eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. High-resolution kinetics of herbivore-induced plant volatile transfer reveal clocked response patterns in neighboring plants

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Jamie Mitchel Waterman
   2. Tristan Michael Cofer
   3. Lei Wang
   4. Gaetan Glauser
   5. Matthias Erb

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study examines the effects of herbivory-induced maize volatiles on neighbouring plants and their responses over time. Measurements of volatile compound classes and gene expression in receiver plants exposed to these volatiles led to the conclusion that the delayed emission of certain terpenes in receiver plants after the onset of light may be a result of stress memory, highlighting the role of priming and induction in plant defences triggered by herbivore-induced plant volatiles. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with rigorous chemical assays of and state-of-the-art high throughput real time mass spectrometry. The work will be of broad interest to plant biologists and chemical ecologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Calcineurin inhibition enhances Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan by defecation defects-mediated calorie restriction and nuclear hormone signaling

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Priyanka Das
   2. Alejandro Aballay
   3. Jogender Singh

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study reveals insights into how calcineurin influences C. elegans pathogen susceptibility and lifespan through its role in controlling the defecation motor program. The authors provide convincing evidence to support a new mechanism through which calcineurin impacts longevity. This work will be of interest to investigators studying host-pathogen interactions and aging in a number of experimental systems.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Adult-born granule cells modulate CA2 network activity during retrieval of developmental memories of the mother

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Blake J Laham
   2. Isha R Gore
   3. Casey J Brown
   4. Elizabeth Gould

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper reports a valuable set of new results. The main result is that the projection from adult-born granule cells in the dentate gyrus to the hippocampal subfield CA2 is necessary for the retrieval of a social memory formed during development, and solid evidence is provided to support this conclusion.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Positive selection and relaxed purifying selection contribute to rapid evolution of male-biased genes in a dioecious flowering plant

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Lei Zhao
   2. Wei Zhou
   3. Jun He
   4. De-Zhu Li
   5. Hong-Tao Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable paper examines gene expression differences between male and female individuals over the course of flower development in the dioecious angiosperm Trichosantes pilosa. Male-biased genes evolve faster than female-biased and unbiased genes, which is frequently observed in animals, but this is the first report of such a pattern in plants. In spite of the limited sample size, the evidence is mostly solid and the methods appropriate for a non-model organism. The resources produced will be used by researchers working in the Cucurbitaceae, and the results obtained advance our understanding of the mechanisms of plant sexual reproduction and its evolutionary implications: as such they will broadly appeal to evolutionary biologists and plant biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Deciphering the complex relationship between type 2 diabetes and fracture risk with both genetic and observational evidence

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Pianpian Zhao
   2. Zhifeng Sheng
   3. Lin Xu
   4. Peng Li
   5. Wenjin Xiao
   6. Chengda Yuan
   7. Zhanwei Xu
   8. Mengyuan Yang
   9. Yu Qian
   10. Jiadong Zhong
   11. Jiaxuan Gu
   12. David Karasik
   13. Hou-Feng Zheng

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study aims to explore the diabetes-bone paradox using the Mendelian Randomization approach. That diabetes itself is not the direct cause, but rather the complications or associated risk factors increase the risk of fracture, constitutes a valuable insight. Mendelian randomization to explain the relationship of two complex conditions is solid and conducted properly; however, the efforts to reconcile the discrepancies between the Mendelian Randomization analysis and observational studies are incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Sex-biased regulatory changes in the placenta of native highlanders contribute to adaptive fetal development

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Tian Yue
   2. Yongbo Guo
   3. Xuebin Qi
   4. Wangshan Zheng
   5. Hui Zhang
   6. Bin Wang
   7. Kai Liu
   8. Bin Zhou
   9. Xuerui Zeng
   10. Ouzhuluobu
   11. Yaoxi He
   12. Bing Su

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study reports differential expression of key genes in full-term placenta between Tibetans and Han Chinese at high elevations, which are more pronounced in the placenta of male fetus than in female fetus. The gene expression data were collected and analyzed using solid and validated methodology, although there is limited support for hypoxia-specific responses due to a lack of low-altitude samples. Several of the placental genes found in this study have been previously reported to show signatures of positive selection in Tibetans, pointing to a potential mechanism of how human populations adapt to high elevation by mitigating the negative effects of low oxygen on fetal growth. The work will be of interest to evolutionary and population geneticists as well as researchers working on human hypoxic response.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Non-cognate immunity proteins provide broader defenses against interbacterial effectors in microbial communities

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Abigail Knecht
   2. Denise Sirias
   3. Daniel R Utter
   4. Karine A Gibbs

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides valuable insights into the specificity and promiscuity of toxic effector and immunity protein pairs. While the work is improved over a previous version, there are still some questions regarding the methodology used to draw certain conclusions, rendering the study somewhat incomplete. Nevertheless, this work will likely be of interest to microbiologists and biochemists working with toxin-antitoxin systems and effector-immunity proteins.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. A new pipeline SPICE identifies novel JUN-IKZF1 composite elements

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Peng Li
   2. Sree Pulugulla
   3. Sonali Das
   4. Jangsuk Oh
   5. Rosanne Spolski
   6. Jian-Xin Lin
   7. Warren J Leonard

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study presents a screening pipeline (SPICE) for detecting DNA motif spacing preferences between TF partners. SPICE predicts previously known composite elements, but experiments to elucidate the nature of the predicted novel interaction between JUN and IKZF1 are incomplete. These experiments would benefit from more rigorous approaches using other databases to explore additional relevant data. The work will be of broad interest to those involved in dissecting the regulatory logic of mammalian enhancers and promoters.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. PYCR1 Levels Track with Premature and Chronological Skin Aging

   This article has 20 authors:

   1. Kortessa Sotiropoulou
   2. Saniye Yumlu
   3. Tomoko Hirano
   4. Michael Maier
   5. Abigail Loh
   6. Peh Fern Ong
   7. Onn Siong Yim
   8. Chunping Liu
   9. Emmanuel Vial
   10. Umut Altunoğlu
   11. Sheela Nampoothiri
   12. Deepthi de Silva
   13. Björn Fischer-Zirnsak
   14. Hülya Kayserili
   15. Poh San Lai
   16. Oliver Dreesen
   17. Kenji Kabashima
   18. Uwe Kornak
   19. Nathalie Escande-Beillard
   20. Bruno Reversade

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript uses genetic mouse modeling to delve deeper into a rare human disease of aging. The targeted approaches employed lend greater pathophysiologic insight and makes this paper valuable to the field art large. Additionally, the approaches used are rigorous and solid in supporting their conclusions. Some minor weaknesses were noted along with suggestions to add greater clarity.

   Reviewed by eLife, preLights

10. The infection-tolerant white-footed deermouse tempers interferon responses to endotoxin in comparison to the mouse and rat

    This article has 3 authors:

    1. Ana Milovic
    2. Jonathan V Duong
    3. Alan G Barbour

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This study provides a comprehensive whole genome transcriptomic analysis of three small mammals, including Peromyscus leucopus, after exposure to endotoxin lipopolysaccharide. The authors find that the inflammatory response of the three species is complex and that P. leucopus responds differently compared to mice and rats. The data are convincing and constitute an important advance in our understanding of inflammatory responses in animals that serve as reservoirs for relevant pathogens.

    Reviewed by eLife