eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Structural mechanisms of pump assembly and drug transport in the AcrAB-TolC efflux system

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Xiaofei Ge
   2. Zhiwei Gu
   3. Jiawei Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Ge et al here report a structural study of the native tripartite multidrug efflux pump complexes from Escherichia coli that identifies a novel accessory subunit, YbjP, the structure of the native TolC-YbjP-AcrABZ complex, as well as structures of the AcrB protein in L, T, and O conformations. The strength of the structural data is compelling, and the importance of the findings is potentially fundamental. However, additional analysis and comparison with pre-existing data would help to put the obtained data and its impact in the proper context, and the inclusion of functional data would help to substantiate some claims that are currently incompletely supported.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. PRRT2 as an auxiliary regulator of Nav channel slow inactivation

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Bin Lu
   2. Qi-Wu Xu
   3. Jing Zhang
   4. Xue-Mei Wu
   5. Jun-Yan He
   6. Guang Yang
   7. Ke-Xian Li
   8. Ling Zhuang
   9. Yu-Xian Zhang
   10. Zhi-Qi Xiong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study identifies PRRT2 as an auxiliary regulator of Nav channel slow inactivation, proposing that PRRT2 facilitates entry into, and delays recovery from, the slow-inactivated state. The evidence provided is compelling and well executed, though the work would be bolstered by additional studies of Nav1.6, as well as structural studies to directly investigate the molecular basis of gating modulation. Overall, this study will be of interest to ion channel biophysicists and neurophysiologists, particularly those studying channelopathies.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Brawn before bite in endemic Asian mammals after the end-Cretaceous extinction

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Z Jack Tseng
   2. Qian Li
   3. Suyin Ting

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study fills a major geographic and temporal gap in understanding Paleocene mammal evolution in Asia and proposes an intriguing "brawn before bite" hypothesis grounded in diverse analytical approaches. However, the findings are incomplete because limitations in sampling design - such as the use of worn or damaged teeth, the pooling of different tooth positions, and the lack of independence among teeth from the same individuals - introduce uncertainties that weaken support for the reported disparity patterns. The taxonomic focus on predominantly herbivorous clades also narrows the ecological scope of the results. Clarifying methodological choices, expanding the ecological context, and tempering evolutionary interpretations would substantially strengthen the study.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Neural activity profiles reveal overlapping, intermingled subpopulations spanning area borders in mouse sensorimotor cortex

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Sohrab Salimian
   2. Harrison A Grier
   3. Matthew T Kaufman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental study provides compelling evidence for the functional segregation of the sensorimotor cortex into precisely delineated areas, and highlights a rapid transition in functional properties at the boundaries between these areas. This result further confirms and extends recent work on the diversity of neural response specificities across cortical areas in the context of complex behavioral tasks. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists studying sensory-motor functions.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. High-Fidelity Neural Speech Reconstruction through an Efficient Acoustic-Linguistic Dual-Pathway Framework

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Jiawei Li
   2. Chunxu Guo
   3. Chao Zhang
   4. Edward F Chang
   5. Yuanning Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable advance in reconstructing naturalistic speech from intracranial ECoG data using a dual-pathway model. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although the rationale for employing a smaller language model rather than a large language model (LLM) should be further clarified. This work will be of interest to cognitive neuroscientists and computer scientists/engineers working on speech reconstruction from neural data.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Insights into substrate binding and utilization by hyaluronan synthase

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Zachery Stephens
   2. Julia Karasinska
   3. Jochen Zimmer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work provides a fundamental molecular mechanism of how a single enzyme can coordinate the ordered assembly of hyaluronan, a complex polysaccharide, from two different building blocks in an alternating pattern. The authors present compelling evidence by combining high-resolution structural data with rigorous biochemical validation to define the underlying process. Major strengths of the study include the clarity and coherence of the mechanistic insights and the complementary use of structural and functional approaches to address the research question.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. CROP2, a Retriever-PROPPIN Complex Mediating Protein Export from Endosomes to the Plasma Membrane

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Maria Giovanna De Leo
   2. Andreas Mayer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors present evidence for a WIPI2-Retriever complex (termed CROP2) that couples cargo selection to carrier fission at endosomes. CROP2 appears to function analogously to the previously described CROP1 complex, formed by WIPI1 and Retromer, with which it shares structural similarities. They provide convincing evidence that CROP1 and CROP2 regulate the trafficking of distinct subsets of cargoes; however, the cellular evidence for the existence of these distinct complexes remains incomplete. Overall, the findings are important and expand our understanding of how cargo selection by Retriever and Retromer is orchestrated at endosomes.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Niche exclusion of a lung pathogen in mice with designed probiotic communities

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Kelsey E Hern
   2. Ashlee M Phillips
   3. Catherine M Mageeney
   4. Kelly P Williams
   5. Anupama Sinha
   6. Hans K Carlson
   7. Kunal Poorey
   8. Nicole M Collette
   9. Steven S Branda
   10. Adam P Arkin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study reports a valuable method to predict the capacity of a candidate probiotic bacterium to metabolically outcompete a bacterial pathogen in the ecological niche of the murine respiratory tract (niche exclusion) based on the overlap of used carbon sources in vitro. The in vivo confirmation of the in vitro/in silico predicted efficacy is, at this stage, incomplete and would require more persuasive experimental evidence for the elimination of alternative mechanisms of action.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Subnational tailoring of ITN distributions to maximise malaria control

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Andrew C Glover
   2. Hannah Koenker
   3. El Hadji Amadou Niang
   4. Kate Kolaczinski
   5. Thomas S Churcher

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper describes a useful Bayesian model to estimate the probabilities of access, use, and use given access of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs), by using sub-national cross-sectional survey data and the annual number of ITNs received at the country level. The authors provide convincing evidence to support their modeling approach, which could be enhanced by more validation and exploration of model assumptions.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Global molecular landscape of early MASLD progression in obesity

    This article has 21 authors:

    1. Qing Zhao
    2. William De Nardo
    3. Ruoyu Wang
    4. Yi Zhong
    5. Umur Keles
    6. Gabrielé Sakalauskaite
    7. Li Na Zhao
    8. Huiyi Tay
    9. Sonia Youhanna
    10. Mengchao Yan
    11. Ye Xie
    12. Youngrae Kim
    13. Sungdong Lee
    14. Rachel Liyu Lim
    15. Guoshou Teo
    16. Pradeep Narayanaswamy
    17. Paul R Burton
    18. Volker M Lauschke
    19. Hyungwon Choi
    20. Matthew J Watt
    21. Philipp Kaldis

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      The authors provide a useful integrated analytical approach to investigating MASLD focused on diverse multiomic integration methods. The strength of evidence for this new resource is solid, as analyses highlight the importance of previously-described pathophysiologic processes, as well as unveil several new mechanisms as key features of MASLD in obese patients.

    Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons