eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Conformational changes in twitchin kinase in vivo revealed by FRET imaging of freely moving C. elegans

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Daniel Porto
   2. Yohei Matsunaga
   3. Barbara Franke
   4. Rhys M Williams
   5. Hiroshi Qadota
   6. Olga Mayans
   7. Guy M Benian
   8. Hang Lu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of interest to mechanobiologists and muscle scientists interested in how contraction of muscle may be linked to mechanical activation of a kinase domain in a large structural protein in a living animal. The study combines imaging of the moving live animal with FRET measurements to detect the structural (and presumably the activation) state of twitchin in C. elegans. The data convincingly shows that this activation is coupled to muscle contraction.

     (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

2. A unified platform to manage, share, and archive morphological and functional data in insect neuroscience

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Stanley Heinze
   2. Basil el Jundi
   3. Bente G Berg
   4. Uwe Homberg
   5. Randolf Menzel
   6. Keram Pfeiffer
   7. Ronja Hensgen
   8. Frederick Zittrell
   9. Marie Dacke
   10. Eric Warrant
   11. Gerit Pfuhl
   12. Jürgen Rybak
   13. Kevin Tedore

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript will be of interest to insect neuroscientists and broadly to the neuroanatomy community. It presents a new web resource that collects and displays neuron, brain region and species data in user-friendly ways. If taken up by the community, it has the potential to become an important data hub.

     (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, preLights

3. Characterization of the ABC methionine transporter from Neisseria meningitidis reveals that lipidated MetQ is required for interaction

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Naima G Sharaf
   2. Mona Shahgholi
   3. Esther Kim
   4. Jeffrey Y Lai
   5. David G VanderVelde
   6. Allen T Lee
   7. Douglas C Rees

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Sharaf and colleagues present an elegant structural and functional analysis of the Neisseria meningitidis ABC transporters MetQ/MetNI illustrating that the substrate binding protein MetQ requires N-terminal lipidation and a substrate (e.g. L-Met and other Met analogs) to stimulate the ATPase, presumably in order to transport the substrate across the inner membrane. This paper will be of broad interest to microbiologists and membrane physiologists who study periplasmic substrate binding proteins and transporter interactions in bacteria.

     (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

4. Rad53 checkpoint kinase regulation of DNA replication fork rate via Mrc1 phosphorylation

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Allison W McClure
   2. John FX Diffley

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript will be of interest to those interested in the regulation of DNA replication and those interested in how DNA damage impacts DNA replication. DNA replication must occur accurately to maintain genome integrity and also must be able to deal with DNA damage or metabolic conditions that induce replication fork stalling. Two key proteins involved in signaling such replication stress are Mrc1 and Rad53 kinase, and the authors use a powerful in vitro reconstitution system to make findings pertaining to these two proteins that are then supported by genetics.

     (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

5. Whole-brain connectivity atlas of glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons in the mouse dorsal and median raphe nuclei

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Zhengchao Xu
   2. Zhao Feng
   3. Mengting Zhao
   4. Qingtao Sun
   5. Lei Deng
   6. Xueyan Jia
   7. Tao Jiang
   8. Pan Luo
   9. Wu Chen
   10. Ayizuohere Tudi
   11. Jing Yuan
   12. Xiangning Li
   13. Hui Gong
   14. Qingming Luo
   15. Anan Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work from Xu et al. uses state of the art viral tracing technologies in Cre-transgenic mouse lines to map the inputs and outputs of glutamatergic and GABAergic neuronal populations in the dorsal (DR) and median raphe (MR) nucleus. A large amount of high-quality anatomical dataset was collected with the advanced fMOST whole-brain imaging system. Data analysis was thorough with significant scientific insights. All figures are of high quality. Overall, this study nicely complements previously published work on whole-brain connectivity of the DR and MR which have chiefly focused on the main neuromodulatory neurons found in these nuclei, i.e. serotonin and dopamine neurons, and will be a valuable contribution to understanding neural circuits of the raphe system.

