eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Prolactin-mediates a lactation-induced suppression of arcuate kisspeptin neuronal activity necessary for lactational infertility in mice

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Eleni CR Hackwell
   2. Sharon R Ladyman
   3. Jenny Clarkson
   4. H James McQuillan
   5. Ulrich Boehm
   6. Allan E Herbison
   7. Rosemary SE Brown
   8. David R Grattan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental work advances our understanding of the mechanisms underlying lactation-induced infertility. Compelling evidence supports the notion that prolactin inhibits kisspeptin activity and LH pulsatile release and that loss of this signal results in an early reestablishment of fertility during lactation. This work will be of interest to endocrinologists and reproductive biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. TMC7 deficiency causes acrosome biogenesis defects and male infertility in mice

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Jing Wang
   2. Yingying Yin
   3. Lei Yang
   4. Junchao Qin
   5. Zixiang Wang
   6. Chunhong Qiu
   7. Yuan Gao
   8. Gang Lu
   9. Fei Gao
   10. Zi-Jiang Chen
   11. Xiyu Zhang
   12. Hongbin Liu
   13. Zhaojian Liu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study reports an important discovery highlighting the essential role of the putative ion channel, TMC7, in acrosome formation during sperm development and thus male fertility. The evidence for the requirement of TMC7 in acrosome biogenesis and sperm function is convincing, although its function as an ion channel remains to be further determined. Overall, this work will be of great interest to developmental biologists and ion channel physiologists alike.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Alteration of long- and short-term hematopoietic stem cell ratio causes myeloid-biased hematopoiesis

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Katsuyuki Nishi
   2. Taro Sakamaki
   3. Akiomi Nagasaka
   4. Kevin Shuolong Kao
   5. Kay Sadaoka
   6. Masahide Asano
   7. Nobuyuki Yamamoto
   8. Akifumi Takaori-Kondo
   9. Masanori Miyanishi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript provides valuable insights into the heterogeneity of hematopoietic stem cells and age-associated myeloid-biased hematopoiesis. While several aspects of the study are intriguing and merit further investigation, the current results remain incomplete and additional data are necessary to substantiate the conclusions. Some of the methods and data analyses partially support the claims.

   Reviewed by eLife, preLights

4. Ciliary length regulation by intraflagellar transport in zebrafish

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yi Sun
   2. Zhe Chen
   3. Minjun Jin
   4. Haibo Xie
   5. Chengtian Zhao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The manuscript represents a valuable conceptual and technical contribution to our understanding of ciliogenesis and intraflagellar transport in vertebrates. Through a series of solid and technically superb live imaging experiments to directly visualize intraflagellar transport in various zebrafish ciliated tissues, the authors unveil the surprising breadth of intraflagellar transport speed among differing organs and link this to cell type-specific differences in cilia length and intraflagellar transport train size. This work will be of broad interest to researchers in numerous fields, including development, cell biology, and imaging.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Structural insights into peptidoglycan hydrolysis by the FtsEX system in Escherichia coli during cell division

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Jianwei Li
   2. Yutong He
   3. Xin Xu
   4. Martin Alcorlo
   5. Jian Shi
   6. Souvik Naskar
   7. Nicholas S Briggs
   8. David I Roper
   9. Juan A Hermoso
   10. Lok-To Sham
   11. Min Luo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a potentially useful study that provides solid, yet confirmatory structural findings about the complex (FtsEX) that controls peptidoglycan remodeling during bacterial cell division. The authors capitalize on the fact that ATP binding stabilizes the FtsEX complex allowing structural characterization for this system. A model is then developed to explain ATP regulation but there is a gap between the model presented here and in vivo data reported previously.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Testosterone-Induced Metabolic Changes in Seminal Vesicle Epithelium Modify Seminal Plasma Components with Potential to Improve Sperm Motility

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Takahiro Yamanaka
   2. Zimo Xiao
   3. Natsumi Tsujita
   4. Mahmoud Awad
   5. Takashi Umehara
   6. Masayuki Shimada

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work elucidates the biological processes and detailed mechanisms by which testosterone influences seminal plasma metabolites in mice. The evidence supporting the upregulation of metabolic enzymes and the role of ACLY is solid, highlighting the potential contributions of fatty acids to sperm motility.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Bacterial exonuclease III expands its enzymatic activities on single-stranded DNA

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Hao Wang
   2. Chen Ye
   3. Qi Lu
   4. Zhijie Jiang
   5. Chao Jiang
   6. Chun Zhou
   7. Na Li
   8. Caiqiao Zhang
   9. Guoping Zhao
   10. Min Yue
   11. Yan Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript highlights single-stranded DNA exo- and endo-nuclease activities of ExoIII as a potential caveat and an underestimated source of decreased efficiency in its use in biosensor assays. The data present solid evidence for the ssDNA nuclease activity of ExoIII and identifies residues that contribute to it. The findings are useful, but some aspects in the study remain incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Disruption in CYLC1 leads to acrosome detachment, sperm head deformity, and male in/subfertility in humans and mice

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Hui-Juan Jin
   2. Yong Fan
   3. Xiaoyu Yang
   4. Yue Dong
   5. Xiao-Zhen Zhang
   6. Xin-Yan Geng
   7. Zheng Yan
   8. Ling Wu
   9. Meng Ma
   10. Bin Li
   11. Qifeng Lyu
   12. Yun Pan
   13. Mingxi Liu
   14. Yanping Kuang
   15. Su-Ren Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Spermiogenesis is a complex process allowing the emergence of specific sperm organelle, including the acrosome, a sperm giant vesicle of secretion. This important study reports the key role of Cylicin-1 in acrosome biogenesis and identifies the molecular partners necessary for acrosome anchoring. The compelling demonstration is based on infertile patient samples and two animal models. Overall, this provides results that will be invaluable to the male reproduction community, including scientists and andrologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Unbiased identification of cell identity in dense mixed neural cultures

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Sarah De Beuckeleer
   2. Tim Van De Looverbosch
   3. Johanna Van Den Daele
   4. Peter Ponsaerts
   5. Winnok H De Vos

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents an important application of high-content image-based morphological profiling to quantitatively and systematically characterize induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mixed neural cultures cell type compositions. Exceptional evidence through rigorous experimental and computational validations support new potential applications of this cheap and simple assay.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The intrinsically disordered N-terminus of SUMO1 is an intramolecular inhibitor of SUMO1 interactions

    This article has 12 authors:

    1. Sebastian M Richter
    2. Fan Jin
    3. Tobias Ritterhoff
    4. Aleksandra Fergin
    5. Eric Maurer
    6. Andrea Frank
    7. Michael Daube
    8. Alex Hajnal
    9. Rachel Klevit
    10. Frauke Gräter
    11. Annette Flotho
    12. Frauke Melchior

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This work demonstrates an important regulatory role of the N-terminal disordered tail of small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) proteins, which modulate the function of various proteins in eukaryotic cells. The authors present convincing evidence that the N-terminal tail of SUMO inhibits SUMO's interaction with downstream effector proteins and SUMOylation targets, and that this regulatory mechanism depends on the SUMO paralogue or the phosphorylation of the N-terminal tail. This discovery significantly advances the field by providing a possible explanation of how SUMO paralogues select their effectors and SUMOylation targets.

    Reviewed by eLife