eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A mouse model of human mitofusin-2-related lipodystrophy exhibits adipose-specific mitochondrial stress and reduced leptin secretion

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Jake P Mann
   2. Xiaowen Duan
   3. Satish Patel
   4. Luis Carlos Tábara
   5. Fabio Scurria
   6. Anna Alvarez-Guaita
   7. Afreen Haider
   8. Ineke Luijten
   9. Matthew Page
   10. Margherita Protasoni
   11. Koini Lim
   12. Sam Virtue
   13. Stephen O'Rahilly
   14. Martin Armstrong
   15. Julien Prudent
   16. Robert K Semple
   17. David B Savage

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript describes a mouse model of a human mitofusin 2- related lipodystrophy, generated by knockin of Mfn2 R707W, and reports data suggesting adipocyte-specific effects involving the integrated stress response, mTorc signaling, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition pathways. The data will be important for understanding how mitochondria can be affected in tissue-specific manner to contribute to metabolic disease.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Timeline of changes in spike conformational dynamics in emergent SARS-CoV-2 variants reveal progressive stabilization of trimer stalk with altered NTD dynamics

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Sean M Braet
   2. Theresa SC Buckley
   3. Varun Venkatakrishnan
   4. Kim-Marie A Dam
   5. Pamela J Bjorkman
   6. Ganesh S Anand

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental and timely study provides insights into the structural dynamics of several relevant mutant forms of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, including the most recent omicron variant. The hydrogen/deuterium-exchange studies provide compelling evidence for the stabilization of the spike stalk in conjunction with increased dynamics of the N-terminal domain, where binding to the ACE2 receptor occurs. These results have profound implications for the development of small molecule inhibitors of the spike protein-ACE2 receptor interaction.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. An IS-mediated, RecA-dependent, bet-hedging strategy in Burkholderia thailandensis

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Lillian C Lowrey
   2. Leslie A Kent
   3. Bridgett M Rios
   4. Angelica B Ocasio
   5. Peggy A Cotter

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper reports a bet hedging strategy in bacteria based on chromosomal duplications and rearrangements that confer advantages in certain growth conditions. The work is of fundamental importance for understanding the role of genetic and biological variation in bacteria. The experimental work is exceptionally strong and convincing. The paper will be of interest to a broad audience including bacteriologists, geneticists and evolutionary biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Mesenchymal stem cell suppresses the efficacy of CAR-T toward killing lymphoma cells by modulating the microenvironment through stanniocalcin-1

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Rui Zhang
   2. Qingxi Liu
   3. Sa Zhou
   4. Hongpeng He
   5. Mingfeng Zhao
   6. Wenjian Ma

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides potentially important insights into the role of mesenchymal stem cells in CAR-T therapy, and suggest that the STC1 gene could be a key factor in influencing the efficacy of this treatment. This finding has the potential to improve current therapeutic strategies based on cell therapy and may indicate new biology related to how mesenchymal stem cells affect the immune state within the tumor microenvironment. Further research is necessary to clarify the signaling pathways, but the data presented by the authors are generally well-supported and convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Beta oscillations and waves in motor cortex can be accounted for by the interplay of spatially structured connectivity and fluctuating inputs

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Ling Kang
   2. Jonas Ranft
   3. Vincent Hakim

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript makes a valuable contribution to the field. The authors have developed a compelling network model to study mechanisms for the emergence of oscillations in the beta range in the primary motor cortex during movement preparation, and their propagation as traveling waves across the cortical sheet. The model is able to recapitulate several features of motor cortical activity acquired experimentally. Due to the recent results suggesting a functional role for traveling waves, it is of great interest to discover the mechanisms underlying such phenomena, and this work is an interesting step in that direction. However, the evidence for the reported new insights is incomplete at this stage, due to some weaknesses that remain to be addressed.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Making memories last using the peripheral effect of direct current stimulation

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Alison M Luckey
   2. Lauren S McLeod
   3. Yuefeng Huang
   4. Anusha Mohan
   5. Sven Vanneste

