Latest preprint reviews

1. Plectin-mediated cytoskeletal crosstalk as a target for inhibition of hepatocellular carcinoma growth and metastasis

   This article has 31 authors:

   1. Zuzana Outla
   2. Gizem Oyman-Eyrilmez
   3. Katerina Korelova
   4. Magdalena Prechova
   5. Lukas Frick
   6. Lenka Sarnova
   7. Piyush Bisht
   8. Petra Novotna
   9. Jan Kosla
   10. Patricia Bortel
   11. Yasmin Borutzki
   12. Andrea Bileck
   13. Christopher Gerner
   14. Mohammad Rahbari
   15. Nuh Rahbari
   16. Emrullah Birgin
   17. Bibiana Kvasnicova
   18. Andrea Galisova
   19. Katerina Sulkova
   20. Andreas Bauer
   21. Njainday Jobe
   22. Ondrej Tolde
   23. Eva Sticova
   24. Daniel Rosel
   25. Tracy O’Connor
   26. Martin Otahal
   27. Daniel Jirak
   28. Mathias Heikenwälder
   29. Gerhard Wiche
   30. Samuel M. Meier-Menches
   31. Martin Gregor

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding in understanding the role of plectin in the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing because multiple orthogonal ways were used to demonstrate the requirement of this target in liver cancer models. However, the study is incomplete as the downstream molecular activities of plectin that mediate the cancer phenotypes were not fully evaluated.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Loss function of tumor suppressor FRMD8 confers resistance to tamoxifen therapy via a dual mechanism

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Weijie Wu
   2. Miao Yu
   3. Qianchen Li
   4. Yiqian Zhao
   5. Lei Zhang
   6. Yi Sun
   7. Zhenbin Wang
   8. Yuqing Gong
   9. Wenjing Wang
   10. Chenying Liu
   11. Jing Zhang
   12. Yan Tang
   13. Xiaojie Xu
   14. Xiaojing Guo
   15. Jun Zhan
   16. Hongquan Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript presents a valuable finding on the impact of FRMD8 loss on tumor progression and the resistance to tamoxifen therapy. The author conducted systematic experiments to explore the role of FRMD8 in breast cancer and its potential regulatory mechanisms, confirming that FRMD8 affects tamoxifen resistance and convincingly validating this hypothesis through a series of experiments.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Amidase and Lysozyme Dual Functions in TseP Reveal a New Family of Chimeric Effectors in the Type VI Secretion System

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Zeng-Hang Wang
   2. Ying An
   3. Ting Zhao
   4. Tong-Tong Pei
   5. Dora Yuping Wang
   6. Xiaoye Liang
   7. Wenming Qin
   8. Tao Dong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study describes how a single effector of the Type Six Secretion System (T6SS) has two distinct enzymatic functions that together may contribute to bacterial survival and dynamics in a community and provide potential for developing new antimicrobial compounds. The authors have deployed a range of methods in biochemistry, microbiology, and microscopy, generating solid data that support the main assertions. While the manuscript could benefit from additional clarifying experiments and a more detailed discussion of the methods, it will appeal to those studying T6SS, particularly those interested in effectors and bacterial enzymes.

   Reviewed by eLife, Arcadia Science

4. Range geographies, not functional traits, explain convergent range and phenology shifts under climate change

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Catherine Sirois-Delisle
   2. Susan CC Gordon
   3. Jeremy T Kerr

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This article presents valuable findings on the impact of climate change on odonates, integrating phenological and range shifts to broaden our understanding of biodiversity change. The study leverages extensive natural history data, offering a combined analysis of temporal trends in phenology and distribution and their potential drivers. The support for the findings is solid, though additional clarification regarding the methods and alternative sensitivity analyses could make the conclusions stronger.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Protein-Induced Membrane Strain Drives Supercomplex Formation

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Maximilian C Pöverlein
   2. Alexander Jussupow
   3. Hyunho Kim
   4. Ville RI Kaila

