eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. NAD+ prevents septic shock-induced death by non-canonical inflammasome blockade and IL-10 cytokine production in macrophages

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Jasper Iske
   2. Rachid El Fatimy
   3. Yeqi Nian
   4. Amina Ghouzlani
   5. Siawosh K Eskandari
   6. Hector Rodriguez Cetina Biefer
   7. Anju Vasudevan
   8. Abdallah Elkhal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this valuable contribution, the authors demonstrate that the infusion of NAD+ may prevent death and reduce disease severity from lethal experimental bacterial sepsis, possibly through inflammasome inhibition, without reducing bacterial load. They provide solid evidence for these protective effects of NAD+, though the precise mechanisms involved remain unclear and need further support and elucidation. The core findings may well have clinical implications but, in addition to mechanistic clarifications, contextualised interpretation as metabolic adaptation to sepsis would create wider interest.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Nucleotide binding to the ATP-cone in anaerobic ribonucleotide reductases allosterically regulates activity by modulating substrate binding

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Ornella Bimai
   2. Ipsita Banerjee
   3. Inna Rozman Grinberg
   4. Ping Huang
   5. Lucas Hultgren
   6. Simon Ekström
   7. Daniel Lundin
   8. Britt-Marie Sjöberg
   9. Derek T Logan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study advances our understanding of the allosteric regulation of anaerobic ribonucleotide reductases (RNRs) by nucleotides, providing valuable new structural insight into class III RNRs containing ATP cones. The cryo-EM structural characterization of the system is solid, but some open questions remain about the interpretation of activity/binding assays and the HDX-MS results that have been newly incorporated compared to a previous version. The work will be of interest to biochemists and structural biologists working on ribonucleotide reductases and other allosterically regulated enzymes.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Carotenoid assembly regulates quinone diffusion and the Roseiflexus castenholzii reaction center-light harvesting complex architecture

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Jiyu Xin
   2. Yang Shi
   3. Xin Zhang
   4. Xinyi Yuan
   5. Yueyong Xin
   6. Huimin He
   7. Jiejie Shen
   8. Robert E Blankenship
   9. Xiaoling Xu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a valuable analysis of the structure of Roseiflexus castenholzii native and carotenoid-depleted light harvesting complexes. The authors have investigated the relationship between Carotenoid pigment depletion in the photosynthesis-related light harvesting complex, the assembly of the prokaryotic reaction center LH complex, and quinone exchange in Roseiflexus castenholzii, a chlorosome-less filamentous anoxygenic phototroph that forms the deepest branch of photosynthetic bacteria. The evidence supporting the claims is solid, with application of rigorous biochemical and biophysical techniques, including cryo-electron microscopy of the purified of the RC-LH complexes with or depleted of carotenoids. This study will be of interest to biologists working on the evolution and diversity of prokaryotic photosynthetic apparatus.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. A modelled analysis of the impact of COVID-19-related disruptions to HPV vaccination

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Louiza S Velentzis
   2. Megan A Smith
   3. James Killen
   4. Julia ML Brotherton
   5. Rebecca Guy
   6. Karen Canfell

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The study presents important findings for public health authorities and policymakers to enable them to make evidence-based decisions when deciding on how to manage the effect of HPV vaccination disruptions. This study is particularly relevant in light of the efforts of the WHO to achieve global elimination of cervical cancers. The findings are convincing and the model used is appropriate.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Electronic data review, client reminders, and expanded clinic hours for improving cervical cancer screening rates after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns: A multicomponent quality improvement program

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Sue Ghosh
   2. Jackie Fantes
   3. Karin Leschly
   4. Julio Mazul
   5. Rebecca B Perkins

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study addresses a pertinent and important topic related to prolonged delays in cervical cancer screening and the need to maintain routine and timely screening services in a large health maintenance network in Boston. The findings provide a solid, yet incomplete roadmap for implementing simple strategies to help patients return to essential health services.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Dynamic top-down biasing implements rapid adaptive changes to individual movements

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Lucas Y Tian
   2. Timothy L Warren
   3. William H Mehaffey
   4. Michael S Brainard

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     By recording simultaneously from premotor and primary motor cortical nuclei in singing birds, this paper provides compelling evidence that premotor activity covaries with primary activity with the temporal specificity necessary to promote learning and drive adaptive vocal variation. As the first study to record from two distant sites at once in singing birds, this study also provides exceptional evidence for temporally precise coordination between two motor areas in the service of vocal learning.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Evolutionary consequences of nascent multicellular life cycles

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jennifer T Pentz
   2. Kathryn MacGillivray
   3. James G DuBose
   4. Peter L Conlin
   5. Emma Reinhardt
   6. Eric Libby
   7. William C Ratcliff

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This Pentz et al study potentially provides fundamental insight into the evolution of multicellularity by experimentally demonstrating that yeast strains that form clonal groups evolve stronger group traits than ones that aggregate into non-clonal groups. While the repeatability of their experiments, supported by genomic analyses and models is compelling, the experimental design may be inadequate and would need to be extended to better support the main claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Exposure to high-sugar diet induces transgenerational changes in sweet sensitivity and feeding behavior via H3K27me3 reprogramming

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jie Yang
   2. Ruijun Tang
   3. Shiye Chen
   4. Yinan Chen
   5. Kai Yuan
   6. Rui Huang
   7. Liming Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents an important finding that high-sugar diet-induced behavioral changes can be transmitted to the offspring through the maternal germline. Using genetic and molecular biology approaches in the fruit fly model, the authors argue that this Lamarckian inheritance is mediated by germline-inherited chromatin and is regulated by the general activity of a histone methylase, and H3K27me3 modification plays a critical role in this transgenerational effect. The behavioral data are convincing, while the underlying molecular and neural mechanisms need to be strengthened. The work will be of great interest to behaviorists and epigeneticist.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Structure-based learning to model complex protein-DNA interactions and transcription-factor co-operativity in cis -regulatory elements

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. O Fornes
   2. A Meseguer
   3. J Aguirre-Plans
   4. P Gohl
   5. PM Bota
   6. R Molina-Fernández
   7. J Bonet
   8. AC Hernandez
   9. F Pegenaute
   10. O Gallego
   11. N Fernandez-Fuentes
   12. B Oliva

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study describes the development of a new structure-based learning approach to predict transcription binding specificity and its application in the modeling of regulatory complexes in cis-regulatory modules. The authors developed a structure-based learning approach to predict TF binding features and model the regulatory complex(es) in cis-regulatory modules, integrating experimental knowledge of structures of TF-DNA complexes and high-throughput TF-DNA interactions. The validation presented by the authors is currently incomplete, with a large variability in the performance of the method on the different TF families tested.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Criticality supports cross-frequency cortical-thalamic information transfer during conscious states

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Daniel Toker
    2. Eli Müller
    3. Hiroyuki Miyamoto
    4. Maurizio S Riga
    5. Laia Lladó-Pelfort
    6. Kazuhiro Yamakawa
    7. Francesc Artigas
    8. James M Shine
    9. Andrew E Hudson
    10. Nader Pouratian
    11. Martin M Monti

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This manuscript investigates thalamocortical communication and cross-frequency coupling in humans and animal models under anesthesia and the effects of the serotonergic psychedelic compound 5-MeO-DMT. These findings are exciting because they put two different perturbations of brain functions - anesthesia and psychedelic stimulation - into a single modeling framework. The framework describes anesthesia and psychedelic stimulation as opposing perturbations from normal brain function that respectively reduce and enhance thalamocortical communication.

    Reviewed by eLife