eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Proteomic landscape of tunneling nanotubes reveals CD9 and CD81 tetraspanins as key regulators

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Roberto Notario Manzano
   2. Thibault Chaze
   3. Eric Rubinstein
   4. Esthel Penard
   5. Mariette Matondo
   6. Chiara Zurzolo
   7. Christel Brou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Notario Manzano et al. offer a valuable first analysis of proteins within tunneling nanotubes (TNTs), membranous bridges connecting cells. This work distinguishes TNTs from extracellular vesicles, but further experimental and analytical tools are needed to refine the TNT proteome. Solid data supports a role for tetraspanins CD9 and CD81 in TNT function. The proposed model for CD9 and CD81 is over-interpreted and requires additional evidence for stronger support.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Treacle’s ability to form liquid-like phase condensates is essential for nucleolar fibrillar center assembly, efficient rRNA transcription and processing, and rRNA gene repair

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Artem K Velichko
   2. Nadezhda V Petrova
   3. Dmitry A Deriglazov
   4. Anastasia P Kovina
   5. Artem V Luzhin
   6. Eugene P Kazakov
   7. Igor I Kireev
   8. Sergey Razin
   9. Omar L Kantidze

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study reveals that the nucleolar protein Treacle undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation in vitro and in vivo. It provides convincing evidence that the ability of Treacle to form phase-separated condensates is necessary for the proper formation of the fibrillar center of the nucleolus, rRNA transcription, and rDNA repair. These findings will be of interest to the communities studying biomolecular condensates, nucleolar organization, and ribosome biogenesis.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Loss of SPNS1, a lysosomal transporter, in the nervous system causes dysmyelination and white matter dysplasia

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Yoshinobu Ichimura
   2. Yuki Sugiura
   3. Yoshinori Katsuragi
   4. Yu-Shin Sou
   5. Takefumi Uemura
   6. Naoki Tamura
   7. Satoko Komatsu-Hirota
   8. Takashi Ueno
   9. Masato Koike
   10. Satoshi Waguri
   11. Masaaki Komatsu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper presents useful findings on the dysmyelination phenotype of nervous system-specific Spns1 (a lysosomal lipid transporter) knockout mice. While the analysis of the phenotype is solid, the evidence for the underlying mechanisms, especially the molecular function for SPNS1, is incomplete. With more careful interpretation and/or additional experimental data, this work could have implications for understanding lipid transport and lysosomal storage diseases.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Neuronal migration depends on blood flow in the adult mammalian brain

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Takashi Ogino
   2. Akari Saito
   3. Masato Sawada
   4. Shoko Takemura
   5. Yuzuki Hara
   6. Kanami Yoshimura
   7. Jiro Nagase
   8. Honomi Kawase
   9. Takamasa Sato
   10. Hiroyuki Inada
   11. Vicente Herranz-Pérez
   12. Yoh-suke Mukouyama
   13. Masatsugu Ema
   14. José Manuel García-Verdugo
   15. Junichi Nabekura
   16. Kazunobu Sawamoto

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental work provides novel insights into the blood flow-dependent mechanisms of neuronal migration and the role of Gherlin signaling in the adult brain. The authors present convincing evidence that newborn rostral migratory stream (RMS) neurons are closely situated alongside blood vessels, preferentially along arterioles, and that migratory speed is correlated with blood flow. They also provide evidence (in vitro and some in vivo) that Ghrelin from blood is involved in augmenting RMS neuron migration speed.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Mesolimbic dopamine ramps reflect environmental timescales

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Joseph R Floeder
   2. Huijeong Jeong
   3. Ali Mohebi
   4. Vijay Mohan K Namboodiri

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Floeder and colleagues provide an important investigation that describes the experimental conditions that systematically produce "ramps" in dopamine signaling in the striatum. This somewhat nebulous feature of dopamine has been a significant part of recent theoretical and computational debates attempting to formally describe the different timescales on which dopamine functions. The current results are convincing and add context to that ongoing work.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Secondary structure of the SARS-CoV-2 genome is predictive of nucleotide substitution frequency

