eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Systematic genetic characterization of the human PKR kinase domain highlights its functional malleability to escape a poxvirus substrate mimic

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Michael James Chambers
   2. Sophia B Scobell
   3. Meru J Sadhu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important revised report describes the control of the activity of the RNA-activated protein kinase, PKR, by the Vaccinia virus K3 protein. A strength of the manuscript is the powerful combination of a classic yeast-based assay with high-throughput sequencing and its convincing experimental use to characterize large numbers of PKR variants, now with improved controls for potential biases. A minor current limitation that the authors may address in the future is the scope of the screen in terms of the segments of PKR included.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. A deep learning approach for the analysis of birdsong

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Therese MI Koch
   2. Ethan S Marks
   3. Todd F Roberts

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work introduces a new Python package, Avian Vocalization Analysis (AVN) that provides several key analysis pipelines for birdsong research. This tool is likely to prove useful to researchers in neuroscience and beyond, as demonstrated by convincing experiments using a wide range of publicly available birdsong data.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Impaired yolk sac NAD metabolism disrupts murine embryogenesis with relevance to human birth defects

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Kayleigh Bozon
   2. Hartmut Cuny
   3. Delicia Z Sheng
   4. Ella MMA Martin
   5. Alena Sipka
   6. Paul Young
   7. David T Humphreys
   8. Sally L Dunwoodie

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     NAD deficiency perturbs embryonic development resulting in multiple congenital malformations, collectively termed Congenital NAD Deficiency Disorder (CNDD). The authors report fundamental findings demonstrating that extra-embryonic visceral yolk sac endoderm is critical for NAD de novo synthesis during early organogenesis and perturbations of this pathway may underlie CNDD. The authors combine gene expression with metabolic assays to provide solid evidence of an essential role of the extra-embryonic visceral yolk sac in both mouse and human embryos.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. The effect of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on cardiovascular function in subarachnoid hemorrhage patients: A randomized trial

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Gansheng Tan
   2. Anna L Huguenard
   3. Kara M Donovan
   4. Phillip Demarest
   5. Xiaoxuan Liu
   6. Ziwei Li
   7. Markus Adamek
   8. Kory Lavine
   9. Ananthv K Vellimana
   10. Terrance T Kummer
   11. Joshua W Osbun
   12. Gregory J Zipfel
   13. Peter Brunner
   14. Eric C Leuthardt

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors provide a solid set of data supporting the safety of transcutaneous auricular vagal nerve stimulation on cardiovascular parameters in the acute setting of critically ill patients presenting with subarachnoid hemorrhage. This important study also suggests a promising effect on autonomic balance.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Zebrafish live imaging reveals a surprisingly small percentage of spinal cord motor neurons die during early development

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Hao Jia
   2. Hongmei Yang
   3. Kathy Qian Luo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors have developed a biosensor for programmed cell death. They use this biosensor to provide cell death measurements in a specific early development time. The findings useful in a specific context; however, the application of this biosensor is incomplete as it does not take into account existing literature and is missing controls.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Stimulus representation in human frontal cortex supports flexible control in working memory

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Zhujun Shao
   2. Mengya Zhang
   3. Qing Yu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work presents important findings that the human frontal cortex is involved in a flexible, dual role in both maintaining information in short-term memory, and controlling this memory content to guide adaptive behavior and decisions. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with a well-designed task, best-practice decoding methods, and careful control analyses. The work will be of broad interest to cognitive neuroscience researchers working on working memory and cognitive control.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Cell chirality reversal through tilted balance between polymerization of radial fibers and clockwise-swirling of transverse arcs

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Hoi Kwan Kwong
   2. Miu Ling Lam
   3. Siying Wu
   4. Cho Fan Chung
   5. Jianpeng Wu
   6. Lok Ting Chu
   7. King Hoo Lim
   8. Hiu Lam Chow
   9. Hogi Hartanto
   10. Wengang Liu
   11. Kwan Ting Chow
   12. Ting-Hsuan Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The intrinsic chirality of actin filaments (F-actin) is implicated in the chiral arrangement and movement of cellular structures, but it was unknown how opposite chiralities can arise when the chirality of F-actin is invariant. Kwong et al. present evidence that two actin filament-based cytoskeletal structures, transverse actin arcs and radial stress fibers, drive clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation, respectively. This fundamental work, which has broad implications for cell biology, is supported by compelling data.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. The title and authors for this article are not available from our external data provider yet:
   10.48550/arxiv.2312.17293v3

9. TRPML1 gating modulation by allosteric mutations and lipids

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Ninghai Gan
   2. Yan Han
   3. Weizhong Zeng
   4. Youxing Jiang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Transient receptor potential mucolipin 1 (TRPML1) functions as a lysosomal ion channel whose variants are associated with lysosomal storage disorder mucolipidosis type IV. This important report describes local and global structural changes driven by binding of regulatory phospholipids and by mutations that allosterically cause gain or loss of channel function. Most of the claims related to the allosteric regulation of TRPML1 are convincingly supported by two new cryo-EM structures which are evaluated within the context of previously reported TRPML1 structures, and a proposed allosteric gating mechanism is partially supported by functional electrophysiology results.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The evolutionary modifications of a GoLoco motif in the AGS protein facilitate micromere formation in the sea urchin embryo

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Natsuko Emura
    2. Florence DM Wavreil
    3. Annaliese Fries
    4. Mamiko Yajima

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important study presents work on the molecular mechanism driving asymmetric cell division and fate decisions during embryonic development of echinoids. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing. The work will be of interest to developmental biologists and cell biologists working in the field of self-renewal.

    Reviewed by eLife