eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Improving rice drought tolerance through host-mediated microbiome selection

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Alex Styer
   2. Dean Pettinga
   3. Daniel Caddell
   4. Devin Coleman-Derr

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study reports on a series of artificial selection experiments for microbiomes that confer drought tolerance to rice plants. A major strength is the solid experimental design with multiple soils, which will likely guide others in designing their experiments, but the study has also shortcomings in that the rescuing effect is not benchmarked against healthy well-watered plants, the sterilized controls do not add much information, and the dispersal between inocula confounds the interpretation of the results. In addition, while the type of work presented here is a first step towards the eventual goal of plant microbiome engineering, that goal is still mainly an ambition. The abstract would benefit from this being made clear, and the presentation would overall benefit from more extensive consideration of recent developments in the field.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Functional characteristics and computational model of abundant hyperactive loci in the human genome

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Sanjarbek Hudaiberdiev
   2. Ivan Ovcharenko

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study explores the sequence characteristics and conservation of high-occupancy target loci, regions in the human genome such as promoters and enhancers that are bound by a multitude of transcription factors. The computational analyses presented in this study are solid. This study would be a helpful resource for researchers performing ChIP-seq based analyses of transcription factor binding.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Testing the state-dependent model of subsecond time perception against experimental evidence

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Pirathitha Ravichandran-Schmidt
   2. Joachim Hass

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This useful paper explores a mathematical model of subsecond time perception, testing potential neural mechanisms behind the linear psychophysical law, Weber's law, and dopaminergic modulation of subjective durations. The model employed readout units to decode an interval. Nevertheless, the work is incomplete and presented as data-driven, but there is no analysis of empirical data.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Discovery of the 1-naphthylamine biodegradation pathway reveals a broad-substrate-spectrum enzyme catalyzing 1-naphthylamine glutamylation

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Shu-Ting Zhang
   2. Shi-Kai Deng
   3. Tao Li
   4. Megan E Maloney
   5. De-Feng Li
   6. Jim C Spain
   7. Ning-Yi Zhou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work identifies a p. aeruginosa strain and enzyme that can degrade 1-naphthylamine, a harmful industrial pollutant. Data resulting from in vivo and structural approaches are compelling, but additional mutagenesis would further test and establish the broad substrate specificity of NpaA1. With this additional data, this paper would be of high interest to biologists and enzymologists studying biodegradation of industrial pollutants.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Loss of ninein interferes with osteoclast formation and causes premature ossification

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Thierry Gilbert
   2. Camille Gorlt
   3. Merlin Barbier
   4. Benjamin Duployer
   5. Marianna Plozza
   6. Ophélie Dufrancais
   7. Laure-Elene Martet
   8. Elisa Dalbard
   9. Loelia Segot
   10. Christophe Tenailleau
   11. Laurence Haren
   12. Christel Vérollet
   13. Christiane Bierkamp
   14. Andreas Merdes

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study offers new insight into the role of centrosome protein ninein in skeletal development through an analysis of the skeletal phenotype of ninein-deficient mice. While there is solid evidence supporting the conclusion that the absence of ninein leads to transient skeletal abnormalities and a lasting reduction in osteoclastogenesis, the evidence to substantiate the claim that enhanced ossification is attributed to reduced osteoclast formation/activity is insufficient. This work will be of interest to scientists in bone biology and skeletal development field.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Reversions mask the contribution of adaptive evolution in microbiomes

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Paul A Torrillo
   2. Tami D Lieberman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study addresses the interpretation of patterns of synonymous and nonsynonymous diversity in microbial genomes. The authors present solid theoretical and computational evidence that adaptive mutations that revert the amino acids to an earlier state can significantly impact the observed ratios of synonymous and nonsynonymous mutations in human commensal bacteria. This paper will be of interest to microbiologists with a background in evolution.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Endosomal sorting protein SNX4 limits synaptic vesicle docking and release

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Josse Poppinga
   2. Nolan J Barrett
   3. L Niels Cornelisse
   4. Matthijs Verhage
   5. Jan RT van Weering

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents a series of results aimed at uncovering the involvement of the endosomal sorting protein SNX4 in neurotransmitter release. While the evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, the molecular mechanisms remain unclear. This paper will be of interest to cell biologists and neurobiologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Female-dominated disciplines have lower evaluated research quality and funding success rates, for men and women

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Alex James
   2. Franca Buelow
   3. Liam Gibson
   4. Ann Brower

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides convincing evidence that the quality of research in female-dominated fields of research is systematically undervalued by the research community. The authors' findings are based on analyses of data from a research assessment exercise in New Zealand and data on funding success rates in Australia, Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom. This work is an important contribution to the discourse on gender biases in academia, underlining the pervasive influence of gender on whole fields of research, as well as on individual researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Anti-diuretic hormone ITP signals via a guanylate cyclase receptor to modulate systemic homeostasis in Drosophila

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Jayati Gera
   2. Marishia Agard
   3. Hannah Nave
   4. Austin B Baldridge
   5. Farwa Sajadi
   6. Leena Thorat
   7. Theresa H McKim
   8. Shu Kondo
   9. Dick R Nässel
   10. Mitchell H Omar
   11. Jean-Paul Paluzzi
   12. Meet Zandawala

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors used comprehensive approaches to identify Gyc76C as an ITPa receptor in Drosophila. They revealed that ITPa acts via Gyc76C in the renal tubules and fat body to modulate osmotic and metabolic homeostasis. The designed experiments, data, and analyses convincingly support the main claims. The findings are important to help us better understand how ITP signals contributes to systemic homeostasis regulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Identification of nonsense-mediated decay inhibitors that alter the tumor immune landscape

    This article has 17 authors:

    1. Ashley L Cook
    2. Surojit Sur
    3. Laura Dobbyn
    4. Evangeline Watson
    5. Joshua D Cohen
    6. Blair Ptak
    7. Bum Seok Lee
    8. Suman Paul
    9. Emily Hsiue
    10. Maria Popoli
    11. Bert Vogelstein
    12. Nickolas Papadopoulos
    13. Chetan Bettegowda
    14. Kathy Gabrielson
    15. Shibin Zhou
    16. Kenneth W Kinzler
    17. Nicolas Wyhs

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      Here, the authors developed a cell-based screening assay for the identification of small molecule inhibitors of nonsense-mediated decay (NMD), and used it to validate KVS0001, a new small molecule SMG1 kinase inhibitor derived from the existing inhibitor SMG1i-11, showing it inhibits NMD in cultured cells leading to expression of neoantigens from NMD-targeted genes and slows tumor growth of cancer cell lines possessing a significant number of out-of-frame indel mutations. The conclusions are supported by convincing evidence, and the significance of this work consists in the development of a new and very promising NMD inhibitor drug that acts as an inhibitor of the SMG1 NMD kinase and is effective in animal tumor studies. This is an important advance for the field, as previous NMD inhibitors were not specific, lacked efficacy, or were very toxic and hence not suitable for animal applications.

    Reviewed by eLife