eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The nuclear membrane protein Samp1 links peripheral genome organization to the myogenic transcriptional program

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Urška Kašnik
   2. Irene Mei
   3. Silvia Gómez Alcalde
   4. Saira Aftab
   5. Eva Hedlund
   6. Einar Hallberg

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study shows that loss of Samp1, a protein at the boundary of the cell nucleus, disrupts muscle cell development and is accompanied by changes in gene activity and genome organization. Some of the evidence is solid, but data to support the overall claims is judged to be incomplete. Controlled experiments and mutants to establish whether the changes in organization contribute to impaired development or follow from it would elevate the work. This work will be of interest to those in the genome organization and developmental fields.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Neuropeptides NLP-10 and FLP-18 stimulate lipid catabolism in chronically diet-restricted Caenorhabditis elegans

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Jiaming Liu
   2. Liyun Lin
   3. Luming Yao
   4. Yong Yu
   5. Jintao Luo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors study global neuropeptide changes in C. elegans mutants lacking functional BMP, using this as a viable and fertile animal model that exhibits consistent dyspepsia and chronic dietary restriction. The findings of this study are valuable as they provide a global picture of neuropeptide responses to starvation and detail a circuit from a sensory neuron to lipid metabolism in the gut. This work provides evidence that nutrient stress resulting from impaired food processing engages NLP-10-, NPR-35-, FLP-18-, and NPR-4-dependent signalling to promote fat utilization. However, the evidence is incomplete, as the order of action of the neuropeptides is weak.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A comparative single-cell transcriptomic atlas for diverse populations of vertebrate hair cells

   This article has 33 authors:

   1. Mahashweta Basu
   2. Nesrine Benkafadar
   3. Beatrice Milon
   4. Carlo Colantuoni
   5. Brian R Herb
   6. Amanda Ciani Berlingeri
   7. Ivan A Cruz
   8. Joshua Orvis
   9. Emilia Luca
   10. Mitsuo P Sato
   11. Dunia Abdul-Aziz
   12. Meghan Dewan
   13. Kathleen Gwilliam
   14. Gabriella Manilla
   15. Christopher Shults
   16. R Shaun Adkins
   17. Yang Song
   18. Anup Mahurkar
   19. John V Brigande
   20. Alain Dabdoub
   21. Albert Edge
   22. Andrew K Groves
   23. Ksenia Gnedeva
   24. Stefan Heller
   25. Ronna Hertzano
   26. Tatjana Piotrowski
   27. David W Raible
   28. Yehoash Raphael
   29. Jennifer Stone
   30. Litao Tao
   31. Mark E Warchol
   32. Seth A Ament
   33. Lisa V Goodrich

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides an accessible comparative atlas of gene activity in sensory hair cells across four vertebrate species. The evidence is convincing, supported by comparative analyses and experimental validation, although technical differences between datasets and unclear definitions of cell maturity limit some interpretations. The resource will be of interest to researchers studying hearing, balance, sensory cell development and regeneration, and evolutionary biology.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. KMT2A modulates the epigenetic landscape of rDNA by facilitating the recruitment of histone lysine acetyltransferase PCAF to the rDNA locus

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Kaisar Ahmad Lone
   2. Anita Choudhary
   3. Ajay Kumar Mahato
   4. Shweta Tyagi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful manuscript presents evidence that the major contribution of the lysine methyltransferase KMT2A to ribosomal gene transcription regulation is through promoting histone acetylation rather than H3K4 methylation, in part through interactions of KMT2A with PCAF. Some of the claims in the paper are unsupported by the evidence and therefore viewed as incomplete. Additional experiments demonstrating a more direct and causal link between PCAF and KMT2A would elevate the key conceptual advance that this new axis influences epigenetic pathways through an unconventional histone acetylation pathway. This work will be of interest to those studying transcriptional regulation and chromatin remodeling.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Single-Molecule Nanopore Profiling of p53-TAD’s Conformational Dynamics, Interactions, and Inhibition

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. David DeCoeur
   2. Samantha Schultz
   3. Jianhan Chen
   4. Min Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this potentially useful study, the authors explored the conformational dynamics of the intrinsically disordered protein p53-TAD and a cancer-associated variant by examining its conformation-dependent block of conductance through a MspA nanopore, in conjunction with molecular dynamics simulations. In principle, this combination of single-molecule recordings, hidden Markov modeling, and molecular dynamics simulations can provide a generally applicable platform for studying disordered proteins. While the experimental observations could be described as compelling, there are also issues regarding the apparently low statistics for the observed long-lived pore-blockage events and limited differences between WT and mutant simulations. Therefore, in the current form, the level of evidence is deemed incomplete and requires further validation.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Deep phenotyping and multi-omics analyses reveal systems-wide metabolic dysregulation in a refined trisomy mouse model of Down syndrome