   This article has 1 author:

   1. Zach Hensel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This short manuscript uses mutation counts in phylogenies of millions of SARS-CoV-2 genomes to show that mutation rates systematically differ between regions that are paired or unpaired in the predicted RNA secondary structure of the viral genome. Such an effect of pairing state is not unexpected, but its systematic demonstration using millions of viral genomes is valuable and convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. On the nature of the earliest known lifeforms

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Dheeraj Kanaparthi
   2. Frances Westall
   3. Marko Lampe
   4. Baoli Zhu
   5. Thomas Boesen
   6. Bettina Scheu
   7. Andreas Klingl
   8. Petra Schwille
   9. Tillmann Lueders

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This provocative manuscript presents important comparisons of the morphologies of Archaean bacterial microfossils to those of microbes transformed under environmental conditions that mimic those present on Earth during the same Eon. The evidence in support of the conclusions is solid. The authors' environmental condition selection for their experiment is justified.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Repix: reliable, reusable, versatile chronic Neuropixels implants using minimal components

   This article has 26 authors:

   1. Mattias Horan
   2. Daniel Regester
   3. Cristina Mazuski
   4. Thomas Jahans-Price
   5. Shanice Bailey
   6. Emmett Thompson
   7. Zuzanna Slonina
   8. Viktor Plattner
   9. Elena Menichini
   10. Irmak Toksöz
   11. Sandra Romero Pinto
   12. Mark Burrell
   13. Isabella Varsavsky
   14. Henry WP Dalgleish
   15. Célian Bimbard
   16. Anna Lebedeva
   17. Marius Bauza
   18. Francesca Cacucci
   19. Thomas Wills
   20. Athena Akrami
   21. Julija Krupic
   22. Marcus Stephenson-Jones
   23. Caswell Barry
   24. Neil Burgess
   25. John O’Keefe
   26. Yoh Isogai

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This report details the creation and wide-scale utilization of "Repix", a new technique for chronic neurophysiological recordings using and re-using Neuropixels probes in freely behaving mice and rats. The authors include data and feedback from a variety of labs and researchers who have used this technique, setting an example for open science and reproducibility, and providing convincing evidence that this approach can be employed for chronic Neuropixels recordings. However, evidence is currently incomplete for claims about the advantages of this design over previous approaches and for cell yield and stability claims. This important work will have an impact on a broad range of neuroscientists seeking a straightforward methodology for chronic Neuropixels recordings and will facilitate ethologically relevant experimental designs.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Structural insights into human propionyl-CoA carboxylase (PCC) and 3-methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase (MCC)

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Fayang Zhou
   2. Yuanyuan Zhang
   3. Yuyao Zhu
   4. Qiang Zhou
   5. Yigong Shi
   6. Qi Hu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents the cryo-EM structures of two human biotin-dependent mitochondria carboxylases involved in various biological pathways, including the metabolism of certain amino acids, cholesterol, and odd chain fatty acids. The cryo-EM structures offer a valuable addition to the structural description of biotin-dependent carboxylases and provide solid evidence to support the major conclusions of this study. This paper would be of interest to biochemists and structural biologists working on biotin-dependent carboxylases.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Nutritional state-dependent modulation of insulin-producing cells in Drosophila

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Rituja S Bisen
    2. Fathima Mukthar Iqbal
    3. Federico Cascino-Milani
    4. Till Bockemühl
    5. Jan M Ache

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      With compelling electrophysiological and behavioural evidence, this work establishes that the activity of insulin-producing cells (IPCs) depends on the nutritional state in Drosophila and that, like in mammals, there is also an incretin-like effect with IPCs responding to glucose feeding but not to glucose perfusion. Moreover, the authors demonstrate that DH44 neurons respond to glucose perfusion and, together with IPCs, modulate locomotor activity. This important study on the neuronal regulation of metabolic homeostasis will be of interest to both neuroscience and to medical research in diabetes.

    Reviewed by eLife