eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. In search of nonlipogenic ABCA1 inducers (NLAI): precision coregulator TR-FRET identifies diverse signatures for LXR ligands

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Megan S Laham
   2. Martha Ackerman-Berrier
   3. Fahmida Alam
   4. Sarah Turner
   5. Ganga Reddy Velma
   6. Christopher Penton
   7. Soumya Reddy Musku
   8. Manan Rana
   9. Senthilkumar Thulasingam
   10. Anandhan Annadurai
   11. Maha Ibrahim Sulaiman
   12. Nina Ma
   13. Gregory RJ Thatcher

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study curated a set of Liver X receptor ligands that may guide the design of future drugs that activate the Liver X receptor as potential therapeutics for cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's and type 2 diabetes, without inducing mechanisms that promote fat/lipid production. The authors also present improved multiplexed precision CRT (coregulator TR-FRET) and cellular assays which allows measurement of ligand potencies to displace corepressors in the presence of coactivators, which cannot be achieved in a regular CRT assay. This makes the evidence presented compelling as it stretches beyond the current state-of-the-art, and these important findings are expected to have practical implications in many sub-fields and remain of interest to scientists working in cell and molecular biology, drug discovery, medicinal chemistry and pharmacology.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Three pathways feed the folate-dependent one carbon pool for growth and virulence of Listeria monocytogenes

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Sandra Freier
   2. Sarah Frentzel
   3. Susan Scheffler
   4. Sabrina Wamp
   5. Moritz Müller
   6. Tim Engelgeh
   7. Janina Döhling
   8. Dunja Bruder
   9. Sascha Kahlfuss
   10. Sven Halbedel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The one-carbon tetrahydrofolate metabolism plays a crucial role in producing essential metabolic intermediates. In this study, the authors employ a genetics-based approach to demonstrate that three different metabolic pathways are essential for synthesizing 1C-tetrahydrofolates (1C-THF). Disrupting any of these pathways impairs both growth and virulence. Although the work presented is valuable, the experimental evidence remains incomplete without direct quantification of folate intermediates.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Endogenous corazonin signaling modulates the post-mating switch in behavior and physiology in females of the brown planthopper and Drosophila

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Ning Zhang
   2. Shao-Cong Su
   3. Ruo-Tong Bu
   4. Yi-Jie Zhang
   5. Lei Yang
   6. Jie Chen
   7. Dick R Nässel
   8. Cong-Fen Gao
   9. Shun-Fan Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents convincing evidence that uncovers a novel signaling axis impacting the post-mating response in females of the brown planthopper. The findings open several avenues for testing the molecular and neurobiological mechanisms of mating behavior in insects, and in the revised version the authors provide further evidence supporting their conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Brain Perfusion Imaging of a Large Population: Arterial Spin Labelling MRI in UK Biobank

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Thomas W Okell
   2. Xinyi Xu
   3. Martin Craig
   4. Fidel Alfaro-Almagro
   5. David L Thomas
   6. Enrico De Vita
   7. Steve Garratt
   8. Thomas E Nichols
   9. Matthias Günther
   10. Paul M Matthews
   11. Karla L Miller
   12. Stephen M Smith
   13. Michael A Chappell

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study reports on the relationships between cerebral haemodynamics and a number of factors that relate to genetics, lifestyle, and medical history using data from a large cohort. Compelling evidence suggests that brief arterial spin labelling MRI acquisition can lead to both expected observations about brain health, as manifested in cerebral blood flow, and biomarkers for use in diagnosis and treatment monitoring. The results can be used as a starting point for hypothesis generation and further evaluation of conditions expected to affect haemodynamics in the brain.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. High-throughput development and characterization of new functional nanobodies for gene regulation and epigenetic control in human cells

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Jun Wan
   2. Abby R Thurm
   3. Sage J Allen
   4. Connor H Ludwig
   5. Aayan N Patel
   6. Lacramioara Bintu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript describes a valuable screening approach to identifying nanobodies with the potential to modulate gene expression via epigenetic regulators. While the concept is of interest and the screening strategy is well designed, the current evidence supporting mechanistic specificity remains incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Increased layer 5 Martinotti cell excitation reduces pyramidal cell population plasticity and improves learned motor execution

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Thawann Malfatti
   2. Anna Velica
   3. Jéssica Winne
   4. Barbara Ciralli
   5. Katharina Henriksson
   6. George Nascimento
   7. Richardson Leao
   8. Klas Kullander

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study addresses a critical and timely question regarding the role of a subpopulation of cortical interneurons (Chrna2-expressing Martinotti cells) in motor learning and cortical dynamics. However, while some of the behavior and imaging data are impressive, the small sample sizes and incomplete behavioral and activity analyses make interpretation difficult; therefore, they are insufficient to support the central conclusions. The study may be of interest to neuroscientists studying cortical neural circuits, motor learning, and motor control.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Sensitivity of the human temporal voice areas to nonhuman primate vocalizations

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Leonardo Ceravolo
   2. Coralie Debracque
   3. Thibaud Gruber
   4. Didier Grandjean

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study shows that regions of the human auditory cortex that respond strongly to voices are also sensitive to vocalizations from closely related primate species. The study is methodologically solid, though additional analyses - particularly those isolating the acoustic features that differentiate chimpanzee from bonobo calls - would further strengthen the conclusions. With additional analyses and discussions, the work has the potential to offer key insights into the evolutionary continuity of voice processing and would be of interest to researchers studying auditory processing and evolutionary neuroscience in general.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. TSvelo: Comprehensive RNA velocity by modeling the cascade of gene regulation, transcription and splicing

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Jiachen Li
   2. Zhe Wang
   3. Hong-Bin Shen
   4. Ye Yuan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable tool named TSvelo, a computational framework for RNA velocity inference that models transcriptional regulation and gene-specific splicing. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although elaboration of the computational benchmark and datasets would have strengthened the study. The work will be of interest to computational scientists working in the field of RNA biology.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Geomagnetic and visual cues guide seasonal migratory orientation in the nocturnal fall armyworm, the world’s most invasive insect

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Yi-Bo Ma
   2. Gui-Jun Wan
   3. Yi Ji
   4. Hui Chen
   5. Bo-Ya Gao
   6. Dai-Hong Yu
   7. Eric J Warrant
   8. Yan Wu
   9. Jason W Chapman
   10. Gao Hu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental study presents experimental evidence on how geomagnetic and visual cues are integrated in a nocturnally migrating insect. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling. The work will be of broad interest to researchers studying animal migration and navigation.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. P-body formation is required for yeast proliferation in the phyllosphere

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Fuka Sekioka
    2. Kosuke Shiraishi
    3. Miho Akagi
    4. Akari Habata
    5. Yumi Arima
    6. Yasuyoshi Sakai
    7. Hiroya Yurimoto

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This valuable study investigates the role of P-bodies in yeast proliferation and mRNA regulation within the phyllosphere, proposing that P-body assembly contributes to methanol metabolism and stress adaptation. The findings are of interest to researchers studying post-transcriptional gene regulation and microbial ecology in plants. However, the evidence is incomplete, as most experiments were performed under artificial conditions, relied on limited genetic validation, and were supported primarily by qualitative or low-resolution imaging.

    Reviewed by eLife