eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. High-throughput imaging and quantitative analysis uncovers the nature of plasmid positioning by ParABS

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Robin Köhler
   2. Eugen Kaganovitch
   3. Seán M Murray

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides new experimental data and detailed modeling of the partitioning of low copy plasmids under the control of the ParABS system in bacteria. The dynamics of the partition complex is tracked over many generations, providing useful data to constrain the models. The authors propose a model which can manifest either regular positioning or oscillations depending on the model parameters. The research will be of interest to biologists and biophysicists interested in cellular dynamics and internal organization in bacteria.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. A choline-releasing glycerophosphodiesterase essential for phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis and blood stage development in the malaria parasite

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Abhinay Ramaprasad
   2. Paul-Christian Burda
   3. Enrica Calvani
   4. Aaron J Sait
   5. Susana Alejandra Palma-Duran
   6. Chrislaine Withers-Martinez
   7. Fiona Hackett
   8. James Macrae
   9. Lucy Collinson
   10. Tim Wolf Gilberger
   11. Michael J Blackman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This high-quality study characterizes a key enzyme in asexual red blood stages of the malaria parasites that is used to salvage lipid precursors needed for membrane biogenesis and parasite growth in red blood cells. A previously identified glycerophosphodiesterase (PfGDPD), is shown to mediate the hydrolysis of host lyso-phosphatidycholine to generate choline, which in turn is required for parasite de novo phosphatidylcholine synthesis. Extensive analysis of the localization, growth phenotype and lipidomic profiles of PfGDPD deficient parasites indicate that this salvage pathway is essential for lipid homeostasis and asexual parasite development.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Bacillus thuringiensis toxins divert progenitor cells toward enteroendocrine fate by decreasing cell adhesion with intestinal stem cells in Drosophila

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Rouba Jneid
   2. Rihab Loudhaief
   3. Nathalie Zucchini-Pascal
   4. Marie-Paule Nawrot-Esposito
   5. Arnaud Fichant
   6. Raphael Rousset
   7. Mathilde Bonis
   8. Dani Osman
   9. Armel Gallet

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Jneid et al find that an entomopathogenic strain of B. thuringiensis and its Cry1A toxins, which are widely used to combat lepidopteran pests, disrupt intestinal epithelial homeostasis in Drosophila-an insect that is generally considered non-suceptible. They demonstrate that the Cry1A toxins act by altering E-cadherin-based adhesion between intestinal stem cells and their new progeny. The findings carry potential implications for unintended, broad effects of B. thuringiensis in agricultural settings.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Modular UBE2H-CTLH E2-E3 complexes regulate erythroid maturation

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. Dawafuti Sherpa
   2. Judith Mueller
   3. Özge Karayel
   4. Peng Xu
   5. Yu Yao
   6. Jakub Chrustowicz
   7. Karthik V Gottemukkala
   8. Christine Baumann
   9. Annette Gross
   10. Oliver Czarnecki
   11. Wei Zhang
   12. Jun Gu
   13. Johan Nilvebrant
   14. Sachdev S Sidhu
   15. Peter J Murray
   16. Matthias Mann
   17. Mitchell J Weiss
   18. Brenda A Schulman
   19. Arno F Alpi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work, which will be of interest to scientists in the field of hematology and ubiquitin biology, identifies previously unrecognized functions and regulatory mechanisms of an E3 ubiquitin ligase during erythrocyte progenitor maintenance and differentiation. This work has the potential to reveal that the exchange of scaffold proteins of a modular E3 ligase can have an effect on cell fate and reveal a novel mechanism of E2 enzyme regulation during differentiation. However, additional work is needed to support the major claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Neurovascular anatomy of dwarf dinosaur implies precociality in sauropods

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Marco Schade
   2. Nils Knötschke
   3. Marie K Hörnig
   4. Carina Paetzel
   5. Sebastian Stumpf

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper describes the anatomy of important fossil remains of the dwarf dinosaur Europasaurus, providing compelling evidence for precociality. Only a handful of papers provide detailed information on sauropod neuroanatomy - as such this paper will be of interest to a relatively wide range of researchers, in particular vertebrate palaeontologists, and comparative anatomists.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Nanobodies combined with DNA-PAINT super-resolution reveal a staggered titin nanoarchitecture in flight muscles

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Florian Schueder
   2. Pierre Mangeol
   3. Eunice HoYee Chan
   4. Renate Rees
   5. Jürgen Schünemann
   6. Ralf Jungmann
   7. Dirk Görlich
   8. Frank Schnorrer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The manuscript is of broad interest in the field of muscle physiology and structure. The authors developed nanobodies against different domains of the giant Drosophila proteins Sallimus and Projectin, which are titin homologs, and used them to define their organization along sarcomeres of distinct fly muscles. This is an important contribution to understand the functional architecture of the muscle; it suggests that in invertebrates two proteins fulfil the role of the vertebrate titin in bridging the A-band and the I-band.

