eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Human cytomegalovirus infection coopts chromatin organization to diminish TEAD1 transcription factor activity

   This article has 24 authors:

   1. Khund Sayeed
   2. Sreeja Parameswaran
   3. Matthew J Beucler
   4. Lee E Edsall
   5. Andrew VonHandorf
   6. Audrey Crowther
   7. Omer A Donmez
   8. Matthew R Hass
   9. Scott Richards
   10. Carmy R Forney
   11. Hayley K Hesse
   12. Sydney H Jones
   13. Katelyn A Dunn
   14. Jay Wright
   15. Merrin Man Long Leong
   16. Laura A Murray-Nerger
   17. Vijay Yechoor
   18. Ben E Gewurz
   19. Kenneth M Kaufman
   20. John B Harley
   21. Bo Zhao
   22. William E Miller
   23. Leah C Kottyan
   24. Matthew T Weirauch

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This interesting study presents important information on how human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection disrupts the activity of the TEAD1 transcription factor, leading to widespread chromatin alterations. The strength of evidence in revised manuscript is convincing, and includes additional functional data teasing out how TEAD1-driven chromatin changes might influence HCMV replication. This work will be of interest to the virology, chromosome biology and transcriptional co-regulation fields.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. MagIC-Cryo-EM, structural determination on magnetic beads for scarce macromolecules in heterogeneous samples

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Yasuhiro Arimura
   2. Hide A Konishi
   3. Hironori Funabiki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study follows up on Arimura et al's powerful new method MagIC-Cryo-EM for imaging native complexes at high resolution. Using a clever design embedding protein spacers between the antibody and the nucleosomes purified, thereby minimizing interference from the beads, the authors concentrate linker histone variant H1.8 containing nucleosomes. From these samples, the authors obtain convincing atomic structures of the H1.8 bound chromatosome purified from interphase and metaphase cells, finding a NPM2 chaperone bound form exists as well. Caveats previously noted have been addressed nicely in the revision, strengthening the overall conclusions. This is an important new tool in the arsenal of single molecule biologists, permitting a deep dive into structure of native complexes, and will be of high interest to a broad swathe of scientists studying native macromolecules present at low concentrations in cells.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. DNA methylation insulates genic regions from CTCF loops near nuclear speckles

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Shelby A Roseman
   2. Allison P Siegenfeld
   3. Ceejay Lee
   4. Nicholas Z Lue
   5. Amanda L Waterbury
   6. Brian B Liau

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study tested the impact of DNA methylation on CTCF binding in two cancer cell lines. Increased CTCF binding sites are enriched in gene bodies, and associate with nuclear speckles, indicating a role in increased transcription. In the revised work, the inferred association with nuclear speckles has been supported with more solid data. These results will be of interest to the epigenetics field.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Mechanisms of PP2A-Ankle2 dependent nuclear reassembly after mitosis

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Jingjing Li
   2. Xinyue Wang
   3. Laia Jordana
   4. Éric Bonneil
   5. Victoria Ginestet
   6. Momina Ahmed
   7. Mohammed Bourouh
   8. Cristina Mirela Pascariu
   9. T Martin Schmeing
   10. Pierre Thibault
   11. Vincent Archambault

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important study that reports the mechanism by which Ankle2 (LEM4 in humans) interacts with and recruits PP2A and the ER protein Vap33 to promote BAF dephosphorylation and mediate nuclear membrane reformation, using Drosophila as their model. Using Ankle2 mutants, they find that the ER protein Vap33 is key for the normal interphase localisation of Ankle2/LEM4 and also impacts on the function of Ankle2/LEM4 during mitosis. The conclusions on the subcellular localization of Ankle2 are drawn from overexpression of constructs. Overall, the authors use a variety of complementary techniques and provide convincing evidence to support the claims and advance our knowledge in the field of mitosis and nuclear envelope biology.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Female-germline specific protein Sakura interacts with Otu and is crucial for germline stem cell renewal and differentiation and oogenesis

