- Mar 2022
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Given the well-known importance of the SYNGAP1 mutations in the pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental disorders and the key regulatory roles of SynGAP1 for excitatory synaptic functions, this study provides timely and comprehensive sets of data supporting the in vivo functions of individual SynGAP1 splice variants, including the alpha-1/2 variants, and suggests the therapeutic potential of increasing specific SynGAP1-alpha variants.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors present a method for measuring the oligomerisation state of tagged membrane proteins by PALM co-localisation that is new, interesting and potentially very useful for identifying oligomerization states of unknown proteins in native cells. While the authors develop a basic theory and apply the method to a set of candidate proteins with solid results, their implementation could be refined and improved, which would help to better delineate the full scope and the limitations of their method. An open-source software tool would help other researchers to adopt this analysis. The work is relevant for cell biologists, especially those studying membrane proteins.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript reports the cryoEM structure of somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2) bound to its agonist SST-14 and a heterotrimeric G protein. In addition to presenting the structure itself, the authors include discussion and analysis of ligand recognition and subtype specificity, guided by AlphaFold2 modeling of other somatostatin receptor subtypes. Additional functional data to test the importance of proposed receptor-ligand contacts will be critical to understanding which of the features directly contribute to subtype specificity. Because somatostatin signaling is important in endocrine biology, including in diseases such as acromegaly and some cancers, the work should in principle be of interest to a broad audience.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This is a tour de force for mutagenesis and analysis of an ion channel protein, using a straightforward method the authors have developed for the comprehensive functional analysis of a deep mutational library. The approach introduced here will not only be of broad interest to the ion channel community, but it will also serve as a roadmap for performing similar studies on other proteins. The authors demonstrate the usefulness of this method by defining the functional domains of Kir2.1, thereby rediscovering known disease causing mutants, and highlighting a number of mutations with similar phenotypes that may also result in disease phenotypes.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This is an interesting quantitative study of the anatomical connections of a region of prefrontal cortex that has often been overlooked - the Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex. The idea that this is a special region that is different to both the rest of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and probably the rest of orbitofrontal cortex is important because it helps us understand some otherwise puzzling results. The quantitative analysis of connections is an unusual strength of the study as is the comparison of tracer data in macaques, fMRI connectivity data in macaques, and human fMRI connectivity data.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Neurons use activity-responsive gene programs to shape cell specific identity and respond appropriately to environmental stimuli. By combining elegant protein degradation and cell-specific knockout approaches with transcriptional profiling and chromatin structure analysis, this manuscript delineates the contributions of cohesin (a key protein responsible for genome structure and organization), in activity-dependent gene expression programs and stimulus-dependent chromatin reorganization. These results demonstrate that cohesin is required for full expression of key genes required for the maturation and activation of cortical excitatory neurons, and reveal a tight correlation between cohesin effects and the genomic distance of higher order chromatin loops.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The research detailed in this manuscript investigates whether young chicks represent the absence of objects. This work is important to multiple fields of inquiry such as ethology and neuroscience, and is the first time this ability has been studied spontaneously in such a population, as opposed to after many trials of experience. The data effectively support most of the conclusions, though a few elements need clarification, especially in regards to possible sex-dependent representations of absence.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript will be of broad interest to readers interested in understanding characteristics of variants in ongoing epidemics that lead to faster (or slower) growth rates, and will be of particular interest to those wishing to understand the factors leading to selection of SARS-CoV-2 variants. The transmission advantage of a novel strain of a pathogen depends not only on its relative transmissibility, but also on its generation time relative to other strains; the relation between transmissibility, transmission advantage and generation time changes across different phases of the epidemic, enabling statistical inferences to be made about both the transmissibility advantage and generation time of an emerging variant. The method is supported by simulation studies and applied to the Alpha and Delta SARS-CoV-2 variants to show that selection was likely driven by changes in transmissibility rather than changes in the generation time.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Three experts in the field reviewed this manuscript from slightly different perspectives. All three reviewers are generally positive about this interesting, well-presented paper and think that it leads to several advances in the field. However, the reviewers also think changes can be made that would considerably strengthen the current version and its impact. Specific modifications have been requested to improve analysis of the screening data, to discuss hits besides the mevalonate pathway that increase Streptococcus pneumoniae cell length and shape, to clarify some issues about how mevalonate depletion changes pneumococcal cell shape and peptidoglycan synthesis, and to provide more context for clomiphene potentiation of amoxicillin killing of Streptococcus pneumoniae in comparison to previously published results in Staphylococcus aureus.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This is an interesting study that reveals a completely new mechanism by which inhaled fine particles may promote lung tumor development. The authors provide direct evidence that protein corona on those foreign objects can elicit such adverse effects. Their findings highlight the importance of the corona-endowed, 'new' bioactivity of nanomaterials in vivo - and even in a particular tissue-lungs.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The manuscript reports that when lowland plants were transplanted into alpine turfs under lowland climatic conditions, they rapidly increase soil microbial decomposition of carbon stocks due to root exudates feeding the microbes. The authors conclude that when lowland plants migrate to alpine sites and these warm up, they may also cause a pulse of carbon loss from soil. An alternative explanation of their findings might be that when alpine plants are transplanted into alpine turfs under lowland climatic conditions, these are unable to increase soil microbial decomposition as much as lowland plants because the latter are better adapted to their climatic home environment.
