Molecular Biology

SUMOylation of Bonus, the Drosophila homolog of Transcription Intermediary Factor 1, safeguards germline identity by recruiting repressive chromatin complexes to silence tissue-specific genes

1. Baira Godneeva
2. Maria Ninova
3. Katalin Fejes-Toth
4. Alexei Aravin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study advances our knowledge of Drosophila Bonus, the sole ortholog of the mammalian transcriptional regulator Tif1. Solid evidence, both in vivo and in vitro, shows how SUMOylation controls the function of the Bonus protein and what the impact of SUMOylation on the function of Bonus protein in the ovary is.

Reviewed by eLife

Enrichment of rare codons at 5' ends of genes is a spandrel caused by evolutionary sequence turnover and does not improve translation

1. Richard Sejour
2. Janet Leatherwood
3. Alisa Yurovsky
4. Bruce Futcher

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is an important contribution to the origins and translational consequences of the relatively low rate of translation elongation in the first ∼30-50 codons of genes in most organisms. The authors provide convincing evidence that the prevalence of rare codons in the first ~40 codons in yeast is due to the relatively recent evolution of these coding sequences, or of lower purifying selection operating on them, and that a preponderance of codons encoded by rare tRNAs near the N-terminus is not associated with higher translational efficiency in the manner proposed by the "translational ramp" hypothesis. The work is incomplete in that the results of reporter assays may have been confounded by alterations of mRNA sequence or structure that could have influenced their translation or mRNA stability; that the work cannot fully account for a greater enrichment of slowly translated codons in N-terminal vs. C-terminal regions; and that the work does not resolve whether translation elongation through N-terminal coding is truly slow.

Reviewed by eLife

Scaling of an antibody validation procedure enables quantification of antibody performance in major research applications

1. Riham Ayoubi
2. Joel Ryan
3. Michael S Biddle
4. Walaa Alshafie
5. Maryam Fotouhi
6. Sara Gonzalez Bolivar
7. Vera Ruiz Moleon
8. Peter Eckmann
9. Donovan Worrall
10. Ian McDowell
11. Kathleen Southern
12. Wolfgang Reintsch
13. Thomas M Durcan
14. Claire Brown
15. Anita Bandrowski
16. Harvinder Virk
17. Aled M Edwards
18. Peter McPherson
19. Carl Laflamme

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Antibodies are some of the most critical tools in biomedical research. However, their quality and specificity vary significantly. This fundamental study provides guidelines for how the quality of an antibody should be assessed and recorded and provides compelling data on the selected antibodies. This paper will be of interest to researchers working in experimental cell biology.

Reviewed by eLife

Rapid cloning-free mutagenesis of new SARS-CoV-2 variants using a novel reverse genetics platform

1. Enja Tatjana Kipfer
2. David Hauser
3. Martin J Lett
4. Fabian Otte
5. Lorena Urda
6. Yuepeng Zhang
7. Christopher MR Lang
8. Mohamed Chami
9. Christian Mittelholzer
10. Thomas Klimkait

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study describes CLEVER, an improved method for fast and efficient rescue and mutagenesis of SARS-CoV2. While the principle of this method is not new, this work significantly improves upon existing protocols, providing an important advancement in the field of viral infectious clones. Convincing proof-of-concept experiments were performed that demonstrate the utility and efficiency of the method.

Reviewed by eLife

The long non-coding RNA LINC00941 modulates MTA2/NuRD occupancy to suppress premature human epidermal differentiation

1. Eva Morgenstern
2. Uwe Schwartz
3. Johannes Graf
4. Astrid Bruckmann
5. Markus Kretz

Reviewed by Review Commons

TAX1BP1 recruits ATG9 vesicles through SCAMP3 binding

1. Yutaro Hama
2. Yoshitaka Kurikawa
3. Takahide Matsui
4. Noboru Mizushima
5. Hayashi Yamamoto

Reviewed by Review Commons

Multiple cullin-associated E3 ligases regulate cyclin D1 protein stability

1. Ke Lu
2. Ming Zhang
3. Guizheng Wei
4. Guozhi Xiao
5. Liping Tong
6. Di Chen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper is of interest to cell biologists studying the mechanisms of protein posttranslational modifications. The study investigates Cullin-RING ubiquitin E3 ligases (CRLs) that regulate cyclin D1 protein stability in cells by utilizing siRNA screening and ectopic expression approaches. By screening a siRNA library containing different E3 ligases, the authors identified a previously uncharacterized combination of Cullin 1-7 and associated E3 ligases (Keap1-CUL3, DDB2-CUL4A/4B, WSB2-CUL2/5, and RBX1-CUL1-7) that are important for cyclin D1 ubiquitination and proteasome-mediated degradation.

Reviewed by eLife

Tardigrades dramatically upregulate DNA repair pathway genes in response to ionizing radiation

1. Courtney M. Clark-Hachtel
2. Jonathan D. Hibshman
3. Tristan De Buysscher
4. Bob Goldstein

Reviewed by preLights

ZMYM2 controls human transposable element transcription through distinct co-regulatory complexes

1. Danielle J Owen
2. Elisa Aguilar-Martinez
3. Zongling Ji
4. Yaoyong Li
5. Andrew D Sharrocks

Reviewed by eLife

Transcription-independent hold of the G1/S transition is exploited to cope with DNA replication stress

1. Yue Jin
2. Guoqing Lan
3. Jiaxin Zhang
4. Haoyuan Sun
5. Li Xin
6. Qinhong Cao
7. Chao Tang
8. Xiaojing Yang
9. Huiqiang Lou
10. Wenya Hou

Reviewed by Review Commons