eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Genetic requirement of dact1/2 to regulate noncanonical Wnt signaling and calpain 8 during embryonic convergent extension and craniofacial morphogenesis

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Shannon H Carroll
   2. Sogand Schafer
   3. Kenta Kawasaki
   4. Casey Tsimbal
   5. Amelie M Jule
   6. Shawn A Hallett
   7. Edward Li
   8. Eric C Liao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This in several parts valuable study confirms the roles of Dact1 and Dact2, two factors involved in Wnt signaling, during zebrafish gastrulation and demonstrates their genetic interactions with other Wnt components to modulate craniofacial morphologies. Unfortunately, there are several limitations associated with the study, making it challenging to distinguish the primary and secondary effects of each factor, and their roles in craniofacial morphogenesis. The findings of a new potential target of dact1/2-mediated Wnt signaling are potentially of value; however, experimental evidence supporting their functional significance remains incomplete due to inconsistent results and limitations inherent to the overexpression approach.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Adaptation of CD4 in gorillas and chimpanzees conveyed resistance to simian immunodeficiency viruses

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Cody J Warren
   2. Arturo Barbachano-Guerrero
   3. Vanessa L Bauer
   4. Alex Stabell
   5. Obaiah Dirasantha
   6. Qing Yang
   7. Sara L Sawyer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents an important finding on how lentiviral infection has driven the diversification of the HIV/SIV entry receptor CD4. Using a combination of molecular evolution approaches coupled with functional testing of extant and ancestral reconstructions of great ape CD4, the authors provide solid evidence to support the idea that endemic simian immunodeficiency virus infection in gorillas have selected for gorilla CD4 alleles that are more resistant to SIV infection. Expanding the study to interrogate the evolution and function of additional primate CD4 sequences could yield even stronger evidence.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. SPARK regulates AGC kinases central to the Toxoplasma gondii asexual cycle

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Alice L Herneisen
   2. Michelle L Peters
   3. Tyler A Smith
   4. Emily Shortt
   5. Sebastian Lourido

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study identifies protein kinases in the parasitic protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii that are required for parasite invasion of host cells and differentiation to drug-resistant chronic stages. The use of advanced proteomic and functional approaches provides compelling evidence for the proposed signalling pathway, although additional analyses are needed to fully validate some findings. The work will be of broad interest to cell biologists and parasitologists with an interest in cell signalling and environmental sensing.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Pharmacologically inducing regenerative cardiac cells by small molecule drugs

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Wei Zhou
   2. Kezhang He
   3. Chiyin Wang
   4. Pengqi Wang
   5. Dan Wang
   6. Bowen Wang
   7. Han Geng
   8. Hong Lian
   9. Tianhua Ma
   10. Yu Nie
   11. Sheng Ding

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript offers valuable information on the combinatory effect of small molecules, CHIR99021 and A-485 (2C), during the reprogramming of mature cardiomyocytes into regenerative cardiac cells on stimulating cardiac cell regeneration. Although the study used several hESC lines and an in vivo model of myocardial injury to demonstrate the regenerative potential of cardiac cells, the manuscript is still incomplete as several concerns remain unanswered, including the lack of validation of the conclusions from scRNA-seq. It is still unclear how a small fraction of dedifferentiating cardiac cells can offer such broad effects on regeneration both in vitro and in vivo. If validated, this study might unlock potential therapeutic strategies for cardiac regeneration.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Gendered hiring and attrition on the path to parity for academic faculty

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Nicholas LaBerge
   2. Kenneth Hunter Wapman
   3. Aaron Clauset
   4. Daniel B Larremore

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Efforts to increase the representation of women in academia have focussed on efforts to recruit more women and to reduce the attrition of women. This study - which is based on analyses of data on more than 250,000 tenured and tenure-track faculty from the period 2011-2020, and the predictions of counterfactual models - shows that hiring more women has a bigger impact than reducing attrition. The study is an important contribution to work on gender representation in academia, and the evidence in support of the findings is convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Interaction of GAT1 with sodium ions: from efficient recruitment to stabilisation of substrate and conformation

