eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The PMA phorbol ester tumor promoter increases canonical Wnt signaling via macropinocytosis

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Nydia Tejeda-Munoz
   2. Yagmur Azbazdar
   3. Julia Monka
   4. Grace Binder
   5. Alex Dayrit
   6. Raul Ayala
   7. Neil O'Brien
   8. Edward M De Robertis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The strength of this important study is that it provides compelling evidence in several biological models, including Xenopus embryos, that Wnt3a increases macropinocytosis and that PMA increases this cellular response. This novel link between Wnt, focal adhesions, lysosomes, and macropinocytosis will be very interesting for cell and tumor biologists. In future work, it will be good to identify the underlying mechanism, i.e., the molecular node whereby this interaction occurs.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Persistence of intact HIV-1 proviruses in the brain during antiretroviral therapy

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Weiwei Sun
   2. Yelizaveta Rassadkina
   3. Ce Gao
   4. Sarah Isabel Collens
   5. Xiaodong Lian
   6. Isaac H Solomon
   7. Shibani S Mukerji
   8. Xu G Yu
   9. Mathias Lichterfeld

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study uses near full-length HIV-1 sequencing to examine proviral persistence in various tissues derived from three individuals who received antiretroviral therapy until time of death. Intact as well as defective HIV-1 proviruses are found at various anatomical sites including the central nervous system; the results are convincing and relevant for our understanding of latent viral reservoirs, especially in the brain.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Synapsin E-domain is essential for α-synuclein function

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Alexandra Stavsky
   2. Leonardo A Parra-Rivas
   3. Shani Tal
   4. Jen Riba
   5. Kayalvizhi Madhivanan
   6. Subhojit Roy
   7. Daniel Gitler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Alpha-synuclein is a synaptic vesicle associated protein that is linked to a number of neurodegenerative disorders. In this manuscript, the authors provide compelling evidence of alpha-synuclein's interaction with E-domain synapsins as the main culprit mediating the suppression of neurotransmitter release and synaptic vesicle recycling by alpha-synuclein. This important work provides molecular mechanisms underlying alpha-synuclein functions.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Deterministic genetic barcoding for multiplexed behavioral and single-cell transcriptomic studies

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Jorge Blanco Mendana
   2. Margaret Donovan
   3. Lindsey Gengelbach O'Brien
   4. Benjamin Auch
   5. John Garbe
   6. Daryl M Gohl

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study presents a genetically encoded barcoding system that could advance transcriptomic studies and that has the potential for further applications, such as in high-throughput population-scale behavioral measurements. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid and highlights both the usefulness and the limitations of the approach.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Metabolic and neurobehavioral disturbances induced by purine recycling deficiency in Drosophila

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Céline Petitgas
   2. Laurent Seugnet
   3. Amina Dulac
   4. Giorgio Matassi
   5. Ali Mteyrek
   6. Rebecca Fima
   7. Marion Strehaiano
   8. Joana Dagorret
   9. Baya Chérif-Zahar
   10. Sandrine Marie
   11. Irène Ceballos-Picot
   12. Serge Birman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The manuscript looks at how dysregulated purine metabolism in mutants for the Aprt gene impacts survival, motor and sleep behavior in the fruit fly. Interestingly, although several deficits arise from dopaminergic neurons, dopamine levels are increased in Aprt mutants. Instead the biochemical change responsible for Aprt mutant neurobehavioural phenotypes appears to be a reduction in levels of adenosine. This valuable study suggests that Drosophila Aprt mutants may serve as a model for understanding Lesch-Nyhan Disease (LND), caused by mutations in the human HPRT1 gene, and may also potentially serve as a model to screen for drugs for the neurobehavioural deficits observed in LND. The strength of evidence is solid.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Spotless, a reproducible pipeline for benchmarking cell type deconvolution in spatial transcriptomics

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Chananchida Sang-aram
   2. Robin Browaeys
   3. Ruth Seurinck
   4. Yvan Saeys

