eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. retro-Tango enables versatile retrograde circuit tracing in Drosophila

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Altar Sorkaç
   2. Rareș A Moșneanu
   3. Anthony M Crown
   4. Doruk Savaş
   5. Angel M Okoro
   6. Ezgi Memiş
   7. Mustafa Talay
   8. Gilad Barnea

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Sorkac et al. present a novel genetically encoded retrograde synaptic tracing method that has the potential for unbiased identification of presynaptically connected neurons. Retro-Tango is based on the previously developed anterograde method trans-Tango, promising high applicability and rendering the significance of this contribution important. The strength of the evidence is convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Dynamics of co-substrate pools can constrain and regulate metabolic fluxes

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Robert West
   2. Hadrien Delattre
   3. Elad Noor
   4. Elisenda Feliu
   5. Orkun S Soyer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript presents an important mathematical analysis on metabolic "co-substrates" and how their cycling can affect metabolic fluxes. Through mathematical analysis of simple network motifs, it shows the impact on constraining metabolic fluxes and the applied mathematical modeling/simulation approaches and the statistical analysis to compare predictions with data from previous studies offer convincing support for the potential biological relevance of co-substrate cycling. The work will be of interest to researchers who study microbial metabolism and metabolic engineering. However, part of this analysis remains unclear and would benefit from clarification.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Associations of ABO and Rhesus D blood groups with phenome-wide disease incidence: A 41-year retrospective cohort study of 482,914 patients

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Peter Bruun-Rasmussen
   2. Morten Hanefeld Dziegiel
   3. Karina Banasik
   4. Pär Ingemar Johansson
   5. Søren Brunak

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important analysis helps to shed light on the relationship between blood type and the occurrence of ICD-based phenotypes in a hospital setting. A particularly compelling strength is the analysis' reliance on a population-based patient registry. The results would be further strengthened by an exploration as to whether these phenotypes are driven by patient characteristics (e.g. ethnicity, SES) and not just blood type. Additionally, differences across blood types are driven, in part, by differences in prevalence, somewhat limiting the scope of the analytical findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. A human-specific motif facilitates CARD8 inflammasome activation after HIV-1 infection

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Jessie Kulsuptrakul
   2. Elizabeth A Turcotte
   3. Michael Emerman
   4. Patrick S Mitchell

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The study shows that human inflammasome-forming sensor CARD8 contains a specific motif that allows cleavage by the proteases of HIV-1 and its direct precursor infecting chimpanzees. In comparison, CARD8 proteins from non-human primates contain changes in this motif and seem largely resistant to proteolytic activation. The results are important, and the data on the cleavage of CARD8 in HEK293T cells are convincing, while effects on inflammasome stimulation and cell death in primary viral target cells are insufficiently supported.

   Reviewed by eLife, PREreview

5. The landscape of antibody binding affinity in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 evolution

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Alief Moulana
   2. Thomas Dupic
   3. Angela M Phillips
   4. Jeffrey Chang
   5. Anne A Roffler
   6. Allison J Greaney
   7. Tyler N Starr
   8. Jesse D Bloom
   9. Michael M Desai

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work provides important new insights into the mutational pathways of SARS-CoV-2 to achieve antibody escape, as well as how these pathways are shaped by epistasis. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling based on rigorous analyses of data from a high-throughput binding assay. The study is important for evolutionary medicine and biology and relevant for human health.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. NSC-derived exosomes enhance therapeutic effects of NSC transplantation on cerebral ischemia in mice

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Ruolin Zhang
   2. Weibing Mao
   3. Lumeng Niu
   4. Wendai Bao
   5. Yiqi Wang
   6. Ying Wang
   7. Yasha Zhu
   8. Zhihao Yang
   9. Jincao Chen
   10. Jiawen Dong
   11. Meng Cai
   12. Zilong Yuan
   13. Haikun Song
   14. Guangqiang Li
   15. Min Zhang
   16. Nanxiang Xiong
   17. Jun Wei
   18. Zhiqiang Dong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The current study employed NSCs derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) together with NSC-derived exosomes extracted from NSCs to treat cerebral ischemia, and they made an important observation. Remarkably, NSC-derived exosomes could promote NSCs differentiation, reduce the oxidative stress and inflammation, and alleviate the formation of glial scars after ischemia and reperfusion, and as a result, could enhance the therapeutic effects of NSC transplantation, which is compelling. The solid experimental evidence strongly supports their major claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Ribozyme activity modulates the physical properties of RNA–peptide coacervates

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Kristian Kyle Le Vay
   2. Elia Salibi
   3. Basusree Ghosh
   4. TY Dora Tang
   5. Hannes Mutschler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Experimental models of simple cell-like compartments can help us to understand how biology operated early in its history. The authors convincingly show how the properties of coacervate droplets can be influenced by the activity of ribozymes inside them. This important result potentially provides a new route for biologists or chemists to establish cell mimics that support the evolution of biomolecules within.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Exploring the role of the outer subventricular zone during cortical folding through a physics-based model

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Mohammad Saeed Zarzor
   2. Ingmar Blumcke
   3. Silvia Budday

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Through theoretical analysis, the authors argue that the proliferation of neurons in the outer subventricular zone, which is specific to humans, decreases the distance between neighboring sulci in the cerebral cortex and increases cell density in the ventricular zone. Though the exact mechanisms remain to be further elucidated, the compelling data and approach represent a valuable foundation for the study of cortical folding from the underpinning cellular level as well as the coupling role of mechanics and cellular biology. This study will be of particular interest to the large community of scientists studying the mechanisms of brain development and disorder and even possibly beyond.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Universal gut microbial relationships in the gut microbiome of wild baboons

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Kimberly E Roche
   2. Johannes R Bjork
   3. Mauna R Dasari
   4. Laura Grieneisen
   5. David Jansen
   6. Trevor J Gould
   7. Laurence R Gesquiere
   8. Luis B Barreiro
   9. Susan C Alberts
   10. Ran Blekhman
   11. Jack A Gilbert
   12. Jenny Tung
   13. Sayan Mukherjee
   14. Elizabeth A Archie

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental work reports an analysis of microbial abundance similarities among individuals over time in a longitudinal wild baboon cohort from Amboseli, Kenya. The authors provide compelling evidence that there are remarkably consistent dynamic associations over time in microbial abundances between baboons, despite individual baboons having individualized microbial signatures. The authors further identify universal microbial associations that appear to go beyond the studied baboon cohort, extending to human microbiomes. This study adopts a novel powerful statistical approach to analyzing longitudinal microbial dynamics at the individual level, which will likely make this work become a key reference study in the field of microbial ecology.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Sexual dimorphic regulation of recombination by the synaptonemal complex in C. elegans

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Cori K Cahoon
    2. Colette M Richter
    3. Amelia E Dayton
    4. Diana E Libuda

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This important study shows the sexually dimorphic dynamics of the components of meiosis-specific chromosome structure and the gene-dosage effect of the components on meiotic recombination. The experimental evidence in the paper is solid with cytological analysis with Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP). The work will be of interest to researchers working on meiosis and chromosome dynamics.

    Reviewed by eLife