eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Single-step in vitro ribosome reconstitution mediated by two GTPase factors, EngA and ObgE

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Aya Sato
   2. Weng Yu Lai
   3. Yusuke Sakai
   4. Yoshihiro Shimizu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a useful study presenting solid data indicating that the bacterial GTPases EngA and ObgE enable single-step reconstitution of functional 50S ribosomal subunits under near-physiological conditions. The study elegantly bridges the gap between the non-physiological aspects of the previous two-step reconstitution method and the extract-dependent iSAT system to enable ribosome assembly under translation-compatible conditions; however, it is limited by reliance on rRNA and proteins extracted from native ribosomes and does not achieve a true bottom-up reconstruction from all synthetic components. The evidence is incomplete in not characterizing the spectrum of reporter polypeptides produced and not comparing their rate and yield of synthesis from reconstituted ribosomes to that obtained with pure native ribosomes; and the impact of the study is limited by not including reporters to examine the fidelity of initiation, elongation or termination achieved with the reconstituted ribosomes.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Paternal over- and under-nutrition program fetal and placental development in a sex-specific manner in mice

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Hannah L. Morgan
   2. Nader Eid
   3. Nadine Holmes
   4. Matthew Carlile
   5. Sonal Henson
   6. Fei Sang
   7. Victoria Wright
   8. Marcos Castellanos-Uribe
   9. Iqbal Khan
   10. Nazia Nazar
   11. Sean T. May
   12. Rod T. Mitchell
   13. Federica Lopes
   14. Robert S. Robinson
   15. Augusto A. Coppi
   16. Vipul Batra
   17. Adam J. Watkins

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study demonstrates that paternal diet influences not only testicular morphology but also placental and fetal development, supporting a role for paternal contributions to offspring health. The authors combine transcriptomic and histological analyses across multiple tissues, and the evidence supporting the central conclusions is convincing. While aspects of the paternal gut phenotype remain largely descriptive, and the paternal and fetoplacental findings are discussed separately, clearer integration of these elements and additional methodological clarification would strengthen interpretation.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Distinct chromatin regulators downmodulate meiotic axis protein deposition and DNA break induction at chromosome ends

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Adhithi R. Raghavan
   2. Kieron May
   3. Vijayalakshmi V. Subramanian
   4. Hannah G. Blitzblau
   5. Neem J. Patel
   6. Jonathan Houseley
   7. Andreas Hochwagen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable paper describes the regulation of the association of meiotic chromosome axis proteins on chromosome ends with sub-telomeric elements in budding yeast. The genome-wide analyses of binding of chromosome components as well as chromatin regulators, complemented with the mapping of meiotic DNA double-strand breaks on chromosome ends, provided incomplete evidence to support the authors' conclusion. The results in the paper are of interest to researchers in meiotic recombination and the structure of genomes and chromosomes.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Linking Germline Telomere Removal to Global Programmed DNA Elimination in Tetrahymena Genome Differentiation

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Kohei Nagao
   2. Kazufumi Mochizuki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study reveals intriguing connections between chromosome breakage and DNA elimination during programmed genome rearrangement in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila. By developing a novel FISH approach that distinguishes germline and somatic telomeres, the authors provide compelling evidence that chromosome breakage removes germline telomeres along with hundreds of kilobases of germline-limited sequences. By disrupting a single chromosome breakage site, they further showed that DNA elimination was globally affected, which opens up a new direction for mechanistic studies. Thus, this work reveals additional similarity between the programmed DNA elimination in ciliates and nematodes that underlies the transition from germline to somatic telomeres.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Imp1 acts as a dosage- and stage-dependent temporal rheostat orchestrating radial glial fate transitions and cortical morphogenesis

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Romie Angelo G. Azur
   2. Daniel Feliciano
   3. Isabel Espinosa-Medina
   4. Raghabendra Adhikari
   5. Joaquin Lilao-Garzón
   6. Ella Jensen
   7. Ching-Po Yang
   8. Tzumin Lee

