eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Identification of neurodevelopmental organization of the cell populations of juvenile Huntington’s disease using dorso-ventral HD organoids and HD mouse embryos

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Karolina Świtońska-Kurkowska
   2. Jakub Kubiś
   3. Joanna Delimata-Raczek
   4. Bart Krist
   5. Magda Surdyka
   6. Żaneta Kalinowska-Pośka
   7. Piotr Piasecki
   8. Luiza Handschuh
   9. Jan Podkowiński
   10. Magdalena Rakoczy
   11. Anna Samelak-Czajka
   12. Michael Hayden
   13. Nicholas S Caron
   14. Maciej Figiel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript describes the generation of a fused dorsal-ventral organoid system to model interactions between the cortex and striatum to study the onset and progression of Huntington's disease (HD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. While this approach is valuable, further methodological and analytical work is needed to fully support the interpretations and claims of the authors. Incomplete evidence suggests choroid plexus (ChP) abnormalities form a significant component of HD pathogenesis.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Progressive overfilling of readily releasable pool underlies short-term facilitation at recurrent excitatory synapses in layer 2/3 of the rat prefrontal cortex

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Jiwoo Shin
   2. Seung Yeon Lee
   3. Yujin Kim
   4. Suk-Ho Lee

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable work explores how synaptic activity encodes information during memory tasks. All reviewers agree that the work is of very high quality and that the methodological approach is praiseworthy. The experimental data support the possibility that phospholipase diacylglycerol signaling and synaptotagmin 7 (Syt7) dynamically regulate the vesicle pool required for presynaptic release. Overall, this is a convincing study.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A stimulus-computable rational model of visual habituation in infants and adults

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Gal Raz
   2. Anjie Cao
   3. Rebecca Saxe
   4. Michael C Frank

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this important study, the authors provide compelling evidence that the likelihood of looking behaviour is predicted by the expected information gain, hence constituting an invaluable formal model and explanation of habituation. Such modelling represents a crucial advance in explanation, over-and-above less specified models that can be fitted post hoc to any empirical pattern. The findings would be of interest to researchers studying cognitive development, and perception and learning more broadly.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. The Mac1 ADP-ribosylhydrolase is a therapeutic target for SARS-CoV-2

   This article has 31 authors:

   1. Rahul K Suryawanshi
   2. Priyadarshini Jaishankar
   3. Galen J Correy
   4. Moira M Rachman
   5. Patrick C O'Leary
   6. Taha Y Taha
   7. Yusuke Matsui
   8. Francisco J Zapatero-Belinchón
   9. Maria McCavitt-Malvido
   10. Yagmur U Doruk
   11. Maisie GV Stevens
   12. Morgan E Diolaiti
   13. Manasi P Jogalekar
   14. Huadong Chen
   15. Alicia L Richards
   16. Pornparn Kongpracha
   17. Sofia Bali
   18. Mauricio Montano
   19. Julia Rosecrans
   20. Michael Matthay
   21. Takaya Togo
   22. Ryan L Gonciarz
   23. Saumya Gopalkrishnan
   24. R Jeffrey Neitz
   25. Nevan J Krogan
   26. Danielle L Swaney
   27. Brian K Shoichet
   28. Melanie Ott
   29. Adam R Renslo
   30. Alan Ashworth
   31. James S Fraser

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents the development of a novel inhibitor for SARS-CoV-2 Mac1 that has potential utility both as an antiviral therapeutic and as a tool for probing the molecular mechanisms by which infection-induced ADP-ribosylation triggers robust host antiviral responses. Though minor gaps in understanding the compound's precise molecular mechanism of action and its ability to target Mac1 from other coronaviruses remain, the evidence for its effects on SARS-CoV-2 in relevant biological models is compelling.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Toward stable replication of genomic information in pools of RNA molecules

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Ludwig Burger
   2. Ulrich Gerland

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important theoretical study examines the possibility of encoding genomic information in a collective of short overlapping strands (e.g., the Virtual Circular Genome (VCG) model). The study presents convincing theoretical arguments, simulations and comparisons to experimental data to point at potential features and limitations of such distributed collective encoding of information. The work should be of relevance to colleagues interested in molecular information processing and to those interested in pre-Central Dogma or prebiotic models of self-replication.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. PPARγ mediated enhanced lipid biogenesis fuels Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth in a drug-tolerant hepatocyte environment

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Binayak Sarkar
   2. Jyotsna Singh
   3. Mohit Yadav
   4. Priya Sharma
   5. Raman Deep Sharma
   6. Shweta Singh
   7. Aakash Chandramouli
   8. Kritee Mehdiratta
   9. Ashwani Kumar
   10. Siddhesh S Kamat
   11. Devram S Ghorpade
   12. Debasisa Mohanty
   13. Dhiraj Kumar
   14. Rajesh S Gokhale

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental study examines infection of the liver and hepatocytes during tuberculosis infection. The authors convincingly demonstrate that aerosol infection of mice and guinea pigs leads to appreciable infection of the liver as well as the lung. A further strength of the study lies in clinical evaluation of the presence of tuberculosis bacteria in human autopsied liver samples from individuals with miliary tuberculosis and the presence of a clear granuloma-like structure, which will prompt further study.

