eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. An oligogenic architecture underlying ecological and reproductive divergence in sympatric populations

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Dušica Briševac
   2. Carolina M Peralta
   3. Tobias S Kaiser

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This potentially important article identifies an apparent oligogenic architecture for an ecologically relevant trait, the circalunar reproduction of marine midges, which contributes to assortative mating, is likely under divergent selection, and supports reproductive isolation in sympathy. A claim for a causal role of chromosomal inversions in this system is made, but the support for this claim is incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Human influenza virus infection elicits distinct patterns of monocyte and dendritic cell mobilization in blood and the nasopharynx

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Sindhu Vangeti
   2. Sara Falck-Jones
   3. Meng Yu
   4. Björn Österberg
   5. Sang Liu
   6. Muhammad Asghar
   7. Klara Sondén
   8. Clare Paterson
   9. Penn Whitley
   10. Jan Albert
   11. Niclas Johansson
   12. Anna Färnert
   13. Anna Smed-Sörensen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a careful evaluation of the distribution of monocytes and dendritic cells in the the blood and nasopharyngeal aspirates of patients with mild respiratory tract infections. There are some interesting differences between monocytes and dendritic cells and variations with patient age. This is an important contribution to understanding monocyte and DC subset specific functions in dependency on the tissue microenvironment.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A concerted mechanism involving ACAT and SREBPs by which oxysterols deplete accessible cholesterol to restrict microbial infection

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. David B Heisler
   2. Kristen A Johnson
   3. Duo H Ma
   4. Maikke B Ohlson
   5. Lishu Zhang
   6. Michelle Tran
   7. Chase D Corley
   8. Michael E Abrams
   9. Jeffrey G McDonald
   10. John W Schoggins
   11. Neal M Alto
   12. Arun Radhakrishnan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work provides valuable new insights into the mechanisms by which 25-hydroxycholesterol (which is known to be rapidly produced in macrophages and other cells during acute infections) acts to protect cells and animals from microbial infection. The authors provide compelling evidence that the cholesterol-esterifying enzyme acylCoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) that is induced by 25-hydroxycholesterol promotes the depletion of an accessible pool of plasma membrane cholesterol, producing anti-microbial effects.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Development and evaluation of a live birth prediction model for evaluating human blastocysts from a retrospective study

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Hang Liu
   2. Zhuoran Zhang
   3. Yifan Gu
   4. Changsheng Dai
   5. Guanqiao Shan
   6. Haocong Song
   7. Daniel Li
   8. Wenyuan Chen
   9. Ge Lin
   10. Yu Sun

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript provides important findings that have practical implications for reproductive medicine and would be of interest to IVF specialists. Based on the compelling strength of evidence, the authors present significant results on improving the predictive value of the live birth model based on blastocyst evaluation and clinical features. However, some methodological information should be added to improve the reproducibility of the study results.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Internal neural states influence the short-term effect of monocular deprivation in human adults

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Yiya Chen
   2. Yige Gao
   3. Zhifen He
   4. Zhouyuan Sun
   5. Yu Mao
   6. Robert F Hess
   7. Peng Zhang
   8. Jiawei Zhou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors report the results of three experiments assessing how one or both eyes open under a patch influence resting EEG activity, contrast sensitivity, and binocular balance in normally sighted subjects. Their results suggest that the state of eye opening temporarily, but significantly, influences shifts in ocular dominance with relevance for treatment of binocular visual disorders such as amblyopia that are treated with periodic monocular occlusion. The evidence supporting their conclusions is solid and the findings are important for the field.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Differential chondrogenic differentiation between iPSC derived from healthy and OA cartilage is associated with changes in epigenetic regulation and metabolic transcriptomic signatures

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Nazir M Khan
   2. Martha Elena Diaz-Hernandez
   3. Samir Chihab
   4. Priyanka Priyadarshani
   5. Pallavi Bhattaram
   6. Luke J Mortensen
   7. Rosa M Guzzo
   8. Hicham Drissi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study highlights a significant concept whereby a retained memory of disease during stem cell reprogramming (likely via epigenetic modifications) affects the chondrogenic differentiation potential of osteoarthritis (OA)-iMSCs. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with rigorous RNAseq analysis of genes and signaling pathways. The relevance of this research is highlighted by the valuable role of iPSCs as a potential cell source for regenerative medicine. The work will be of broad interest to skeletal stem cell biologists working on osteoarthritis and cartilage regeneration.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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