(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 #4 agreed to share their names with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper employs sophisticated modeling of human behavior in well-controlled tasks to study how limitations of working memory constrain decision-making. Because both are key cognitive processes, that have so far largely been studied in isolation, the paper should be of broad interest to neuroscientists and psychologists. The observed working memory limitations support and extend previous findings, but some of the most interesting claims need additional support.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Soyman and colleagues investigate intensity coding for the "pain of others" in the human insula with intracranial human recordings. Additional data of a related fMRI study is analyzed and discussed in the context of the intracranial data. The paper addresses an important research question of broad interest, with extremely unusual data which is investigated in considerable detail.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this study Byazrova and colleagues provide an assessment of antibody and B cell responses in a small cohort of naïve and previously infected individuals after Sputnik V immunisation. This research will be of interest to those in the fields of vaccinology and immunology, providing some insight into B cell responses following Sputnik V vaccination.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Morozova et al. describe potential mechanisms contributing to the flexibility of burst patterns and dynamic responses to perturbations within an isolated reciprocally inhibitory circuit derived from the stomatogastric ganglion of the crab. The authors use the dynamic clamp approach to study the interactions between pharmacologically isolated, intrinsically silent gastric mill neurons, an approach pioneered by Andrew Sharp in the 1990s. The authors demonstrate that the mechanisms of switching between components of the reciprocally organized half-center network are not fixed and may shift to favor a release or escape mechanism depending on factors such as the synaptic threshold, Ih conductance, and synaptic conductance. This is a fundamentally important study because reciprocally organized networks are ubiquitous and found virtually in every organism. It is assumed that this half-center-type network organization governs rhythmic activity with a wide range of functions.
(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. Reviewers #1, #2 and #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors report that hyperglicemia suppresses HIF1a activity in models of diabetic nephropathy, which in turn leads to cell death by increasing mitochondrial ROS. The notion that HIF1a regulates mitochondrial respiration and thus mitochondrial ROS production is well documented in numerous systems. However, this model has not been tested in the context of diabetic nephropathy so far. The study is thus novel, informative and with interesting translational implications.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This is an interesting study of the relation between vividness of visual imagery and the pupillary light response that can result from it. It provides evidence for the absence of imagery in individuals that self-report as aphantasic. The results will likely be of interest to researchers in a range of disciplines such as psychology, neuroscience and philosophy. There were some shared concerns related to demand characteristics and eye movements, and the authors might be able to address these concerns with more data analysis and/or control experiments.
(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.”)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this paper the authors dissect the across-the-genome consequences of sexual recombination in Trypanosoma cruzi. It summarises an extensive piece of work, which includes a 5-year in vitro growing of parasites and relatively rigorous genome analyses. It will be of interest to microbiologists working on microbes with cryptic or parasexual modes of genetic exchange.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Challa and Ryu et al. systematically evaluated various combinations of ADP-ribose-binding modules to make sensors detecting poly(ADP-ribose). They developed and tested two indicator designs optimized for analyses in cell culture (dimerization-dependent GFP-based) or intact tissues (split Nano luciferase-based). Overall, with further experimental controls and quantification, this timely set of cell biology probes will be useful to study the biological functions of ADP-ribosylation in cultured cells and whole organisms.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper will be of interest to scientists studying metabolism and those interested in the evolution of genomic imprinting. The authors show how parent-of-origin effects in crosses between inbred strains of mice can arise from epistasis between imprinted and unimprinted loci. They consider scenarios for the interactions of imprinted and unimprinted genes in adipocytes.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors of this paper model the D61G mutation in the gene PTPN11 that encodes the protein-tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 in zebrafish, creating a model consistent with the human Noonan syndrome (NS), which is predisposed to a juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) and myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN)-like syndrome. The study nicely provides a new model that can be used as the basis of future studies in the field. Because the mutant variably displays phenotypes along a spectrum from NS to MPN, different researchers can choose to focus on this as they see fit.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this work, the authors study the previously reported positive association between the presence of the gut bacterium Paracoccus aminovorans and Vibrio cholerae during infection. They describe and image dual species-biofilm formed in vitro as well as enhanced V. cholerae gut colonization in the presence of P. aminovorans in a neonatal mouse model. Collectively, the authors conclude that P. aminovorans enhances biofilm formation by Vc, which could explain the increased susceptibility of P. aminovorans-containing humans in cholera endemic areas.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study investigates and characterizes the representations of actions in naturalistic movie stimuli. The combination of the analytical techniques and stimulus domain make the paper likely to be of broad interest to scientists interested in action representation amidst complex sequences. This paper will potentially broaden our understanding of visual action representation and the extraction of such information in natural settings, but clarification of the analyses and aspects of the data are required to strengthen the claims.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study is of interest to researchers who study cell migration and or muscle development. It builds upon prior analysis of Double Anal fin (Da) mutants by using detailed bioinformatic and time-lapse analysis to explain dorsal somite extension and find evidence that dorsal muscle morphogenesis is actively guided, rather than being passively shaped by physical constraints alone. This work illustrates the dynamic behaviors of dorsal somitic cells, which form elaborate protrusions, delaminate from their parent somite, and bridge the gap between opposing epaxial myotomes. Looking downstream of Da, they show that Wnt signaling is central to dorsal extension of the epaxial myotome in medaka and propose that similar functions may shape the dorsal musculature across vertebrates.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Manipulations of sex hormones in animals in ecologically relevant environments usually involve long-term manipulations using chronic implants or injections of esterified steroids with longer half-lives than the endogenous hormones. This has been done in line with the prevailing idea of the long-lasting effects of steroids mediated by the transcritpional actions of their liganded receptors. The specific novelty of this study lies in the transiency of hormone availability (testosterone's half-life is about 2 hours). This might suggest that the observed effects depend on a mode of action different from the mode of action during chronic sex hormone exposure. It should also be noted that any study in natural settings is significantly more difficult to perform than in the lab. However, as all brain/hormonal functions evolved in natural environments, these studies are absolutely crucial to understand the function of the respective systems.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
