eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A tRNA modification in Mycobacterium tuberculosis facilitates optimal intracellular growth

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Francesca G Tomasi
   2. Satoshi Kimura
   3. Eric J Rubin
   4. Matthew K Waldor

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a valuable addition to the literature as it helps us understand the role of tRNA modifying enzymes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. By knocking out one of the enzymes, the authors convincingly demonstrate the importance of tRNA-modifying enzymes for intra-host growth of tubercle bacteria. Some of the claims regarding modification as well as the role in virulence could be strengthened through further bioinformatics and phylogenetic analyses as well as experimental approaches. The work will be of interest to microbiologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. DNA damage signaling in Drosophila macrophages modulates systemic cytokine levels in response to oxidative stress

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Fabian Hersperger
   2. Tim Meyring
   3. Pia Weber
   4. Chintan Chhatbar
   5. Gianni Monaco
   6. Marc S Dionne
   7. Katrin Paeschke
   8. Marco Prinz
   9. Olaf Groß
   10. Anne-Kathrin Classen
   11. Katrin Kierdorf

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study elucidates the role of a specific hemocyte subpopulation in oxidative damage response by establishing connections between DNA damage response and the JNK-JAK/STAT axis to regulate energy metabolism. The identification of this distinct hemocyte subpopulation through single-cell RNA sequencing analysis and the finding of hemocytes that respond to oxidative stress are important. The method for single-cell RNA sequencing and related analyses are convincing and experiments linking oxidative stress to DNA damage and energy expenditure are solid. The finding of stress-responsive immune cells capable of influencing whole-body metabolism adds insights for cell biologists and developmental biologists in the fields of immunology and metabolism.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Lack of CCDC146, a ubiquitous centriole and microtubule-associated protein, leads to non-syndromic male infertility in human and mouse

   This article has 29 authors:

   1. Jana Muroňová
   2. Zine Eddine Kherraf
   3. Elsa Giordani
   4. Emeline Lambert
   5. Simon Eckert
   6. Caroline Cazin
   7. Amir Amiri-Yekta
   8. Magali Court
   9. Geneviève Chevalier
   10. Guillaume Martinez
   11. Yasmine Neirijnck
   12. Francoise Kühne
   13. Lydia Wehrli
   14. Nikolai Klena
   15. Virginie Hamel
   16. Lisa De Macedo
   17. Jessica Escoffier
   18. Paul Guichard
   19. Charles Coutton
   20. Selima Fourati Ben Mustapha
   21. Mahmoud Kharouf
   22. Anne-Pacale Bouin
   23. Raoudha Zouari
   24. Nicolas Thierry-Mieg
   25. Serge Nef
   26. Stefan Geimer
   27. Corinne Loeuillet
   28. Pierre F Ray
   29. Christophe Arnoult

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents valuable information that demonstrates CCDC146 as a novel cause of male infertility that play key role in microtubule-associated structures. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid using combination of human and mouse genetics, biochemical and imaging approaches. This paper would be of interest to cell and developmental biologists working on genes involved in spermatogenesis and male infertility.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Calcium transients trigger switch-like discharge of prostaglandin E2 in an extracellular signal-regulated kinase-dependent manner

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Tetsuya Watabe
   2. Shinya Yamahira
   3. Kanako Takakura
   4. Dean Thumkeo
   5. Shuh Narumiya
   6. Michiyuki Matsuda
   7. Kenta Terai

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study reports on the dynamics of PKA investigated at the single-cell level in vitro and in epithelia in vivo. Using different fluorescent biosensors and optogenetic actuators, the authors dissect the signaling pathway responsible for PKA waves, finding that PKA activation is a consequence of PGE2 release, which in turn is triggered by calcium pulses, requiring high ERK activity. The evidence supporting the claims is solid. At this stage the work is still partly descriptive in nature, and additional measurements would increase the strength of mechanistic insights and physiological relevance.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. A toxin-mediated policing system in Bacillus optimizes division of labor via penalizing cheater-like nonproducers

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Rong Huang
   2. Jiahui Shao
   3. Zhihui Xu
   4. Yuqi Chen
   5. Yunpeng Liu
   6. Dandan Wang
   7. Haichao Feng
   8. Weibing Xun
   9. Qirong Shen
   10. Nan Zhang
   11. Ruifu Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript reports important findings regarding the potential for self-policing and a division of labor among biofilm-inhabiting Bacillus cells. Overall, this work is robust in its use of various techniques and provides solid insights into the intersections of well-understood regulatory controls and the suppression of cheaters. Despite some concerns about the data, all reviewers were excited by the potential impact of this work. Colleagues interested in microbial social interactions should find this study's narrative about the internal mediation of cell differentiation particularly valuable.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Dissecting the chain of information processing and its interplay with neurochemicals and fluid intelligence across development

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. George Zacharopoulos
   2. Francesco Sella
   3. Uzay Emir
   4. Roi Cohen Kadosh

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study combines behavioral and imaging experiments to understand how levels of important brain chemicals shape the processing of information in the brain in children and young adults. The sample size and data quality are outstanding and some of the data are quite convincing. However, the calculation and interpretation of the brain chemical concentration measurements as well as the interpretation of the model-based behavioral parameters are not fully justified and support for the overall conclusions is incomplete. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists, psychologists, and neuroimaging researchers investigating the developing brain in health and disease.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A TRAF-like E3 ubiquitin ligase TrafE coordinates ESCRT and autophagy in endolysosomal damage response and cell-autonomous immunity to Mycobacterium marinum

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Lyudmil Raykov
   2. Manon Mottet
   3. Jahn Nitschke
   4. Thierry Soldati

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents important findings on the mechanism as to how Mycobacterium-containing vacuoles are recognized by host cell factors and subjected to membrane repair or autophagic degradation using Dictyostelium discoideum as a useful model. The evidence for the role of TrafE in damaged-membrane repair and xenophagy induction is convincing, but that in autophagosome closure is rather incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Motor cortex analogue neurons in songbirds utilize Kv3 channels to generate ultranarrow spikes

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Benjamin M Zemel
   2. Alexander A Nevue
   3. Leonardo ES Tavares
   4. Andre Dagostin
   5. Peter V Lovell
   6. Dezhe Z Jin
   7. Claudio V Mello
   8. Henrique von Gersdorff

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment:

     Zemel and colleagues provide a report on the fundamental electrophysiological properties of motor neurons driving song in the zebrafish and provide complementary information about cell morphology, pharmacological sensitivity, and ion channel expression and heterogeneity. They provide mainly convincing data supporting the claim of a particular ion channel class, Kv3, that plays an important role in fast electrical spiking (action potentials) in song-related neurons.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Rapid and precise genome engineering in a naturally short-lived vertebrate

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Claire N Bedbrook
   2. Ravi D Nath
   3. Rahul Nagvekar
   4. Karl Deisseroth
   5. Anne Brunet

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     **eLife assessment
     **
     Within this paper, the authors describe a rapid and easy-to-implement CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knock-in approach to precisely insert large transgenes in the African turquoise killifish. The established method will be instrumental for many researchers working with unusual model species, and, in particular, will expand the killifish community toolbox. It will revolutionize the field and bring the killifish, an emerging animal model in aging biology and disease modeling in vertebrates, into the spotlight even more.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Lipid homeostasis is essential for a maximal ER stress response

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Gilberto Garcia
    2. Hanlin Zhang
    3. Sophia Moreno
    4. C Kimberly Tsui
    5. Brant Michael Webster
    6. Ryo Higuchi-Sanabria
    7. Andrew Dillin

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This valuable study addresses the anticipated but poorly understood interconnections between ER proteostasis and lipid metabolism. The authors discovered key metabolic enzymes required for integration of ER stress and lipid synthesis and followed up with several direct experiments that provide solid evidence for a broad conservation of the described interactions.

    Reviewed by eLife