eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A library of lineage-specific driver lines connects developing neuronal circuits to behavior in the Drosophila ventral nerve cord

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Jelly HM Soffers
   2. Erin Beck
   3. Daniel J Sytkowski
   4. Marianne E Maughan
   5. Devasri Devarakonda
   6. Yi Zhu
   7. Beth A Wilson
   8. Yu-Chieh David Chen
   9. Ted Erclik
   10. James W Truman
   11. James B Skeath
   12. Haluk Lacin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work presents an important genetic toolkit for Drosophila neurobiologists to access and manipulate neuronal lineages during development and adulthood. The evidence supporting the fidelity of this toolkit after revision is compelling. This work will interest Drosophila neurobiologists in general, and some of the genetic tools may be used outside the nervous system. The conceptual approaches used in this paper are likely transferable to other fields as comparable data and genomic methods are obtained.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The general version of Hamilton’s rule

   This article has 1 author:

   1. Matthijs van Veelen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Kin selection and inclusive fitness have generated significant controversy. This paper reconsiders the general form of Hamilton's rule in which benefits and costs are defined as regression coefficients, with higher-order coefficients being added to accommodate non-linear interactions. The paper is a landmark contribution to the field with compelling, systematic analysis, giving clarity to long-standing debates.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. ImPaqT - A Golden Gate-based Toolkit for Zebrafish Transgenesis

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Saskia Hurst
   2. Christiane Dimmler
   3. Mark R Cronan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study introduces a valuable toolkit for zebrafish transgenesis, significantly enhancing the flexibility and efficiency of transgene generation for immunological applications. The authors provide convincing evidence through well-designed experiments, demonstrating the toolkit's utility in generating diverse and functional transgenic lines.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Revealing global stoichiometry conservation architecture in cells from Raman spectral patterns

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ken-ichiro F Kamei
   2. Koseki J Kobayashi-Kirschvink
   3. Takashi Nozoe
   4. Hidenori Nakaoka
   5. Miki Umetani
   6. Yuichi Wakamoto

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper reports the fundamental finding of how Raman spectral patterns correlate with proteome profiles using Raman spectra of E. coli cells from different physiological conditions and found global stoichiometric regulation on proteomes. The authors' findings provide compelling evidence that stoichiometric regulation of proteomes is general through analysis of both bacterial and human cells. In the future, similar methodology can be applied on various tissue types and microbial species for studying proteome composition with Raman spectral patterns.

   Reviewed by eLife, Arcadia Science

5. Diverse Genotype-by-Weather Interactions in Switchgrass

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Alice H MacQueen
   2. Li Zhang
   3. Samuel Pattillo Smith
   4. Jason E Bonnette
   5. Arvid R Boe
   6. Philip A Fay
   7. Felix B Fritschi
   8. David B Lowry
   9. Robert B Mitchell
   10. Francis M Rouquette
   11. Yanqi Wu
   12. Arbel Harpak
   13. Thomas E Juenger

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study reports valuable findings on the nature of genotype-by-climate interaction, parameterised in a framework that allows integrating genetics and ecophysiological variation in switchgrass. The evidence provided is solid overall but the analysis could be improved to better support some of the claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Loss of olfaction reduces caterpillar performance and increases susceptibility to a natural enemy

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Qi Wang
   2. Yufei Jia
   3. Hans M Smid
   4. Berhane T Weldegergis
   5. Liana O Greenberg
   6. Maarten Jongsma
   7. Marcel Dicke
   8. Alexander Haverkamp

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important manuscript investigates the role of olfactory cues in Pieris brassicae larvae, focusing on their interactions with the host plant Brassica oleracea and the parasitoid wasp Cotesia glomerata. The authors' demonstration that impaired olfactory perception reduces caterpillar performance and increases susceptibility to parasitism is convincing. These findings highlight the ecological significance of olfaction in mediating feeding behavior and predator avoidance in herbivorous insects.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. DANCE provides an open-source and low-cost approach to quantify aggression and courtship in Drosophila

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. R Sai Prathap Yadav
   2. Paulami Dey
   3. Faizah Ansari
   4. Tanvi Kottat
   5. Manohar Vasam
   6. P Pallavi Prabhu
   7. Shrinivas Ayyangar
   8. Swathi Bhaskar S
   9. Krishnananda Prabhu
   10. Monalisa Ghosh
   11. Pavan Agrawal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable open-source and cost-effective method for automating the quantification of male aggression and courtship in Drosophila melanogaster. The work as presented provides solid evidence that the use of the behavioral setup that the authors designed - using readily available laboratory equipment and standardised high-performing classifiers they developed using existing software packages - accurately and reliably characterises social behavior in Drosophila. The work will be of interest to Drosophila neurobiologists and particularly to those working on male social behaviors.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Mac-/Lactosylceramide regulates intestinal homeostasis and secretory cell fate commitment by facilitating Notch signaling

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Kebei Tang
   2. Xuewen Li
   3. Jiulong Hu
   4. Jingyuan Shi
   5. Yumei Li
   6. Yansu Chen
   7. Chang Yin
   8. Fengchao Wang
   9. Rongwen Xi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides convincing evidence that glucosylceramide synthase (GlcT), a rate-limiting enzyme for glycosphingolipid (GSL) production, plays a role in the differentiation of intestinal cells. Mutations in GlcT compromise Notch signaling in the Drosophila intestinal stem cell lineage, resulting in the formation of enteroendocrine tumors. Further data suggest that a homolog of glucosylceramide synthase also influences Notch signaling in the mammalian intestine. While the outstanding strengths of the initial genetic and downstream pathway analyses are noted, there are minor weaknesses in the data regarding the potential role of this pathway in Delta trafficking. Nevertheless, this study opens the way for future mechanistic studies addressing how specific lipids modulate Notch signalling activity.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Generative modeling for RNA splicing prediction and design

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Di Wu
   2. Natalie Maus
   3. Anupama Jha
   4. Kevin Yang
   5. Benjamin D Wales-McGrath
   6. San Jewell
   7. Anna Tangiyan
   8. Peter Choi
   9. Jake R Gardner
   10. Yoseph Barash

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     TrASPr is an important contribution that leverages transformer models focused on regulatory regions to enhance predictions of tissue-specific splicing events. The revisions strengthen the manuscript by clarifying methodology and expanding analyses across exon and intron sizes, and the evidence supporting TrASPr's predictive performance is compelling. This work will be of interest to researchers in computational genomics and RNA biology, offering an improved model for splicing prediction and a promising approach to RNA sequence design.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The ALS-associated co-chaperone DNAJC7 mediates neuroprotection against proteotoxic stress by modulating HSF1 activity

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Andrew C Fleming
    2. Nalini R Rao
    3. Matthew Wright
    4. Jeffrey N Savas
    5. Evangelos Kiskinis

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      Fleming et al sought to better understand DNAJC7's function in motor neurons as mutations in this gene have been associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Using iPSC-derived motor neurons, interactome, and transcriptomic data, they provide solid evidence that loss-of-function mutations in DNAJC7 disrupt RNA binding proteins and resistance to proteasomal stress. These important findings advance our understanding of DNAJC7 in motor neurons while providing clues to how its loss may be causal for ALS; nonetheless, the experiments were performed with a single iPSC line, while at least 3 are deemed to be required to validate the results. Furthermore, the mechanistic evidence is still incomplete with respect to how DNAJC7 mutations lead to HSF1 impaired activity, and whether it is direct or not.

    Reviewed by eLife