eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Distinct states of nucleolar stress induced by anticancer drugs

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Tamara A Potapova
   2. Jay R Unruh
   3. Juliana Conkright-Fincham
   4. Charles AS Banks
   5. Laurence Florens
   6. David Alan Schneider
   7. Jennifer L Gerton

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study and associated data is compelling, novel, important, and well-carried out. The study demonstrates a novel finding that different chemotherapeutic agents can induce nucleolar stress, which manifests with varying cellular and molecular characteristics. The study also proposes a mechanism for how a novel type of nucleolar stress driven by CDK inhibitors may be regulated. The study sheds light on the importance of nucleolar stress in defining the on-target and off-target effects of chemotherapy in normal and cancer cells.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Human skeletal muscle organoids model fetal myogenesis and sustain uncommitted PAX7 myogenic progenitors

   This article has 22 authors:

   1. Lampros Mavrommatis
   2. Hyun-Woo Jeong
   3. Urs Kindler
   4. Gemma Gomez-Giro
   5. Marie-Cecile Kienitz
   6. Martin Stehling
   7. Olympia E Psathaki
   8. Dagmar Zeuschner
   9. M Gabriele Bixel
   10. Dong Han
   11. Gabriela Morosan-Puopolo
   12. Daniela Gerovska
   13. Ji Hun Yang
   14. Jeong Beom Kim
   15. Marcos J Arauzo-Bravo
   16. Jens C Schwamborn
   17. Stephan A Hahn
   18. Ralf H Adams
   19. Hans R Schöler
   20. Matthias Vorgerd
   21. Beate Brand-Saberi
   22. Holm Zaehres

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors develop a cell culture system for studies of muscle tissue development and homeostasis. They convincingly validate a novel 3D cell model. Their thorough molecular and functional characterization will make this useful for future workers in the field.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Vacuolar H+-ATPase determines daughter cell fates through asymmetric segregation of the nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase complex

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Zhongyun Xie
   2. Yongping Chai
   3. Zhiwen Zhu
   4. Zijie Shen
   5. Zhengyang Guo
   6. Zhiguang Zhao
   7. Long Xiao
   8. Zhuo Du
   9. Guangshuo Ou
   10. Wei Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors make the intriguing proposal that the NuRD complex in C. elegans, which has been linked to regulation of the cell death protein EGL-1 before, becomes asymmetrically distributed after cell division and that this asymmetry relies on V-ATPase activity. Whereas some disagreement remained between the reviewers' and the authors' interpretation, the final version incorporated alternative possibilities in the text, and with careful interpretation, the current manuscript's model is supported by solid data, and represents a valuable contribution to the field.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Landscape drives zoonotic malaria prevalence in non-human primates

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Emilia Johnson
   2. Reuben Sunil Kumar Sharma
   3. Pablo Ruiz Cuenca
   4. Isabel Byrne
   5. Milena Salgado-Lynn
   6. Zarith Suraya Shahar
   7. Lee Col Lin
   8. Norhadila Zulkifli
   9. Nor Dilaila Mohd Saidi
   10. Chris Drakeley
   11. Jason Matthiopoulos
   12. Luca Nelli
   13. Kimberly Fornace

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This useful study presents findings regarding the impact of forest cover and fragmentation on the prevalence of malaria in non-human primates. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Metabolic memory of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol exposure in pluripotent stem cells and primordial germ cells-like cells

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Roxane Verdikt
   2. Abigail A Armstrong
   3. Jenny Cheng
   4. Young Sun Hwang
   5. Amander T Clark
   6. Xia Yang
   7. Patrick Allard

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The study presents valuable findings demonstrating that physiologically relevant concentrations delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is found in cannabis, have metabolic effects on early mouse embryonic cell types. The evidence supporting the claims is convincing. The work will be of interest to researchers in stem cell and epigenetics fields.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Unveiling the domain-specific and RAS isoform-specific details of BRAF kinase regulation

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Tarah Elizabeth Trebino
   2. Borna Markusic
   3. Haihan Nan
   4. Shrhea Banerjee
   5. Zhihong Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript describes useful information on the interactions of the BRAF N-terminal regulatory regions (CRD, RBD and BSR) with the C-terminal kinase domain and with the upstream regulators HRAS and KRAS. The authors provide solid evidence that the BRAF BSR domain may negatively regulate RAS binding and propose that the presence of the BSR domain in BRAF provides an additional layer of autoinhibitory constraints. The data will be of interest for researchers in the RAS/RAF and general kinase regulation fields.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Ca2+ channel and active zone protein abundance intersects with input-specific synapse organization to shape functional synaptic diversity

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Audrey T Medeiros
   2. Scott J Gratz
   3. Ambar Delgado
   4. Jason T Ritt
   5. Kate M O'Connor-Giles

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Calcium channels are key regulators of synaptic strength and plasticity. The authors generate new endogenous tags of the Drosophila channel Cac as well as auxiliary subunits to investigate distinct calcium channel functions at the fly NMJ, Is and Ib. They demonstrate functions for voltage-gated calcium channel subunits in promoting synaptic strength, diversity, and plasticity with a series of convincing analyses. The work is important and has broad implications. In addition, the newly developed tools should be quite beneficial for fly biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. The title and authors for this article are not available from our external data provider yet:
   10.48550/arxiv.2212.00741

9. Meaning-making behavior in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Agustín Fuentes
   2. Marc Kissel
   3. Penny Spikins
   4. Keneiloe Molopyane
   5. John Hawks
   6. Lee R Berger

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper discusses the cognitive implications of potential intentional burial, wall engraving creation, and fire as light source use behaviors by relatively small-brained Homo naledi hominins. The discussion presented in the paper is valuable theoretically in its healthy questioning of prior assumptions concerning the socio-biological constraints of hominin meaning-making behavior. The discussion also contributes practically given that these behaviors have been ascribed to Homo naledi in two associated papers. Still, the strength of evidence in this contribution relies on the validity of the conclusions from the two associated papers, which remain actively questioned. The ultimate assessment of this work will vary among individual readers depending on how they view this debate, but if the conclusions from the associated papers hold up, the conclusions in the current paper can be considered solid.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. An initial report of circa 241,000- to 335,000-year-old rock engravings and their relation to Homo naledi in the Rising Star cave system, South Africa

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. Lee R Berger
    2. John Hawks
    3. Agustín Fuentes
    4. Dirk Van Rooyen
    5. Mathabela Tsikoane
    6. Maropeng Mpete
    7. Samuel Nkwe
    8. Keneiloe Molopyane

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This paper presents important information about potential Homo naledi-associated markings discovered on the walls of the Hill Antechamber of the Rising Star Cave system, South Africa. If confirmed, the antiquity, intentionality, and authorship of the reported markings will have profound archaeological implications, as such behaviors are otherwise widely considered to be unique to our species, Homo sapiens. This report concerns preliminary findings and as it stands the study is incomplete, with further work needed in the future to support the claims about the anthropogenic nature, age, and author of the engravings.

    Reviewed by eLife