eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Glutamine synthetase mRNA releases sRNA from its 3′UTR to regulate carbon/nitrogen metabolic balance in Enterobacteriaceae

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Masatoshi Miyakoshi
   2. Teppei Morita
   3. Asaki Kobayashi
   4. Anna Berger
   5. Hiroki Takahashi
   6. Yasuhiro Gotoh
   7. Tetsuya Hayashi
   8. Kan Tanaka

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study revealed the biogenesis of the 3'UTR-derived sRNA GlnZ by RNase E-mediated processing and identified target mRNAs in both E. coli and S. enterica. By introducing point mutations within the predicted seed region of GlnZ and analyzing compensatory mutations in the target mRNAs, the sRNA binding site in those targets could convincingly be mapped. This is an important piece of work and the findings are relevant for researchers within the microbiology and RNA communities and should inspire future studies of 3'derived sRNAs in bacteria. Overall, most of the statements are sufficiently supported by experimental data, but certain amendments to the work are required to fully support the conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Disentangling the rhythms of human activity in the built environment for airborne transmission risk: An analysis of large-scale mobility data

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Zachary Susswein
   2. Eva C Rest
   3. Shweta Bansal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a valuable study characterizing seasonal deviations in indoor activity at the county level in the United States with relevance to respiratory disease transmission. Whereas the data are compelling, some of the main claims are only partially supported and need more work. This study and its results are of potential interest to those people constructing more evidence-based infectious disease transmission models.

   Reviewed by eLife, ScreenIT

3. A novel gene REPTOR2 activates the autophagic degradation of wing disc in pea aphid

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Erliang Yuan
   2. Huijuan Guo
   3. Weiyao Chen
   4. Bingru Du
   5. Yingjie Mi
   6. Zhaorui Qi
   7. Yiyang Yuan
   8. Keyan Zhu-Salzman
   9. Feng Ge
   10. Yucheng Sun

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The aims and hypothesis of the study, which addresses the genetic basis of an iconic example of developmental plasticity, are clear, and the experiments are well conducted. The authors propose that a novel gene that arose through gene duplication, REPTOR2, stimulates autophagy to generate wingless aphid morphs. The implication of a novel gene in wing autophagy for the generation of wingless aphids is novel and interesting, but the link between TOR and REPTOR2 requires further support.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Working strokes produced by curling protofilaments at disassembling microtubule tips can be biochemically tuned and vary with species

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Lucas E Murray
   2. Haein Kim
   3. Luke M Rice
   4. Charles L Asbury

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors measure the work output of shrinking mammalian microtubules, reporting results of fundamental importance that advance our mechanistic understanding of how shrinking microtubules exert forces on chromosomes during cell division. Carefully performed, technically advanced experiments and model-based quantitative data analysis provide compelling evidence for the authors' conclusions. This work will be of interest for cell biologists interested in cell division, biophysicists interested in force production by biopolymers, and structural biologists interested in microtubule dynamics.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Functional cell types in the mouse superior colliculus

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Ya-tang Li
   2. Markus Meister

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper will be of importance to visual neuroscientists, in particular those interested in the functional organization of subcortical visual pathways. The work provides evidence for a much greater diversity of functional cell types in the mouse superior colliculus than previously suggested, and that the functional organization of cell types in the superior colliculus is distinct from that of the retina. These results are based on an impressive data set. However, the conclusions require additional support.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. A nanobody toolbox to investigate localisation and dynamics of Drosophila titins and other key sarcomeric proteins

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Vincent Loreau
   2. Renate Rees
   3. Eunice HoYee Chan
   4. Waltraud Taxer
   5. Kathrin Gregor
   6. Bianka Mußil
   7. Christophe Pitaval
   8. Nuno Miguel Luis
   9. Pierre Mangeol
   10. Frank Schnorrer
   11. Dirk Görlich

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The work describes the generation of novel reagents, nanobodies, which are single molecule antibodies from alpacas, which the authors raised against specific domains of two giant fly muscle proteins called Sallimus and Projectin. These nanobodies, combined with the so-called DNA-Paint approach, enabled the authors to reach an unprecedented spatial resolution and define the position of those domains. Thereby, the authors could propose a model for the organization and extent of those proteins along muscle sarcomeres.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Multiple polarity kinases inhibit phase separation of F-BAR protein Cdc15 and antagonize cytokinetic ring assembly in fission yeast

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Rahul Bhattacharjee
   2. Aaron R Hall
   3. MariaSanta C Mangione
   4. Maya G Igarashi
   5. Rachel H Roberts-Galbraith
   6. Jun-Song Chen
   7. Dimitrios Vavylonis
   8. Kathleen L Gould

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a well-designed study to show how phosphorylation of the intrinsically disordered regions can control their ability to undergo liquid-liquid phase separation and thus impact protein function. The authors report how regulation of the F-BAR-containing protein Cdc15 via phosphorylation impacts its ability to phase separate and promote cytokinesis. This paper is of interest to not just the field of cytokinesis, but also to the general field of protein chemistry which is interested in how phase separation controls protein function.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Uncertainty alters the balance between incremental learning and episodic memory

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jonathan Nicholas
   2. Nathaniel D Daw
   3. Daphna Shohamy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper posits that higher uncertainty environments should lead to more reliance on episodic memory, finding compelling evidence for this idea across several analysis approaches and across two independent samples. This is an important paper that will be of interest to a broad group of learning, memory, and decision-making researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Neural activity tracking identity and confidence in social information

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Nadescha Trudel
   2. Patricia L Lockwood
   3. Matthew FS Rushworth
   4. Marco K Wittmann

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors use an elegant design to tackle a longstanding question about the extent to which learning social information relies on specialized computational and neural mechanism. They find that learning about ostensible others is more accurate than learning about non-social objects, despite identical statistical information, and that such effects are mediated by the dmPFC and pTPJ - regions previously implicated in social cognition. While likely of interest to a broad range of social, behavioral, and cognitive neuroscientists, the work is not sufficiently framed by relevant previous research. Moreover, the difference between social (faces) and non-social (fruits) stimuli raises concerns about attentional confounds.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. An ER phospholipid hydrolase drives ER-associated mitochondrial constriction for fission and fusion

    This article has 2 authors:

    1. Tricia T Nguyen
    2. Gia K Voeltz

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The authors have used state of the art tools to discover and visualize the role of a known ER-localized lipid hydrolase/acyl transferase (which they call Aphyd) in creating lipids that facilitate the localization of proteins required for mitochondrial fission and fusion at nodal points of interaction between the ER and mitochondria. The data are clear, quantitative and compelling in respect to the role of this protein in the processes of mitochondrial constriction, fission and fusion.

    Reviewed by eLife