A member of a large class of metalloproteases with representatives in mammals as well as bacteria, its status as a multipass membrane protein has made illuminating the molecular basis of SpoIVFB inhibition challenging. In this study, Olenic and colleagues combine genetics, cross-linking, and co-evolutionary analysis to develop a structural model of interaction between SpoIVFB and its inhibitors SpoIVFA and BofA. Given the conservation and importance of this family of metalloproteases, this work should have broad impact, influencing our understanding of the regulation of this class of proteins across the tree of life.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study covers a series of experiments designed to characterize conditioned pain processing using a novel animal model in which mechanical nociception (von Frey test) is assessed following exposure to contextual cues that have been paired with visceral pain (intraperitoneal acid injection). These experiments address an important topic from a translational perspective, both because learning is an important but understudied contributor to the human pain experience and because there is evidence for sex differences in human pain expression. The results reveal that such cues exert complex, dose- and sex-dependent effects on pain processing that will be of broad interest to researchers across fields of associative learning, neuroscience, and pain research.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study will be of interest for the fields of T cell immunology and computational biology. It represents a careful descriptive study of the T cell repertoires of young and old mice, quantifying the relationships between naive, regulatory, effector and memory subsets. It represents a first step and would benefit from additional analyses and interpretations.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors investigate the mechanisms underlying the regulation of microtubule dynamics and length regulation in cells. Understanding how microtubule-binding proteins synergize to affect microtubule behavior is important, and resolving the seemingly contradictory effects of Kif18a on microtubules in mitotic cells vs. in vitro microtubule assays is a worthy endeavor. A major conclusion is that on dynamic microtubules, combining EB3, MCAK, and Kif18b increases microtubule catastrophe compared to other single or double protein combinations. This is in principle a new and interesting finding, but additional evidence would help to more strongly support this conclusion.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The manuscript by Zhang et al. describes the combined use of a new surgical procedure and therapeutic hypothermia to deliver local therapy to the optic nerve in large mammals. In addition, the work describes a novel computer program that can optimize surgical approaches to access the optic nerve endonasally by using anatomical parameters obtained by tomography scan. The study represents a significant step forward in the use of therapeutic hypothermia in the treatment of ocular conditions and is of interest to neurobiologists studying therapeutic interventions for acute trauma to the optic nerves or to other regions of the central nervous 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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study carefully quantifies microtubule dynamics during anaphase in the fission yeast S. pombe. The high quality data revealed two new observations: that microtubule rescue occurs preferentially at the edge of the midzone and that microtubule growth speed decreases when the nuclear membrane wraps around the spindle midzone in late anaphase. This sheds new light on the interplay between the nuclear membrane and the midspindle in closed mitosis, and the study will be of interest to cell biologists studying spindle dynamics and mitosis.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper extends our understanding of blood flow regulation in the ischemic kidney and adds to a growing body of literature on the role played by pericyte contraction in the aftermath of ischemia/reperfusion (much of it based on the CNS microvasculature), and the potential of capillary pericytes as therapeutic targets in mitigating ischemia/reperfusion injury. This is an important study which should be of interest to a wide variety of investigators in vascular and renal 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. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors evaluate a novel crowd-sourcing method to interpret minimum inhibitory concentrations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. To provide valuable test results without the need for available expert mycobacteriologists, the authors demonstrate that when presented appropriately, 11-17 interpretations by lay interpreters can provide reproducible results for most tuberculosis drugs. This analysis demonstrates that among those samples that can be reliably interpreted by automated detection software, lay interpretation provides a potential alternative means to provide a timely confirmatory read. The work will be of interest to bacteriologists and those with an interest in antimicrobial resistance.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The study addressed interactions between two key striatal transmitters, dopamine and acetylcholine during an appetitive behavioral task. Helping to reconcile conflicting evidence in the literature, the data show that changes in both transmitters are correlated and that decreases in acetylcholine with reward and reward cues is only partially a consequence of elevated dopamine release acting at D2 dopamine receptors on striatal cholinergic interneurons. The behavioral significance of this correlation remains to be fully clarified. This manuscript will be of interest to those interested in the neural correlates of appetitive behavior and dopamine and striatal function.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper addresses a fundamental cell biological question - the de-novo development of an apical membrane during the integration of an initially unpolarized cell, the enterocyst, into an an existing epithelium, the Drosophila midgut. The data will be of interest to a wide range of researchers including those in the fields of cell, development, stem cell and cancer 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. Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study reports new post-translational modifications (PTMs) to β-myosin heavy chain, using tissue samples from normal and failing human hearts. Atomistic simulations of myosin molecular dynamics suggest that these PTMs lead to meaningful alterations in structure, solvent exposure, and dynamics of certain regions of the protein. These data and simulations provide a foundation for further work to determine the precise functional significance of β-myosin heavy chain PTMs. The work will be of interest to cell biologists and cardiologists.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This article is dealing with the unmet need to generate a machine-learning approach for the early and accurate estimation of the risk among COVID-19 admission. The presented data generate confidence on the validity since they have been developed in a vast number of patients and they are validated in cohorts from different geographical regions.