   Reviewed by eLife, preLights

7. Prophage regulation of Shewanella fidelis 3313 motility and biofilm formation with implications for gut colonization dynamics in Ciona robusta

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Ojas Natarajan
   2. Susanne L Gibboney
   3. Morgan N Young
   4. Shen Jean Lim
   5. Felicia Nguyen
   6. Natalia Pluta
   7. Celine GF Atkinson
   8. Assunta Liberti
   9. Eric D Kees
   10. Brittany A Leigh
   11. Mya Breitbart
   12. Jeffrey A Gralnick
   13. Larry J Dishaw

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study presents findings linking prophage carriage to lifestyle regulation in the marine bacterium Shewanella fidelis, with potential implications for niche occupation within a host (Ciona robusta) and mediation of host immune responses. The study leverages a unique animal model system that offers distinct advantages in identifying select phenotypes to present overall solid evidence that supports findings relating to the impact of a prophage on host-microbe interaction. Understanding the role of integrated lysogenic phages in bacterial fitness, both within a host and in the environment, is a significant concept in bacterial eco-physiology, potentially contributing to the success of certain strains.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. SICKO: Systematic Imaging of Caenorhabditis Killing Organisms

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Luis S Espejo
   2. Samuel Freitas
   3. Vanessa Hofschneider
   4. Leah Chang
   5. Angelo Antenor
   6. Jonah Balsa
   7. Anne Haskins
   8. Destiny DeNicola
   9. Hope Dang
   10. Sage Hamming
   11. Delaney Kelser
   12. George L Sutphin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work describes a valuable method, SICKO, for real-time longitudinal quantification of bacterial colonization in the gut of individual C. elegans. The authors present convincing evidence to support the validity of the approach. SICKO provides an experimental framework that will enable progress in our understanding of host-microbe interactions.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. DDX3 Regulates the Cap‐Independent Translation of the Japanese Encephalitis Virus via Its Interactions with PABP1 and the Untranslated Regions of the Viral Genome

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Chenxi Li
   2. Linjie Zhang
   3. Chenyang Tang
   4. Xuan Chen
   5. Jing Shi
   6. Qingyu Li
   7. Xue Jiao
   8. Jinyao Guo
   9. Bin Wang
   10. Kefan Bu
   11. Abdul Wahaab
   12. Yuguo Yuan
   13. Ming‐an Sun
   14. Yanhua Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work is a valuable study that presents a detailed analysis of translation, driven by the untranslated regions of the Japanese encephalitis virus. It reports a role for the RNA helicase DDX3 in promoting a cap-independent translation mechanism. The conclusions are based on generally solid evidence, although there are some weaknesses in the overall model based on suboptimal experimental approaches and over-interpretation of some of the data. Addressing deficiencies noted in peer review could elevate the impact of the study.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Companion cells with high florigen production express other small proteins and reveal a nitrogen-sensitive FT repressor

    This article has 20 authors:

    1. Hiroshi Takagi
    2. Shogo Ito
    3. Jae Sung Shim
    4. Akane Kubota
    5. Andrew K Hempton
    6. Nayoung Lee
    7. Takamasa Suzuki
    8. Jared S Wong
    9. Chansie Yang
    10. Christine T Nolan
    11. Kerry L Bubb
    12. Cristina M Alexandre
    13. Daisuke Kurihara
    14. Yoshikatsu Sato
    15. Yasuomi Tada
    16. Takatoshi Kiba
    17. Jose L Pruneda-Paz
    18. Christine Quietsch
    19. Josh T Cuperus
    20. Takato Imaizumi

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This fundamental study uncovers the unique molecular features of Arabidopsis phloem companion cells that highly express FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). These FT-expressing cells constitute a distinct subpopulation marked by elevated ATP biosynthesis and co-expression of small mobile proteins such as FLP1 and BFT, highlighting a fine balance between florigen and anti-florigen signals. Motif analyses and transgenic studies further identify NIGT1 transcription factors as direct, nitrogen-inducible repressors of FT, providing a mechanism for delayed flowering under nitrogen-rich conditions. Together, the compelling findings show that florigen-producing companion cells integrate energy metabolism, systemic protein signals, and nutrient-responsive repression to fine-tune the seasonal and nutritional regulation of flowering.

    Reviewed by eLife