Molecular Biology

Distinct elongation stalls during translation are linked with distinct pathways for mRNA degradation

1. Anthony J Veltri
2. Karole N D'Orazio
3. Laura N Lessen
4. Raphael Loll-Krippleber
5. Grant W Brown
6. Rachel Green

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript will interest a large community of molecular biologists studying translation and mRNA decay. The study provides a large-scale comparison of the roles of protein factors in No-Go Decay (NGD) and Codon-Optimality-Mediated Decay (COMD) in the yeast S. cerevisiae. A major strength of the manuscript is the direct comparison between one mRNA with a single strong translational stall and another similar mRNA with many slow translation sites (caused by changes in the genetic code). The analysis of both the factors that cause decay of these mRNAs as well as the ribosome states on the different mRNAs has the potential to reveal the molecular basis for the different mechanisms of mRNA quality control.

  (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. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Large protein complex interfaces have evolved to promote cotranslational assembly

1. Mihaly Badonyi
2. Joseph A Marsh

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The authors use a combination of proteome-specific protein complex structures and publicly available ribosome profiling data to show that cotranslational assembly is favored by large N-terminal intermolecular interfaces. The manuscript represents an important contribution to the field of protein biosynthesis pathways by suggesting an intuitive evolutionary mechanism that can promote co-translational assembly pathways in mammalians, yeast, and bacteria.

  (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. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Anti-COVID-19 Activity of FDA Approved Drugs through RNA G-quadruplex Binding

1. Shuvra Shekhar Roy
2. Shalu Sharma
3. Zaigham Abbas Rizvi
4. Dipanjali Sinha
5. Divya Gupta
6. Mercy Rophina
7. Paras Sehgal
8. Srikanth Sadhu
9. Manas Ranjan Tripathy
10. Sweety Samal
11. Souvik Maiti
12. Vinod Scaria
13. Sridhar Sivasubbu
14. Amit Awasthi
15. Krishnan H Harshan
16. Sanjeev Jain
17. Shantanu Chowdhury

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Multistep loading of a DNA sliding clamp onto DNA by replication factor C

1. Marina Schrecker
2. Juan C Castaneda
3. Sujan Devbhandari
4. Charanya Kumar
5. Dirk Remus
6. Richard K Hite

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study is of relevance to the field of DNA replication, describing how an ATPase known as a 'clamp loader' opens a ring-shaped clamp protein and binds DNA to promote the deposition of the clamp around a nucleic acid duplex to support chromosomal replication. The findings on how different regions of the clamp loader bind to and open a clamp, and how the enzyme engages single-stranded and double-stranded regions of target DNAs provide new insights that further our understanding of the clamp loading reaction. It is intriguing that the clamp loader melts the end of the DNA duplex, an activity that had not been observed before or predicted.

  (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. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Spatial modeling reveals nuclear phosphorylation and subcellular shuttling of YAP upon drug-induced liver injury

1. Lilija Wehling
2. Liam Keegan
3. Paula Fernández-Palanca
4. Reham Hassan
5. Ahmed Ghallab
6. Jennifer Schmitt
7. Yingyue Tang
8. Maxime Le Marois
9. Stephanie Roessler
10. Peter Schirmacher
11. Ursula Kummer
12. Jan G Hengstler
13. Sven Sahle
14. Kai Breuhahn

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The authors made an important extension of the canonical Hippo pathway by showing that nuclear phosphorylation of the pathway components YAP/TAZ contributes to the shuttling between different cellular compartments. The conclusions are well supported by the experimental evidence under both physiological and tissue-damaging conditions. Given the importance and developmental conserveness of the Hippo pathway, the work is of broad interest to the field of developmental and regenerative biology.

  (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 name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Unleashing a novel function of Endonuclease G in mitochondrial genome instability

1. Sumedha Dahal
2. Humaira Siddiqua
3. Shivangi Sharma
4. Ravi K Babu
5. Diksha Rathore
6. Sheetal Sharma
7. Sathees C Raghavan

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript is of interest for researchers in the field of mitochondrial genome stability and mitochondrial genetic diseases. The authors show that endonuclease G preferentially binds to mitochondrial genome regions which have a potential for forming G4 tetraplexes, inducing DNA breaks that may lead to a common 9 bp deletion in the mitochondrial genome by microhomology-mediated endjoining.

  (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 #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

GDF15 and ACE2 stratify COVID19 patients according to severity while ACE2 mutations increase infection susceptibility

1. Margalida Torrens-Mas
2. Catalina M Perelló-Reus
3. Neus Trias-Ferrer
4. Lesly Ibargüen-González
5. Catalina Crespí
6. Aina Maria Galmes-Panades
7. Cayetano Navas-Enamorado
8. Andres Sanchez-Polo
9. Javier Piérola-Lopetegui
10. Luis Masmiquel
11. Lorenzo Socias Crespi
12. Carles Barcelo
13. Marta Gonzalez-Freire

Reviewed by ScreenIT

A new insight into RecA filament regulation by RecX from the analysis of conformation-specific interactions

1. Aleksandr Alekseev
2. Georgii Pobegalov
3. Natalia Morozova
4. Alexey Vedyaykin
5. Galina Cherevatenko
6. Alexander Yakimov
7. Dmitry Baitin
8. Mikhail Khodorkovskii

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper is of interest to readers in the fields of DNA repair, DNA-protein interactions and those employing single-molecule techniques. Using single-molecule methods, the authors discovered that RecX exerts its regulatory effect on the RecA filament through two modes of action: i) by promoting RecA dissociation from ssDNA, and ii) by causing a reversible conformational change of the filament. The latter mode of RecX action is novel and of particular interest. The authors present a plausible model of the RecX-RecA-ATP-ssDNA system that could be further validated in future experiments.

  (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

Mouse nuclear RNAi-defective 2 promotes splicing of weak 5′ splice sites

1. Matyas Flemr
2. Michaela Schwaiger
3. Daniel Hess
4. Vytautas Iesmantavicius
5. Josip Ahel
6. Alex Charles Tuck
7. Fabio Mohn
8. Marc Bühler

Reviewed by Review Commons

The Omicron (B.1.1.529) SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern also affects companion animals

1. Lidia Sánchez-Morales
2. José M. Sánchez-Vizcaíno
3. Marta Pérez-Sancho
4. Lucas Domínguez
5. Sandra Barroso-Arévalo

Reviewed by ScreenIT