eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Activation of the Spx redox sensor counters cysteine-driven Fe(II) depletion under disulfide stress

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Abigail G. Hall
   2. Abdulelah A. Alqarzaee
   3. Aliyah J. Collins
   4. Sasmita Panda
   5. Svetlana Romanova
   6. Sujata S. Chaudhari
   7. Andrew J. Monteith
   8. Dorte Frees
   9. Vinai C. Thomas

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides new insights into how Staphylococcus aureus adapts to disulfide stress through the redox-sensitive regulator Spx, which coordinates nutrient uptake, cysteine import, redox homeostasis, and bacterial growth. While the authors present compelling evidence supporting the central role of Spx in managing disulfide stress, several aspects require further clarification. In particular, the precise mechanisms regulating cysteine uptake and the proposed link between disulfide stress responses and iron limitation would benefit from additional explanation and experimental or conceptual justification.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. RiboTRAP-seq identifies spatially distinct functions for the anterior and posterior intestine in immune and metabolic regulation in C. elegans

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Chung-Chih Liu
   2. Nicolas Seban
   3. Supriya Srinivasan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this valuable study, the authors performed cell-specific ribosome pulldown to identify gene expression (translatome) differences in the anterior (NT1) vs middle & posterior (NT2-9) cells of the C. elegans intestine, under fed, starved, or refeeding conditions. The data generated will be very helpful to the C. elegans community, and the evidence supporting the conclusions of the study is assessed to be solid. Some methodological caveats remain and are discussed.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Purified Zymogens Reveal Mechanisms of Snake Venom Metalloproteinase Auto-Activation

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Sophie Hall
   2. Iara Aimê Cardoso
   3. Mark C. Wilkinson
   4. Maria Molina Carretero
   5. Srikanth Lingappa
   6. Bronwyn Rand
   7. Dakang Shen
   8. Johara Boldrini-França
   9. Richard Stenner
   10. Stefanie K. Menzies
   11. Georgia Balchin
   12. Konrad Kamil Hus
   13. Renaud Vincentelli
   14. Andrew Mumford
   15. Nicholas R. Casewell
   16. Imre Berger
   17. Christiane Schaffitzel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this useful paper, the authors present a comprehensive method for the purification of recombinant Snake Venom Metalloproteinases (SVMPs) using the MultiBac expression system, explain the self-activation of the enzymes by Zn2+ incubation, and establish high-throughput screening (HTS) techniques. The authors addressed a key problem: producing a substantial amount of pure and enzymatically active SVMPs required for structural and functional studies. Altogether, this work builds a solid foundation for the large-scale production of active SVMPs for future biochemical and structural characterization as well as for drug discovery, albeit leaving certain caveats about the universal applicability of the described methodology for the production of any recombinant SVMPs.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. HUMAN SPINAL CORD ORGANOIDS REVEAL CELL INTERCALATION AS A CONSERVED MECHANISM FOR SECONDARY NEURULATION

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. José Blanco-Ameijeiras
   2. Yara El Majzoub
   3. Mar García-Valero
   4. Mariana M Faustino
   5. Elena Rebollo
   6. Javier Macho-Rendón
   7. Jorge Corbacho
   8. Juan Ramón Martínez-Morales
   9. Elisa Martí

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable human stem cell-derived organoid model that captures key morphological and cellular features of spinal cord development and provides evidence for a YAP-dependent mechanism of lumen formation relevant to secondary neurulation. Overall, the evidence is convincing, using strong and validated approaches consistent with the current state of the art, including systematic protocol optimisation across multiple cell lines and quantitative analysis of tissue architecture. However, some claims regarding precise anterior-posterior and dorsoventral spinal cord identity, as well as several novelty claims, are at times overstated and would benefit from more direct validation and more careful positioning. The work will be of interest to developmental biologists and researchers studying neural tube defects.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Patient-specific iPSC models of neural tube defects identify underlying deficiencies in neuroepithelial cell shape regulation and differentiation

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Ioakeim Ampartzidis
   2. Elliott M Thompson
   3. Yashica Gupta
   4. Andrea Krstevski
   5. Nicola Elvassore
   6. Eirini Maniou
   7. Paolo de Coppi
   8. Gabriel L Galea

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors used genetic mutations in VANGL2 to study cell morphological changes during differentiation of hPSCs and understand the mechanisms underlying neural tube closure defects. The findings are important as they establish a quantitative, reproducible 2D human iPSC-to-neural-progenitor platform for analyzing cell-shape dynamics during differentiation. The convincing evidence provided, combined with the relative simplicity of the model and its tractability as a patient-specific and reverse genetic platform, make it attractive.

