eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Amino acid transporter SLC38A5 regulates developmental and pathological retinal angiogenesis

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Zhongxiao Wang
   2. Felix Yemanyi
   3. Alexandra K Blomfield
   4. Kiran Bora
   5. Shuo Huang
   6. Chi-Hsiu Liu
   7. William R Britton
   8. Steve S Cho
   9. Yohei Tomita
   10. Zhongjie Fu
   11. Jian-xing Ma
   12. Wen-hong Li
   13. Jing Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper will be of interest to those studying retinal angiogenesis and endothelial cell biology. The authors performed rigorous data analysis and presented a logical, well-written report. The key conclusions of the manuscript are supported by the data and uncover a novel factor for retinal endothelial cell growth.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Right inferior frontal gyrus damage is associated with impaired initiation of inhibitory control, but not its implementation

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yoojeong Choo
   2. Dora Matzke
   3. Mark D Bowren
   4. Daniel Tranel
   5. Jan R Wessel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study takes a fresh view of the hypothesis that right inferior frontal gyrus is critical in inhibitory control in humans, as assessed by the widely-used stop signal task. It applies recent development in modeling and EEG measures in patients with focal brain damage, yielding causal insights. It will be of interest to neuroscientists and clinical researchers who study the brain basis of response control. Reviewers found this to be a strong, hypothesis-driven study that makes new progress on an important topic.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Evidence for RNA or protein transport from somatic tissues to the male reproductive tract in mouse

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Vera Rinaldi
   2. Kathleen Messemer
   3. Kathleen Desevin
   4. Fengyun Sun
   5. Bethany C Berry
   6. Shweta Kukreja
   7. Andrew R Tapper
   8. Amy J Wagers
   9. Oliver J Rando

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript reports data consistent with a new and unanticipated phenomenon: that Cre or its mRNA may be transmitted between tissues in the mouse and that the male reproductive tract (epididymis) appears to be the most common target of such transported molecules. The data serve as a timely warning to mouse researchers about an unexpected complication of Cre-mediated gene manipulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. DNA-Stimulated Liquid-Liquid phase separation by eukaryotic topoisomerase ii modulates catalytic function

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Joshua Jeong
   2. Joyce H Lee
   3. Claudia C Carcamo
   4. Matthew W Parker
   5. James M Berger

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Type II topoisomerases are essential players in virtually every aspect of genome organization and function of all organisms. The in vitro data presented here clearly demonstrate that eukaryotic type II topoisomerases phase separate under physiological conditions, forming liquid-liquid condensates, and that the outcomes of type topoisomerase II activity on DNA are altered in these condensates. The experiments and methods are sound, clearly described, and fully support the insightful and carefully formulated interpretation of the data. This work has broad implications for dissecting and delineating the myriad fundamental roles of this centrally important molecule.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Mammalian forelimb evolution is driven by uneven proximal-to-distal morphological diversity

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Priscila S Rothier
   2. Anne-Claire Fabre
   3. Julien Clavel
   4. Roger BJ Benson
   5. Anthony Herrel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study reports an interesting analysis of evolutionary variation in forelimb/hand bone shapes in relation to functional and developmental variation along the proximo-distal axis. The authors found expected and compelling patterns of evolutionary shape variation along the proximo-distal axis but less expected, yet equally compelling, patterns of shape integration. This paper will be of interest to researchers working on macroevolutionary patterns and sources of morphological diversity.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Altered basal ganglia output during self-restraint

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Bon-Mi Gu
   2. Joshua D Berke

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study builds upon previous results of the authors to study the neural computations within the basal ganglia that support behavioral proactive inhibition. Here, the authors identify features of neural activity in the SNr that correlate with proactive inhibition, including changes in firing rate and neural variability, and how both of these variables are influenced by an animal's outcome history. The analyses are rigorous and provide important insights into the neural dynamics in the basal ganglia that support proactive inhibition.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Promoter sequence and architecture determine expression variability and confer robustness to genetic variants

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Hjörleifur Einarsson
   2. Marco Salvatore
   3. Christian Vaagensø
   4. Nicolas Alcaraz
   5. Jette Bornholdt
   6. Sarah Rennie
   7. Robin Andersson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper by Einarsson and colleagues presents a comprehensive analysis on how human genetic variability impacts both gene expression and promoter. Using a new resource of CAGE data in lymphoblastoid cell lines from 108 individuals, they uncover a series of features that distinguish promoters with highly variable expression across individuals from those exhibiting low variability. The authors propose various explanations for the observed results. A few additional analyses and a more pragmatic interpretation of their data may help consolidate or refine the models proposed.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. A motor neuron disease-associated mutation produces non-glycosylated Seipin that induces ER stress and apoptosis by inactivating SERCA2b

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Shunsuke Saito
   2. Tokiro Ishikawa
   3. Satoshi Ninagawa
   4. Tetsuya Okada
   5. Kazutoshi Mori

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Seipin is a multifunctional Endoplasmic Reticulum localised protein associated with seemingly unrelated human diseases. Here the authors establish a correlation between the expression of a particular mutant form of Seipin associated in humans with motor neuron disease and altered intracellular calcium dynamics and allied proteotoxic stress. The paper is noted for the clues it provides into how these cellular defects arise and for offering a plausible, but yet unproven hypothesis for the cellular pathology that may account for the human disease phenotype.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A general approach for stabilizing nanobodies for intracellular expression

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. John G Dingus
   2. Jonathan CY Tang
   3. Ryoji Amamoto
   4. Grace K Wallick
   5. Constance L Cepko

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Dingus et al. have developed an innovative approach for improving the intracellular stability of nanobodies. Working with a set of 75 nanobodies, the authors have identified key amino acid changes that can improve the stability of nanobodies expressed within the cell that might be generalized to other nanobodies.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Structural characterization of human RPA70N association with DNA damage response proteins

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Yeyao Wu
    2. Wangmi Fu
    3. Ning Zang
    4. Chun Zhou

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The replication protein A (RPA) plays a critical role in DNA replication, DNA repair, and recombination by interacting with various proteins. This paper describes the structure of an N-terminus OB-fold of the 70kD subunit of human replication protein A (RPA70N or DNA-binding domain-F) bound to peptides from five different proteins, HELB, ATRIP, BLM, RMI1, and WRN. This paper provides useful knowledge regarding the structural flexibility of RPA70N in the binding to the different interacting peptides. The structural and biochemical analyses of the interaction of RPA70N with the different peptides provide solid evidence for the presented conclusion. The work will be of interest to those studying DNA replication, recombination and repair.

    Reviewed by eLife