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Azali Azlan
   2. Li Zhu
   3. Ryuya Fukunaga

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study reports the first characterization of the CG14545 gene in Drosophila melanogaster, which the authors name "Sakura." Acting during germline stem cell fate and differentiation, Sakura is required for both oogenesis and female fertility, although some mechanistic details require further investigation. This solid study presents a wide-ranging and well-controlled characterization of Sakura, and accordingly the findings and associated reagents described will be of use to scientists interested in oogenesis and early development.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Determining the off-target activity of antibiotics and novel translation initiation sites in mitochondria

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. James Marks
   2. Emma Young
   3. Markus Hafner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study presents findings on how prokaryotic antibiotics affect translation in mitochondrial ribosomes. Using mitoribosome profiling, the authors provide solid evidence that most tested antibiotics act similarly on bacterial and mitochondrial translation. Additionally, this work shows that alternative translation initiation events might exist in two specific mt-mRNAs (MT-ND1 and MT-ND5). However, additional biochemical and structural experiments are needed to support these findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Microstructural asymmetries of the planum temporale predict functional lateralization of auditory-language processing

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Peipei Qin
   2. Qiuhui Bi
   3. Zeya Guo
   4. Liyuan Yang
   5. Haokun Li
   6. Peng Li
   7. Xinyu Liang
   8. Junhao Luo
   9. Xiangyu Kong
   10. Yirong Xiong
   11. Bo Sun
   12. Sebastian Ocklenburg
   13. Gaolang Gong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors studied the relationship between structural and functional lateralization in the planum temporale region of the brain, whilst also considering the morphological presentation of a single or duplicated Heschl's gyrus. The analyses are compelling due to a large sample size, inter-rater reliability, and corrections for multiple comparisons. The associations in this important work might serve as a reference for future targeted-studies on brain lateralization.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. AI-enabled alkaline-resistant evolution of protein to apply in mass production

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Liqi Kang
   2. Banghao Wu
   3. Bingxin Zhou
   4. Pan Tan
   5. Yun (Kenneth) Kang
   6. Yongzhen Yan
   7. Yi Zong
   8. Shuang Li
   9. Zhuo Liu
   10. Liang Hong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work demonstrates the application of Pro-PRIME, a large language model, to engineer VHH antibodies with enhanced stability for extreme industrial environments. The evidence is convincing, showing through two rounds of design and experimental validation that AI-guided approaches can outperform traditional rational design methods. The solid methodology and results establish a foundation for further exploration of LLM-assisted protein engineering.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Sphingosine-1-phosphate signaling regulates the ability of Müller glia to become neurogenic, proliferating progenitor-like cells

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Olivia B Taylor
   2. Nicholas DeGroff
   3. Heithem M El-Hodiri
   4. Chengyu Gao
   5. Andy J Fischer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates the signaling pathways regulating retinal regeneration. Convincing evidence shows that the sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) signaling pathway is inhibited following retinal injury. Small-molecule activators and inhibitors support a model in which S1P signaling must be inhibited to generate Müller glial progenitor cells-a key step in retinal regeneration. The presented results support the major conclusions. However, whether the drug treatments directly or indirectly affect the Müller cells remains unclear.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Neural circuit mechanisms for steering control in walking Drosophila

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Aleksandr Rayshubskiy
    2. Stephen L Holtz
    3. Alexander S Bates
    4. Quinn X Vanderbeck
    5. Laia Serratosa Capdevila
    6. Victoria Rockwell
    7. Rachel Wilson

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important work investigates how orientation signals detected in higher brain areas may be transformed into motor responses in behaving animals. The authors characterize two types of descending neurons (DNs) that connect the brain to motor units and are involved in different aspects of turning control. They further show that orientation signals act by preferentially increasing relative stimulation onto left- or right-turn-inducing DNs. These compelling results, together with the independent work that they have inspired, represent significant progress in our understanding of mechanisms of animal navigation.

    Reviewed by eLife