eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The TFIIH complex is required to establish and maintain mitotic chromosome structure

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Julian Haase
   2. Richard Chen
   3. Wesley M Parker
   4. Mary Kate Bonner
   5. Lisa M Jenkins
   6. Alexander E Kelly

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper reports the surprising observation that the general transcription factor TFIIH, but not transcription, is required for chromosome condensation in frog egg extracts. TFIIH may act by facilitating condensin localization and function. This opens up a lot of interesting new questions and lines of research that promise to add significantly to the field of chromosome biology. It will now be interesting to directly test the mechanism of action, and to examine whether this role of TFIIH extends to somatic cells and other animals.

     (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

2. Genetically controlled mtDNA deletions prevent ROS damage by arresting oxidative phosphorylation

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. Simon Stenberg
   2. Jing Li
   3. Arne B Gjuvsland
   4. Karl Persson
   5. Erik Demitz-Helin
   6. Carles González Peña
   7. Jia-Xing Yue
   8. Ciaran Gilchrist
   9. Timmy Ärengård
   10. Payam Ghiaci
   11. Lisa Larsson-Berglund
   12. Martin Zackrisson
   13. Silvana Smits
   14. Johan Hallin
   15. Johanna L Höög
   16. Mikael Molin
   17. Gianni Liti
   18. Stig W Omholt
   19. Jonas Warringer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors report that upon exposure of yeast cells to paraquat-induced superoxide production, specific mitochondrial DNA genes encoding electron transport chain proteins are deleted to minimize the generation of endogenous superoxide. Reversible loss of mitochondrial DNA as an adaptive response to paraquat stress is an interesting idea. The data presented appear to support the proposed model, but could be further strengthened as alternative interpretations of the described observations are possible.

     (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. Reverse engineering of metacognition

   This article has 1 author:

   1. Matthias Guggenmos

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper presents a novel computational model of metacognition that parameterizes links between sensory evidence and confidence. The proposed model relies on perceptual decision-making to formalize different sources of noise and bias that impact confidence, with the aim of developing metacognitive metrics that are independent of perceptual sensitivity - a continued endeavor in the field. Despite the clear merits of this approach, more evidence is needed to validate the proposed architecture, which is particularly modular, and may therefore impair the generalizability of the proposed mechanisms.

     (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

4. Robust and annotation-free analysis of alternative splicing across diverse cell types in mice

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Gonzalo Benegas
   2. Jonathan Fischer
   3. Yun S Song

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The manuscript presents a potentially interesting new method to study alternative splicing at the single-cell level in the mouse. With further testing and benchmarking, this method would be of interest to researchers working with single-cell data and/or interested in alternative splicing.

     (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

5. Inhibition of the sodium-dependent HCO3- transporter SLC4A4, produces a cystic fibrosis-like airway disease phenotype

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Vinciane Saint-Criq
   2. Anita Guequén
   3. Amber R Philp
   4. Sandra Villanueva
   5. Tábata Apablaza
   6. Ignacio Fernández-Moncada
   7. Agustín Mansilla
   8. Livia Delpiano
   9. Iván Ruminot
   10. Cristian Carrasco
   11. Michael A Gray
   12. Carlos A Flores

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of interest to scientists and clinicians within the field of muco-obstructive diseases in the airways, such as cystic fibrosis (CF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It identifies the sodium-bicarbonate cotransporter SLC4A4 as a key component of the mechanism by which normal airways prevent the formation of sticky mucus and defend theirselves against bacterial and viral infections.

     (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. Assembly of recombinant tau into filaments identical to those of Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Sofia Lövestam
   2. Fujiet Adrian Koh
   3. Bart van Knippenberg
   4. Abhay Kotecha
   5. Alexey G Murzin
   6. Michel Goedert
   7. Sjors HW Scheres

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Lövestam et al. report 76 cryo-EM structures of in vitro assembled recombinant tau filaments, including 27 previously unobserved ones. Together with the recent paper from Scheres and Goedert research groups, the structure-based knowledge of amyloid assembly will be boosted several fold. Most importantly, a few in vitro conditions were found to replicate the amyloid structures from both Alzheimer's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Those findings will open up new avenues to quickly screen compounds that inhibit filament formation under in vitro conditions, as well as the (self-)assembly process of amyloid fibrils.

     (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, Reviewer #3 and Reviewer #4 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Tropical land use alters functional diversity of soil food webs and leads to monopolization of the detrital energy channel

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Zheng Zhou
   2. Valentyna Krashevska
   3. Rahayu Widyastuti
   4. Stefan Scheu
   5. Anton Potapov

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Zhou et al. provide a robust study on isotopic and metabolic changes of a soil community across a gradient of different land-use types in Sumatra, Indonesia. By mixing community-based analyses of stable isotopes and size-based metabolic measures, they are able to elucidate, for the first time, important links among plants and the soil food web in tropical ecosystems. This study is of importance to tropical biologists, ecosystem ecologists and biodiversity conservationists aiming to understand the impacts of humans on tropical forests.

     (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. Critical role for isoprenoids in apicoplast biogenesis by malaria parasites

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Megan Okada
   2. Krithika Rajaram
   3. Russell P Swift
   4. Amanda Mixon
   5. John Alan Maschek
   6. Sean T Prigge
   7. Paul A Sigala

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is an excellent, innovative and high quality study that reveals an essential role for isoprenoids within the Plasmodium apicoplast, and demonstrates a likely polyprenol synthase that is required for apicoplast biogenesis. This is an important finding for understanding apicoplast and isoprenoid biology in general, and is significant because synthesis of isoprenoids appears to be the only essential role for the apicoplast in asexual intraerythrocytic stages.

     (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 names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Tradeoff breaking as a model of evolutionary transitions in individuality and limits of the fitness-decoupling metaphor

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Pierrick Bourrat
   2. Guilhem Doulcier
   3. Caroline J Rose
   4. Paul B Rainey
   5. Katrin Hammerschmidt

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Key steps in the evolution of more complex life involve evolutionary transitions in individuality-the origin of new biological entities (i.e., multicellular organisms). This paper presents a novel criterion for measuring when this transition has occurred, via the presence of trade-off breaking adaptations. This work has considerable merit and will be of particular interest for diverse researchers studying transitions in individuality. Some of the author's overarching claims require further clarification.

     (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, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Innate lymphoid cells and COVID-19 severity in SARS-CoV-2 infection

    This article has 18 authors:

    1. Noah J Silverstein
    2. Yetao Wang
    3. Zachary Manickas-Hill
    4. Claudia Carbone
    5. Ann Dauphin
    6. Brittany P Boribong
    7. Maggie Loiselle
    8. Jameson Davis
    9. Maureen M Leonard
    10. Leticia Kuri-Cervantes
    11. MGH COVID-19 Collection & Processing Team
    12. Nuala J Meyer
    13. Michael R Betts
    14. Jonathan Z Li
    15. Bruce D Walker
    16. Xu G Yu
    17. Lael M Yonker
    18. Jeremy Luban

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      The authors present an interesting approach of COVID-19 pathogenesis with emphasis on the role of innate lymphoid cells as a major correlate of the severity of COVID-19 and of the levels of inflammatory markers. The main strength of the manuscript is the novelty of approach, and the fact that the authors are the first to find this potentially interesting correlation, which brings up a number of both translational and mechanistic possibilities of significance. The limitation, of course, is the difficulty in showing a cause-and-effect relationship between the reduction in of innate lymphoid cells and the severity of COVID-19 inflammation.

      (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 names with the authors.)

    Reviewed by eLife, ScreenIT