(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 name with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This elegantly performed systems-genetics paper on the predicted human skeletal muscle secretome highlights the importance of sex and sex hormones in regulating myokine expression and predicted cross-tissue effects. Male and female mice lacking estrogen receptor α (Esr1) were used to understand how estrogen signalling affects myokine genes expression. The methods used and data presented in this manuscript can serve as an important resource for other researchers in the field.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper will be of interest to a broad audience of cell biologists and biochemists who study the cytoskeleton. It reports the development and rigorous characterization of a fully functional, fluorescently labeled version of profilin that can be used to visualize profilin's dynamic interactions in live cells. Owing to profilin's dual functions in regulating actin and microtubule assembly, this technological development will be a useful tool for a wide range of studies aimed at understanding the role of the cytoskeleton in driving fundamental cellular processes.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors provide compelling evidence to show that injury induces activation of glycolysis during zebrafish adult tail fin regeneration. This early activation is crucial for osteoblast dedifferentiation and proliferation, which are required for blastema formation and tail fin regeneration. However, additional data are required to support the claim of a "metabolic switch" from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis. This study will be of interest to a broad audience in the fields of regeneration and metabolic regulation of developmental processes.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The manuscript introduces a new enhancement to the dynamic clamp technique, CapClamp that, analogous to the artificial conductances of standard Dynamic Clamp, allows the experimenter to adjust the somatic time constant by setting a new membrane artificial capacitance independent of any change in input resistance. The technique is shown to have application for studying temporal integration, energetic costs of spiking and bifurcations. The technique is rigorously tested in model and physiological application and is robust when sampling frequency of the feedback (clamp) loop is fast compared to the fastest electrical event in a neuron (usually action potentials), and for vertebrate neurons it should be 20KHz or faster and yet faster for fast spiking neurons.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript is of significant interest to readers in the field of neural control of breathing and for researches interested in the generation of biological rhythms in general. The study assembles a sophisticated computational modelling approach to test long-standing theories and emerging views in neural control of breathing and more specifically on biophysical mechanisms of burstlet generation in the respiratory network (the preBötzinger complex network). This work is an important contribution to a better understanding of the respiratory rhythm generation, will help validate (or not) running hypotheses and will guide future experiments.
