndrome-causing mutations impair PUR-domain integrity and affect P-body association

1. Marcel Proske
2. Robert Janowski
3. Sabrina Bacher
4. Hyun-Seo Kang
5. Thomas Monecke
6. Tony Koehler
7. Saskia Hutten
8. Jana Tretter
9. Anna Crois
10. Lena Molitor
11. Alejandro Varela-Rial
12. Roberto Fino
13. Elisa Donati
14. Gianni De Fabritiis
15. Dorothee Dormann
16. Michael Sattler
17. Dierk Niessing

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study addresses the mechanisms by which mutations in the PURA protein, a regulator of gene transcription and mRNA transport and translation, cause the neurodevelopmental PURA syndrome. Based on convincing evidence from structural biology, molecular dynamics simulation, biochemical, and cell biological analyses, the authors show that the PURA structure is very dynamic, rendering it generally sensitive to structure-altering mutations that affect its folding, DNA-unwinding activity, RNA binding, dimerization, and partitioning into processing bodies. These findings are of substantial importance to cell biology, neurogenetics, and neurology alike, because they provide first insights into how very diverse PURA mutations can cause similar and penetrant molecular, cellular, and clinical defects.

Reviewed by eLife

Transcription promotes the restoration of chromatin following DNA replication

1. Susanne Bandau
2. Vanesa Alvarez
3. Hao Jiang
4. Sarah Graff
5. Ramasubramanian Sundaramoorthy
6. Matt Toman
7. Tom Owen-Hughes
8. Simone Sidoli
9. Angus Lamond
10. Constance Alabert

Reviewed by Review Commons

Small RNAs from mitochondrial genome recombination sites are incorporated into T. gondii mitoribosomes

1. Sabrina Tetzlaff
2. Arne Hillebrand
3. Nikiforos Drakoulis
4. Zala Gluhic
5. Sascha Maschmann
6. Peter Lyko
7. Susann Wicke
8. Christian Schmitz-Linneweber

Reviewed by Review Commons

Diurnal control of iron responsive element containing mRNAs through iron regulatory proteins IRP1 and IRP2 is mediated by feeding rhythms

1. Hima Priyanka Nadimpalli
2. Georgia Katsioudi
3. Enes Salih Arpa
4. Lies Chikhaoui
5. Alaaddin Bulak Arpat
6. Angelica Liechti
7. Gaël Palais
8. Claudia Tessmer
9. Ilse Hofmann
10. Bruno Galy
11. David Gatfield

Reviewed by Review Commons

Molecular dependencies and genomic consequences of a global DNA damage tolerance defect

1. Daniel de Groot
2. Aldo Spanjaard
3. Ronak Shah
4. Maaike Kreft
5. Ben Morris
6. Cor Lieftink
7. Joyce J.I. Catsman
8. Shirley Ormel
9. Matilda Ayidah
10. Bas Pilzecker
11. Olimpia Alessandra Buoninfante
12. Paul C.M. van den Berk
13. Roderick L. Beijersbergen
14. Heinz Jacobs

Reviewed by Review Commons

Tead1 reciprocally regulates adult β-cell proliferation and function to maintain glucose homeostasis

1. Jeongkyung Lee
2. Ruya Liu
3. Byung S. Kim
4. Yiqun Zhang
5. Feng Li
6. Rajaganapti Jagannathan
7. Ping Yang
8. Vinny Negi
9. Joseph Danvers
10. Eliana Melissa Perez-Garcia
11. Pradip K. Saha
12. Omaima Sabek
13. Chad J. Creighton
14. Cristian Coarfa
15. Mark O. Huising
16. Hung-Ping Shih
17. Rita Bottino
18. Ke Ma
19. Mousumi Moulik
20. Vijay K. Yechoor

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The Hippo signaling pathway plays a crucial role in controlling organ size, cell proliferation, and apoptosis, though its role in endocrine pancreas development has remained unclear. In this useful work, the authors study the function of the Tead1 transcription factor, a Hippo effector, specifically in pancreatic beta cells. They provide solid evidence, using multiple different conditional knockout models to reveal Tead1's regulatory functions in insulin secretion and beta cell proliferation. However, deeper exploration of their data and incorporating findings from existing literature on this topic would provide a clearer understanding of Tead1's role in β-cell function, within or beyond the Hippo pathway.

Reviewed by eLife

ChAHP2 and ChAHP control diverse retrotransposons by complementary activities

1. Josip Ahel
2. Aparna Pandey
3. Michaela Schwaiger
4. Fabio Mohn
5. Anja Basters
6. Georg Kempf
7. Aude Andriollo
8. Lucas Kaaij
9. Daniel Hess
10. Marc Bühler

Reviewed by Review Commons

Affinity-tagged SMAD1 and SMAD5 mouse lines reveal transcriptional reprogramming mechanisms during early pregnancy

1. Zian Liao
2. Suni Tang
3. Kaori Nozawa
4. Keisuke Shimada
5. Masahito Ikawa
6. Diana Monsivais
7. Martin Matzuk

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents two valuable new mouse models that individually tag proteins from the SMAD family to identify distinct roles during early pregnancy. Convincing evidence is provided that SMAD1 and SMAD5 target many of the same genomic regions as each other and the progesterone receptor. Given the broad effect of these signaling pathways in multiple systems, these new tools will most likely interest readers across biological disciplines.

Reviewed by eLife

Proteolytic cleavage and inactivation of the TRMT1 tRNA modification enzyme by SARS-CoV-2 main protease

1. Kejia Zhang
2. Patrick Eldin
3. Jessica H Ciesla
4. Laurence Briant
5. Jenna M Lentini
6. Jillian Ramos
7. Justin Cobb
8. Joshua Munger
9. Dragony Fu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript provides important insights into the degradation of the host tRNA modification enzyme TRMT1 by the SARS-CoV-2 protease Nsp5 (nonstructural protein 5 or MPro). The data convincingly support the main conclusions of the paper. These results will be of interest to virologists studying the alterations in tRNA modifications, host methyltransferases, and viral infections.

Reviewed by eLife

Synthetic type III-E CRISPR-Cas effectors for programmable RNA-targeting

1. Daniel J. Brogan
2. Elena Dalla Benetta
3. Tianqi Wang
4. Calvin P. Lin
5. Fangying Chen
6. Harry Li
7. Claire Lin
8. Elizabeth A. Komives
9. Omar S. Akbari

Reviewed by Arcadia Science