eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Common genetic variations in telomere length genes and lung cancer

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Ricardo Cortez Cardoso Penha
   2. Karl Smith-Byrne
   3. Joshua R Atkins
   4. Philip Haycock
   5. Siddhartha Kar
   6. Veryan Codd
   7. Nilesh J Samani
   8. Christopher P Nelson
   9. Maja Milojevic
   10. Aurélie AG Gabriel
   11. Christopher Amos
   12. Paul Brennan
   13. Rayjean J Hung
   14. Linda Kachuri
   15. James D McKay

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study is of interest to epidemiologists and geneticists studying the association between telomere length and lung cancer risk. This work provides useful insight into risk factors for lung cancer. Overall, the results of this study are solid, as the genetic instrument used here is better powered and the battery of MR analysis makes this broad set of results convincing compared to previous work.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Epidermal threads reveal the origin of hagfish slime

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Yu Zeng
   2. David C Plachetzki
   3. Kristen Nieders
   4. Hannah Campbell
   5. Marissa Cartee
   6. M Sabrina Pankey
   7. Kennedy Guillen
   8. Douglas Fudge

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The study is a careful investigation of the physical properties of hagfish slime and the underlying cellular framework that enables this extraordinary evolutionary innovation. It is a careful and detailed measurement with clear images. However, there is a need for a better contextualizing of the findings as a broader biological question, including the evolution of functional novelty, the adaptive processes, and the links between genetic and phenotypic evolution. Furthermore, the conclusions on the evolutionary origins and underlying genetics of hagfish slime based on comparative transcriptomic data need to be better supported.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A neuroepithelial wave of BMP signalling drives anteroposterior specification of the tuberal hypothalamus

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Kavitha Chinnaiya
   2. Sarah Burbridge
   3. Aragorn Jones
   4. Dong Won Kim
   5. Elsie Place
   6. Elizabeth Manning
   7. Ian Groves
   8. Changyu Sun
   9. Matthew Towers
   10. Seth Blackshaw
   11. Marysia Placzek

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The manuscript aims to provide a comprehensive insight into the development of the tuberal hypothalamus of the chick embryo. It thus presents a useful tool for scientists working in this particular subfield. However, the manuscript is incomplete as it is impossible for the reader to follow the conclusions made by the authors because the presentation of the data is not streamlined and the text is difficult to follow, even for experts.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Evaluation of antibody kinetics and durability in healthy individuals vaccinated with inactivated COVID-19 vaccine (CoronaVac): A cross-sectional and cohort study in Zhejiang, China

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Hangjie Zhang
   2. Qianhui Hua
   3. Nani Nani Xu
   4. Xinpei Zhang
   5. Bo Chen
   6. Xijun Ma
   7. Jie Hu
   8. Zhongbing Chen
   9. Pengfei Yu
   10. Huijun Lei
   11. Shenyu Wang
   12. Linling Ding
   13. Jian Fu
   14. Yuting Liao
   15. Juan Yang
   16. Jianmin Jiang
   17. Huakun Lv

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents important evidence that boosting with the Sinovac Coronavac inactivated vaccine would provide considerable protection from ancestral SARS-CoV-2 in terms of elicited neutralizing antibodies but would offer minimal protection against Omicron subvariants. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although using a dilution series instead of one plasma dilution for Omicron neutralization would have strengthened the study. The work will be of very wide interest to the biomedical community and beyond, since it points to the need for a better booster vaccine in China.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Initiation of HIV-1 Gag lattice assembly is required for recognition of the viral genome packaging signal

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Xiao Lei
   2. Daniel Gonçalves-Carneiro
   3. Trinity M Zang
   4. Paul D Bieniasz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work presents valuable findings that advance our understanding of the roles of the CA domain in specific binding of HIV-1 Gag to the viral genomic RNA. The compelling evidence obtained using the modified CLIP-seq and chemical crosslinking approaches support the authors' conclusion that the initial Gag lattice formation mediated by CA is essential for Gag recognition of the 5' Ψ sequence. This work will be of interest to virologists working on gRNA packaging of not only HIV-1 but also other RNA viruses.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. GWAS and functional studies suggest a role for altered DNA repair in the evolution of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Saba Naz
   2. Kumar Paritosh
   3. Priyadarshini Sanyal
   4. Sidra Khan
   5. Yogendra Singh
   6. Umesh Varshney
   7. Vinay Kumar Nandicoori

