eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. TopBP1 biomolecular condensates as a new therapeutic target in advanced-stage colorectal cancer

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Laura Morano
   2. Nadia Vezzio-Vié
   3. Adam Aissanou
   4. Tom Egger
   5. Antoine Aze
   6. Solène Fiachetti
   7. Benoit Bordignon
   8. Cedric Hassen-khodja
   9. Hervé Seitz
   10. Louis-Antoine Milazzo
   11. Véronique Garambois
   12. Laurent Chaloin
   13. Nathalie Bonnefoy
   14. Céline Gongora
   15. Angelos Constantinou
   16. Jihane Basbous

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study reveals that the GSK-3 inhibitor AZD2858 inhibits the formation of TOPBP1 condensates and hence DNA damage responses in colorectal cancer cells. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing, although uncovering how this drug blocks bio-condensate formation would have strengthened the study. The work will be of interest to cancer researchers searching for synergistic drug combination strategies.

     [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Nuclear and cytosolic J-domain proteins provide synergistic control of Hsf1 at distinct phases of the heat shock response

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Carmen Ruger-Herreros
   2. Lucia Svoboda
   3. Gurranna Male
   4. Aseem Shrivastava
   5. Markus Höpfler
   6. Katharina Jetzinger
   7. Jiří Koubek
   8. Günter Kramer
   9. Fabian den Brave
   10. Axel Mogk
   11. David S Gross
   12. Bernd Bukau

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study focuses on defining how the HSP70 chaperone system utilizes J-domain proteins to regulate the heat shock response-associated transcription factor HSF1. Using a combination of orthogonal techniques in yeast, this manuscript provides compelling evidence that the J-domain protein Apj1 facilitates attenuation of HSF1 transcriptional activity through a mechanism involving its dissociation from heat shock gene promoter regions. This work generates new insight into the mechanism of HSF1 transcriptional regulation and is a significant contribution of broad interest to cell biologists interested in proteostasis, chaperone networks, and stress-responsive signaling.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A theory of brain-computer interface learning via low-dimensional control

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Jorge A Menéndez
   2. Jay A Hennig
   3. Matthew D Golub
   4. Emily R Oby
   5. Patrick T Sadtler
   6. Aaron P Batista
   7. Steven M Chase
   8. Byron M Yu
   9. Peter E Latham

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study proposes a network implementation of the "re-aiming" learning strategy, which has been hypothesized to underlie brain-computer interface learning. Combining theoretical arguments, numerical simulations, and analysis of experimental data, the authors provide convincing evidence for their hypothesis. This paper will likely be of broad interest to the systems neuroscience community.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Cross-species insemination reveals mouse sperm ability to enter and cross the fish micropyle

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Suma Garibova
   2. Eva Stickler
   3. Fatima AlAli
   4. Maha A Abdulla
   5. Abbirami Sathappan
   6. Sahar I Da'as
   7. Lillian Ghanem
   8. Mohamed Nadhir Djekidel
   9. Rick Portman
   10. Matteo Avella

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study reports the conservation of sperm-egg envelope binding by demonstrating successful recognition of the micropyle in fish eggs by mouse sperm. The evidence supporting the conclusions drawn is convincing. This study will be of interest to reproductive biologists and clinicians studying the biology of fertilization and fertility.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Transcriptional coregulation in cis around a contact insulation site revealed by single-molecule microscopy

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Maciej A Kerlin
   2. Ilham Aboulfath-Ladid
   3. Julia Roensch
   4. Chloé Jaubert
   5. Aude Battistella
   6. Kyra JE Borgman
   7. Antoine Coulon

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study combines an innovative experimental approach with mathematical modeling to demonstrate that genes separated by strong topological boundaries can exhibit coordinated transcriptional bursting, providing new insights into how regulatory information is transmitted across the genome. The evidence is solid within the studied locus, but the interpretation and generality of the findings would be strengthened by additional validation using simulated data and broader application beyond a single genomic region. This work will be of interest to cell biologists and biophysicists working on transcription and chromatin.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Single-cell profiling of the lung immune cells of diabetes-tuberculosis comorbidity reveals reduced type-II interferon and elevated Th17 responses