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study makes a valuable contribution to spatial transcriptomics by rigorously benchmarking cell-type deconvolution methods, assessing their performance across diverse datasets with a focus on biologically relevant, previously unconsidered aspects. The authors demonstrate the strengths of RCTD, cell2location, and SpatialDWLS for their performance, while also revealing the limitations of many methods when compared to simpler baselines. By implementing a full Nextflow pipeline, Docker containers, and a rigorous assessment of the simulator, this work offers robust insights that elevate the standards for future evaluations and provides a resource for those seeking to improve or develop new deconvolution methods. The thorough comparison and analysis of methods, coupled with a strong emphasis on reproducibility, provide solid support for the findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Risk factors affecting polygenic score performance across diverse cohorts

   This article has 22 authors:

   1. Daniel Hui
   2. Scott Dudek
   3. Krzysztof Kiryluk
   4. Theresa L Walunas
   5. Iftikhar J Kullo
   6. Wei-Qi Wei
   7. Hemant Tiwari
   8. Josh F Peterson
   9. Wendy K Chung
   10. Brittney H Davis
   11. Atlas Khan
   12. Leah C Kottyan
   13. Nita A Limdi
   14. Qiping Feng
   15. Megan J Puckelwartz
   16. Chunhua Weng
   17. Johanna L Smith
   18. Elizabeth W Karlson
   19. Regeneron Genetics Center
   20. Penn Medicine BioBank
   21. Gail P Jarvik
   22. Marylyn D Ritchie

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a convincing analysis of the effects of covariates, such as age, sex, socio-economic status, or biomarker levels, on the predictive accuracy of polygenic scores for body mass index; The work is further supported by important approaches for improving prediction accuracy by accounting for such covariates across a variety of association studies. The authors did a commendable job addressing reviewer suggestions and comments. The work will be of interest to colleagues using and developing methods for phenotypic prediction based on polygenic scores.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. RAPSYN-mediated neddylation of BCR-ABL alternatively determines the fate of Philadelphia chromosome-positive leukemia

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Mengya Zhao
   2. Beiying Dai
   3. Xiaodong Li
   4. Yixin Zhang
   5. Chun Qiao
   6. Yaru Qin
   7. Zhao Li
   8. Qingmei Li
   9. Shuzhen Wang
   10. Yong Yang
   11. Yijun Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this important study, the authors describe a novel function for RAPSYN in bcr-abl fusion associated leukemia, presenting convincing evidence that RAPSYN stabilizes the oncogenic BCR-ABL fusion protein. Compared to an earlier version of the manuscript, the authors have added data using primary samples that strengthen the conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Cestode larvae excite host neuronal circuits via glutamatergic signalling

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Anja de Lange
   2. Hayley Tomes
   3. Joshua S Selfe
   4. Ulrich Fabien Prodjinotho
   5. Matthijs B Verhoog
   6. Siddhartha Mahanty
   7. Katherine Ann Smith
   8. William Horsnell
   9. Chummy Sikasunge
   10. Clarissa Prazeres da Costa
   11. Joseph V Raimondo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript addresses infections of the parasite Taenia solium, which causes neurocysticercosis (NCC). NCC is a common parasitic infection that leads to severe neurological problems. It is a major cause of epilepsy, but little is known about how the infection causes epilepsy. The authors used neuronal recordings, imaging of calcium transients in neurons, and glutamate-sensing fluorescent reporters. A strength of the paper is the use of both rodent and human preparations. The results provide convincing evidence that the larvae secrete glutamate and this depolarizes neurons. Although it is still uncertain exactly how epilepsy is triggered, the results suggest that glutamate release contributes. Therefore, the paper is a fundamental step towards understanding how Taenia solium infection leads to epilepsy.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Hierarchical morphogenesis of swallowtail butterfly wing scale nanostructures

    This article has 2 authors:

    1. Kwi Shan Seah
    2. Vinodkumar Saranathan

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This important study reports how swallowtail butterflies pattern structures composed of chitin at the nanometer scale to produce structural colors. The work uses state-of-the-art microscopy techniques to convincingly show that F-actin is utilized in these butterflies in a novel way to produce structure, paving the way for further studies on growth regulation leading to precise ultrastructures and structural colors.

    Reviewed by eLife