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents new insights into the post-transcriptional mechanisms that govern cortical development. Through state-of-the-art methodology to track neuronal birth order, the data provide compelling evidence that Imp1 (Igf2bp1/Zbp1) orchestrates radial glia fate transitions and cortical neurogenesis. The findings establish a new framework for understanding how post-transcriptional mechanisms integrate with transcriptional and epigenetic regulatory layers to control cortical temporal patterning.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Skull Bone Marrow Drainage and Its Associations with Inflammation, Sleep Quality, and Cognitive Performance

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Ying Zhou
   2. Haidi Jin
   3. Xiao Zhu
   4. Yifei Li
   5. Ziyu Zhou
   6. Xin Huang
   7. Huihong Ke
   8. Mengmeng Fang
   9. Jianzhong Sun
   10. Min Lou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a well-executed intrathecal MRI tracer study that provides valuable early in vivo evidence for CSF drainage into human skull bone marrow and explores clinically relevant associations using robust imaging methodology and regional analyses. However, the evidence supporting the interpretation of early (4 h) tracer signal as impaired clearance is incomplete, and appears difficult to reconcile with established CSF tracer kinetics. They also note that the reported links to sleep and cognitive performance are weakened by reliance on subjective, retrospective questionnaires rather than objective physiological measurements.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Transforming a Fragile Protein Helix into an Ultrastable Scaffold via a Hierarchical AI and Chemistry Framework

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Jun Qiu
   2. Guojin Tang
   3. Tianfu Feng
   4. Bin Zheng
   5. Yuanhao Liu
   6. Peng Zheng

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable work describes a computational and experimental workflow that turns a moderately stable α-helical bundle into a very stable fold. The authors advance our understanding of α-helix stabilization and provide a convenient framework with implications for the protein design field. The main claims are supported by convincing evidence through sound and well-validated methods, yet further characterization would strengthen specific conclusions for the design of mechanically, thermally, and chemically stable α-helical bundles.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. AutoMorphoTrack: A modular framework for quantitative analysis of organelle morphology, motility, and interactions at single-cell resolution

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Armin Bayati
   2. Jackson G. Schumacher
   3. Xiqun Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work describes a useful computational tool for automated morphometry of dynamic organelles from microscope images. However, the supporting evidence and novelty of the manuscript as presented are incomplete and could be improved. The work will be of interest to microscopists and bioimage analysts who are non-experts but wish to improve quantitative analysis of cellular structures.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Complex environmental cycles reveal evolution of circadian activity waveform and thermosensitive timeless splicing

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Pragya Niraj Sharma
   2. Vasu Sheeba

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study examines how mismatched light and temperature cycles shape Drosophila locomotor timing and temperature-dependent timeless splicing, and leverages long-term early/late selection lines to probe evolutionary plasticity. The strength of evidence is incomplete at present, mainly because startle/masking under step cues could confound the behavioural readouts, and tim's involvement remains correlative. The authors should address masking in the behaviour analyses and provide causal support for tim's role.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Simple Methods to Acutely Measure Multiple Timing Metrics among Sexual Repertoire of Male Drosophila

    This article has 6 authors:

    1. Yutong Song
    2. Dongyu Sun
    3. Xiao Liu
    4. Fan Jiang
    5. Xuejiao Yang
    6. Woo Jae Kim

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This useful paper describes a software tool, "DrosoMating", which allows automated, high-throughput quantification of 6 common metrics of courtship and mating behaviors in Drosophila melanogaster. The validity of the tool is quite convincingly demonstrated by comparing expert human assessments with those made by DrosoMating. The work, however, does not address how DrosoMating compares with or advances on other existing tools for exactly the same purpose, whether it can be used for studies of other Drosophila species, and/or whether finer aspects of courtship response timing - which depend on proximal female signals to the male - could be extracted with more detailed analyses. Some additional statistical analyses would also help further strengthen the authors' current conclusions.

    Reviewed by eLife