     [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

6. RAB14-dependent tubulovesicular recycling directs MET to invadopodia promoting TNBC cell invasion

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Amrita Khamari
   2. Atreyee Guria
   3. Kiran Tak
   4. Rajiv Sharma
   5. Yannis Kalaidzidis
   6. Sunando Datta

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable paper advances understanding of the role of the HGF receptor, MET, in cancer cell invasion by demonstrating HGF-induced coordinated trafficking of MET and metalloprotease MT1-MMP into invadopodia. The results are generally solid, but there are concerns about the cell biology and whether the trafficking mechanism is clinically relevant. It's also unclear whether this is a general mechanism or specific to triple-negative breast cancer cells. The paper will be of interest to cancer cell biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Bruce suppresses autophagy-regulated caspase activity and wing tissue growth in Drosophila

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Natsuki Shinoda
   2. Yutaro Hama
   3. Nozomi Hanawa
   4. Masayuki Miura

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study reports insights into how the caspase Dcp-1, best known for cell death, can also promote tissue growth in Drosophila, extending the authors' earlier work by identifying regulatory factors that shape this non-lethal activity. The valuable findings identify new Dcp-1-interacting proteins Sirt1, Fkbp59, Debcl, Buffy, Atg2, and Atg8a, and help broaden understanding of how growth and death pathways intersect. The evidence is solid, but some conclusions would be strengthened by additional studies, particularly regarding the nature of the cell death observed and the involvement of autophagy.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Efficient transduction of pancreas tissue slices with genetically encoded calcium integrators

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Charles S. Lazimi
   2. Austin E. Stis
   3. Julia K. Panzer
   4. Helmut Hiller
   5. Maria L. Beery
   6. Amelia K. Linnemann
   7. Cherie L. Stabler
   8. Clayton E. Mathews
   9. Edward A. Phelps

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable advance by enabling functional mapping of Ca²⁺ responses in live human pancreatic tissue slices, providing new opportunities to study islet heterogeneity and diabetes-related dysfunction in an intact tissue context. The evidence supporting the main conclusions is solid, based on reproducible methodology and functional validation across multiple human donor samples. Key revisions needed include clearer quantification of transduction efficiency and tissue viability, and improved clarification of how CaMPARI2 signals should be interpreted.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Rapid evolution of fine-scale recombination during domestication: a perspective from population genomics

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Zheng-Xi Liu
   2. Ming Li
   3. Xue-Hai Ge
   4. Kun Wang
   5. Si Si
   6. Chang-Rong Ge
   7. Jian-Hai Chen
   8. Li-Rong Hu
   9. Min-Sheng Peng
   10. Ting-Ting Yin
   11. Ali Esmailizadeh
   12. Chang Zhang
   13. Lu-Jiang Qu
   14. Xue-Mei Lu
   15. Jian-Lin Han
   16. Ya-Ping Zhang
   17. Ming-Shan Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper addresses valuable questions about the evolution of recombination landscape under domestication by examining recombination maps in domesticated chickens and their wild ancestor. However, despite employing a state-of-the-art deep learning method for recombination map inference, the lack of systematic benchmarking and presence of some unexpected patterns raise concerns about the reliability of the inferred maps, thus providing incomplete support for rapid evolution of recombination landscapes. Additionally, due to methodological limitations in testing for intra-genome correlations between evolutionary processes, the current evidence is inadequate to support the associations of recombination with selection and/or introgression in domesticated chickens.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Specialisation of meiotic kinetochores revealed through a synthetic SAC strategy

    This article has 3 authors:

    1. Lori B Koch
    2. Christos Spanos
    3. Adele L Marston

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      Koch et al. describe a valuable novel methodology, SynSAC, to synchronise cells to analyse meiosis I or meiosis II or mitotic metaphase in budding yeast. The authors present convincing data to validate abscisic acid-induced dimerisation to induce a synthetic spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) arrest that will be of particular importance to analyse meiosis II. The authors use their approach to determine the composition and phosphorylation of kinetochores from meiotic metaphase I and metaphase II that will be of interest to the broader meiosis research community.

      [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

    Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons