eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Activation of transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 is involved in pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Yan Zou
   2. Miaomiao Zhang
   3. Qiongfeng Wu
   4. Ning Zhao
   5. Minwei Chen
   6. Cui Yang
   7. Yimei Du
   8. Bing Han

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study investigated the role of transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) in pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy. The expression of TPRV4 is increased in both heart failure and pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy models. The TRPV4 deletion or inhibition ameliorated the hypertrophy cardiac pathology. The authors propose that TRPV4 is a potential therapeutic target for cardiac hypertrophy.

     (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

2. Mapping brain-wide excitatory projectome of primate prefrontal cortex at submicron resolution and comparison with diffusion tractography

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. Mingchao Yan
   2. Wenwen Yu
   3. Qian Lv
   4. Qiming Lv
   5. Tingting Bo
   6. Xiaoyu Chen
   7. Yilin Liu
   8. Yafeng Zhan
   9. Shengyao Yan
   10. Xiangyu Shen
   11. Baofeng Yang
   12. Qiming Hu
   13. Jiangli Yu
   14. Zilong Qiu
   15. Yuanjing Feng
   16. Xiao-Yong Zhang
   17. He Wang
   18. Fuqiang Xu
   19. Zheng Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of broad interest to readers who study anatomical connections of the brain. It demonstrates the efficacy of a cutting-edge viral tracing technique in mapping excitatory projections in macaque monkeys. The work describes the generation of a projectome from the macaque vlPFC cortex across the rest of the brain using AAV2/9-CaMKIIa-Tau-GFP labeling and imaging with high-throughput serial two-photon tomography. The comparison with imaging techniques available in humans (diffusion tractography) will also be of interest to research in human brain anatomy.

     (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

3. Environmentally sensitive hotspots in the methylome of the early human embryo

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Matt J Silver
   2. Ayden Saffari
   3. Noah J Kessler
   4. Gririraj R Chandak
   5. Caroline HD Fall
   6. Prachand Issarapu
   7. Akshay Dedaniya
   8. Modupeh Betts
   9. Sophie E Moore
   10. Michael N Routledge
   11. Zdenko Herceg
   12. Cyrille Cuenin
   13. Maria Derakhshan
   14. Philip T James
   15. David Monk
   16. Andrew M Prentice

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript will be of interest to researchers interested in the influence of prenatal exposures on infant health. The authors investigate the impact of the season of conception on child DNA methylation levels in two independent cohorts from the Gambia and identify a set of CpGs that are tightly regulated during development. The data support the main conclusions of the manuscript, but some of the analyses could be improved (i.e. possible presence of residual confounding). There is also limited evidence for the functional importance of the observed associations.

     (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

4. How clustered protocadherin binding specificity is tuned for neuronal self-/nonself-recognition

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Kerry Marie Goodman
   2. Phinikoula S Katsamba
   3. Rotem Rubinstein
   4. Göran Ahlsén
   5. Fabiana Bahna
   6. Seetha Mannepalli
   7. Hanbin Dan
   8. Rosemary V Sampogna
   9. Lawrence Shapiro
   10. Barry Honig

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of interest to cell biologists, biochemists and biophysicists interested in how adhesion and signaling proteins at the cell surface help cells (and especially neurons) interact and perform self/non-self-recognition and self-avoidance. The authors provide the first extensive biophysical dataset examining a large subset of potential trans (across two cells) and cis (on the surface of the same cell) interactions between different isoforms of the ~60 clustered protocadherins (cPcdhs). There data show that all tested trans interactions are strictly homophilic and that not all possible cis interactions are equivalent. These results provide additional layers of complexity and constraints on how this protein family can provide neurons with the ability to perform self-recognition and self-avoidance.

     (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

5. Autophagosomes fuse to phagosomes and facilitate the degradation of apoptotic cells in Caenorhabditis elegans

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Omar Peña-Ramos
   2. Lucia Chiao
   3. Xianghua Liu
   4. Xiaomeng Yu
   5. Tianyou Yao
   6. Henry He
   7. Zheng Zhou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study presents evidence that autophagosomes fuse with phagosomes and that this promotes the degradation of phagocytosed cell corpses. The study also resolves controversy in the field about the question why genes involved in autophagy affect cell corpse engulfment and degradation. With some additional data to solidify the main conclusions, the work will be of interest to a broad cell biology audience.

     (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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Structural and functional insights of the human peroxisomal ABC transporter ALDP

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yutian Jia
   2. Yanming Zhang
   3. Wenhao Wang
   4. Jianlin Lei
   5. Zhengxin Ying
   6. Guanghui Yang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of interest to the lipid metabolism and transporter communities. Fatty acids that are too long to be transported into mitochondria are instead transported into peroxisomes for their break down i.e., beta-oxidation. The authors have determined the cryo-EM structure of human ABC transporter ABCD1 (ALDP), which translocates very-long-chain fatty acids (VLCFA) conjugated to coenzyme A across peroxisomal membranes, in complex with its substrate. While the work is well done, it is unclear what new mechanistic insights are gained from the ALDP structure. Also, the proposed conformational differences based on AlphaFold models should be taken with caution.

     (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

7. Zinc finger protein Zfp335 controls early T-cell development and survival through β-selection-dependent and -independent mechanisms

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Xin Wang
   2. Anjun Jiao
   3. Lina Sun
   4. Wenhua Li
   5. Biao Yang
   6. Yanhong Su
   7. Renyi Ding
   8. Cangang Zhang
   9. Haiyan Liu
   10. Xiaofeng Yang
   11. Chenming Sun
   12. Baojun Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors have discovered that the transcription factor Zfp335 is an important regulator of early T cell development in the thymus. This paper will be of interest to scientists within the field of T cell development. The approaches used are thoughtful and rigorous and the key claims are supported by the data. Whether or not Zfp335 specifically controls beta-selection via the gene targets described requires additional experimentation.

     (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. Developmental single-cell transcriptomics of hypothalamic POMC neurons reveal the genetic trajectories of multiple neuropeptidergic phenotypes

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Hui Yu
   2. Marcelo Rubinstein
   3. Malcolm J Low

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript by Yu et al. captures the transcriptional heterogeneity of mouse POMC neurons across hypothalamic development. This study unifies multiple other observations about the role for other neuron al cell types that express POMC transiently during development. The paper is an important resource understanding of the diversity of POMC neuron classes and their relationship to other cell types in the arcuate nucleus.

     (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

9. Structure of the human ATM kinase and mechanism of Nbs1 binding

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Christopher Warren
   2. Nikola P Pavletich

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation summary

     This manuscript is of broad interest to the DNA-repair and structural biology field. The paper describes new insights into the interaction between ATM and Nsb1, proteins central to repairing DNA double-strand breaks in humans. Overall, the structural cryo-electron microscopy data is solid and the data well analyzed and presented with key claims directly related to and supporting previous known findings.

     (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

10. High-throughput Plasmodium falciparum hrp2 and hrp3 gene deletion typing by digital PCR to monitor malaria rapid diagnostic test efficacy

    This article has 18 authors:

    1. Claudia A Vera-Arias
    2. Aurel Holzschuh
    3. Colins O Oduma
    4. Kingsley Badu
    5. Mutala Abdul-Hakim
    6. Joshua Yukich
    7. Manuel W Hetzel
    8. Bakar S Fakih
    9. Abdullah Ali
    10. Marcelo U Ferreira
    11. Simone Ladeia-Andrade
    12. Fabián E Sáenz
    13. Yaw Afrane
    14. Endalew Zemene
    15. Delenasaw Yewhalaw
    16. James W Kazura
    17. Guiyun Yan
    18. Cristian Koepfli

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      The study reports the development of high-throughput droplet digital PCR to detect Plasmodium falciparum parasites carrying pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 gene deletions. These mutations usually cause false-negative RDT results on malaria tests. Although there are several PCR-based detection methods already available, the assay is useful as an alternative, particularly in countries and settings where droplet digital PCR is routinely used. The strength lies in its capability to detect hrp2 and hrp3 deletions in samples with multiclonal (more than one clone) infections. This has the potential to assist in surveillance for pfhrp2/3 deletions programs where RDTs designed to detect HRP2 are the primary test leading to false negative results, particularly in medium to high transmission settings. The study will be of interest to those studying infectious diseases.

      (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