eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Genetic compensation in podocalyxin-like mutants during zebrafish liver development

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Alexis N Ross
   2. Natalie M Miscik
   3. Sharanya Maanasi Kalasekar
   4. James D Harris
   5. Mimi Tran
   6. Aavrati Saxena
   7. Steven Andrew Baker
   8. Kimberley Jane Evason

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The manuscript by Ross, Miscik, and others describes an intriguing series of observations made when investigating the requirement for podxl during hepatic development in zebrafish. Understanding how genetic compensation pathways are involved in gene function is an important question. However, there is incomplete evidence provided in the manuscript at this point to conclude that discrepancies between observed phenotypes are due to genetic compensation.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Insights from aquaporin structures into drug-resistant sleeping sickness

   This article has 23 authors:

   1. Modestas Matusevicius
   2. Robin A Corey
   3. Marcos Gragera
   4. Keitaro Yamashita
   5. Teresa Sprenger
   6. Marzuq Ungogo
   7. James N Blaza
   8. Pablo Castro-Hartmann
   9. Dimitri Y Chirgadze
   10. Sundeep Chaitanya Vedithi
   11. Pavel Afanasyev
   12. Roberto Melero
   13. Rangana Warshamanage
   14. Anastasiia Gusach
   15. José-Maria Carazo
   16. Mark Carrington
   17. Tom Blundell
   18. Garib N Murshudov
   19. Phillip J Stansfeld
   20. Mark SP Sansom
   21. Harry P De Koning
   22. Christopher G Tate
   23. Simone Weyand

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this important study, the authors set out to determine the molecular interactions between the AQP2 from Trypanosoma brucei (TbAQP2) and the trypanocidal drugs pentamidine and melarsoprol to understand how TbAQP2 mutations lead to drug resistance. Using cryo-EM, molecular dynamics simulations, and lysis assays the authors present convincing evidence that mutations in TbAQP2 make permeation of trypanocidal drugs energetically less favourable, and that this impacts the ability of drugs to achieve a therapeutic dose. Overall, this data will be of interest for those working on aquaporins, and development of trypanosomiasis drugs as well as drugs targeting aquaporins in general.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Glial betaPix is essential for blood vessel development in the zebrafish brain

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Shihching Chiu
   2. Qinchao Zhou
   3. Chenglu Xiao
   4. Linlu Bai
   5. Xiaojun Zhu
   6. Wanqiu Ding
   7. Jing-Wei Xiong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable manuscript presents findings supported by solid data to identify a surprising glia-exclusive function for betapix in vascular integrity and angiogenesis. The manuscript also describes the optimisation of a modified CRISPR-based Zwitch approach to generate conditional knockouts in zebrafish

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Molecular Landscape of the Mouse Adrenal Gland and Adjacent Adipose by Spatial Transcriptomics

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Małgorzata Blatkiewicz
   2. Szymon Hryhorowicz
   3. Marta Szyszka
   4. Joanna Suszyńska-Zajczyk
   5. Andrzej Pławski
   6. Adam Plewiński
   7. Andrea Porzionato
   8. Ludwik K Malendowicz
   9. Marcin Rucinski

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study provides a spatial transcriptomic analysis of the mouse adrenal gland that could have implications for future research and applications. The authors present solid results that allow the dissection of the cell signalling pathways and cellular composition of different zones of the adrenal glands in the mouse model; they propose new zone-specific gene markers and specific intra- and inter-zonal signaling pathways based on receptor-ligand expression patterns. Their web tool is user-friendly and will be helpful for adrenal scientists; however, the validation of crucial results of the large dataset is necessary. There are also several contradictory results/interpretations, and the opportunity to dissect the sexually dimorphic gene expression pattern and mouse-human interspecies differences is a missed opportunity.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. SIRT2 protects against Japanese encephalitis virus infection in mice

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Perumal Arumugam Desingu
   2. Lavanya Dindi
   3. Krishnega Murugasamy
   4. Ankit Kumar Tamta
   5. Venketsubbu Ramasubbu
   6. Sukanya Raghu
   7. Amarjeet Shrama
   8. Raju S Rajmani
   9. Nagalingam R Sundaresan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study explores the role of SIRT2 in regulating Japanese encephalitis virus replication and disease progression in rodent models. The findings presented are novel as sirtuins are known for their roles in aging, metabolism, and cell survival, but have not been studied in the context of viral infections until recently. The evidence supporting the claims is solid, although additional experiments to further characterize the clinical outcomes and directly test the link between acetylated NF-kB and SIRT2 expression would have strengthened the study. The work will be of interest to biologists studying viruses, sirtuins, and inflammation.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Doubling dolutegravir dosage reduces the viral reservoir in ART-treated people with HIV