     This manuscript was co-submitted with: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.13.488177v1

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Efficacy of ultra-short, response-guided sofosbuvir and daclatasvir therapy for hepatitis C in a single-arm mechanistic pilot study

   This article has 29 authors:

   1. Barnaby Flower
   2. Le Manh Hung
   3. Leanne Mccabe
   4. M Azim Ansari
   5. Chau Le Ngoc
   6. Thu Vo Thi
   7. Hang Vu Thi Kim
   8. Phuong Nguyen Thi Ngoc
   9. Le Thanh Phuong
   10. Vo Minh Quang
   11. Thuan Dang Trong
   12. Thao Le Thi
   13. Tran Nguyen Bao
   14. Cherry Kingsley
   15. David Smith
   16. Richard M Hoglund
   17. Joel Tarning
   18. Evelyne Kestelyn
   19. Sarah L Pett
   20. Rogier van Doorn
   21. Jennifer Ilo Van Nuil
   22. Hugo Turner
   23. Guy E Thwaites
   24. Eleanor Barnes
   25. Motiur Rahman
   26. Ann Sarah Walker
   27. Jeremy N Day
   28. Nguyen VV Chau
   29. Graham S Cooke

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work provides valuable knowledge to the ongoing research to establish an algorithm to shorten the duration of hepatitis C therapy with direct-acting antivirals. This is an important study that is a nice addition to previous reports evaluating the utility of response-guided therapy for shortening the duration of HCV treatment. Given the disease burden and the high costs of treatment, especially in low-income countries, this is a major goal that was also advocated by the WHO. Although the main objective (shortening therapy to 4 weeks) was not adequately achieved (<90% success rate), the study's results may suggest that re-treatment in case of failure is safe and efficient, although further studies with a larger number of patients are needed for confirmation.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Dysregulated H19/Igf2 expression disrupts cardiac-placental axis during development of Silver-Russell syndrome-like mouse models

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Suhee Chang
   2. Diana Fulmer
   3. Stella K Hur
   4. Joanne L Thorvaldsen
   5. Li Li
   6. Yemin Lan
   7. Eric A Rhon-Calderon
   8. Nicolae Adrian Leu
   9. Xiaowen Chen
   10. Jonathan A Epstein
   11. Marisa S Bartolomei

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Igf2 and H19 are the two best-studied imprinted genes in mice. Taking advantage of the varying levels of H19 and Igf2 expression in three existing mouse models, the authors dissect the role of H19 and Igf2 in cardiac and placental development. Their findings suggest that an accurate dosage of both H19 and Igf2 is critical for normal embryonic development, especially the development of the heart and placenta. The work is of interest to colleagues studying imprinting as well as mammalian development.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. MYC overrides HIF-1α to regulate proliferating primary cell metabolism in hypoxia

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Courtney A Copeland
   2. Benjamin A Olenchock
   3. David Ziehr
   4. Sarah McGarrity
   5. Kevin Leahy
   6. Jamey D Young
   7. Joseph Loscalzo
   8. William M Oldham

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors find a significant and unexpected consequence of hypoxia in lung fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells - decreased lactate production - a finding that is important in the field of pulmonary hypertension. Additional orthogonal assessments of lactate production will strengthen the conclusions put forward.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Tenotomy-induced muscle atrophy is sex-specific and independent of NFκB

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Gretchen A Meyer
    2. Stavros Thomopoulos
    3. Yousef Abu-Amer
    4. Karen C Shen

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The purpose of the study was to evaluate the transcription factor NF-kB, a common transcription factor that is thought to mediate muscle atrophy, in the setting of a rotator cuff injury. The authors used gain of function and loss of function NF-kB inhibitors to show that, surprisingly, NF-kB does not seem to be a major mediator of muscle atrophy in this model (as compared to other atrophy models), but there are sex-related differences. They found that male mice were more likely to have atrophy regulated by autophagy, both of which are interesting, novel findings.

    Reviewed by eLife