eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. UPRER–immunity axis acts as physiological food evaluation system that promotes aversion behavior in sensing low-quality food

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Pengfei Liu
   2. Xinyi Liu
   3. Bin Qi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable work uses unbiased approaches to discover critical molecules in C. elegans and its bacterial food for nutrition sensing and food choice, providing a framework for other studies. The data convincingly support their model that C. elegans uses UPRER and immune response pathways to evaluate sugar contents in the bacteria to change their behaviors.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Pan-cortical 2-photon mesoscopic imaging and neurobehavioral alignment in awake, behaving mice

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Evan D Vickers
   2. David A McCormick

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important paper presents a thoroughly detailed methodology for mesoscale-imaging of extensive areas of the cortex, either from a top or lateral perspective, in behaving mice. The examples of scientific results to be derived with this method offer promising and stimulating insights. Overall, the method and results presented are convincing and will be of interest to neuroscientists focused on cortical processing in rodents and beyond.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. X-ray structure and enzymatic study of a bacterial NADPH oxidase highlight the activation mechanism of eukaryotic NOX

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Isabelle Petit-Hartlein
   2. Annelise Vermot
   3. Michel Thepaut
   4. Anne-Sophie Humm
   5. Florine Dupeux
   6. Jerome Dupuy
   7. Vincent Chaptal
   8. Jose Antonio Marquez
   9. Susan ME Smith
   10. Franck Fieschi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this manuscript, the authors investigate the properties of prokaryotic NADPH oxidases (NOX) and discuss the implications for NOX regulation and function. The structure of the S. pneumoniae Nox protein is an important step forward in our understanding of procaryotic NOX enzymes and the characterization and interpretation are convincing. The results will be of interest to structural biologists as well as biochemists focusing on enzymatic functions.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. SMAD4 promotes somatic-germline contact during murine oocyte growth

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Sofia Granados-Aparici
   2. Qin Yang
   3. Hugh J Clarke

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study reports an important mechanism through which the TGF-beta signaling pathway promotes contacts between oocytes and their surrounding somatic cells by regulating the number of transzonal projections (TZPs) in mice. Convincing data support the conclusions. The work will be of interest to biomedical researchers who work on ovarian biology and female fertility.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Experimental evolution for the recovery of growth loss due to genome reduction

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Kenya Hitomi
   2. Yoichiro Ishii
   3. Bei-Wen Ying

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study of the recovery of genome-reduced bacterial cells in laboratory evolution experiments, to understand how they regain their fitness. Through the analysis of gene expression and a series of tests, the authors present convincing evidence indicating distinct molecular changes in the evolved bacterial strains, although the precise mechanisms remain uncharacterized. These findings imply that diverse mechanisms are employed to offset the effects of a reduced genome, offering intriguing insights into genome evolution.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Functional characterization of the disease-associated CCL2 rs1024611G-rs13900T haplotype: The role of the RNA-binding protein HuR

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Feroz Akhtar
   2. Joselin Hernandez Ruiz
   3. Ya-Guang Liu
   4. Roy G Resendez
   5. Denis Feliers
   6. Liza D Morales
   7. Alvaro Diaz-Badillo
   8. Donna M Lehman
   9. Rector Arya
   10. Juan Carlos Lopez-Alvarenga
   11. John Blangero
   12. Ravindranath Duggirala
   13. Srinivas Mummidi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     CCL2 is a chemokine with immune cell chemoattractant properties, and it appears to play a role in several chronic inflammatory diseases. The RNA-binding protein HuR controls the stability and translation of CCL2 mRNA. This paper presents convincing evidence that a relatively common genetic variant tied to several disease phenotypes affects the interaction between the mRNA of CCL2 and the RNA-binding protein HuR. While the experiments cannot definitively distinguish between effects on RNA transcription and stability, CCL2 is thought to be relevant for leukocyte migration in various conditions, including chronic inflammation and cancer, and the study presents important findings that may be relevant to a broad audience.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Transdifferentiation of fibroblasts into muscle cells to constitute cultured meat with tunable intramuscular fat deposition

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Tongtong Ma
   2. Ruimin Ren
   3. Jianqi Lv
   4. Ruipeng Yang
   5. Xinyi Zheng
   6. Yang Hu
   7. Guiyu Zhu
   8. Heng Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents an important new technology for transdifferentiation of fibroblasts into muscle cells. The data and methods used for analysis were compelling. This study will have broad interest to cellular reprogramming biologists in particular as well as the general public.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Dengue viremia kinetics and effects on platelet count and clinical outcomes: An analysis of 2340 patients from Vietnam

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Nguyen Lam Vuong
   2. Nguyen Than Ha Quyen
   3. Nguyen Thi Hanh Tien
   4. Kien Duong Thi Hue
   5. Huynh Thi Le Duyen
   6. Phung Khanh Lam
   7. Dong Thi Hoai Tam
   8. Tran Van Ngoc
   9. Thomas Jaenisch
   10. Cameron P Simmons
   11. Sophie Yacoub
   12. Bridget A Wills
   13. Ronald Geskus

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript by Vuong and colleagues reports on the kinetics of viremia in a large set of individuals from Vietnam. In the large cohort, all 4 dengue serotypes are represented and the authors try to correlate viraemia measured at various days from illness onset with thrombocytopaenia and severe dengue, according to the WHO 2009 classification scheme. These are fundamental findings that provide compelling evidence of the importance of measuring viremia early in the phase of the disease. These data will help to inform the design of studies of antiviral drugs against dengue.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. The effect of combining antibiotics on resistance: A systematic review and meta-analysis

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Berit Siedentop
   2. Viacheslav N Kachalov
   3. Christopher Witzany
   4. Matthias Egger
   5. Roger D Kouyos
   6. Sebastian Bonhoeffer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a methodologically state-of-the-art systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that addressed the question of whether the administration of multiple antibiotics simultaneously prevents antibiotic resistance development in individuals. The findings are solid. Rather than providing a precise answer, the synthesis of studies eligible for analysis leads to the conclusion that "our analysis could not identify any benefit or harm of using a higher or a lower number of antibiotics regarding within-patient resistance development." This article is important as it articulates the existing knowledge gap, but also serves as an example for careful future use of the meta-analysis methodology, when existing data just don't allow conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Activity-dependent mitochondrial ROS signaling regulates recruitment of glutamate receptors to synapses

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Rachel L Doser
    2. Kaz M Knight
    3. Ennis W Deihl
    4. Frederic J Hoerndli

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This study examines an interplay between synaptic mitochondria and glutamate receptor exocytosis in C. elegans. Collectively, the solid results support the idea that mitochondrial function influences receptor dynamics at postsynaptic sites. This is important because tight control of synaptic function likely integrates several mitochondrial functions: energy production, calcium buffering, and (here) reactive oxygen species signaling.

    Reviewed by eLife