(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 names with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Berra and colleagues revisit several mechanistic questions mainly centered on the accessory helix of mouse complexin (mCpx) and its contribution to the 'fusion clamp' property of mCpx whereby mCpx-SNARE interactions prevent full assembly and subsequent membrane fusion. This clamping function is believed to help generate a metastable pool of release-ready vesicles at the synapse, and it has been studied in a wide variety of systems including mouse, fly, worm, squid, fish, and diverse in vitro biochemical preps over the past ~ 20 years. The authors derive several conclusions from their efforts, but most relevant is a reiteration of a previous proposal that the accessory helix region of mCpx stabilizes a pre-fusion clamped state via interactions with SNAREs.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors have produced a rich dataset that illuminates how root-associated bacteria differ among diverse maize lines, under low and high nitrogen treatment. The authors make use of this dataset to describe interesting patterns related to the genetic architecture of factors associated with maize rhizosphere microbiome assembly, although it is not clear yet whether the microbiome is an agent of natural selection in this case, or whether other selective forces shape maize roots in a manner that in turn affect smicrobiome recruitment. In addition to interesting insights reported in the present manuscript, these data are likely to be used for and/or compared to, in many future studies.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this study, the authors attempted to further examine the existence of a potential direct projection from the anterior cingulate cortex to the hippocampus which has important functional implication but is currently supported by only one major publication in the literature. They used distinct anterograde et retrograde viral tracing strategies and analyzed the data available in the Allen atlas but found no evidence in support of the existence of this connection.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This work convincingly provides important novel mechanisms on how microglial states are shaped during retinal development, an important question that should be of interest for a broad readership.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Han et al. report the discovery of an amino acid transporter that is required locally at axon terminals of fly photoreceptors neurons for the uptake of histidine, the precursor of the neurotransmitter histamine. This function is required for transmitter synthesis locally and neurotransmission. The work exemplifies a specialized model for local monoamine transmitter synthesis at synapses in the nervous system, the generality of which for other monoamine systems remains to be tested.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors successfully demonstrated the immunogenic effects of a new dendritic cell-based vaccine on AML with NPM1 mutation. Using a transgenic mouse model that carries human NPM1 mutation and an elegant bone marrow chimera approach, they showed that the tumor growth is reduced by the vaccine. Furthermore, they provided evidence for increased CD8+ T cell presence and activity at the tumor site and increased anti-NPMc antibody levels in the serum. These findings are timely and novel and the new methods presented here would be of interest to a broad audience from immunology, inflammation and cancer fields.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The SNX-BAR family of sorting nexins are a diverse group of dimeric proteins that form tubules from endosomal membranes where they also select protein cargoes for incorporation into these transport carriers. The authors of this manuscript describe a new SNX-BAR complex in budding yeast, named the VINE complex, that uniquely harbors a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) domain for Rab5-related small GTP-binding proteins. The author's data implicate VINE in endosomal membrane remodeling events and the sorting of a vacuolar hydrolase receptor. The paper would be strengthened by some additional quantifications and by taking advantage of new modeling opportunities.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study describes a novel "maturation phase transient reprogramming" (MPTR) method to restore the epigenome of cells to a more youthful state. The authors demonstrate the effectiveness of the method to reverse several age-related changes including remodeling of the transcriptome. The method appears to peform favorably compared to other transient reprogramming protocols, and the study will be of interest to developmental biologists as well as researchers that study ageing.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Oxygen consumption in mitochondria by the respiratory chain leads to a major source of reactive oxygen species, and mitochondrial glutathione is an important line of defence against free radical production. The ABC transporter Atm3 exports oxidized glutathione from the mitochondria to help maintain a suitable reducing environment. Here, the authors have determined structure of Atm3 in multiple conformations by single-particle cryo EM and have revealed new insights into local changes coupled to substrate export of oxidised glutathione and ABC exporters in general. The work will be of interest to the mitochondrial biology and transporter communities.
(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.)
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- Feb 2022
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Pan et al investigated associations of self-reported egg consumption with plasma metabolic markers and these plasma metabolic markers with the risk of cardiovascular diseases. In general there was some impact on metabolic markers which could protect against CVD. The paper will interest scientists in the field of nutritional epidemiology.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The paper unequivocally proves that the key function of proline during bone formation is being incorporated into proline-enriched proteins rather than contributing to other metabolic processes.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Urbanization has broad impacts for macroecology but its consequences for wildlife microbial ecology remain unclear. Dillard et al. hypothesize that humans living in an urban setting may transfer their microbes to wildlife with potential adverse effects. They analyze 16S rRNA gene sequencing data from humans, crested anoles, and coyotes, leading to the discovery of multiple bacteria that fit the pattern of urbanization and inter-species transfer.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The gut of honeybees is colonized with stable community of bacterial symbionts. The molecular mechanisms involved in this stable associations are poorly understood. Here Schmidt et. al. focused on the identification of bacterial factors required for the colonization of the bee gut symbiont Frischella perrara. They identified a major regulator involved in controlling the expression of multiple colonization factors in F. perrara which include factors that are either required for the induction of a distinct scab phenotype upon gut colonization, or are involved in promoting colonization through adhesin or the production of secondary metabolites. The work is of potential interest for researchers in the field of host-microbe interactions and symbiosis, and for the study of bee health. The valuable integration of different techniques used in this study and rigor of the experiments lead to solid data and justified conclusions.