eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Decline of intrinsic cerebrospinal fluid outflow in healthy humans with age detected by non-contrast spin-labeling MRI

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Vadim Malis
   2. Won C. Bae
   3. Asako Yamamoto
   4. Linda K. McEvoy
   5. Marin A. McDonald
   6. Mitsue Miyazaki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Malis et al present a novel sequence attempting to non-invasively measure the outflow of cerebrospinal fluid, which is potentially an important contribution given the growing interest in the glymphatic system. Their reported findings are generally consistent with previous literature and prevailing theories, however, no robust validation of the sequence is supplied rendering the evidence base incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Phylodynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in France, Europe, and the world in 2020

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Romain Coppée
   2. François Blanquart
   3. Aude Jary
   4. Valentin Leducq
   5. Valentine Marie Ferré
   6. Anna Maria Franco Yusti
   7. Léna Daniel
   8. Charlotte Charpentier
   9. Samuel Lebourgeois
   10. Karen Zafilaza
   11. Vincent Calvez
   12. Diane Descamps
   13. Anne-Geneviève Marcelin
   14. Benoit Visseaux
   15. Antoine Bridier-Nahmias

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study represents an important contribution to our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics in France, Europe and globally during the early pandemic in 2020. Through evaluation of the contributions of intra- and inter-regional transmission at global, continental, and domestic levels, the authors explore how international travel restrictions reduced inter-regional transmission while permitting increased transmission intra-regionally. Unfortunately, at this time this work suffers from a number of serious analytical shortcomings, all of which can be overcome with major revisions and re-analysis.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Empagliflozin reduces podocyte lipotoxicity in experimental Alport syndrome

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Mengyuan Ge
   2. Judith Molina
   3. Jin-Ju Kim
   4. Shamroop K Mallela
   5. Anis Ahmad
   6. Javier Varona Santos
   7. Hassan Al-Ali
   8. Alla Mitrofanova
   9. Kumar Sharma
   10. Flavia Fontanesi
   11. Sandra Merscher
   12. Alessia Fornoni

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The article is of importance to the field of glomerular diseases and rare diseases. The authors propose a link between the inhibition of SGLT2 and lipotoxicity-mediated renal injury in experimental Alport syndrome (AS) by modulation pathways linked to CKD progression, possibly through metabolic adaption in podocytes. Although there is scientific merit in the work presented, the functional analyses are incomplete to support the claim that effects pharmacological effects are mediated through podocytes in Alport Syndrome.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Absence of CEP78 causes photoreceptor and sperm flagella impairments in mice and a human individual

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Tianyu Zhu
   2. Yuxin Zhang
   3. Xunlun Sheng
   4. Xiangzheng Zhang
   5. Yu Chen
   6. Hongjing Zhu
   7. Yueshuai Guo
   8. Yaling Qi
   9. Yichen Zhao
   10. Qi Zhou
   11. Xue Chen
   12. Xuejiang Guo
   13. Chen Zhao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper is of interest to scientists within the cilia and centrosome fields, in particular those studying photoreceptor and sperm development and the diseases associated with their dysfunction. The authors describe the generation and characteristics of Cep78 knockout mice. Consistent with the phenotype observed in patients carrying mutations in CEP78, Cep78 knockout mice show degeneration in photoreceptor cells as well as male infertility associated with multiple morphological abnormalities of the sperm flagella (MMAF). The phenotypic characterisation of Cep78 knockout mice is thorough and convincing, and the Cep78 knockout model will be useful for further elucidating disease mechanism in humans and for potential therapy development. The authors also provide results suggesting that CEP78 directly interacts with IFT20 and TTC21A (IFT139) to form a trimeric complex, but this claim is not justified by the data provided.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Environmental morphing enables informed dispersal of the dandelion diaspore

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Madeleine Seale
   2. Oleksandr Zhdanov
   3. Merel B Soons
   4. Cathal Cummins
   5. Erika Kroll
   6. Michael R Blatt
   7. Hossein Zare-Behtash
   8. Angela Busse
   9. Enrico Mastropaolo
   10. James M Bullock
   11. Ignazio M Viola
   12. Naomi Nakayama

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This boundary-crossing work on dandelion diaspore flight is an excellent demonstration of how to address fundamental questions about wind dispersal of plant seeds from biophysical and ecological perspectives. Both wind-tunnel experiments and models provide compelling evidence that the aerodynamics of dandelion diaspores change with the environment. Addition of local climate data enables the authors to make a convincing case about how the biophysical properties can scale up to affect dispersal across the landscape under different environmental conditions. In addition to the strong data, this is a clear, accessible, and very enjoyable read.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Clonally related, Notch-differentiated spinal neurons integrate into distinct circuits

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Saul Bello-Rojas
   2. Martha W Bagnall

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important paper describes the connectivity of V2a/V2b sibling neurons in the zebrafish spinal cord, where one sibling receives Notch signaling (Notch-ON) and the other does not (Notch-OFF). They find that V2a and V2b siblings have different morphology, inputs, outputs, and are not synaptically connected, unlike findings in the mouse cortex. This work provides new insight into the role of lineage in specifying neuronal connectivity; the experiments are convincing and the conclusions are supported by the data presented.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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