eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Divergent downstream biosynthetic pathways are supported by L-cysteine synthases of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Mehak Zahoor Khan
   2. Debbie M Hunt
   3. Biplab Singha
   4. Yogita Kapoor
   5. Nitesh Kumar Singh
   6. D V Sai Prasad
   7. Sriram Dharmarajan
   8. Divya Tej Sowpati
   9. Luiz Pedro S de Carvalho
   10. Vinay Kumar Nandicoori

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Sulphur atoms derived from cysteine are thought to play significant roles in maintaining redox homeostasis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which encounters stresses associated with immune cell interactions. In this valuable manuscript, the authors provide solid evidence that the genes encoding cysteine biosynthetic enzymes (cysM and cysK2) are required to maintain full viability of M. tuberculosis under in vitro stress conditions, macrophage infections, and within the lung tissues of mice. The manuscript presents transcriptomic and metabolomic evidence to support the hypothesis that CysM and CysK2 play distinct roles in maintaining cysteine-derived metabolite pools under stress conditions. The work will be of interest to microbiologists in general.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Peptidoglycan-tethered and free forms of the Braun lipoprotein are in dynamic equilibrium in Escherichia coli

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Yucheng Liang
   2. Jean-Emmanuel Hugonnet
   3. Filippo Rusconi
   4. Michel Arthur

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This useful study describes a single set of label-chase mass spectrometry experiments to confirm the molecular function of YafK as a peptidoglycan hydrolase, and to describe the timing of its attachment to the peptidoglycan. Confirmation of the molecular function of YafK is helpful for further studies to examine the function and regulation of the outer membrane-peptidoglycan link in bacteria. The evidence supporting the molecular function of YafK and that lpp molecules are shuffled on and off the peptidoglycan is solid, however, some of the other data still remain incomplete in the revised version. The work will be of interest to researchers studying lipoproteins in gram negative bacteria.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Bacteria are a major determinant of Orsay virus transmission and infection in Caenorhabditis elegans

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Brian G Vassallo
   2. Noemie Scheidel
   3. Sylvia E J Fischer
   4. Dennis H Kim

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Using a C. elegans/virus system, this important work demonstrates that viral susceptibility can be greatly altered by the bacterial food that C. elegans consumes. The work is rigorous with solid support for the conclusions: the authors show that quorum-sensing compounds play a role in reducing host susceptibility, and they perform control experiments to rule out nutrition and pathogenicity of the bacteria as the cause of impacts on viral susceptibility.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Sequentially activated discrete modules appear as traveling waves in neuronal measurements with limited spatiotemporal sampling

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yuval Orsher
   2. Ariel Rom
   3. Rotem Perel
   4. Yoav Lahini
   5. Pablo Blinder
   6. Mark Shein-Idelson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this important work, authors show that brain activity thought to be a travelling wave may just be a series of sequentially activated sources at the neuron spiking level. They support this with convincing results from a turtle cortex preparation and relevant simulations. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in understanding how cortical computations are made.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Scaling between cell cycle duration and wing growth is regulated by Fat-Dachsous signaling in Drosophila

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Andrew Liu
   2. Jessica O’Connell
   3. Farley Wall
   4. Richard W Carthew

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important research article provides a novel approach to measure imaginal disc growth and uses this approach to explore the roles of Fat and Dachsous, two conserved protocadherins, in late larval development. The authors have addressed all referee concerns and the evidence supporting the authors' findings overall are compelling.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. The exchange dynamics of biomolecular condensates

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yaojun Zhang
   2. Andrew GT Pyo
   3. Ross Kliegman
   4. Yoyo Jiang
   5. Clifford P Brangwynne
   6. Howard A Stone
   7. Ned S Wingreen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable contribution studies factors that impact molecular exchange between dense and dilute phases of biomolecular condensates through continuum models and coarse-grained simulations. The authors provide convincing evidence that interfacial resistance can cause molecules to bounce off the interface and limit mixing. Results like these can inform how experimental results in the field of biological condensates are interpreted.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The title and authors for this article are not available from our external data provider yet:
   10.48550/arxiv.2209.08066

8. The inter-continental population dynamics of Neisseria gonorrhoeae

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Magnus N Osnes
   2. Ola B Brynildsrud
   3. Kristian Alfsnes
   4. Lucy van Dorp
   5. Samantha A McKeand
   6. Jonathan Ross
   7. Katy Town
   8. Jolinda de Korne-Elenbaas
   9. Alje van Dam
   10. Sylvia Bruisten
   11. Birgitte F de Blasio
   12. Dominique A Caugant
   13. Yonatan H. Grad
   14. Deborah A Williamson
   15. Francois Balloux
   16. Xavier Didelot
   17. Vegard Eldholm

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work provides a detailed analysis of the population dynamics of an important human bacterial pathogen, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, using a large global collection of genomes with geographic, temporal, and demographic metadata. A unique facet of this work is the focus on both importation and exportation of N. gonorrhoeae; whilst quantifying importation is important to national public health efforts, quantifying exportation is relevant on an international level. However, the evidence supporting the conclusions is incomplete, due to potential inaccuracies in the method used for phylogenetic analysis, which forms the basis of this work. With the phylogenetic analysis strengthened, this paper would be of interest to epidemiologists and public health officials working on N. gonorrhoeae epidemiology and interventions.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. The title and authors for this article are not available from our external data provider yet:
   10.48550/arxiv.2209.08066v2

10. Single-cell ‘omic profiles of human aortic endothelial cells in vitro and human atherosclerotic lesions ex vivo reveal heterogeneity of endothelial subtype and response to activating perturbations

    This article has 9 authors:

    1. Maria L Adelus
    2. Jiacheng Ding
    3. Binh T Tran
    4. Austin C Conklin
    5. Anna K Golebiewski
    6. Lindsey K Stolze
    7. Michael B Whalen
    8. Darren A Cusanovich
    9. Casey E Romanoski

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This is a fundamental resource of snRNA-seq and and chromatin accessibility data from human aortic endothelial cells (ECs), treated with relevant perturbations such as IL1b, TGFB2, or si-EGR. The authors show that ECs can be categorized by distinct subpopulations of differing plasticity. The support for the existence of these subpopulations is compelling, supported also by three publicly available scRNA-seq datasets, and differential enrichment of coronary artery disease associated SNPs in open chromatin in these subpopulations.

    Reviewed by eLife