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study is a meta-analysis of previously reported studies on G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) coupling to G proteins. Three separate data sets that describe the coupling of members of the superfamily of non-sensory GPCRs (~200 genes) to the large family of G protein alpha subunits (~20 genes). The authors try to arrive at a consensus for receptor-G protein coupling from the three data sets, as well as identify and highlight differences or incongruencies. Compiling these vast data sets into a unified format will be extremely useful for investigators to understand receptor and effector relationships. The meta-analysis will help to deconvolute the complex physiology and pharmacology underlying hormone or drug actions acting on receptor superfamilies.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper is the first to characterize overdispersion of COVID-19 spread in schools using crowdsourcing . It has the potential to serve as a useful platform for assessing preventative measures in schools but needs more clarity regarding the sensitivity of the approach to the completeness of input data, as evidence by different model conclusions when sparse data from the US is used as an input as opposed to the more detailed Canadian data.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
A challenge to understanding the physiology and therapeutic potential of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is to understand the range of their couplings to different G proteins. Avet et al developed of a novel set of biosensors to assess the coupling specificity of 100 therapeutically relevant G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to various G protein isoforms and arrestins. The novel screen and results obtained with reference ligands will have broad use for researchers studying GPCRs, potentially impacting discovery of new physiological pathways, understanding adverse effects of currently marketed therapeutics, and discovery of novel, safer therapeutics.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Protein kinase A phosphorylation of phospholamban (PLN) is part of the "fight or flight" response, which ultimately increases the force of cardiac contraction. Mutations in PLN have been linked to familial dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Crystal structures of wild-type and mutant PLN in complex with the PKA catalytic domain provide insights into both the nature of the complex, and potential mechanisms by which DCM mutations may cause disease. This paper is of interest to scientists interested in the mechanism of substrate recruitment by protein kinases, and particularly those who have an interest in understanding the mechanism of mutations associated with dilated cardiomyopathy.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript describes a model of Ewing sarcoma , which represents an improvement upon previous zebrafish sarcoma models and the data suggest that the methods employed yield tumours that resemble human disease. This new model may be used to better understand sarcoma progression so that new therapeutic targets may be realised.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Wang et al. adapt a new statistical framework for a multi-site multi-year data set to investigate the effects of environmental variables on the temporal stability of plant communities and biomass productivity in Chinese grassland communities. This new framework may well turn out to be one that the larger ecological and ecosystem academic communities, interested in temporal changes of ecological processes across large spatial scales, have been looking for.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors demonstrate a molecular mechanism responsible for the rewiring of stroma cells that makes them supportive of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cells. Understanding metabolic interactions between leukaemia cells and the bone marrow microenvironment may provide new targets for leukaemia treatments. It has already been shown that the inhibition of gap junctions reduces AML growth in vivo, and here the authors provide evidence for a potential mechanism explaining that finding. The work will be very interesting for those working in the fields of hematopoiesis, leukemia (especially AML), cancer metabolism and cancer microenvironment.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript describes pioneering work providing detailed description of iPS-derived muscle fiber differentiation in culture. It demonstrates that muscle fibers show self-organising capacities in vitro and form bundles with identified attachment points; this self-organisation generates internal tension within myofibers. Overall, this study suggests that tension drives sarcomerogenesis in multi fibrillar vertebrate muscles and will be of interest to researchers in the muscle field and also biophysicists interested in collective cell behaviour.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript is of interest to readers in the field of microbiology and antimicrobial resistance. It reports that genetically identical antibiotic-sensitive bacteria can escape killing upon exposure to an otherwise lethal concentration of antibiotics because they have a low ATP level. The authors further attempt to demonstrate that variation in the level of expression of some genes in energy-generating metabolic pathways allows for a wide range of ATP levels among the cells in a population, thus generating a subpopulation with low ATP levels that can survive antibiotic exposure.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper uses single-cell genomics to examine the heterogeneity of virus-specific CD4 T cells over time in both acute and chronic viral infection. Further, the authors build a comprehensive atlas of the transcriptional evolution of virus-specific CD4 T cell responses that could be used as a reference tool to interpret other datasets. This work characterizes how the antiviral CD4 T cell transcriptional landscape changes with time and will be of broad interest to those that study acute and chronic CD4 T cell responses.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
How biological patterns such as concentration gradient scale with the size of the cell or organism is a long-standing question in developmental and cell biology. In this study, Datta et al show theoretically that directed membrane transport of biomolecules and their release at the cell pole results in a cytoplasmic gradient that scales with cell size if two requirements are met: the cell grows while maintaining its spheroid proportions, (i.e. not by elongation), and the binding of the cytoplasmic fraction of the biomolecule to the membrane should be close to irreversible. A strength of this manuscript is that it invokes a realistic cellular mechanism that could be achieved through several biochemical implementations and can inspire experimental studies. Stronger biological examples and a deeper search in the literature or change in some of the simulation parameters would improve the study, and give the "impetus for experiments" the authors wish to provide.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The manuscript provides strong support for the concept that oligodendrocyte alterations contribute to neurological disorders that were previous thought to be primarily cell autonomous to neurons. The work is very well done, the results presented are clear and convincing, and the discussion is reasonable and interesting. The study will have considerable impact on the assessment of various neurodegenerative disorders with TDP-43 alterations.