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Muzna Saqib
   2. Fangluo Chen
   3. Diya K. Mistri
   4. Laura Tan
   5. Noelle Wright
   6. Dylan C. Sarver
   7. Robert A. Anders
   8. Susan Aja
   9. G. William Wong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study provides a comprehensive metabolic and multi-omics characterization of the Ts66Yah mouse model of Down syndrome, identifying widespread metabolic, inflammatory, and molecular alterations that may help explain metabolic features observed in individuals with Down syndrome. The evidence supporting the authors' conclusions is solid, based on extensive physiological, molecular, and systems-level analyses in both male and female mice, although interpretations of sex-specific metabolic phenotypes and cross-model comparisons would benefit from additional clarification. The work will be of interest to researchers studying Down syndrome biology, metabolism, and the development and application of preclinical disease models.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A complementary learning system for continual episodic memory in large language models

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Xu Pan
   2. Ely Hahami
   3. Roy Siegelmann
   4. Haim Sompolinsky

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents an efficient approach to storing and retrieving memories in large language models based on complementary learning systems theory, and highlights the gap between storing information and using it flexibly. The presented evidence for the efficacy of the technical implementation of the memory system is convincing. However, support for the proposed parallels with certain aspects of complementary learning systems theory and with biological memory systems more generally remains incomplete. This work will be of broad interest to cognitive and computational neuroscientists studying memory, as well as researchers developing memory systems for artificial intelligence.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Kinesin-1 holoenzyme assembly coordinates cargo-adaptor recognition with heavy-chain autoinhibition

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Jingling Niu
   2. Mengmeng Zhang
   3. Liping He
   4. Xiaojie Zhu
   5. Mingming Liu
   6. Jiasheng Chen
   7. Wenli Jiang
   8. Chao Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Nui and colleagues tackle several questions concerning the assembly of the heterotetrameric kinesin-1 complex, examining intermolecular interactions between KHC and KLC and KHC with the cargo adaptor TRAK2. Aspects of the study using computational models and biopysical/biochemical analysis to examine the interaction between KHC and KLC and KHC and TRAK2 are useful, alongside an interesting new model for modulation of TRAK2 binding by KLC. The study will be of great interest to the community, but currently it is incomplete, with some claims partially supported.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Functional maturation in abducens motoneurons populations during angular VOR larval development

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Mathilde Pain
   2. Marie Boulain
   3. Laura Cardoit
   4. Marie-Jeanne Cabirol
   5. Jean Forgue
   6. Martin Gorges
   7. Gilles Courtand
   8. Stefan Glasauer
   9. François M Lambert

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study makes a valuable contribution to understanding the development of reflexes responsible for gaze stabilization. Using a combination of behavioural, electrophysiological and imaging approaches and analyses in developing Xenopus tadpoles, the findings provide a convincing demonstration that maturation of the angular vestibulo-ocular reflex in larval tadpoles involved increased modulation of silent but not spontaneously firing abudens motor units during horizontal semicircular canal activation, as well as increased myelination and innervation of the lateral rectus motor nerve. The findings will set the stage for future investigations to uncover the mechanistic underpinnings of the current observation.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Integrin-dependent trafficking of CD98hc reduces endocytic noise to maintain metabolic homeostasis

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. F Sila Rizalar
    2. Hans Peter Grimm
    3. Angelique Augustin
    4. Jose L Garcia-Cordero
    5. Roberto Villaseñor

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study offers an important set of findings on a previously unrecognised mechanism by which integrin-dependent trafficking, notably the recycling of CD98hc from endosomes to the plasma membrane, controls the abundance of a major amino acid transporter at the cell surface, with implications for a stable amino acid supply and metabolic homeostasis. The approach and results are convincing in showing the trafficking steps involved, although the experimental analysis is in places incomplete and would benefit from more rigorous approaches, deeper mechanistic characterisation, and stronger links to metabolic homeostasis. With these aspects strengthened, the work would be of interest to cell biologists working on trafficking and amino acid metabolism, as well as to the cancer cell metabolism community.

    Reviewed by eLife