eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Metformin regulates bone marrow stromal cells to accelerate bone healing in diabetic mice

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yuqi Guo
   2. Jianlu Wei
   3. Chuanju Liu
   4. Xin Li
   5. Wenbo Yan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental work advances our understanding of the effects of metformin on bone healing in hyperglycemic conditions. The evidence supporting the conclusion is convincing, using three different types of bone fracture models in type-2 diabetes (T2D) mice. This paper is of potential interest to skeletal biologists, orthopaedic surgeons, and endocrinologists who study the effects of metformin on fracture healing.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. A critical role for heme synthesis and succinate in the regulation of pluripotent states transitions

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Damien Detraux
   2. Marino Caruso
   3. Louise Feller
   4. Maude Fransolet
   5. Sébastien Meurant
   6. Julie Mathieu
   7. Thierry Arnould
   8. Patricia Renard

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In their current study, Detraux D and colleagues provide some evidence suggesting a role for heme biosynthesis on FGF-ERK and TGF beta signalling and exit from naïve pluripotency, and in controlling the 2-cell-like cell state. The observations provided by the authors are interesting and potentially relevant in the field of pluripotent cell state transitions.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Genome-wide screen reveals Rab12 GTPase as a critical activator of Parkinson’s disease-linked LRRK2 kinase

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Herschel S Dhekne
   2. Francesca Tonelli
   3. Wondwossen M Yeshaw
   4. Claire Y Chiang
   5. Charles Limouse
   6. Ebsy Jaimon
   7. Elena Purlyte
   8. Dario R Alessi
   9. Suzanne R Pfeffer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Dhekne et al report a novel pathway for activation of the multi-domain LRRK2 protein kinase by Rab12 GTPase. LRRK2, which is mutated in Parkinson's Disease phosphorylates a subset of Rab proteins involved in intracellular trafficking, and Parkinson's disease-linked mutations increase this phosphorylation. This work adds an important new layer of understanding of this highly complex pathway by revealing that LRRK2's binding to Rab12 enhances its ability to phosphorylate Rab10. This conclusion is supported by compelling evidence from a wide array of rigorous approaches.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Transposons are important contributors to gene expression variability under selection in rice populations

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Raúl Castanera
   2. Noemia Morales-Díaz
   3. Sonal Gupta
   4. Michael Purugganan
   5. Josep M Casacuberta

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study reports on the role of transposable elements in gene expression variation in rice and how TE-associated expression changes could have been selected during domestication. The combination of evidence from linkage studies and selection scans for a subset of insertions is convincing, although it is difficult to know in how many cases linkage of TE insertions to other regulatory variants is responsible for altered gene expression and in how many cases the TE insertions themselves are the bona fide cause of altered gene expression. The work will be of interest to colleagues working on the role of transposable elements in adaptation and to biologists working on domestication.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Hunger- and thirst-sensing neurons modulate a neuroendocrine network to coordinate sugar and water ingestion

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Amanda J González Segarra
   2. Gina Pontes
   3. Nicholas Jourjine
   4. Alexander Del Toro
   5. Kristin Scott

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study identifies and characterizes a broad peptidergic network that coordinates nutrient-specific consumption needs for food or water. Using state-of-the-art methodology the authors combine a well-balanced set of exploratory anatomical analyses with rigorous functional experimental approaches to examine how ingestion is regulated based on internal needs. These significant and convincing new findings are of broad interest to the neuroscience field.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. What AlphaFold tells us about cohesin’s retention on and release from chromosomes

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Kim A Nasmyth
   2. Byung-Gil Lee
   3. Maurici Brunet Roig
   4. Jan Löwe

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study makes use of AlphaFold2 to predict the models of tens of cohesin subcomplexes from different species. The models, which are in most cases consistent with published cohesin variants with compromised in vitro and in vivo cohesin activity, provide convincing evidence that leads to testable hypotheses of cohesin dynamics and regulation. More broadly, this study serves as an example of how to use AlphaFold2 to build models of protein complexes that involve the docking of flexible regions to globular domains.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. How microscopic epistasis and clonal interference shape the fitness trajectory in a spin glass model of microbial long-term evolution

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Nicholas M Boffi
   2. Yipei Guo
   3. Chris H Rycroft
   4. Ariel Amir

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study describes a high performance computational approach to interrogate how microscopic epistasis and clonal interference affect evolutionary dynamics in a spin glass model of microbial evolution. The study offers several insights that can aid in our understanding of the forces that operate in adaptive evolution. The evidence provided is compelling, with its rigorous use of models and analytical descriptions of how these forces manifest in evolution.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. A neural network model of differentiation and integration of competing memories

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Victoria JH Ritvo
   2. Alex Nguyen
   3. Nicholas B Turk-Browne
   4. Kenneth A Norman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper presents important computational modeling work that provides a mechanistic account for how memory representations become integrated or differentiated (i.e., having distinct neural representations despite being similar in content). The authors provide convincing evidence that simple unsupervised learning in a neural network model, which critically weakens connections of units that are moderately activated by multiple memories, can account for three empirical findings of differentiation in the literature. The paper also provides insightful discussion on the factors contributing to differentiation as opposed to integration, and makes new predictions for future empirical work.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Experimentally induced active and quiet sleep engage non-overlapping transcriptional programs in Drosophila

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Niki Anthoney
   2. Lucy Tainton-Heap
   3. Hang Luong
   4. Eleni Notaras
   5. Amber B Kewin
   6. Qiongyi Zhao
   7. Trent Perry
   8. Philip Batterham
   9. Paul J Shaw
   10. Bruno van Swinderen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Drosophila is a powerful model organism for understanding the molecular and neural regulation of sleep. However, methodological limitations exist that would appear to limit the relevance of work done in the fly to our understanding of mammalian sleep. In this important work, the authors provide physiological, behavioral, and molecular evidence for the existence of two potential sleep stages in Drosophila. The experiments are generally well conducted and the authors' interpretations of their results are solid overall. Although technically innovative and conceptually provocative, there are aspects of the approaches used and results obtained that leave the central conclusions open to interpretation.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Novel regulators of islet function identified from genetic variation in mouse islet Ca2+ oscillations

    This article has 10 authors:

    1. Christopher H Emfinger
    2. Lauren E Clark
    3. Brian Yandell
    4. Kathryn L Schueler
    5. Shane P Simonett
    6. Donnie S Stapleton
    7. Kelly A Mitok
    8. Matthew J Merrins
    9. Mark P Keller
    10. Alan D Attie

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The authors provide a fundamental resource, detailing genetic variation of nutrient-responsive islet calcium regulation in mice through the lens of proteomics. The evidence for the mechanisms identified using this resource is compelling and strongly supported by integration with results from genome-wide association studies in humans. The construction of a streamlined and searchable web interface for the data will maximize their accessibility and utilization by the community.

    Reviewed by eLife