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The manuscript describes the presence and genetic control of endocardial cell protrusions in zebrafish hearts that resemble endocardial sprouts recently described in the mouse heart, and which appear necessary for the process of trabeculation, whereby chamber cardiomyocytes undergo staged morphogenesis to form a spongy inner layer. This manuscript is of broad interest to readers who study cardiogenesis and developmental biology. This first formal dissection of endocardial protrusions in zebrafish hearts describes how they anchor to cardiomyocytes, and how they participate in signaling pathways involved in trabeculation. The work combines elegant zebrafish reporters and high-quality imaging, as well as mutant lines and pathway inhibitors to provide key findings of how mutual regulation between the myocardium and the endocardium contribute to understanding of mechanisms underlying organ development.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript explores how microbial foraging strategies contribute to species coexistence in aquatic environments, and will be of interest to microbial ecologists and theoretical ecologists. Using mathematical modeling, the authors demonstrate that differences in particle detachment rates across bacterial species can promote coexistence. Additional explanation and documentation of methods, along with a discussion of the generality of the results, would strengthen the manuscript and ensure reproducibility.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:<br /> <br /> This manuscript will be of interest to those studying gene transcription and its regulation by co-activator complexes in metazoans. The identification of the large TRAPP subunit shared between two conserved histone modification complexes as a negative regulator of the interferon type I pathway in colorectal cancer cell line provides novel insights into the functions of this TRAPP subunit, which was previously known only for this positive effects on gene transcription.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript will be of interest to readers in the field of microRNA (miRNA) biology, particularly those interested in miRNA targeting. The authors interrogated non-canonical miRNA target recognition to a depth vastly exceeding any study to date. The results revealed unexpected, sequence-specific diversity in miRNA-targeting modes, providing new insights relevant for improved target prediction.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript focuses on a missense mutation of Nucleoporin107 (Nup107) gene, which encodes a nuclear pore complex protein. Phenotypic analyses demonstrate similar phenotypes compared to syndromes identified in human XX-ovarian-dysgenesis patients. Further RNA-seq analyses revealed potential targets of Nup107, through which the authors identified the doublesex (dsx) gene as a critical target with functional readouts. Both Nup107 and Dsx act in the somatic gonadal cells to regulate germ cell function, and have connections with the BMP signaling pathway. This study provides a great example to use Drosophila as a model organism to study the molecular and cellular mechanisms of a known human disease and should be of general interest.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript will be of broad interest for biologists, in particular developmental biologists and ecologists, as it addresses essential questions on the interaction between organisms and their environment. How organisms manage to maintain a stable phenotype (robustness) or how they adjust their phenotype (plasticity) in response to environmental variations is a major issue. In this article, the authors show that the hormone ecdysone is involved in Drosophila in the plasticity of wing size and the robustness of wing pattern.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript would be interesting for cell biologists and biophysicists studying nuclear organization and mechanics. The work provides new insights into how pulling forces from the cell cortex influence the dynamics of nuclear rupture during mitosis.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This is interesting and potentially impactful work uncovering mechanisms of stem cell exhaustion and impaired self-renewal that precede inflammatory phenotypes in Alzheimer's disease. The authors describe a mechanism converging on BMP signaling that may represent an early therapeutic target. The reviewers of this manuscript were excited about the potential impact but had some concerns which, if addressed, will strengthen the conclusions reached in this work.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The manuscript dives into how protein structure/function robustness to mutation or polymorphism relates across evolutionary distance. The work indicates that evolutionarily related genes will have different shapes of robustness to variation, and that this will not necessarily track with phylogenetic relationships. The conclusions have potential ramifications for protein engineering, protein structure as well as population genetics and phylogenetics.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Single-cell RNA sequencing allows us to quantify variability of gene expression patterns within a population, and thus devise patterns with prognostic, diagnostic and predictive potential, called "gene expression signatures". Here, Noureen and collaborators benchmark four methods used for identifying these gene expression signatures, and evaluate their performance at overcoming a number of analytical challenges. They conclude that caution should be exercised when using bulk sample-based methods in single-cell data analyses, and cellular contexts should be taken into consideration. With strengthening of some statistical and methodological aspects to support the validity of the conclusions, this paper will be an informative and potentially valuable addition to the literature.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The paper makes the provocative claim that SARS-CoV-2 Nsp14 is the key protein that mediates the effects of viral infection on the host cell transcriptome. The current evidence for this claim is good, but the paper would benefit from a few additional experiments. If confirmed by these experiments, the conclusion is unexpected and important, especially in these COVID times.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation summary:
This paper documents a novel aspect of how T cell activation is regulated by the PTPN22 phosphatase, namely reversible oxidation which transiently reduces the activity of PTPN22 to allow the T cell antigen receptor to drive a strong activation signal. This compelling work adds to our understanding of how an immune response is initiated and provides new insights that could be exploited for the development of new drugs to treat immune-mediated diseases.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript describes timely work on the structural dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that will be of importance to a broad range of scientists with interests in the biology of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 and the function of anti-COVID-19 vaccines and antibodies as well as to molecular biophysicists generally interested in single-molecule imaging, protein dynamics, allostery, and molecular mechanisms. The experiments were very well-designed, controlled, and executed, and the data are of very high quality. Nonetheless, although the conclusions seem to be generally supported by the data and consistent with expectations based on previous findings, there are some concerns regarding the modeling and error analysis of some of the data.