eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Human attention during goal-directed reading comprehension relies on task optimization

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Jiajie Zou
   2. Yuran Zhang
   3. Jialu Li
   4. Xing Tian
   5. Nai Ding

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides a valuable contribution to the study of eye-movements in reading, revealing that attention-weights from a deep neural network show a statistically reliable fit to the word-level reading patterns of humans. Its evidence is convincing and strengthens a line of research arguing that attention in reading reflects task optimization. The work would be of interest to psychologists, neuroscientists, and machine learning researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Rewiring of master transcription factor cistromes during high-grade serous ovarian cancer development

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Robbin A. Nameki
   2. Heidi Chang
   3. Pak Yu
   4. Forough Abbasi
   5. Xianzhi Lin
   6. Jessica Reddy
   7. Marcela Haro
   8. Marcos AS Fonseca
   9. Matthew L. Freedman
   10. Ronny Drapkin
   11. Rosario I. Corona
   12. Kate Lawrenson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study has successfully identified four key transcription factors (MECOM, PAX8, SOX17, and WT1) that exhibit synergistic effects and are potentially responsible for the transformation of fallopian tube secretory epithelial cells into high-grade serous 'ovarian' cancer cells. Convincing data strongly support the drawn conclusion and significantly contribute to our understanding of the etiology of this devastating cancer. The implications of this finding are substantial, as it provides molecular insights that can potentially pave the way for innovative diagnostics and therapeutics in the field of gynecological oncology. Enhancing the clarity and impact of this study would be achieved through improvements in data presentation.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A unique cell division protein critical for the assembly of the bacterial divisome

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Xiao Chu
   2. Lidong Wang
   3. Yiheng Zhu
   4. Zhengshan Feng
   5. Qingtian Guan
   6. Lei Song
   7. Zhaoqing Luo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment:

     This useful study shows that the essential Acinetobacter baumannii gene Aeg1 likely plays an key role in cell division. The strength of the work is the discovery that the depletion of Aeg1 leads to cell filamentation and that gain-of-function mutations in cell division genes FtsB and FtsL rescue the lethality of Aeg1 depletion. However, Aeg1's localization pattern and its requirement for other division proteins' localizations require further characterization of the functionality of fluorescent fusion proteins, fluorescence images of higher quality, and improvements in statistic qualifications, leaving the study' evidence for Aeg1's exact role in cell division incomplete at this time. In conclusion, the critical role of Aeg1 in the assembly of the A. baumannii divisome has yet to be established unambiguously.

   Reviewed by eLife, Arcadia Science

4. Vertical transmission of maternal DNA through extracellular vesicles associates with altered embryo bioenergetics during the periconception period

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. David Bolumar
   2. Javier Moncayo-Arlandi
   3. Javier Gonzalez-Fernandez
   4. Ana Ochando
   5. Inmaculada Moreno
   6. Ana Monteagudo-Sanchez
   7. Carlos Marin
   8. Antonio Diez
   9. Paula Fabra
   10. Miguel Angel Checa
   11. Juan Jose Espinos
   12. David K Gardner
   13. Carlos Simon
   14. Felipe Vilella

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript reports important results on the potential influence of maternally derived extracellular vesicles on embryo metabolism. The study combines convincing techniques for isolating different subtypes of EV, DNA sequencing, embryo culture, and respiration assays performed on human endometrial samples and mouse embryos. These findings set the stage for in-depth studies to elucidate the role of EV contents in embryo energetics and further enhance our understanding on maternal-fetal communication during peri-implantation development.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 NSP10 highlight strong functional conservation of its binding to two non-structural proteins, NSP14 and NSP16

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Huan Wang
   2. Syed RA Rizvi
   3. Danni Dong
   4. Jiaqi Lou
   5. Qian Wang
   6. Watanyoo Sopipong
   7. Yufeng Su
   8. Fares Najar
   9. Pratul K Agarwal
   10. Frank Kozielski
   11. Shozeb Haider