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Céline Fombellida-Lopez
   2. Aurelija Valaitienė
   3. Lee Winchester
   4. Nathalie Maes
   5. Patricia Dellot
   6. Céline Vanwinge
   7. Aurélie Ladang
   8. Etienne Cavalier
   9. Fabrice Susin
   10. Dolores Vaira
   11. Marie-Pierre Hayette
   12. Catherine Reenaers
   13. Michel Moutschen
   14. Courtney V Fletcher
   15. Alexander O Pasternak
   16. Gilles Darcis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable clinical trial compares the impact of dolutegravir intensification on longitudinal measures of total HIV DNA and day 84 measures of intact HIV DNA. The trial was well-designed, and the paper is easy to read and provides hypothesis generation-level evidence that treatment intensification might decrease intact HIV DNA level in some people after 3 months. The findings are solid, with significant limitations being that study endpoints and hypotheses were not precisely defined prior to the trial, and that effect size is limited and inconsistent across trial participants.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Species biology and demographic history determines species vulnerability to climate change in tropical island endemic birds

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ratnesh Karjee
   2. Vikram Iyer
   3. Durbadal Chatterjee
   4. Rajasri Ray
   5. Kritika M Garg
   6. Balaji Chattopadhyay

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Tropical single-island endemic bird populations are particularly vulnerable to climate change. The authors investigate genetic evidence of how such species dealt with climate changes in the past as a possible predictor for how they will respond to change in the future, which could provide an important example for the fields of conservation genetics and island biogeography. The authors' integration of genomics and habitat modeling is commendable, but we find that the support for their conclusions is incomplete: at times, the results presented appear to contradict each other, the authors do not fully account for key variables, and the limited taxonomic scope may cause problematic biases for the conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Cancer cells differentially modulate mitochondrial respiration to alter redox state and enable biomass synthesis in nutrient-limited environments

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Sarah M Chang
   2. Muhammad Bin Munim
   3. Sonia E Trojan
   4. Anna Shevzov-Zebrun
   5. Keene L Abbott
   6. Matthew G Vander Heiden

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable findings on the relationship between nutrient availability and NAD/NADH levels, which in turn regulate biomass production in cancer cells. The authors provide solid evidence to support their claims, offering insight into why it is difficult to predict which nutrients limit cancer cell growth: both cell type and nutrient availability together determine the oxidative capacity that constrains the synthesis of various metabolic intermediates. The manuscript will be of interest to researchers working in cancer and cell metabolism.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Epidermal resident memory T cell fitness requires antigen encounter in the skin

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Eric S Weiss
   2. Toshiro Hirai
   3. Haiyue Li
   4. Andrew Liu
   5. Shannon Baker
   6. Ian Magill
   7. Jacob Gillis
   8. Youran R Zhang
   9. Torben Ramcke
   10. Kazuo Kurihara
   11. The ImmGen Consortium OpenSource T cell Project
   12. David Masopust
   13. Niroshana Anandasabapathy
   14. Harinder Singh
   15. David Zemmour
   16. Laura K Mackay
   17. Daniel H Kaplan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript advances the prior finding that antigen recognition in the skill helps establish skin resident memory in CD8 T cells by elucidating the role of TGFBR3 in regulating CD8+ TRM skin persistence upon topical antigen exposure. Key novelty of the your work lies in generation and use of the CD8+ T cell-specific TGFBR3 knockout model, which allows them to demonstrate the role of TGFBR3 in fine tuning the degree of CD8+ T cell skin persistence and that TGFBR3 expression is promoted by CD8+ TRM encountering their cognate antigen upon initial skin entry. This is an important finding and is supported by convincing evidence. There are concerns about the use of FTY720 and the need to establish active TGFbeta limiting conditions to further test this working model.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Predicting human decision-making across task conditions via individuality transfer

    This article has 1 author:

    1. Hiroshi Higashi

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This revised paper provides a valuable and novel neural network-based framework for parameterizing individual differences and predicting individual decision-making across task conditions. The methods and analyses are solid yet could benefit from further validation of the superiority of the proposed framework against other baseline models. With these concerns addressed, this study would offer a proof-of-concept neural network approach to scientists working on the generalization of cognitive skills across contexts.

    Reviewed by eLife