eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. SAM transmethylation pathway and adenosine recycling to ATP are essential for systemic regulation and immune response

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Pavla Nedbalova
   2. Nikola Kaislerova
   3. Lenka Chodakova
   4. Martin Moos
   5. Tomas Dolezal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper provides a valuable contribution to our understanding of how adenosine acts as a signal of nutrient insufficiency and extends this idea to suggest that adenosine is released by metabolically active cells in proportion to the activity of methylation events. Convincing data support this idea. The authors use metabolic tracing approaches to identify the biochemical pathways that contribute to the regulation of adenosine levels and the S-adenosylmethionine cycle in Drosophila larval hemocytes in response to wasp egg infection.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. A fat-2(wa17) suppressor screen in C. elegans reveals genetic adaptations to polyunsaturated fatty acid deficiency

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Delaney Kaper
   2. Uroš Radović
   3. Per-Olof Bergh
   4. August Qvist
   5. Marcus Henricsson
   6. Jan Borén
   7. Marc Pilon

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study investigates the fundamental role of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in membrane biology, using a unique model to perform a thorough genetic screen that highlights that PUFA synthesis defects cannot be compensated for by mutations in other pathways. While the data are solid and generally support the claims, additional experimental validation or more detailed descriptions of their results would strengthen the broader conclusions. This study will appeal to researchers in membrane biology, lipid metabolism, and C. elegans genetics.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Heterozygosity for neurodevelopmental disorder-associated TRIO variants yields distinct deficits in behavior, neuronal development, and synaptic transmission in mice

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Yevheniia Ishchenko
   2. Amanda T Jeng
   3. Shufang Feng
   4. Timothy Nottoli
   5. Cindy Manriquez-Rodriguez
   6. Khanh K Nguyen
   7. Melissa G Carrizales
   8. Matthew J Vitarelli
   9. Ellen E Corcoran
   10. Charles A Greer
   11. Samuel A Myers
   12. Anthony J Koleske

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides useful findings about the effects of heterozygosity for Trio variants linked to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in mice. However, the strength of the evidence is limited and incomplete mainly because the experimental flow is difficult to follow, raising concerns about the conclusions' robustness. Clearer connections between variables, such as sex, age, behavior, brain regions, and synaptic measures, and more methodological detail on breeding strategies, test timelines, electrophysiology, and analysis, are needed to support their claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Human formin FHOD3-mediated actin elongation is required for sarcomere integrity in cardiomyocytes

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Dylan A Valencia
   2. Angela N Koeberlein
   3. Haruko Nakano
   4. Akos Rudas
   5. Airi Harui
   6. Cassandra Spencer
   7. Atsushi Nakano
   8. Margot E Quinlan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Valencia et al. combine elegant in vitro biochemical experiments with functional assays in cardiomyocytes to determine which properties of the FHOD3 formin are essential for sarcomere assembly. Using separation-of-function mutants, they show that FHOD3's elongation activity, rather than its nucleation, capping, or bundling activities, is key to its sarcomeric function. This is an important finding; most of the data presented in the manuscript are convincing, with the exception of two experiments (presence of FHOD3 at the barbed end of actin filaments in the TIRF elongation assays and characterization of the GS-FH1 mutant phenotype) that would merit few additional controls.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Horizontally transferred cell-free chromatin particles function as autonomous “predatory” genomes and vehicles for transposable elements within host cells

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Soumita Banerjee
   2. Soniya Shende
   3. Laxmi Kata
   4. Relestina Lopes
   5. Swathika Praveen
   6. Ruchi Joshi
   7. Naveen Kumar Khare
   8. Gorantla V Raghuram
   9. Snehal Shabrish
   10. Indraneel Mittra

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors examine the effect of cell-free chromatin particles (cfChPs) derived from human serum or from dying human cells on mouse cells in culture and propose that these cfChPs can serve as vehicles for cell-to-cell active transfer of foreign genetic elements. The work presented in this paper is intriguing and potentially important, but it is incomplete. At this stage, the claim that horizontal gene transfer can occur via cfChPs would strongly benefit from additional evidence emerging from multiple independent approaches. The evolutionary interpretations associated with the concept of "predatory genome" are premature based on the strength of evidence.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. SFSWAP is a negative regulator of OGT intron detention and global pre-mRNA splicing

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Ashwin Govindan
   2. Nicholas K. Conrad

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides important insights into the regulation of a retained intron in the mRNA coding for OGT, a process known to be regulated by the O-GlcNAc cycling system, and highlights the functional role of the splicing regulator SFSWAP. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing: the authors performed an elegant state-of-the-art CRISPR knockout strategy and sophisticated bioinformatic analysis to identify SFSWAP as a negative regulator of alternative splicing. The work will be of interest to researchers in the fields of splicing and glycobiology.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Neuroprotective role of Hippo signaling by microtubule stability control in C. elegans

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Hanee Lee
   2. Junsu Kang
   3. Sang-Hee Lee
   4. Dowoon Lee
   5. Christine H Chung
   6. Junho Lee

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In their valuable study, Lee et al. explore a role for the Hippo signaling pathway, specifically wts-1/LATS and the downstream regulator yap, in age-dependent neurodegeneration and microtubule dynamics using C. elegans mechanosensory neurons as a model. The authors demonstrate that disruption of wts-1/LATS leads to age-associated morphological and functional neuronal abnormalities, linked to enhanced microtubule stabilization, and shows a genetic connection between yap and microtubule stability. Despite some mechanistic gaps, the study employs robust genetic and molecular approaches to reveal a convincing link between the Hippo pathway, microtubule dynamics, and neurodegeneration.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Vasopressin 1a receptor antagonist disrupts male-male affiliative relationships formed by triadic cohabitation in large-billed crows

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Akiko Seguchi
   2. Ei-Ichi Izawa

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates the role of vasopressin in modulating same-sex affiliative relationships in the context of linear dominance hierarchies. It provides convincing evidence that vasopressin signaling is involved in modulating aspects of affiliative behavior, although the evidence that affiliative relationships specifically arise from the triadic interaction study design is incomplete. Nevertheless, its focus on broadening the types of social relationships and species studied in this area makes it of interest to both neuroendocrinologists and colleagues studying the evolution and mechanisms underlying social affiliation.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Enzymatic protein fusions with 100% product yield

   This article has 1 author:

   1. Adrian CD Fuchs

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work is a versatile new addition to the chemical protein modifications and bioconjugation toolbox in synthetic biology. The technology developed cleverly uses Connectase to irreversibly fuse proteins of interest together so they can be studied in their native context, with convincing data showing the technique works for various protein partners. This work will help multiple fields to explore multi-function constructs in basic synthetic biology. This work will also be of interest to those studying fusion oncoproteins commonly expressed in various human pathologies.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Dorsal/NF-κB exhibits a dorsal-to-ventral mobility gradient in the Drosophila embryo

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. Hadel Al Asafen
    2. Natalie M Clark
    3. Etika Goyal
    4. Thomas Jacobsen
    5. Sadia Siddika Dima
    6. Hung-Yuan Chen
    7. Rosangela Sozzani
    8. Gregory T Reeves

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study provides valuable quantitative data and analysis that reveals variations in 'Dorsal' nuclear dynamics along the dorso-ventral axis in the early Drosophila embryo. The evidence that supports that these variations are due to Dorsal/Cactus interactions in dorsal nuclei is convincing, albeit incomplete to understand the biological implications of these findings for developmental patterning.

    Reviewed by eLife