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is a growing threat to global public health. By analysing a large database of clinical Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, the authors of this study identify previously unrecognized genetic mutations that might be implicated in improved mycobacterial survival under antibiotic treatment. Using laboratory and experimental infection models, they present evidence that these mutations should be considered potential genetic markers of reduced antibiotic efficacy and accelerated acquisition of TB drug resistance.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Hsp47 promotes biogenesis of multi-subunit neuroreceptors in the endoplasmic reticulum

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Ya-Juan Wang
   2. Xiao-Jing Di
   3. Pei-Pei Zhang
   4. Xi Chen
   5. Marnie P Williams
   6. Dong-Yun Han
   7. Raad Nashmi
   8. Brandon J Henderson
   9. Fraser J Moss
   10. Ting-Wei Mu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study defines new functions for the ER-resident protein HSP47 in the quality control of multi-pass membrane receptor proteins. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, with rigorous biochemical assays employed in appropriate models. However, additional consideration regarding the mechanism of HSP47-dependent regulation of membrane protein quality control would have strengthened the study. This work will be of broad interest to cell biologists and biochemists interested in the fields of proteostasis membrane protein quality control, and neuroreceptor signaling.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Pharmacological hallmarks of allostery at the M4 muscarinic receptor elucidated through structure and dynamics

   This article has 24 authors:

   1. Ziva Vuckovic
   2. Jinan Wang
   3. Vi Pham
   4. Jesse I Mobbs
   5. Matthew J Belousoff
   6. Apurba Bhattarai
   7. Wessel AC Burger
   8. Geoff Thompson
   9. Mahmuda Yeasmin
   10. Vindhya Nawaratne
   11. Katie Leach
   12. Emma T van der Westhuizen
   13. Elham Khajehali
   14. Yi-Lynn Liang
   15. Alisa Glukhova
   16. Denise Wootten
   17. Craig W Lindsley
   18. Andrew Tobin
   19. Patrick Sexton
   20. Radostin Danev
   21. Celine Valant
   22. Yinglong Miao
   23. Arthur Christopoulos
   24. David M Thal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study is important and carefully executed, providing important insights into the allosteric regulation of GPCRs with exceptional strength of evidence. This work will be of interest to a wide audience in drug discovery and receptor biology. The major strengths are the comprehensive structural and pharmacological characterization with only minor weaknesses, most notably a concern regarding the approach used to quantify efficacy.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Population dynamics of immunological synapse formation induced by bispecific T cell engagers predict clinical pharmacodynamics and treatment resistance

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Can Liu
   2. Jiawei Zhou
   3. Stephan Kudlacek
   4. Timothy Qi
   5. Tyler Dunlap
   6. Yanguang Cao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors have developed a useful model for how proteins that mediate a connection between invariant components of the T cell antigen receptor and leukaemic cells antigens, called bispecific engagers (BiTEs), mediate immunological synapse formation and impact T cell search for tumour cells in vivo. The model was compared against the in vitro experiments and in vivo data following a solid approach. The developed framework could provide a direction for employing computational mechanistic models for evaluating various strategies for BiTE treatments.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. X-chromosome target specificity diverged between dosage compensation mechanisms of two closely related Caenorhabditis species

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Qiming Yang
    2. Te-Wen Lo
    3. Katjuša Brejc
    4. Caitlin Schartner
    5. Edward J Ralston
    6. Denise M Lapidus
    7. Barbara J Meyer

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This important study uses state-of-the-art methods to explore the evolution of dosage compensation between two closely related nematode species. The evidence supporting the rapid evolution of the recognition motifs on the X chromosome, despite a general conservation of the mechanism, is compelling. Provided the discussion on the evolutionary aspect of the findings is improved, this work will be of broad interest to cell biologists and evolutionary biologists.

    Reviewed by eLife