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper will be of fundamental interest to many sub-disciplines of neuroscience, ranging from cognitive neuroscientists to cellular neuroscience. It provides compelling and substantial brain and behavioral evidence of a novel intervention that can boost long-term memory. The key claims of the manuscript are generally well supported by the data, though the correlational nature of the data in different types of experiments raises some issues about interpretation.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Targeting oncogenic KRasG13C with nucleotide-based covalent inhibitors

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Lisa Goebel
   2. Tonia Kirschner
   3. Sandra Koska
   4. Amrita Rai
   5. Petra Janning
   6. Stefano Maffini
   7. Helge Vatheuer
   8. Paul Czodrowski
   9. Roger S Goody
   10. Matthias P Müller
   11. Daniel Rauh

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors present interesting information regarding the possibility of targeting the oncogenic K-Ras(G13C) mutant with nucleotide competitors. The experiments represent a solid support of the claims and show that this approach can work despite concerns about the high affinity of GTP and its high cellular concentration. These results will be of high interest for all working in the Ras field and in targeting oncogenes with small molecules. A weakness of the manuscript is the lack of direct physiological insights.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Meisosomes, folded membrane microdomains between the apical extracellular matrix and epidermis

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Dina Aggad
   2. Nicolas Brouilly
   3. Shizue Omi
   4. Clara Luise Essmann
   5. Benoit Dehapiot
   6. Cathy Savage-Dunn
   7. Fabrice Richard
   8. Chantal Cazevieille
   9. Kristin A Politi
   10. David H Hall
   11. Remy Pujol
   12. Nathalie Pujol

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study thoroughly characterizes the morphology of an interesting folded membrane structure that links the epidermis to the cuticle in C. elegans. This structure, here named the meiosome, has been noted by several previous researchers. The study would be strengthened by providing additional support to the notion that the VHA-5::GFP transgenic reporter, used by the authors, faithfully labels the meisosome, and by stronger evidence that meiosomes indeed serve as attachment platforms between the cuticle and the epidermis.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Large vesicle extrusions from C. elegans neurons are consumed and stimulated by glial-like phagocytosis activity of the neighboring cell

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Yu Wang
   2. Meghan Lee Arnold
   3. Anna Joelle Smart
   4. Guoqiang Wang
   5. Rebecca J Androwski
   6. Andres Morera
   7. Ken CQ Nguyen
   8. Peter J Schweinsberg
   9. Ge Bai
   10. Jason Cooper
   11. David H Hall
   12. Monica Driscoll
   13. Barth D Grant

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript will be of interest to a wide range of cell biologists interested in understanding cell-cell communication. The discovery that an engulfing cell can control the extrusion and degradation of large vehicles from its target cell is important and intriguing. The authors present compelling data that show that exophers (large neuronal extrusions proposed to discard toxic cargo) are taken up by adjacent hypodermal cells, split into smaller fragments, and eventually degraded by lysosome fusion. The authors identify a number of small GTPases and accessory components, as well as the phagocytic receptor (CED-1) and the likely eat-me signal (phosphatidylserine).

   Reviewed by eLife

10. S-adenosylmethionine synthases specify distinct H3K4me3 populations and gene expression patterns during heat stress

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Adwait A Godbole
    2. Sneha Gopalan
    3. Thien-Kim Nguyen
    4. Alexander L Munden
    5. Dominique S Lui
    6. Matthew J Fanelli
    7. Paula Vo
    8. Caroline A Lewis
    9. Jessica B Spinelli
    10. Thomas G Fazzio
    11. Amy K Walker

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The manuscript proposes a mechanism by which different S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) synthase enzymes exhibit specificity towards target sequences, thereby proposing a novel layer of control over H3K4 trimethylation (H3K4me3). Such specificity is demonstrated in the context of responses to heat stress for two Caenorhabditis elegans SAM synthase enzymes, supporting the existence and importance of this novel mechanism of epigenetic control.

    Reviewed by eLife