eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Selection on plastic adherence leads to hyper-multicellular strains and incidental virulence in the budding yeast

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Luke I Ekdahl
   2. Juliana A Salcedo
   3. Matthew M Dungan
   4. Despina V Mason
   5. Dulguun Myagmarsuren
   6. Helen A Murphy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The origin of virulence in pathogenic microbes is not understood for many microbial species. The concept of 'accidental virulence' was proposed as a mechanism by which a microbe could acquire the capacity for virulence through interaction with other microbial species, such as amoeba. This paper adds an important new dimension to that concept by showing that the capacity for virulence can emerge from abiotic interactions, such as adherence to plastic.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Distinct architectural requirements for the parS centromeric sequence of the pSM19035 plasmid partition machinery

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Andrea Volante
   2. Juan Carlos Alonso
   3. Kiyoshi Mizuuchi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The work by Volante et al. studied a new plasmid partition system, in which the authors discovered that four or more contiguous ParS sequence repeats are required to assemble a stable partitioning ParAB complex and to activate the ParA ATPase. The work reveals a new plasmid partitioning mechanism in which the mechanic property of DNA and its interaction with the partition complex may drive the directional movement of the plasmid.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Male rodent perirhinal cortex, but not ventral hippocampus, inhibition induces approach bias under object-based approach-avoidance conflict

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Sandeep S Dhawan
   2. Carl Pinter
   3. Andy CH Lee
   4. Rutsuko Ito

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this interesting study the authors combined innovative object-based conflict assays with optogenetic silencing to probe the role of the perirhinal cortex in motivational conflict. The manuscript is well-written and the approach was adequate. The findings provide new insight into how conflicting motivation is processed and would benefit from additional analysis and experimental investigation to more conclusively support the interpretations.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. eRNA profiling uncovers the enhancer landscape of oesophageal adenocarcinoma and reveals new deregulated pathways

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Ibrahim Ahmed
   2. Shen-Hsi Yang
   3. Samuel Ogden
   4. Wei Zhang
   5. Yaoyong Li
   6. The OCCAMs consortium
   7. Andrew D Sharrocks

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this manuscript, the authors identify enhancer-associated (e)RNAs that are specifically associated with esophageal adenocarcinoma. Based on combining the data with analyses of patient gene expression data and epigenetic data from cell lines, they conclude that eRNAs are markers of enhancers relevant to the transition from Barrett's esophagus to cancer. This work provides new insights into the epigenetic alterations that occur in cancer progression, and it will be of interest to the cancer and epigenetics fields.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Hippocampal place cell remapping occurs with memory storage of aversive experiences

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Garrett J Blair
   2. Changliang Guo
   3. Shiyun Wang
   4. Michael S Fanselow
   5. Peyman Golshani
   6. Daniel Aharoni
   7. Hugh T Blair

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper describes results obtained from multi-cellular imaging of CA1 cells using large-field-of-view miniscopes in rats performing a shock avoidance task. By exploiting behavioral (barriers) and pharmacological (scopolamine) manipulations the authors explore cell remapping dynamics during aversive learning. This work will be of interest to the neuroscience community by setting new methodological standards and providing data for across-species comparisons.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer 3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Disrupting the ciliary gradient of active Arl3 affects rod photoreceptor nuclear migration

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Amanda M Travis
   2. Samiya Manocha
   3. Jason R Willer
   4. Timothy S Wessler
   5. Nikolai P Skiba
   6. Jillian N Pearring

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The current paper is of interest to cell biologists studying ciliogenesis and specifically vertebrate photoreceptors, which are specialized cilia. The study shows that mutations in the small GTP binding protein ARL3 known to cause dominant inherited retinal dystrophies in humans result in ARL3 hyperactivity, disrupting the normal ciliary gradient of ARL3 activity and leading to altered retinal development. The authors demonstrate restored normal nuclear distribution by overexpression of ARL3 effectors, suggesting that the active mutants disrupt nuclear migration, at least in part, by sequestering ARL3 effectors. Overall, the experiments are properly controlled, executed, and analyzed and involve a series of extensive biochemical analyses complemented with in vivo phenotypic assessment. The development of a method to analyze snapshots of the interaction between ARL3 and its interactors is also a strength of the paper, however, significant concerns remain regarding links between nuclear migration failure and ciliogenesis in the outer segment, and alternative possibilities that could explain the phenotype of the ARL3 Y90C mutant with respect to its sequestration of the GEF ARL13B. Addressing these major concerns would improve the manuscript and could have considerable impact on the field.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A novel rhesus macaque model of Huntington’s disease recapitulates key neuropathological changes along with motor and cognitive decline