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Shweta Chaudhary
   2. Mothe Sravya
   3. Falak Pahwa
   4. Sureshkumar V
   5. Prateek Singh
   6. Shivam Chaturvedi
   7. Debasisa Mohanty
   8. Debasis Dash
   9. Ranjan Kumar Nanda

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on the intersection between tuberculosis and diabetes and the impact on immune responses, notably T cell and myeloid cell responses. The single-cell data collected and analyzed are convincing and provide a rich dataset to develop a more detailed understanding of cellular responses during Mtb infection of diabetic mice. Some of the mechanistic claims are incomplete, as there are no experiments performed to clearly define a role for IL-16 or IL-17 in disease. Inclusion of analysis of human samples would have strengthened the conclusions in the paper for translational impact, as well as the inclusion of a DM group alone in addition to DM-TB vs TB in some of the experiments.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Integrated transcriptomic analysis of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived osteogenic differentiation reveals a regulatory role of KLF16

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Ying Ru
   2. Meng Ma
   3. Xianxiao Zhou
   4. Divya Kriti
   5. Ninette Cohen
   6. Sunita D’Souza
   7. Christoph Schaniel
   8. Susan M Motch Perrine
   9. Sharon Kuo
   10. Oksana Pichurin
   11. Dalila Pinto
   12. Genevieve Housman
   13. Greg Holmes
   14. Eric Schadt
   15. Harm van Bakel
   16. Bin Zhang
   17. Ethylin Wang Jabs
   18. Meng Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors investigated KLF Transcription Factor 16 (KLF16) as an inhibitor of osteogenic differentiation, which plays a critical role in bone development, metabolism and repair. The results of the study are valuable as they could help to facilitate future research on the regulation of osteogenesis in vitro and in vivo. However, the evidence overall is incomplete, as validation by knockout mouse models would help to strengthen the conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Shining light on the dark matter of pertussis: evidence for an asymptomatic carriage state from a longitudinal cohort of mother/infant dyads

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Christian E Gunning
   2. Christopher J Gill
   3. Pejman Rohani

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides evidence for asymptomatic Bordetella pertussis carriage among mothers in a longitudinal cohort in Zambia, significantly advancing understanding of transmission dynamics. The evidence presented is convincing, with strengths including routine sampling irrespective of symptoms and rigorous qPCR methodology, although confirmatory diagnostics would further strengthen the claims. Overall, the study represents an influential contribution to the field of infectious disease epidemiology.

   Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, eLife

9. Patchy striatonigral neurons modulate locomotor vigor in response to environmental valence

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Sarah Hawes
   2. Bo Liang
   3. Braden Oldham
   4. Breanna T Sullivan
   5. Lupeng Wang
   6. Bin Song
   7. Lisa Chang
   8. Da-Ting Lin
   9. Huaibin Cai

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The manuscript provides important findings on how striatal projection neurons regulate spontaneous locomotion speed in the context of implicit motivation and distinct contextual valence. The manuscript presented convincing supporting evidence for the findings. This work will be of broad interest to neuroscientists in the fields of basal ganglia, movement control, and cognition.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Modular DNA barcoding of nanobodies enables multiplexed in situ protein imaging and high-throughput biomolecule detection

    This article has 6 authors:

    1. Shilin Zhong
    2. Ruiyu Wang
    3. Xinwei Gao
    4. Qingchun Guo
    5. Rui Lin
    6. Minmin Luo

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This fundamental manuscript presents a practical modification of the orthogonal hybridization chain reaction (HCR) technique, a promising yet underutilized method with broad potential for future applications across various fields. The authors advance this technique by integrating peptide ligation technology and nanobody-based antibody mimetics-cost-effective and scalable alternatives to conventional antibodies-into a DNA-immunoassay framework that merges oligonucleotide-based detection with immunoassay methodologies. Notably, they demonstrate with compelling evidence that this approach facilitates a modified ELISA platform capable of simultaneously quantifying multiple target protein expression levels within a single protein mixture sample.

    Reviewed by eLife