eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Determining the effects of paternal obesity on sperm chromatin at histone H3 lysine 4 tri-methylation in relation to the placental transcriptome and cellular composition

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Anne-Sophie Pepin
   2. Patrycja A Jazwiec
   3. Vanessa Dumeaux
   4. Deborah M Sloboda
   5. Sarah Kimmins

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study presents data suggesting that HFD-induced histone epimutations in sperm may impact the transcriptome of the placenta, thereby contributing to the paternal transmission of paternal metabolic disorders to offspring. Although the hypothesis is interesting and the evidence presented is compelling, more careful statistical analyses and functional validation experiments are needed to further strengthen the conclusion.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Maturation of cortical input to dorsal raphe nucleus increases behavioral persistence in mice

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Nicolas Gutierrez-Castellanos
   2. Dario Sarra
   3. Beatriz S Godinho
   4. Zachary F Mainen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this important study, the authors explore the importance of developmental changes in cortico-DRN innervation in the balance of behavioral control in a foraging task. The authors report somewhat convincing evidence that while juvenile mice and adult mice both perform the task, juveniles exhibit more impulsive behavior due to reduced efficacy of cortico-DRN projections. The authors conclude that the development of cortico-DRN (esp mPFC) projections allows 5HT input to promote perseveration (or exploitation) in the balance of behavioral control. However, reviewers raised issues regarding the strength of the evidence without further experiments.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. SAFB regulates hippocampal stem cell fate by targeting Drosha to destabilize Nfib mRNA

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Pascal Forcella
   2. Niklas Ifflander
   3. Chiara Rolando
   4. Elli-Anna Balta
   5. Aikaterini Lampada
   6. Claudio Giachino
   7. Tanzila Mukhtar
   8. Thomas Bock
   9. Verdon Taylor

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript addresses a non-canonical function of the Class 2 ribonuclease III Drosha in the regulation of adult neural stem cell fate, important for understanding how these cells generate neurons or oligodendrocytic cells.
     Overall, this manuscript has many strengths. The authors identify 165 proteins, several of them enriched in neural stem cells, and potentially specific for miRNA dependent or independent Drosha macromolecular complexes.
     While the authors provide systematic and convincing evidence on the biochemical interactions among the key players in this cascade, the significance of these interactions for neural stem cell fate determination in vivo remains unclear, as the in vitro cellular systems used to document most of the data reported in the paper may not (fully) represent resident neural stem cells in the adult hippocampus. The in vivo function mediated by Drosha/ Safb1 needs to be substantiated by more evidence and/or complementary approaches.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Human dynein-dynactin is a fast processive motor in living cells

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Vikash Verma
   2. Patricia Wadsworth
   3. Thomas J. Maresca

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In their short technical report, Verma et al. describe how endogenously-tagged dynein and dynactin molecules localize to growing microtubule plus-ends and move processively along microtubules in cells. The authors present solid evidence that cytoplasmic dynein is a processive motor that takes long excursions prior to dissociating from microtubules. However, there are concerns about the robustness of the imaging and analysis protocols, which should be more clearly defined. This is a useful study that will be of interest to cell biologists and biochemists in the motor protein field.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Human promoter directionality is determined by transcriptional initiation and the opposing activities of INTS11 and CDK9

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Joshua D Eaton
   2. Jessica Board
   3. Lee Davidson
   4. Chris Estell
   5. Steven West

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The important study uses a new experimental method to provide compelling evidence on how sense- and anti-sense transcription is differentially regulated. The method described here can generally be used to study the alterations in transcription. This paper will be of interest to scientists working in the gene regulation community.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. OVO positively regulates essential maternal pathways by binding near the transcriptional start sites in the Drosophila female germline

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Leif Benner
   2. Savannah Muron
   3. Jillian G Gomez
   4. Brian Oliver

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This useful manuscript extends prior work to identify OVO as a major transcriptional activator of the female germline gene expression program. Using a combination of solid genomic strategies, the authors demonstrate that OVO binds to the promoters of hundreds of genes in the female germline and promotes their expression.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Coevolution with toxic prey produces functional trade-offs in sodium channels of predatory snakes

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Robert E. del Carlo
   2. Jessica S. Reimche
   3. Haley A. Moniz
   4. Michael T.J. Hague
   5. Shailesh R. Agarwal
   6. Edmund D. Brodie
   7. Edmund D. Brodie
   8. Normand Leblanc
   9. Chris R. Feldman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study describes an investigation of the properties of two heterologously-expressed Nav1.4 channels, with mutations close to the selectivity filter found in tetrodotoxin(TTX)-resistant snakes. The authors studied these mutants by electrophysiological methods, assessed the muscle properties of two types of snakes bearing these mutations, and built homology models of the channels to hypothesize a molecular explanation of the altered channel properties. The methods employed and the results are generally solid, although some aspects would benefit from additional experiments and a more nuanced discussion.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Targeted protein degradation systems to enhance Wnt signaling

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Parthasarathy Sampathkumar
   2. Heekyung Jung
   3. Hui Chen
   4. Zhengjian Zhang
   5. Nicholas Suen
   6. Yiran Yang
   7. Zhong Huang
   8. Tom Lopez
   9. Robert Benisch
   10. Sung-Jin Lee
   11. Jay Ye
   12. Wen-Chen Yeh
   13. Yang Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The manuscript describes a valuable method to boost WNT signaling in a tissue-specific manner. The work extends previous data from the authors based on fusing an RSPO2 mutant protein to an antibody that binds ASGR1/2. In the current manuscript, two new antibodies with similar effects are described, that expand this solid approach and provide alternatives for potential future clinical applications. This manuscript will be of interest to all scientists studying protein engineering and cellular targeting.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Epigenetics and chromatin structure regulate var2csa expression and the placental binding phenotype in Plasmodium falciparum

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Todd Lenz
   2. Madle Sirel
   3. Hannes Hoppe
   4. Sulman Shafeeq
   5. Karine Le Roch
   6. Ulf Ribacke

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors examined in detail the epigenetic changes and alterations in the subnuclear arrangement of a unique var gene associated with Plasmodium falciparum placental malaria. Although the observations are mainly confirmatory, the findings are valuable for theoretical considerations and practical applications. Applying the latest methods for the analysis of histone marks, transcriptomics, DNA methylation, and chromosome conformation, the authors provide observations that are convincing, thus making their claims appropriate.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. OpenNucleome for high-resolution nuclear structural and dynamical modeling

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Zhuohan Lao
    2. Kartik D Kamat
    3. Zhongling Jiang
    4. Bin Zhang

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This important work significantly advances the field of computational modelling of genome organisation through the development of OpenNucleome. The evidence supporting the tool's effectiveness is compelling, as the authors compare their predictions with experimental data. It is anticipated that OpenNucleome will attract significant interest from the biophysics and genomics communities.

    Reviewed by eLife