eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Illuminating T cell-dendritic cell interactions in vivo by FlAsHing antigens

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Munir Akkaya
   2. Jafar Al Souz
   3. Daniel Williams
   4. Rahul Kamdar
   5. Olena Kamenyeva
   6. Juraj Kabat
   7. Ethan Shevach
   8. Billur Akkaya

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study that develops a method to fluorescently label peptide MHC complexes on live dendritic cells to enable detection of antigen specific T cells in polyclonal populations. Solid evidence that this can be used to effectively identify antigen specific T cells in vitro and in vivo is provided for one model antigen systems (Ova-OTII). The approach has exciting potential as prior single step methods with directly conjugated single peptides have generally failed due to high background. Thus, this approach potentially moves the state of the art forward, but further work is needed to realise and determine the limits and ultimate utility of the approach.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. A single pair of pharyngeal neurons functions as a commander to reject high salt in Drosophila melanogaster

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Jiun Sang
   2. Subash Dhakal
   3. Bhanu Shrestha
   4. Dharmendra Kumar Nath
   5. Yunjung Kim
   6. Anindya Ganguly
   7. Craig Montell
   8. Youngseok Lee

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of ingestion avoidance of high salt in insects is focused in scope, but the authors present convincing evidence that a specific subset of gustatory receptors in a pair of pharyngeal taste neurons are necessary and sufficient for avoiding ingestion of high salt during feeding. This work will be of interest to Drosophila neuroscientists interested in taste coding and feeding behavior.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Bridging the gap between presynaptic hair cell function and neural sound encoding

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Lina María Jaime Tobón
   2. Tobias Moser

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental study advances substantially our understanding of sound encoding at synapses between single inner hair cells of the mouse cochlea and spiral ganglion neurons. Dual patch-clamp recordings-a technical tour-de force-and careful data analysis provide compelling evidence that the functional heterogeneity of these synapses contributes to the diversity of spontaneous and sound-evoked firing by the neurons. The work will be of broad interest to scientists in the field of auditory neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Deletion of FNDC5/irisin modifies murine osteocyte function in a sex-specific manner

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Anika Shimonty
   2. Fabrizio Pin
   3. Matthew Prideaux
   4. Gang Peng
   5. Joshua Huot
   6. Hyeonwoo Kim
   7. Clifford J Rosen
   8. Bruce M Spiegelman
   9. Lynda F Bonewald

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The study presents valuable findings on sexually dimorphic patterns of osteocytic transcriptomes and low calcium diet-induced osteocytic osteolysis in FNDC5-deficient mice. The authors present solid evidence for sex-specific changes in osteocyte morphology and gene expression under a calcium-demanding setting in this particular strain of mice, although the protective role of FNDC5-deficiency in lactation and low-calcium diet in female mice remains unclear due to lack of mechanistic studies. The study also lacks evidence that irisin, a proteolytically cleaved product of FNDC5, is responsible for the observed phenotypes, as irisin was not directly measured.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Perirenal adipose tissue contains a subpopulation of cold-inducible adipocytes derived from brown-to-white conversion

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Houyu Zhang
   2. Yan Li
   3. Carlos F Ibáñez
   4. Meng Xie

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on the process of brown to white adipogenic transdifferentiation within the perirenal adipose depot. The evidence supporting the claims is convincing, although limited sequencing depth of single nuclei and lack of regulatory insights somewhat lessens the impact of these findings. The work will be of interested to adipose tissue biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Epigenetic insights into GABAergic development in Dravet Syndrome iPSC and therapeutic implications

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jens Schuster
   2. Xi Lu
   3. Yonglong Dang
   4. Joakim Klar
   5. Amelie Wenz
   6. Niklas Dahl
   7. Xingqi Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a potentially useful study that shows changes in the chromatin landscape of GABAergic neurons in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from both Dravet Syndrome (DS) patients and healthy donors. The strength of the evidence is currently incomplete because the authors compared iPSCs from different individuals, rather than isogenic controls. A strategy for minimizing variability across cell lines is used, but the explanation is not complete. The revised manuscript adds RNAseq and qPCR measurements of the expression of the gene SCN1A, however these do not appear to agree, perhaps because of the way the qPCR measurements are normalized, and there is no measurement of Nav1.1, the gene product thought to be responsible for the majority of DS cases. Hence the evidence that there is reduced expression of SCN1A or its gene product is not complete and therefore it is difficult to evaluate whether or not the observed epigenetic changes are causal. The work would potentially be of interest to scientists who study development, developmental disorders, and epigenetic contributions to disease.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Complete suspension culture of human induced pluripotent stem cells supplemented with suppressors of spontaneous differentiation

   This article has 22 authors:

   1. Mami Matsuo-Takasaki
   2. Sho Kambayashi
   3. Yasuko Hemmi
   4. Tamami Wakabayashi
   5. Tomoya Shimizu
   6. Yuri An
   7. Hidenori Ito
   8. Kazuhiro Takeuchi
   9. Masato Ibuki
   10. Terasu Kawashima
   11. Rio Masayasu
   12. Manami Suzuki
   13. Yoshikazu Kawai
   14. Masafumi Umekage
   15. Tomoaki M Kato
   16. Michiya Noguchi
   17. Koji Nakade
   18. Yukio Nakamura
   19. Tomoyuki Nakaishi
   20. Naoki Nishishita
   21. Masayoshi Tsukahara
   22. Yohei Hayashi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This comprehensive and compelling study presents a robust, cost-effective method for expanding pluripotent stem cells. The authors have identified a media condition that maintains iPSCs in suspension cultures by inhibiting the PKCβ and Wnt signaling pathways. The manuscript is important for the pluripotent stem cell field as it seeks robust and economical approaches to expand iPSCs at scale for high throughput screens and preclinical studies. While the authors have tested their media and protocol on a few lines, given the variability of iPSCs, further testing across more cell lines and in different laboratory settings will be crucial to evaluate its reproducibility.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Membrane-bound O-acyltransferase 7 (MBOAT7) shapes lysosomal lipid homeostasis and function to control alcohol-associated liver injury

   This article has 24 authors:

   1. Venkateshwari Varadharajan
   2. Iyappan Ramachandiran
   3. William J Massey
   4. Raghav Jain
   5. Rakhee Banerjee
   6. Anthony J Horak
   7. Megan R McMullen
   8. Emily Huang
   9. Annette Bellar
   10. Shuhui W Lorkowski
   11. Kailash Gulshan
   12. Robert N Helsley
   13. Isabella James
   14. Vai Pathak
   15. Jaividhya Dasarathy
   16. Nicole Welch
   17. Srinivasan Dasarathy
   18. David Streem
   19. Ofer Reizes
   20. Daniela S Allende
   21. Jonathan D Smith
   22. Judith Simcox
   23. Laura E Nagy
   24. J Mark Brown

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Varadharajan et al. explore the mechanistic basis of MBOAT7 SNP association with steatotic liver disease and link its function in LPI acylation to altered lipidomics of endosomal/lysosomal system and impaired TFEB mediated lysosomal biogenesis. The findings are important with theoretical and practical implications in MAFLD, alcohol-induced hepatic steatosis, and lysosomal diseases. The strength of evidence is convincing using methodology in line with current state-of-the-art.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A high-throughput platform for single-molecule tracking identifies drug interaction and cellular mechanisms

   This article has 30 authors:

   1. David Trombley McSwiggen
   2. Helen Liu
   3. Ruensern Tan
   4. Sebastia Agramunt Puig
   5. Lakshmi B Akella
   6. Russell Berman
   7. Mason Bretan
   8. Hanzhe Chen
   9. Xavier Darzacq
   10. Kelsey Ford
   11. Ruth Godbey
   12. Eric Gonzalez
   13. Adi Hanuka
   14. Alec Heckert
   15. Jaclyn J Ho
   16. Stephanie L Johnson
   17. Reed Kelso
   18. Aaron Klammer
   19. Ruchira Krishnamurthy
   20. Jifu Li
   21. Kevin Lin
   22. Brian Margolin
   23. Patrick McNamara
   24. Laurence Meyer
   25. Sarah E Pierce
   26. Akshay Sule
   27. Connor Stashko
   28. Yangzhong Tang
   29. Daniel J Anderson
   30. Hilary P Beck

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work presents an important technological advance, in the form of a high throughput platform for Single Particle Tracking allowing us to measure millions of cells and thousands of compounds per day. Analysis of the diffusional behaviour of fluorescently-tagged targets permits the identification of, and differentiation between, small molecules that bind directly or affect the target indirectly. The methodology and metrics employed are compelling, leading to the identification of multiple compounds that effectively change the diffusive state of the estrogen receptor, the POC target of the study.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Extramacrochaetae regulates Notch signaling in the Drosophila eye through non-apoptotic caspase activity

    This article has 2 authors:

    1. Sudershana Nair
    2. Nicholas E Baker

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important work presents data showing that all non-proneural phenotypes of the Inhibitor of DNA binding (Id) protein Emc are mediated through inappropriate nonapoptotic caspase activity. Using the developing Drosophila retina as a model the authors show that Emc acts by transcriptionally regulating the Death-Associated Inhibitor of Apoptosis 1 (diap1) gene, which impacts on Notch signaling by caspase-dependent increase of Delta protein. These are compelling findings, interesting for the caspase/apoptosis field as they add more non-apoptotic functions of caspases to the list, as well as for the Id field, which examines how Id proteins inhibit cell differentiation.

    Reviewed by eLife