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents an important discovery that the RNA synthesis protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is responsible for COVID 19, has fewer mutations and causes limited conformational changes. The evidence supporting the claims is convincing, with robust sequence alignment studies, state-of-the-art protein-protein interaction analysis, and molecular conformational analysis. This work has implications for drug design and will be of broad interest to the general biophysics and structural biology community.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. The ability to sense the environment is heterogeneously distributed in cell populations

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Andrew Goetz
   2. Hoda Akl
   3. Purushottam Dixit

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this valuable paper, the authors use an existing theoretical framework relying on information theory and maximum entropy inference in order to quantify how much information single cells can carry, taking into account their internal state. They reanalyze experimental data in this light. Despite some limitations of the data, the study convincingly highlights the difference between single-cell and population channel capacities. This result should be of interest to the quantitative biology community, as it contributes to explaining why channel capacities are apparently low in cells.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Nuclear bodies protect phase separated proteins from degradation in stressed proteome

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Kwan Ho Jung
   2. Jiarui Sun
   3. Chia-Heng Hsiung
   4. Xiaojun Lance Lian
   5. Yu Liu
   6. Xin Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a novel fluorescence based imaging strategy to investigate the folding status of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and their association with molecular chaperones under stress. It provides fundamental findings that will potentially advance our understanding in the folding and aggregation status of RBPs in nuclear stress bodies in a significant manner. However, there is also the concern that the evidence regarding protein fate is incomplete and additional controls are needed to fully support the conclusion. The imaging methodology can be adapted to study many other proteins that undergo liquid-liquid phase separation under specific cellular conditions.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. GABAergic synaptic scaling is triggered by changes in spiking activity rather than AMPA receptor activation

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Carlos Gonzalez-Islas
   2. Zahraa Sabra
   3. Ming-fai Fong
   4. Pernille Yilmam
   5. Nicholas Au Yong
   6. Kathrin Engisch
   7. Peter Wenner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study that brings insight into mechanisms that underlie regulation of GABAergic transmission in response to changes in activity. The authors present solid data supporting the premise that action potential firing rather than excitatory synaptic strength is a key determinant of GABAergic synaptic inputs.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. High-precision mapping of nuclear pore-chromatin interactions reveals new principles of genome organization at the nuclear envelope

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Swati Tyagi
   2. Juliana S. Capitanio
   3. Jiawei Xu
   4. Fei Chen
   5. Rahul Sharma
   6. Jialiang Huang
   7. Martin W. Hetzer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript describes important findings that will impact our understanding of nuclear pore complex (NPC)-genome interactions and how nuclear pore proteins (nucleoporins) impact super enhancer function. The authors develop a clever new approach termed NPC-DamID to map chromatin-NPC interactions that has several important advantages over existing techniques and may be used in contexts that are incompatible with genetic manipulation. The authors provide compelling evidence that nucleoporins interact with super enhancers in multiple cell types and also suggest that the phase separation behavior of nucleoporins contributes to the hierarchical organization of super enhancers, which is exciting and will stimulate additional work.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Deciphering neuronal deficit and protein profile changes in human brain organoids from patients with creatine transporter deficiency

    This article has 16 authors:

    1. Léa Broca-Brisson
    2. Rania Harati
    3. Clémence Disdier
    4. Orsolya Mozner
    5. Romane Gaston-Breton
    6. Auriane Maïza
    7. Narciso Costa
    8. Anne-Cécile Guyot
    9. Balazs Sarkadi
    10. Agota Apati
    11. Matthew R Skelton
    12. Lucie Madrange
    13. Frank Yates
    14. Jean Armengaud
    15. Rifat Hamoudi
    16. Aloïse Mabondzo

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This is an important study highlighting how a single protein transporter dysfunction can significantly alter brain biochemistry, potentially playing a crucial role in the intellectual disability in creatine transporter deficiency (CTD) patients. The evidence is compelling that the new in vitro CTD model using CTD patient's brain organoid cultures will be widely applicable. Despite minor areas for further exploration, the study significantly enhances our understanding of CTD, offering potential therapeutic targets and a robust foundation for continued research in the field.

    Reviewed by eLife