eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. NAD+ boosting by oral nicotinamide mononucleotide administration regulates key metabolic and immune pathways through SIRT1 dependent and independent mechanisms to mitigate diet-induced obesity and dyslipidemia in mice

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Yasser Majeed
   2. Najeeb M Halabi
   3. Rudolf Engelke
   4. Hina Sarwath
   5. Muna N Al-Noubi
   6. Sunkyu Choi
   7. Aisha Al-Malki
   8. Maha V Agha
   9. Muneera Vakayil
   10. Lotfi Chouchane
   11. Frank Schmidt
   12. Nayef A Mazloum

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The mechanistic basis for the potential health benefits of NAD⁺ precursors remains incompletely understood. This manuscript provides a useful assessment of the role of SIRT1 in mediating the effects of NMN in mice fed a high-fat diet. The study addresses a key question, though some of the conclusions appear only partially supported by the presented data.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Glycolysis-dependent Sulfur Metabolism Orchestrates Morphological Plasticity and Virulence in Fungi

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Dhrumi Shah
   2. Nikita Rewatkar
   3. Adishree M
   4. Siddhi Gupta
   5. Sudharsan Mathivathanan
   6. Sayantani Biswas
   7. Sriram Varahan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors identify a novel, conserved link between glycolytic flux and sulfur amino acid metabolism that governs fungal morphological differentiation independently of the cAMP-PKA pathway. This represents an important conceptual advance in understanding metabolic control of development and virulence. While the evidence supporting this connection is compelling, the mechanistic basis of how glycolysis regulates the Met30/Met4 axis requires further experimental clarification.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Ex vivo and in vivo CRISPR/Cas9 screenings identify the roles of protein N-glycosylation in regulating T-cell activation and functions

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yu Hong
   2. Xiaofang Si
   3. Wenjing Liu
   4. Xueying Mai
   5. Yu Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable work investigates the role of protein N-glycosylation in regulating T-cell activation and function and suggests that B4GALT1 is a potential target for tumor immunotherapy. The strength of evidence is solid, and further mechanistic validation could be provided.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. PTEN restrains SHH medulloblastma growth through cell autonomous and nonautonomous mechanisms

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Zhimin Lao
   2. Salsabiel El Nagar
   3. Yinwen Liang
   4. Daniel N Stephen
   5. Alexandra L Joyner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study provides insights into the role of Pten mutations in SHH-medulloblastoma, by using mouse models to resolve the effects of heterozygous vs homozygous mutations on proliferation and cell death throughout tumorigenesis. The experiments presented are convincing, with rigorous quantifications and orthogonal experimentation provided throughout, and the models employing sporadic oncogene induction, rather than EGL-wide genetic modifications, represent an advancement in experimental design. However, the study remains limited, such that the biological conclusions do not extend greatly from those in the extant literature. This could be addressed with additional experimentation focused on cell cycle kinetic changes at early stages, as well as greater characterization of macrophage phenotypes (e.g., microglia vs circulating monocytes). The work will be of interest to medical biologists studying general cancer mechanisms, as the function of Pten may be similar across tumor types.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. HEB collaborates with TCR signaling to upregulate Id3 and enable γδT17 cell maturation in the fetal thymus

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Johanna S Selvaratnam
   2. Juliana Dutra Barbosa da Rocha
   3. Vinothkumar Rajan
   4. Helen Wang
   5. Emily C Reddy
   6. Jenny Jiahuan Liu
   7. Miki S Gams
   8. Cornelis Murre
   9. David L Wiest
   10. Cynthia J Guidos
   11. Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker
   12. Michele K Anderson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study provides important mechanistic insight into the transcriptional control of γδT17 development, elegantly demonstrating how HEB and Id3 act sequentially and cooperatively to regulate γδT17 cell specification and maturation. The study provides compelling evidence that advances the understanding of E-Id protein dynamics in thymic T cell specification. The work is comprehensive, technically rigorous, and conceptually clear, and will be of interest to immunologists, developmental biologists, and those studying the molecular underpinnings of physiological outcomes.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Enhanced Processivity and Collective Force Production of Kinesins at Low Radial Forces

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Andrew M Hensley
   2. Ahmet Yildiz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The manuscript by Hensley and Yildez studies the mechanical behavior of kinesin under conditions where the z-component of the applied force is minimized. The important study shows that much of the mechanical information gleaned from the traditional "one bead" with attached kinesin approach was probably profoundly influenced by the direction of the applied force. The data are convincing, but in some cases the amount of data collected appears to be smaller than optimal.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Cell cycle-dependent cues regulate temporal patterning of the Drosophila central brain neural stem cells

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Gonzalo N Morales Chaya
   2. Mubarak Hussain Syed

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful manuscript reports findings indicating that cell cycle progression and cytokinesis both play a role in the transition of early to late neural stem cell fates. The imaging data are solid and mostly support the conclusions. However, experimental details are missing, the method of quantitation could be improved, and orthogonal approaches are needed to confirm the findings, which are based on loss-of-function approaches and are not sufficient to support some of the authors' conclusions. Lastly, there is no investigation of the underlying mechanism linking the cell cycle or cytokinesis to the changes (or lack thereof) of early and late NSC fates.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Microbial consortia in salt marsh sediments are sequentially buried over millennia and genomic complementarity analysis indicates an important role in complex carbon decomposition

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Joseph H Vineis
   2. Ashley N Bulseco
   3. Zoe G Cardon
   4. Jennifer L Bowen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides a valuable genome-centric characterization of microbial communities across deep sediment cores from a Spartina patens salt marsh. The study provides claims on the metabolic capabilities of the deep sediment microbiome as well as on a burial microbial assembly process and functional complementarity at depth. However, some of these claims remain incomplete and would benefit from further supporting evidence. Overall, this work will be of interest to microbial ecologists working on wetlands.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Extracting Value Coding Features from Individual Serotonin Neurons

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Emerson F Harkin
   2. Jean-Claude Béïque
   3. Richard Naud

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors used a Bayesian modeling framework to fit behavior and serotonin neuron activity to reward history across multiple timescales. A key goal was to distinguish value coding from other influences, particularly thirst, by comparing model fits across neurons. Although the question and approach are valuable, several limitations of the current manuscript mean that support for the conclusions is incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Identifying regulators of associative learning using a protein-labelling approach in C. elegans

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. Aelon Rahmani
    2. Anna McMillen
    3. Ericka Allen
    4. Radwan Ansaar
    5. Renee Green
    6. Michaela E Johnson
    7. Anne Poljak
    8. Yee Lian Chew

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This valuable work defines a "learning proteome" for a C. elegans gustatory associative learning paradigm. These results provide the field with a new set of genes to further explore their roles in learning and memory, provide new tools for other labs to employ in their investigations of behavior, and molecular pathways revelant for C. elegans learning and memory. The methodological evidence and the quality of the dataset are convincing. The results will be of interest to neuroscientists and developmental biologists seeking to understand the self-assembly and operation of neural circuits for learning and memory.

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

    Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons