eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Glutamine catabolism supports amino acid biosynthesis and suppresses the integrated stress response to promote photoreceptor survival

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Moloy T Goswami
   2. Eric Weh
   3. Shubha Subramanya
   4. Katherine M Weh
   5. Hima Bindu Durumutla
   6. Heather Hager
   7. Nicholas Miller
   8. Sraboni Chaudhury
   9. Anthony Andren
   10. Peter Sajjakulnukit
   11. Li Zhang
   12. Cagri G Besirli
   13. Costas A Lyssiotis
   14. Thomas J Wubben

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Goswami and colleagues used rod-specific Gls1 (the gene encoding glutaminase 1) knockout mice to investigate the role of GLS1 in photoreceptor health when GLS1 was deleted from developing or adult photoreceptor cells. This study is important as it shows the critical role of glutamine catabolism in photoreceptor cell health using in vivo model systems. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing. The current manuscript would further benefit from validating the evidence with additional supporting data from IND-cKO with tamoxifen induction at adult age, testing GLS1 activity to provide glutamate for synaptic transmission, and examining metabolic crosstalk between RPE and neural retinas.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The Drosophila hematopoietic niche assembles through collective cell migration controlled by neighbor tissues and Slit-Robo signaling

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Kara A. Nelson
   2. Kari F. Lenhart
   3. Lauren Anllo
   4. Stephen DiNardo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents valuable findings on the role of a well-studied signal transduction pathway, the Slit/Robo system, in the context of the assembly of the hematopoietic niche in the Drosophila embryo. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid. However, one aspect that needs attention is whether the cells are migrating and not being pushed to a more dorsal position through dorsal closure and/or other similar large-scale embryo movement. This does not detract from the very interesting analysis of PSC morphogenesis and will interest developmental biologists working on molecular mechanisms of tissue morphogenesis.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Malaria parasites require a divergent heme oxygenase for apicoplast gene expression and biogenesis

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Amanda Mixon Blackwell
   2. Yasaman Jami-Alahmadi
   3. Armiyaw S Nasamu
   4. Shota Kudo
   5. Akinobu Senoo
   6. Celine Slam
   7. Kouhei Tsumoto
   8. James A Wohlschlegel
   9. Jose MM Caaveiro
   10. Daniel E Goldberg
   11. Paul A Sigala

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study reveals that the malaria parasite protein PfHO, although lacking typical heme oxygenase activity, is essential for the survival of Plasmodium falciparum. Structural and localization analyses demonstrated that PfHO plays a critical role in maintaining the apicoplast, specifically in gene expression and biogenesis, suggesting an adaptive function for this protein in parasite biology. While the findings convincingly support the authors' claims, further investigation into apicoplast gene expression and the specific function of PfHO remains a future challenge. The topic and results are important and will be of interest to researchers studying various aspects of malaria, Plasmodium physiology, host-pathogen interactions, and heme metabolism.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Massively Parallel Polyribosome Profiling Reveals Translation Defects of Human Disease-Relevant UTR Mutations

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Wei-Ping Li
   2. Jia-Ying Su
   3. Yu-Chi Chang
   4. Yun-Lin Wang
   5. Hung-Lun Chiang
   6. Yu-Tung Hsieh
   7. Yi-Hsuan Chiang
   8. Yen-Ling Ko
   9. Bing-Jen Chiang
   10. Cheng-Han Yang
   11. Yen-Tsung Huang
   12. Chien-Ling Lin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     To elucidate the precise function of variants in the UTRs, the authors established and conducted a massively parallel poly(ribo)some profiling method to compare ribosome associations and effects of genetic variants. The approach and results are valuable, as this is a new approach to studying UTRs. However, the experimental and analytic validation seems to be incomplete, as the results are less robust than expected.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Arabidopsis SDG proteins mediate Polycomb removal and transcription-coupled H3K36 methylation for gene activation

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Nobutoshi Yamaguchi
   2. Wang Yicong
   3. Masato Abe
   4. Yuka Kadoya
   5. Takeru Saiki
   6. Kanae Imai
   7. Xuejing Wang
   8. Taiko To
   9. Soichi Inagaki
   10. Takamasa Suzuki
   11. Tetsuji Kakutani
   12. Toshiro Ito

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study advances our understanding of the mechanisms underlying chromatin-mediated gene regulation by SET DOMAIN-CONTAINING PROTEIN 7 (SDG7). The evidence supporting the author's claims – centered on a combination of imaging approaches with molecular and genetic experiments – is convincing, although certain aspects can be improved. The work will be of broad interest to molecular biologists studying epigenetic regulation of gene expression.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Deficiency in a special dynein DNAH12 causes male infertility by impairing DNAH1 and DNALI1 recruitment in humans and mice

   This article has 21 authors:

   1. Menglei Yang
   2. Hafiz Muhammad Jafar Hussain
   3. Manan Khan
   4. Zubair Muhammad
   5. Jianteng Zhou
   6. Ao Ma
   7. Xiongheng Huang
   8. Jingwei Ye
   9. Min Chen
   10. Aoran Zhi
   11. Tao Liu
   12. Ranjha Khan
   13. Asim Ali
   14. Wasim Shah
   15. Aurang Zeb
   16. Nisar Ahmad
   17. Huan Zhang
   18. Bo Xu
   19. Hui Ma
   20. Qinghua Shi
   21. Baolu Shi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study further validates DNAH12 as a causative gene for asthenoteratozoospermia and male infertility in humans and mice. The data supporting the notion that DNAH12 is required for proper axonemal development are generally convincing, although more experiments would solidify the conclusions. This work will interest reproductive biologists working on spermatogenesis and sperm biology, as well as andrologists working on male fertility.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Structure transfer and consolidation in visual implicit learning

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Dominik Garber
   2. József Fiser

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study investigates the conditions under which abstract knowledge transfers to new learning. It presents evidence across a number of behavioral experiments that when explicit awareness of learned statistical structure is present, knowledge can transfer immediately, but that otherwise similar transfer requires sleep-dependent consolidation. The valuable results provide new constraints on theories of transfer learning and consolidation, though limitations in the statistical approach and interpretation make the current evidence incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Single dopaminergic neuron DAN-c1 in Drosophila larval brain mediates aversive olfactory learning through D2-like receptors

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Cheng Qi
   2. Cheng Qian
   3. Emma Steijvers
   4. Robert A Colvin
   5. Daewoo Lee

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on the role of dopamine receptor D2R in dopaminergic neurons DAN-c1 and mushroom body neurons (Y201-GAL4 pattern) on aversive and appetitive conditioning. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid and promotes the investigation using fly larvae, which have interesting advantages in the time required for obtaining experimental animals and the use of optogenetics. The work will be of interest to researchers studying neuronal control of behaviour and learning and memory in general.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Spatiotemporal brain complexity quantifies consciousness outside of perturbation paradigms

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Martin Breyton
   2. Jan Fousek
   3. Giovanni Rabuffo
   4. Pierpaolo Sorrentino
   5. Lionel Kusch
   6. Marcello Massimini
   7. Spase Petkoski
   8. Viktor Jirsa

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study examined the complexity of emergent dynamics of large-scale neural network models after perturbation (perturbational complexity index, PCI) and used it as a measurement of consciousness to account for previous recordings of humans at various anesthetized levels. The evidence supporting the conclusion is solid and constitutes a unified framework for different observations related to consciousness. There are many fields that would be interested in this study, including cognitive neuroscience, psychology, complex systems, neural networks, and neural dynamics.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. A peptide-neurotensin conjugate that crosses the blood-brain barrier induces pharmacological hypothermia associated with anticonvulsant, neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties following status epilepticus in mice

    This article has 20 authors:

    1. Lotfi Ferhat
    2. Rabia Soussi
    3. Maxime Masse
    4. Grigorios Kyriatzis
    5. Stéphane D Girard
    6. Fanny Gassiot
    7. Nicolas Gaudin
    8. Mathieu Laurencin
    9. Anne Bernard
    10. Angélique Bôle
    11. Géraldine Ferracci
    12. Maria Smirnova
    13. François Roman
    14. Vincent Dive
    15. Salvatore Cisternino
    16. Jamal Temsamani
    17. Marion David
    18. Pascaline Lécorché
    19. Guillaume Jacquot
    20. Michel Khrestchatisky

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      The authors developed a method to allow a hypothermic agent, neurotensin, to cross the blood-brain barrier so it could potentially protect the brain from seizures and the adverse effects of seizures. The work is important because it is known that cooling the brain can protect it but developing a therapeutic approach based on that knowledge has not been done. The paper is well presented and the data are convincing.

    Reviewed by eLife