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this potentially important study, the authors conducted extensive atomistic and coarse-grained simulations as well as a lattice Monte Carlo analysis to probe the driving force and functional impact of supercomplex formation in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The study highlighted the importance of membrane mechanics to the supercomplex formation and revealed differences in structural and dynamical features of the protein components upon complex formation. In its current form, the analysis is considered incomplete, especially concerning the contributions of membrane mechanics and allosteric coupling of key regions.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Discovering Root Causal Genes with High Throughput Perturbations

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Eric V Strobl
   2. Eric R Gamazon

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work provides a potentially valuable framework for understanding the primary causes of disease. However, the evidence supporting the utility of the approach is incomplete given the reliance on strong assumptions about the underlying causal mechanisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Permissive and instructive Hox codes govern limb positioning

   This article has 20 authors:

   1. Yajun Wang
   2. Maik Hintze
   3. Jinbao Wang
   4. Patrick Petzsch
   5. Karl Köhrer
   6. Hengxun Tao
   7. Longfei Cheng
   8. Peng Zhou
   9. Jianlin Wang
   10. Zhaofu Liao
   11. Xufeng Qi
   12. Dongqing Cai
   13. Thomas Bartolomaeus
   14. Karl Schilling
   15. Joerg Wilting
   16. Stefanie Kuerten
   17. Georgy Koentges
   18. Ketan Patel
   19. Qin Pu
   20. Ruijin Huang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study investigates the role of Hox genes in determining the position of the forelimb bud using experimental loss- and gain-of-function approaches in chicken embryos, concluding that Hox4 and Hox5 provide permissive signals for forelimb formation throughout the neck region, while the final forelimb position is determined by the instructive signals of Hox6/7 in the lateral plate mesoderm. These results could potentially be fundamental to our understanding of Hox patterning. However, the evidence supporting these conclusions is incomplete; while the gain-of-function experiments are well supported, the loss-of-function experiments using dominant-negative constructs lack sufficient controls, and could be the result of an experimental artifact.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Maternal behavior influences vocal practice and learning processes in the greater sac-winged bat

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Ahana A Fernandez
   2. Nora Serve
   3. Sarah-Cecil Fabian
   4. Mirjam Knörnschild

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides insights into the role of maternal behavior in the learning and ontogeny of vocalization, finding evidence that the maternal behavior of sac-winged bats (Saccopteryx bilineata) can influence the learned territorial songs of their pups. The behavioral analyses are solid, although a more comprehensive and quantitative description of the babblings and the female displays would have strengthened the study. The work will interest biologists and neuroscientists studying vocal learning and its evolution.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Prediction tendency, eye movements, and attention in a unified framework of neural speech tracking

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Juliane Schubert
   2. Quirin Gehmacher
   3. Fabian Schmidt
   4. Thomas Hartmann
   5. Nathan Weisz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     These are valuable findings for those interested in how neural signals reflect auditory speech streams, and in understanding the roles of prediction, attention, and eye movements in this tracking. However, the evidence as it stands is incomplete. Further details are needed on how the observed quantities relate to the relevant theoretical claims and mathematical models. Moreover, additional motivation is required for several analytical choices.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Cholecystokinin modulates age-dependent Thalamocortical Neuroplasticity

    This article has 17 authors:

    1. Xiao Li
    2. Jingyu Feng
    3. Xiaohan Hu
    4. Peipei Zhou
    5. Tao Chen
    6. Xuejiao Zheng
    7. Peter Jendrichovsky
    8. Xue Wang
    9. Mengying Chen
    10. Hao Li
    11. Xi Chen
    12. Dingxuan Zeng
    13. Mengfan Zhang
    14. Zhoujian Xiao
    15. Ling He
    16. Stephen Temitayo Bello
    17. Jufang He

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This is an important study demonstrating that cholecystokinin is a key modulator of auditory thalamocortical plasticity during development and in young adults but not aged mice, though the cortical application of this neuropeptide in older animals appears to go some way to restoring this age-dependent loss in plasticity. A strength of this work is the use of multiple experimental approaches, which together provide convincing support for the proposed involvement of cholecystokinin. Nevertheless, the specificity of the electrical and optical stimulation experiments requires further validation and some key details are missing in the presentation and discussion of these findings. This work is likely to be influential in opening up a new avenue of investigation into the roles of neuropeptides in sensory plasticity.

    Reviewed by eLife