eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Atomic-Level Free Energy Landscape Reveals Cooperative Symport Mechanism of Melibiose Transporter

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Ruibin Liang
   2. Lan Guan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this potentially important study, the authors employed advanced computational techniques to explore a detailed atomistic description of the mechanism and energetics of substrate translocation in the MelB transporter. The overall approach is solid and reveals the coupling between sodium binding and melibiose transport through a series of conformational transitions, and the results for a mutant are also in qualitative agreement with the experiment, providing further support to the computational analyses. Nevertheless, the level of evidence is considered incomplete since there are concerns regarding the convergence and initial guess of the string calculations, leaving doubts that the computed pathway does not reflect the most energetically favorable mechanism.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Household clustering and seasonal genetic variation of Plasmodium falciparum at the community-level in The Gambia

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Marc-Antoine Guery
   2. Sukai Ceesay
   3. Sainabou Drammeh
   4. Fatou K Jaiteh
   5. Umberto D'Alessandro
   6. Teun Bousema
   7. David J Conway
   8. Antoine Claessens

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This article presents a valuable genetic spatio-temporal analysis of malaria-infected individuals from four villages in a highly seasonal transmission setting in The Gambia, covering the period between December 2014 and May 2017. Evidence generated by the study's laboratory and data processing approaches is solid and helps to advance the understanding of malaria in The Gambia, particularly due to its longitudinal design and the inclusion of asymptomatic cases.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Magnetically steered cell therapy for reduction of intraocular pressure as a treatment strategy for open-angle glaucoma

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. M Reza Bahranifard
   2. Jessica Chan
   3. A Thomas Read
   4. Guorong Li
   5. Lin Cheng
   6. Babak N Safa
   7. Seyed Mohammad Siadat
   8. Anamik Jhunjhunwala
   9. Hans E Grossniklaus
   10. Stanislav Y Emelianov
   11. W Daniel Stamer
   12. Markus H Kuehn
   13. C Ross Ethier

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study has fundamental findings that support the potential application of exogenous stem cell therapy as a viable therapeutic option for the management of intraocular pressure (IOP) and to increase outflow facility. The evidence supporting the clinical application of stem cells is compelling, using a combination of established in vivo and ex vivo experimental techniques. The work will be of interest to both basic stem cell biologists and clinical glaucoma specialists.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. The title and authors for this article are not available from our external data provider yet:
   10.31219/osf.io/kt7dm

5. Interplay of condensate material properties and chromatin heterogeneity governs nuclear condensate ripening

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Deb Sankar Banerjee
   2. Tafadzwa Chigumira
   3. Rachel M Lackner
   4. Josiah C Kratz
   5. David M Chenoweth
   6. Shiladitya Banerjee
   7. Huaiying Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this potentially valuable study, the authors employed in vivo experiments and theoretical modeling to study the growth dynamics of nuclear condensates. They observed that condensates can exhibit distinct growth modes, as dictated by the competition between condensate surface tension and local elasticity of chromatin. While the theoretical model appears to capture the experimental observations, the level of evidence supporting the proposed growth mechanism is incomplete due to, among other limitations, the multiple fitting parameters and poorly justified Neo-Hookean elasticity.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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