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Erika Lazzarin
   2. Ralph Gradisch
   3. Sophie MC Skopec
   4. Leticia Alves da Silva
   5. Chiara Sebastianelli-Schoditsch
   6. Dániel Szöllősi
   7. Julian Maier
   8. Sonja Sucic
   9. Marko Roblek
   10. Baruch I Kanner
   11. Harald H Sitte
   12. Thomas Stockner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study elucidates a detailed molecular mechanism of the initial stages of transport in the medically relevant Na+-coupled GABA neurotransmitter transporter GAT1 and thus generates important new insights into this protein family. In particular, it presents convincing evidence for the presence of a "staging binding site" that locally concentrates Na+ ions to increase transport activity, whilst solid evidence for how Na+ binding influences larger scale dynamics.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The rapidly evolving X-linked MIR-506 family fine-tunes spermatogenesis to enhance sperm competition

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Zhuqing Wang
   2. Yue Wang
   3. Tong Zhou
   4. Sheng Chen
   5. Dayton Morris
   6. Rubens Daniel Miserani Magalhães
   7. Musheng Li
   8. Shawn Wang
   9. Hetan Wang
   10. Yeming Xie
   11. Hayden McSwiggin
   12. Daniel Oliver
   13. Shuiqiao Yuan
   14. Huili Zheng
   15. Jaaved Mohammed
   16. Eric C Lai
   17. John R McCarrey
   18. Wei Yan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides important findings on the evolution and function of the X-linked miR-506 miRNA cluster. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, including the generation and characterization of an impressive number of the miRNA deletion mutants. This work will be of interest to RNA biologists, evolution biologists and reproductive biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Chemotherapy activates inflammasomes to cause inflammation-associated bone loss

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Chun Wang
   2. Khushpreet Kaur
   3. Canxin Xu
   4. Yousef Abu-Amer
   5. Gabriel Mbalaviele

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This useful study, which systematically addresses off-target effects of a commonly used chemotherapy drug on bone and bone marrow cells and which therefore is of potential interest to a broad readership, presents evidence that reducing systemic inflammation induced by doxorubicin limits bone loss to some extent. The demonstration of the effect of systemic inflammation on bone loss is convincing. Building on prior work, this study sets the scene for additional genetic and pharmacologic experiments as well as future analyses of the bone phenotypes, which should speak to the mechanisms involved in doxorubicin-induced bone loss – which are not addressed in the current study – and which may substantiate the clinical relevance of targeting inflammation in order to limit the negative impact of chemotherapies on bone quality.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Redox regulation and dynamic control of brain-selective kinases BRSK1/2 in the AMPK family through cysteine-based mechanisms

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. George N Bendzunas
   2. Dominic P Byrne
   3. Safal Shrestha
   4. Leonard A Daly
   5. Sally O Oswald
   6. Samiksha Katiyar
   7. Aarya Venkat
   8. Wayland Yeung
   9. Claire E Eyers
   10. Patrick A Eyers
   11. Natarajan Kannan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides fundamental new knowledge into the role of reversible cysteine oxidation and reduction in protein kinase regulation. The data provide convincing evidence that intra-molecular disulfide bonds serve a repressive regulatory role in the Brain Selective Kinases (BRSK) 1 & 2; part of the as yet understudied 'dark kinome'. The findings will be of broad interest to biochemists, structural biologists, and those interested in the rational design and development of next-generation kinase inhibitors.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Evolutionary adaptation of an HP1-protein chromodomain integrates chromatin and DNA sequence signals

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Lisa Baumgartner
    2. Jonathan J Ipsaro
    3. Ulrich Hohmann
    4. Dominik Handler
    5. Alexander Schleiffer
    6. Peter Duchek
    7. Julius Brennecke

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This fundamental work has completed our understanding of the singular binding profile of the Rhino HP1 protein to chromatin, a key step in converting certain genomic regions into piRNA source loci. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling. Phylogenetic analyses, structure prediction, rigorous biochemical assays and in vivo genetics emphasize the importance of the Rhino chromodomain in the recognition of both a histone mark and a DNA-binding protein, and highlight the importance of a single chromodomain residue in the protein-protein interaction.

    Reviewed by eLife