     (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

6. HBO1-MLL interaction promotes AF4/ENL/P-TEFb-mediated leukemogenesis

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Satoshi Takahashi
   2. Akinori Kanai
   3. Hiroshi Okuda
   4. Ryo Miyamoto
   5. Yosuke Komata
   6. Takeshi Kawamura
   7. Hirotaka Matsui
   8. Toshiya Inaba
   9. Akifumi Takaori-Kondo
   10. Akihiko Yokoyama

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript describes the identification and characterization of the interaction between MLL fusion proteins with the HBO1 histone acetyltransferase complex and its role in leukemogenesis. This study adds mechanistic depth into the important recent discovery of HBO1 functions in MLL-fusion leukemias and opens possibilities for a new therapeutic approach.

     (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. Delilah, prospero, and D-Pax2 constitute a gene regulatory network essential for the development of functional proprioceptors

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Adel Avetisyan
   2. Yael Glatt
   3. Maya Cohen
   4. Yael Timerman
   5. Nitay Aspis
   6. Atalya Nachman
   7. Naomi Halachmi
   8. Ella Preger-Ben Noon
   9. Adi Salzberg

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The study is carefully performed and provides compelling evidence for a gene network involved in generating different sensory cell types from a common progenitor, showing how an enhancer can integrate a gene regulatory network and guide a cell-fate decision.

     (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

8. Neutrophil-mediated oxidative stress and albumin structural damage predict COVID-19-associated mortality

   This article has 20 authors:

   1. Mohamed A Badawy
   2. Basma A Yasseen
   3. Riem M El-Messiery
   4. Engy A Abdel-Rahman
   5. Aya A Elkhodiry
   6. Azza G Kamel
   7. Hajar El-sayed
   8. Asmaa M Shedra
   9. Rehab Hamdy
   10. Mona Zidan
   11. Diaa Al-Raawi
   12. Mahmoud Hammad
   13. Nahla Elsharkawy
   14. Mohamed El Ansary
   15. Ahmed Al-Halfawy
   16. Alaa Elhadad
   17. Ashraf Hatem
   18. Sherif Abouelnaga
   19. Laura L Dugan
   20. Sameh Saad Ali

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Severe COVID-19 is characterised by a high neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and an underlying state of oxidative stress in blood has also been hypothesized. In the study presented here for the first time provide evidence that hydrogen peroxide generated by the neutrophil specific enzyme myeloperoxidase is not only accumulated in plasma but also perpetrates structural damage to the strong and weak lipid binding sites on albumin, a key antioxidant in blood plasma, using SLFAs and EPR spectroscopy. This study is timely and relevant in deciding treatment of severe COVID-19 patients with human serum albumin and possibly supplementation of FDA approved antioxidants like glutathione. The main strengths of the manuscript are the novelty. The main weak point is the need to study more patients.

     (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, ScreenIT

9. Mutation analysis links angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma to clonal hematopoiesis and smoking

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Shuhua Cheng
   2. Wei Zhang
   3. Giorgio Inghirami
   4. Wayne Tam

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper provides supportive sequencing data for the hypothesis of association between AITL and pre-existing clonal hematopoiesis. It will be of interest to researchers in both lymphoma and myeloid malignancies and raises new hypotheses about the potential smoking-related mechanisms (C>A signature) that may contribute to development of AITL in the background of clonal hematopoiesis. The hypotheses need further validation, as the authors used a small sample and make indirect inferences about the origin of the observed mutations.

     (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

10. Correction of amblyopia in cats and mice after the critical period

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Ming-fai Fong
    2. Kevin R Duffy
    3. Madison P Leet
    4. Christian T Candler
    5. Mark F Bear

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This study reports that monocular inactivation of the fellow (good) eye with tetrodotoxin supports long-lasting recovery from the effects of monocular deprivation, as measured by visual evoked potentials in primary visual cortex. This work should be of interest to neuroscientists studying plasticity and clinicians treating amblyopia. The results are compelling, although the advance compared to previous work is incremental.

      (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