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Alison R Weiss
   2. William A Liguore
   3. Kristin Brandon
   4. Xiaojie Wang
   5. Zheng Liu
   6. Jacqueline S Domire
   7. Dana Button
   8. Sathya Srinivasan
   9. Christopher D Kroenke
   10. Jodi L McBride

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors show the utility of an AAV-based approach in non-human primates to develop an improved model of Huntington's disease. They have presented a very thorough, carefully executed, body of work that will be of benefit to a range of researchers studying HD or developing therapies for HD. While this extends the work from an earlier paper (that presented the tools used to induce phenotypes) the results presented are new, relevant, and important to the community.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

8. A mosaic-type trimeric RBD-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate induces potent neutralization against Omicron and other SARS-CoV-2 variants

   This article has 25 authors:

   1. Jing Zhang
   2. Zi Bo Han
   3. Yu Liang
   4. Xue Feng Zhang
   5. Yu Qin Jin
   6. Li Fang Du
   7. Shuai Shao
   8. Hui Wang
   9. Jun Wei Hou
   10. Ke Xu
   11. Wenwen Lei
   12. Ze Hua Lei
   13. Zhao Ming Liu
   14. Jin Zhang
   15. Ya Nan Hou
   16. Ning Liu
   17. Fu Jie Shen
   18. Jin Juan Wu
   19. Xiang Zheng
   20. Xin Yu Li
   21. Xin Li
   22. Wei Jin Huang
   23. Gui Zhen Wu
   24. Ji Guo Su
   25. Qi Ming Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this work, the authors test a multivalent vaccine design they term Mos-tri-RBD, consisting of three linked spike receptor binding domains, one based on Omicron sub-lineage BA.1 and the others with different SARS-CoV-2 variant mutations. Immunization with this construct either as a prime or booster vaccine resulted in better neutralization of the Omicron and Beta variants relative to the same design, but with the ancestral receptor binding domain, and supports the notion that vaccination with variant sequences may broaden the neutralization capacity of vaccines against divergent variants.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife, ScreenIT

9. Time encoding migrates from prefrontal cortex to dorsal striatum during learning of a self-timed response duration task

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Gabriela C Tunes
   2. Eliezyer Fermino de Oliveira
   3. Estevão UP Vieira
   4. Marcelo S Caetano
   5. André M Cravo
   6. Marcelo Bussotti Reyes

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary

     This study investigates the question of whether distinct brain areas differentially encode time during the learning of a simple motor timing task. The key novel result is that early in training the dynamics of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) provides the best code for time, but later in training, the basal ganglia and in particular, the striatum provides a better code. In addition, the study shows that inactivation of mPFC produces a delayed learning effect, while inactivation of the striatum after learning led to impaired performance. The observation that temporal coding and the necessity of brain area for task performance transfers from medial prefrontal cortex to the striatum during learning is an intriguing observation for our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying temporal processing in sensorimotor control.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Diverse ancestry whole-genome sequencing association study identifies TBX5 and PTK7 as susceptibility genes for posterior urethral valves

    This article has 22 authors:

    1. Melanie MY Chan
    2. Omid Sadeghi-Alavijeh
    3. Filipa M Lopes
    4. Alina C Hilger
    5. Horia C Stanescu
    6. Catalin D Voinescu
    7. Glenda M Beaman
    8. William G Newman
    9. Marcin Zaniew
    10. Stefanie Weber
    11. Yee Mang Ho
    12. John O Connolly
    13. Dan Wood
    14. Carlo Maj
    15. Alexander Stuckey
    16. Athanasios Kousathanas
    17. Genomics England Research Consortium
    18. Robert Kleta
    19. Adrian S Woolf
    20. Detlef Bockenhauer
    21. Adam P Levine
    22. Daniel P Gale

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      Prior work has linked posterior urethral valves (PUV), a common cause of end stage renal disease in children, with chromosomal abnormalities and rare copy number variants, but the genetic causes of PUV remain incompletely defined. In this study, the authors have used diverse ancestry whole-genome sequencing association studies to identify two novel genes and an enrichment of rare duplications and inversions affecting candidate cis-regulatory elements as possible causes of this rare condition, illustrating the potential for this approach to other rare conditions.

      (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

    Reviewed by eLife