eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Tgif1-deficiency impairs cytoskeletal architecture in osteoblasts by activating PAK3 signaling

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Simona Bolamperti
   2. Hiroaki Saito
   3. Sarah Heerdmann
   4. Eric Hesse
   5. Hanna Taipaleenmäki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work substantially advances our understanding of osteoblast migration to the sites of bone formation and regeneration. The evidence supporting the conclusion is compelling, with rigorous in vitro assays for cellular and biochemical aspects and with appropriate in vivo models. The work will be of broad interest to developmental biologists and bone biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Identification of a third myosin-5a-melanophilin interaction that mediates the association of myosin-5a with melanosomes

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Jiabin Pan
   2. Rui Zhou
   3. Lin-Lin Yao
   4. Jie Zhang
   5. Ning Zhang
   6. Qing-Juan Cao
   7. Shaopeng Sun
   8. Xiang-dong Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study represents a useful description of a third interaction site between melanophilin and myosin-5a which has a role in regulating the distribution of pigment granules in melanocytes. While much of the data forms a solid case for this interaction, the inclusion of controls for the cellular studies and measurement of interaction affinities would have been helpful.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. CaBP1 and 2 enable sustained CaV1.3 calcium currents and synaptic transmission in inner hair cells

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. David Oestreicher
   2. Shashank Chepurwar
   3. Kathrin Kusch
   4. Vladan Rankovic
   5. Sangyong Jung
   6. Nicola Strenzke
   7. Tina Pangrsic

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental work substantially advances our understanding of the role of calcium-binding proteins 1 and 2 (CaBP1 and CaBP2) for generating sustained calcium currents in mouse inner hair cells and their capacity for indefatigable exocytosis. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with rigorous in vitro and in vivo physiological experiments and state-of-the-art microscopy. The work will be of broad interest to synaptic physiologists, cellular biochemists, and hearing researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Metastatic small cell lung cancer arises from TP53/RB1-deficient and MYC overproduction hESC-derived PNECs

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Huanhuan Joyce Chen
   2. Eric E Gardner
   3. Yajas Shah
   4. Kui Zhang
   5. Abhimanyu Thakur
   6. Chen Zhang
   7. Olivier Elemento
   8. Harold Varmus

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Given a great need for novel human model systems to study small cell lung cancer (SCLC), the authors describe an important pre-clinical model with broad potential for the study of how genetic perturbations or drug treatments alter SCLC tumor growth, metastasis, and response to therapy. For the major finding, the authors provide convincing evidence that RB/TP53 suppression coupled with MYC overexpression in an ES cell-derived model system results in aggressive and metastatic SCLC. However, the impact of the work would have been increased with the inclusion of a broader set of genetic perturbations, such as over-expression of MYCL, to better model major SCLC phenotypes. The new model described will be of significant interest to researchers studying lung cancer.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Caenorhabditis elegans Dicer acts with the RIG-I-like helicase DRH-1 and RDE-4 to cleave dsRNA

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Claudia D Consalvo
   2. Adedeji M Aderounmu
   3. Helen M Donelick
   4. P Joseph Aruscavage
   5. Debra M Eckert
   6. Peter S Shen
   7. Brenda L Bass

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     To investigate the evolutionary relationship between the RNAi pathway and innate immunity, this valuable study uses biochemistry and structural biology to investigate the trimeric complex of Dicer-1, DRH-1 (a RIGI homologue), and RDE-4, which exists in C. elegans. The results described include rigorous kinetic analysis of the enzymatic activity of the complex and a moderate resolution cryo-EM structure. The results are convincing and add to the broader understanding of the evolution of antiviral defense.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Cell Adhesion-Dependent Biphasic Axon Outgrowth Elucidated by Femtosecond Laser Impulse

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Sohei Yamada
   2. Kentarou Baba
   3. Naoyuki Inagaki
   4. Yoichiroh Hosokawa

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Axon growth is essential to formation of neural connections. This manuscript presents a useful presentation of a new method for assessing the adhesion strength of axons with the use of a laser-induced shock wave. However, the strength of the evidence is incomplete as critical controls for calibration and time course are lacking.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Isolating Small Extracellular Vesicles from Small Volumes of Blood Plasma using size exclusion chromatography and density gradient ultracentrifugation: A Comparative Study

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Fang Kong
   2. Megha Upadya
   3. Andrew See Wong Weng
   4. Rinkoo Dalan
   5. Ming Dao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work provides a simple, rapid and valuable protocol for the isolation of small extracellular vesicles from small volumes of plasma, using two well-known methodologies, in tandem: size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and density gradient ultracentrifugation (DGUC). The authors exhaustively test these methodologies separately and in combination, showing superior results for the SEC-DGUC in terms of purity and yield. The results obtained in this work are convincing, using multiple state-of-art methodologies for the characterization of the isolates that support their conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Transcriptome-wide analysis of the function of Ded1 in translation preinitiation complex assembly in a reconstituted in vitro system

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Fujun Zhou
   2. Julie M Bocetti
   3. Meizhen Hou
   4. Daoming Qin
   5. Alan G Hinnebusch
   6. Jon R Lorsch

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important paper as it is the first to use a reconstituted translation system to study competition among mRNAs for the initiation machinery. Understanding the principles of the biochemistry of mRNA competition for initiation factors cannot be achieved without such a system. The authors provide compelling evidence that Ded1 is required for efficient initiation of highly structured mRNAs. The findings are significant and validate the in vitro reconstituted system by recapitulating the effects of in-vivo perturbations of translation initiation by Ded1 mutants.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Projection neurons are necessary for the maintenance of the mouse olfactory circuit

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Luis Sánchez-Guardado
   2. Peyman Razavi
   3. Bo Wang
   4. Antuca Callejas-Marín
   5. Carlos Lois

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study shows that eliminating a large portion of the principal neurons in the mammalian olfactory bulb does not affect the initial establishment of the circuit but has an impact on its maintenance. The strength of the paper is that the anatomical changes induced by genetic ablation of neurons are clear-cut. There is solid support for the findings, with a description of the structural and behavioral effects of ablating the majority of M/T neurons.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Spatial transcriptomics in the adult Drosophila brain and body

    This article has 9 authors:

    1. Jasper Janssens
    2. Pierre Mangeol
    3. Nikolai Hecker
    4. Gabriele Partel
    5. Katina I Spanier
    6. Joy N Ismail
    7. Gert J Hulselmans
    8. Stein Aerts
    9. Frank Schnorrer

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important study presents a method to visualize the location of the cell types discovered through single-cell RNA sequencing. The data allowed the authors to build spatial tissue atlases of the fly head and body, and to identify the location of previously unknown cell types. The data are convincing and appropriate, and the authors validate the methodology in line with the current state-of-the-art.

    Reviewed by eLife