eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Structural and dynamic impacts of single-atom disruptions to guide RNA interactions within the recognition lobe of Geobacillus stearothermophilus Cas9

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Helen B Belato
   2. Alexa L Knight
   3. Alexandra M D'Ordine
   4. Chinmai Pindi
   5. Zhiqiang Fan
   6. Jinping Luo
   7. Giulia Palermo
   8. Gerwald Jogl
   9. George P Lisi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study offers valuable insights into the conformational dynamics of the nucleic acid recognition lobe of GeoCas9, a thermophilic Cas9 from Geobacillus stearothermophilus. The authors investigate the influence of local dynamics and allosteric regulation on guide RNA binding affinity and DNA cleavage specificity through molecular dynamics simulations, advanced NMR techniques, RNA binding studies, and mutagenesis. While the mutations studied do not lead to significant changes in GeoCas9 cleavage activity, the study provides convincing evidence for the role of allosteric mechanisms and interdomain communication in Cas9 enzymes, and will be of great interest to biochemists and biophysicists exploring these complex systems.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Major nuclear locales define nuclear genome organization and function beyond A and B compartments

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Omid Gholamalamdari
   2. Tom van Schaik
   3. Yuchuan Wang
   4. Pradeep Kumar
   5. Liguo Zhang
   6. Yang Zhang
   7. Gabriela A Hernandez Gonzalez
   8. Athanasios E Vouzas
   9. Peiyao A Zhao
   10. David M Gilbert
   11. Jian Ma
   12. Bas van Steensel
   13. Andrew S Belmont

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this valuable study, the authors integrate several datasets to describe how the genome interacts with nuclear bodies across distinct cell types and in Lamin A and LBR knockout cells. They provide convincing evidence to support their claims and particularly find that specific genomic regions segregate relative to the equatorial plane of the cell when considering their interaction with various nuclear bodies.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Increased inflammatory signature in myeloid cells of non-small cell lung cancer patients with high clonal hematopoiesis burden

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Hyungtai Sim
   2. Hyun Jung Park
   3. Geun-Ho Park
   4. Yeon Jeong Kim
   5. Woong-Yang Park
   6. Se-Hoon Lee
   7. Murim Choi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable article represents a significant body of work that addresses some novel aspects of the biology of lung cancer, the overall influence of CHIP and its impacts on responses to therapy. While a high clonal hematopoiesis (CHIP) burden was previously linked with an inflammatory phenotype in other disease settings, the authors demonstrate with solid evidence that this is also true for lung cancer. CHIP is complex and more data will be required to substantiate more evidence with regard perhaps to specific mutations in certain situations and how this might influence therapy choices.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Dysfunctional S1P/S1PR1 signaling in the dentate gyrus drives vulnerability of chronic pain-related memory impairment

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Mengqiao Cui
   2. Xiaoyuan Pan
   3. Zhijie Fan
   4. Shulin Wu
   5. Ran Ji
   6. Xianlei Wang
   7. Xiangxi Kong
   8. Zhou Wu
   9. Lingzhen Song
   10. Weiyi Song
   11. Jun-Xia Yang
   12. Hongjie Zhang
   13. Hongxing Zhang
   14. Hai-Lei Ding
   15. Jun-Li Cao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying chronic pain-related memory impairment by focusing on S1P/S1PR1 signaling in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus. Through behavioral tests (Y-maze and Morris water maze) and RNA-seq analysis, the researchers discovered that S1P/S1PR1 signaling is crucial for determining susceptibility to memory impairment, with decreased S1PR1 expression linked to structural plasticity changes and memory deficits. This work has important significance and a convincing level of evidence, thus offering new insights into the mechanisms underlying chronic pain-related memory impairment.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. TRPγ regulates lipid metabolism through Dh44 neuroendocrine cells

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Dharmendra Kumar Nath
   2. Subash Dhakal
   3. Youngseok Lee

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study reports findings that Trpγ, a type of transient receptor potential (TRP) channel expressed in Dh44-releasing neuroendocrine cells, mediates starvation-dependent lipid catabolism. Overall, the claims of the authors are supported by solid evidence. The work should be of interest to both basic and medical biologists working on lipid metabolism.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Cortical tracking of hierarchical rhythms orchestrates the multisensory processing of biological motion

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Li Shen
   2. Shuo Li
   3. Yuhao Tian
   4. Ying Wang
   5. Yi Jiang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Wang et al. presented visual (dot) motion and/or the sound of a walking person and found solid evidence that EEG activity tracks the step rhythm, as well as the gait (2-step cycle) rhythm, with some demonstration that the gait rhythm is tracked superadditively (power for A+V condition is higher than the sum of the A-only and V-only condition). The valuable findings will be of wide interest to those examining biological motion perception and oscillatory processes more broadly.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A multiplex of connectome trajectories enables several connectivity patterns in parallel

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Parham Mostame
   2. Jonathan Wirsich
   3. Thomas Alderson
   4. Ben Ridley
   5. Anne-Lise Giraud
   6. David W Carmichael
   7. Serge Vulliemoz
   8. Maxime Guye
   9. Louis Lemieux
   10. Sepideh Sadaghiani

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work uses an innovative approach to understand similarities between haemodynamic and electrophysiological activity of the human brain, and how the brain might carry out multiple functions concurrently across different brain regions by using multiple timescales. The study provides convincing evidence to indicate that while spatially similar functional brain networks are found in both modalities, there is a tendency for these to occur asynchronously. This work will be of interest to neurophysiological and brain imaging researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics with machine learning for predicting progression from prediabetes to diabetes

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Jiang Li
   2. Yuefeng Yu
   3. Ying Sun
   4. Yanqi Fu
   5. Wenqi Shen
   6. Lingli Cai
   7. Xiao Tan
   8. Yan Cai
   9. Ningjian Wang
   10. Yingli Lu
   11. Bin Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study combines prospective cohort, metabolomics and machine learning to identify a panel of nine circulating metabolites that improved the ability in risk prediction of progression from prediabetes to diabetes. The findings are convincing, and using current state-of-the-art methods the data and analyses support the claims. This paper provides insights into the integration of these metabolites into clinical and public health practice.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Nonlinear sensitivity to acoustic context is a stable feature of neuronal responses to complex sounds in auditory cortex of awake mice

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Marios Akritas
   2. Alex G Armstrong
   3. Jules M Lebert
   4. Arne F Meyer
   5. Maneesh Sahani
   6. Jennifer F Linden

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides important findings regarding the stability over time of the response properties of neurons in the auditory cortex, including their nonlinear sensitivity to sound context. The data obtained from chronic recordings combined with nonlinear stimulus-response estimation provide convincing evidence that auditory cortical representations are stable over a period of days to weeks. While this study should be of widespread interest to sensory neuroscientists, the paper would be strengthened by a more thorough assessment and discussion of the effects of context and of the stability of the responses, as well as by the inclusion of more information about the location and types of neurons that were sampled.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Multifaceted role of galanin in brain excitability

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Nicolas N Rieser
    2. Milena Ronchetti
    3. Adriana Lea Lea Hotz
    4. Stephan CF Neuhauss

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      The study investigated the effects of the peptide galanin on brain Ca2+ activity in zebrafish, which provides a useful model organism for whole-brain imaging because of its transparency. They found that galanin has distinct effects on hyperactivity and expression of galanin changes after activity increases. The strength of evidence was incomplete particularly for some of the conclusions regarding the use of convulsants and relevance to epilepsy because of limitations to the methods and interpretations of results.

    Reviewed by eLife