eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Visually induced changes in cytokine production in the chick choroid

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Jody A Summers
   2. Elizabeth Martinez

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of general interest to basic researchers and clinician-scientists working on the eye and vision, developmental and inflammatory eye disorders, and cell-cell signalling in vascular tissue. Experiments are well designed, the resulting data are of very high quality, and their significance is not over-interpreted. The approach and findings with regard to myopia are quite novel, revealing exciting new possibilities for understanding the visual regulation of eye growth, with some overlap into understanding regulatory mechanisms in 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 agreed to share their name with the authors.)”

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Sequence features of retrotransposons allow for epigenetic variability

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Kevin R Costello
   2. Amy Leung
   3. Candi Trac
   4. Michael Lee
   5. Mudaser Basam
   6. J Andrew Pospisilik
   7. Dustin E Schones

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors aim to understand how certain transposable elements escape chromatin-based silencing. Focusing on variably methylated copies of IAP (VM-IAPs) in the mouse, the authors show that elements that can escape silencing share sequence variations that alter KRAB zinc finger protein (KZFP) binding and KAP1 recruitment, proximity to expressed genes and high CpG content. Analysis of human elements in human KZFP-free mouse cells recapitulates some of these observations. The authors propose that ZF-CxxxC proteins play a role in establishing permissive chromatin at transposable elements that harbor high CpG content and weak KZFP binding. The data are mostly correlative and open the path for further mechanistic analyses. The paper is of interest to readers in the field of epigenetics, genome biology and transposable elements.

     (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

3. Regeneration of the larval sea star nervous system by wounding induced respecification to the Sox2 lineage

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Minyan Zheng
   2. Olga Zueva
   3. Veronica F Hinman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript presents a careful study of nervous system regeneration in the larval sea star using new transgenic tools for marking and following cells involved in regeneration. The authors find that these animals can regenerate their nervous system by the re-specification of existing cells, which are induced to express the embryonic neurogenesis program. The experimental approach is robust and creative and the data interpretation sound. For its contribution to our understanding of how cells are induced to contribute to specific cell lineages during regeneration, this work will be of interest to the broad community of researchers inregenerative and developmental biology.

     (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

4. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.1101/2021.07.13.452277

5. Multi-tract multi-symptom relationships in pediatric concussion

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Guido I Guberman
   2. Sonja Stojanovski
   3. Eman Nishat
   4. Alain Ptito
   5. Danilo Bzdok
   6. Anne L Wheeler
   7. Maxime Descoteaux

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript aims to address an important issue in the study of concussion: both the brain damage caused by concussion, as well as the behavioral symptoms that result vary widely across individuals. The study uses novel and interesting methods to relate multi-variate diffusion MRI data with multi-variate symptom-related data. The methods of analysis are sophisticated and well-executed and the results are quite interesting. The methods developed here could have broad impact in their application to the many other neurological diseases that have heterogeneous outcomes.

     (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

6. Nanofluidic chips for cryo-EM structure determination from picoliter sample volumes

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Stefan T Huber
   2. Edin Sarajlic
   3. Roeland Huijink
   4. Felix Weis
   5. Wiel H Evers
   6. Arjen J Jakobi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Sample preparation for single-particle electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) remains a bottleneck of this technique. The sample ice thickness cannot be accurately controlled, molecules may display strongly preferred orientations that make more elaborate data collection schemes necessary, and the sample may degrade at the air-water interface before it is finally frozen. In their pioneering work, the authors describe a prototype of a new microfluidic device that addresses some of these problems, including a refreshingly objective and critical discussion about the pros and cons of this novel approach. While some development will be required for this method to become mainstream, it has the potential to become a powerful alternative to the conventional workflow of single-particle cryo-EM, enabling full automation and making sample preparation highly reproducible.

     (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 name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Diverse mating phenotypes impact the spread of wtf meiotic drivers in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. José Fabricio López Hernández
   2. Rachel M Helston
   3. Jeffrey J Lange
   4. R Blake Billmyre
   5. Samantha H Schaffner
   6. Michael T Eickbush
   7. Scott McCroskey
   8. Sarah E Zanders

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Meiotic drivers are selfish elements that distort segregation to be over-represented in offspring of heterozygotes. Multiple meiotic drive elements are known in the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which can seem puzzling as this fungus has long been thought to undergo moslty same-clone mating because of its mating-type switching system. This manuscript reports theoretical and experimental analyses suggesting that the outcrossing rate can be high enough in this species to explain the spread of multiple meiotic drive elements. The findings support the emerging view that homothallic fungi can undergo quite high rates of outcrossing, which is also in agreement with evolutionary considerations on the evolution of mating types. This study can thus be of high relevance for scientists studying meiotic drivers and/or mating systems and their evolution.

     (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

8. mRNA vaccine-induced T cells respond identically to SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern but differ in longevity and homing properties depending on prior infection status

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Jason Neidleman
   2. Xiaoyu Luo
   3. Matthew McGregor
   4. Guorui Xie
   5. Victoria Murray
   6. Warner C Greene
   7. Sulggi A Lee
   8. Nadia R Roan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work will be of broad interest to those studying adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2, particularly with a focus on T cell immunology. The study confirms that mRNA vaccine-elicited T cell responses maintain recognition of peptides derived from VOC, and provides phenotypic characterisation of spike-specific T cells from both convalescent and infection-naive subjects.

     (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. Novel mechanistic insights into the role of Mer2 as the keystone of meiotic DNA break formation

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Dorota Rousová
   2. Vaishnavi Nivsarkar
   3. Veronika Altmannova
   4. Vivek B Raina
   5. Saskia K Funk
   6. David Liedtke
   7. Petra Janning
   8. Franziska Müller
   9. Heidi Reichle
   10. Gerben Vader
   11. John R Weir

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Using a combination of biochemical approaches and yeast genetics, the authors study the function of the DNA double-strand break factor Mer2. The authors show that Mer2 interacts with a meiotic chromosome axis factor (Hop1), nucleosomes, the nucleosome-binding protein Spp1, and the double-strand break factor Mre11 to serve as a "keystone" for meiotic DNA break formation. These findings represent an important step forward in understanding the functions of this highly conserved protein in meiosis.

     (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. Correct regionalization of a tissue primordium is essential for coordinated morphogenesis

    This article has 3 authors:

    1. Yara E Sánchez-Corrales
    2. Guy B Blanchard
    3. Katja Röper

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      Sanchez et al investigate how morphogenetic movements driving epithelial tube formation are patterned to occur with the correct spatiotemporal dynamics, a fundamental question in developmental biology. By correlating dynamic patterns of transcription factor expression with rigorous, quantitative analyses of cell behaviors across the salivary gland primordium, their results suggest Hkb and Fkh transcription factor patterning induces switches in cell behaviors at fixed positions to promote continued morphogenesis of the tubular structure. This mechanism is likely to be more generally important for the development of complex tubular organs.

      (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