eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The spike tip protein of bacteriophage T4

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Yves Mattenberger
   2. Ekaterina S Knyazhanskaya
   3. Mikhail M Shneider
   4. Sergey A Buth
   5. Sergey Nazarov
   6. William P Robins
   7. Petr G Leiman
   8. Dominique Belin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study by Mattenburger et al. employs structural biology, biochemistry, and genetics to advance understanding of how bacteriophage contractile injection systems mediate host recognition and DNA delivery, yielding a remarkable 1.15 A crystal structure of the T4 spike tip complex (gp5-gp5.4). The compelling evidence presented demonstrates that the spike tip protein gp5.4 is essential for phage fitness and successful infection of Escherichia coli strains bearing truncated lipopolysaccharide; however, direct proof regarding interaction with the cell wall or its components is lacking. The study further provides biochemical evidence that the analogous spike tip protein from phage P2 (GpV) is translocated into the host periplasm during infection, together establishing the spike tip as a critical and active component of the phage infection machinery.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Single Domain Antibody Inhibitors Target the Coiled Coil Arms of the Bacillus subtilis SMC complex

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Ophélie Gosselin
   2. Michael Taschner
   3. Lea M Huber-Hürlimann
   4. Markus A Seeger
   5. Stephan Gruber

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study introduces an innovative synthetic nanobody approach to probe the function of the bacterial SMC complex. The work is a compelling example of the potential of this approach. The authors generate protein chimeras to provide convincing evidence that their identified nanobodies target the coiled-coil region of the SMC subunit, demonstrating that this region is critical for SMC function in vivo. Overall, the work is significant for the fields of genome organisation, SMC protein biology, synthetic biology, and bacterial cell biology.

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

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

3. Leveraging AI to explore structural contexts of post-translational modifications in drug binding

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Kirill E. Medvedev
   2. R. Dustin Schaeffer
   3. Nick V. Grishin

   Reviewed by eLife

4. In vitro reconstitutions suggest a general model for paradoxical activation of ARAF, BRAF, and CRAF by diverse RAF inhibitor types that does not rely on negative allostery

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Emre Tkacik
   2. Dong Man Jang
   3. Kayla Boxer
   4. Byung Hak Ha
   5. Michael J Eck

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper's biochemical studies of the mechanisms underlying paradoxical activation of RAF family kinases by small-molecule inhibitors have uncovered some important new features of this process by establishing a role for the N-terminal acidic (NtA) motif and showing that CRAF and ARAF can also exhibit paradoxical activation. However, there are substantial criticisms that can be made regarding the data analysis and the evidence for the authors' new model that paradoxical activation does not rely on negative allostery is considered incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Single-cell co-mapping reveals relationship between chromatin state and gene expression in early zebrafish development

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Vivek Bhardwaj
   2. Alberto Griffa
   3. Helena Viñas Gaza
   4. Peter Zeller
   5. Alexander van Oudenaarden

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this valuable study, the authors examine transcription and chromatin dynamics during early zebrafish development by simultaneously profiling histone modifications and full-length transcriptomes in thousands of single cells, providing solid analysis that chromatin and transcriptional states are initially weakly correlated in early embryonic cells and become progressively more aligned as differentiation proceeds. The work also supports a model in which promoter-anchored cis-spreading of H3K27me3 contributes to stable gene silencing during development. Future functional perturbations and orthogonal validations will be needed to determine the causal contribution of Polycomb spreading to fate commitment. Overall, the dataset and accompanying analyses provide a robust resource and a quantitative framework for studying chromatin-transcription relationships during vertebrate embryogenesis.

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

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

6. Engineering ATP Import in Yeast Uncovers a Synthetic Route to Extend Cellular Lifespan

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Naci Oz
   2. Hetian Su
   3. Vedat Sari
   4. Praveen Patnaik
   5. Rohil Hameed
   6. Jong Hee Song
   7. Derek C Prosser
   8. Vyacheslav M Labunskyy
   9. Vadim N Gladyshev
   10. Nan Hao
   11. Alaattin Kaya

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript addresses an important and conceptually ambitious question by using a synthetic biology strategy to perturb ATP homeostasis in yeast and examine its causal relationship with lifespan. While the experimental approach and lifespan data are intriguing, the current evidence is incomplete and internally inconsistent, particularly regarding intracellular ATP measurements, transporter directionality, mitochondrial dependence, and the proposed mechanistic model. Substantial clarification, additional controls, and further experimentation will be necessary before the main conclusions can be considered robust and the biological significance of the findings can be fully assessed.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Inhibition of Slc17a7 expressing neurons in the basolateral amygdala which project to the nucleus accumbens shapes the fidelity of motivated behavior

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. William D Mercer
   2. Iltan Aklan
   3. Nathaniel E Connolly
   4. Shivangi M Inamdar
   5. Benjamin L Fisher
   6. Chase M Larsson
   7. Kyle H Flippo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study uses in vitro electrophysiology, projection-specific chemogenetics, and different behavioural tasks to investigate the role of Vglut1-expression in basolateral amygdala neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens in aspects of motivated behaviour. Although the manuscript is clearly written, the strength of the evidence supporting claims about the role of this pathway is incomplete. Currently, the work may be of interest to some behavioural neuroscientists, but additional controls and further clarification of specific analyses would strengthen their broader significance.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Cortex-wide Dynamics of Internal Decisions About Behavioral Context

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Joshua Calder-Travis
   2. Ruud L van den Brink
   3. Saanchi Thawani
   4. Lars Schwabe
   5. Tobias H Donner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this study, the authors investigated how inference about the current task context, by weighting evidence based on surprise and uncertainty in the environment, is encoded in the cortex. Using MEG imaging and an impressive amount of analytic work based on normative decision modeling, they provided solid evidence for the involvement of the visual and parietal cortex. These results are a valuable complement to and extension of a previous study using fMRI measurements, by identifying the candidate regions that are of importance for the inference process, not just for encoding the end product.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Blood-derived dietary protein promotes sleep in the mosquito Aedes aegypti

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Jiwei Zhang
   2. Hitoshi Tsujimoto
   3. Samaneh Biglari
   4. Zach N Adelman
   5. Alex C Keene

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study links blood-derived dietary content to sustained increases in sleep in the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Using multiple independent approaches, the authors provide convincing evidence for blood-induced changes in sleep. These findings have broad implications for understanding how specialized diets regulate sleep across species and for mosquito vector biology.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Early Sleep-Dependent Sensory Gating in the Olfactory System

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. Diego Serantes
    2. Diego Gallo
    3. Anttonella García
    4. Joaquín González
    5. Mateo Mendoza
    6. Patricia Lagos
    7. Pablo Torterolo
    8. Matías Cavelli

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study presents a well-executed investigation into how the olfactory system disconnects from the environment during sleep and anesthesia, identifying a potential gating mechanism at the earliest synaptic stages of the olfactory bulb. The findings are important, as they challenge current theories by demonstrating that sensory gating occurs in non-thalamic pathways even under controlled airflow conditions. The strength of evidence is solid, supported by rigorous multimodal recordings, although the reliance on anesthetic models to draw conclusions about natural sleep is a limitation that requires further contextualization.

    Reviewed by eLife