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Tubulin mutations underlie a number of neurodevelopmental diseases, but their effect on microtubule function remains largely unknown. Using a combination of approaches and model systems, the authors provide evidence that the disease-associated alpha-tubulin mutations V409A and V409I may perturb microtubule polymerization. In addition, the mutations in alpha tubulin directly impact Tumor Overexpressed Gene domain proteins from recruiting tubulins to regulate microtubule dynamics. This study demonstrates a link between regulators of microtubule dynamics and disease pathogenesis. It will be of interest to the cytoskeleton and neurobiology fields.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study is aimed to determine whether infection or vaccination affects activation of pre-existing cross-reactive memory B cells. The data are clear and have implications for further development of new-generation of vaccines.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors test the hypothesis that components of the TOM complex regulate efficient mitochondrial biogenesis by coordinating the synthesis (via controlling transcription of the corresponding RNAs) of mitochondrial proteins with the rate of mitochondrial protein import. It has previously been established that failure to import mitochondrial proteins results in the accumulation of toxic protein aggregates in the cytosol. The authors conclude that Tom70 fulfills this role and find that Tom70 expression declines as cells age, which contributes to age-associated mitochondrial dysfunction.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors quantified sleep oscillations and their coordination in young people with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome and their siblings. This was done to identify potential biomarkers of later neurodevelopmental diagnoses in 22q11.2DS. The core findings demonstrate that sleep rhythms in 22q11.2DS are altered in comparison to the control group, as is their relationship with the behavioural expressions of memory consolidation.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript will be of interest to the motor neuroscience, movement disorder, human electrophysiology, and brain computer interface communities. It examines the effectiveness of signals recorded from the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and along sensorimotor regions of the cortex for decoding simple movements in patients with Parkinson's disease. Additionally, a relationship between symptom severity and decoding performance is identified. With the recent advent of implantable closed-loop stimulators for neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease, this paper addresses current knowledge gaps that may inform both surgical and engineering considerations for optimizing these new types of therapies.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Liao et al. aim to improve our understanding of the genetic networks that underlie mouse male gonadogenesis and germ cell maturation during the fetal to neonatal transition. This goal was pursued by performing scATACseq on multiple timepoints, followed by definition of cell types and identification of potential transcription factors that could control the progress of differentiation. This is an exciting paper that may have far-reaching implications in the field of reproductive biology and male infertility, but additional validation is needed to confirm the newly identified cell populations.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript will be of interest people studying mechanosensation (particularly touch and pain sensation) and ion channels. The authors use a combination of electrophysiology and imaging to provide evidence that the force-gated ion channel Piezo2 is negatively regulation by the enzyme Tmem120A/Tacan. The results from the heterologous expression aspects of study are relatively robust and may have potential impact on the field. The physiological relevance of these findings await further investigation.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript examines how retinoid acid signaling controls the timing of neural crest production in avian embryos. The authors propose that local production of retinoid acid signaling activates the expression of BMP inhibitors in the dorsal neural tube. Disruption of BMP signaling results in the termination of neural crest migration and the establishment of the definite neural plate.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper aims to address the current gap in the efficient analysis of large-scale multiparameter flow cytometry and other datasets. The authors offer a software toolkit with an efficient algorithm for comparing numerous samples at once. The study is well presented and is relevant to single cell analysis research.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript addresses the cellular and dendritic physiology of cholinergic interneurons in the striatum. The authors use a creative integration of electrophysiology and optical methods to investigate this distinctive cell type, which is critically important at the intersection of motivated behavior and disease. They uncover a mechanism through which two separate active conductances - the hyperpolarization-activated h-current (HCN) and the persistent sodium current (NaP) - act in concert to selectively boost synaptic input from the thalamus onto proximal dendrites of cholinergic interneurons.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This work will be of interest to researchers seeking new ways to target malaria parasites. The work provides insight into the energy requirements of parasites during the first day of their two-day life cycle, a period during which they are significantly resistant to a wide variety of antimalarial drugs, and identifies an essential enzyme that could be targeted in early-stage parasites. The study shows this protein is necessary for normal development and growth of parasites in red blood cells.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study uses long-read sequencing to investigate the origin of spontaneous petite mutants in S. cerevisiae. The results illustrate how the S. cerevisiae mitochondrial genome is prone to recombination events that lead to the formation of complex concatemers of fragments of the mitochondrial DNA that contain a high density of replication origins and, as a result, may outcompete the full mitochondrial genome. Apart from confirming existing hypotheses about the nature of petite mutants and revealing the structural diversity of rho-mitochondrial DNA, the results also allow drawing parallels to the origins of mitochondrial mutations in other organisms.
(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 name with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors demonstrate that patients carrying a gain-of-function S218L mutation in CACNA1A exhibit a gene-dosage-dependent increase in the susceptibility to cortical spreading depression (CSD), seizure activity and brain edema formation following TBI compared with wild-type (WT) mice or mice carrying the milder R192Q mutation. This paper will be of considerable interest to familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) sufferers who experience traumatic brain injury (and their physicians), as well researchers with an interest in the spectrum and phenotypic consequences of mutations in the voltage-gated, P/Q-type Ca2+ channel, CACNA1A.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The phenomena of inter brain synchrony is fascinating and has been observed in a variety of situations across different mammalian species. It has also been proposed to play a critical role in certain social behaviors. Here, the authors report that brain activity across two interacting bats display not only similarities but also important differences.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors investigated Atmospheric Particulate Matter (PM) , a mimetic of current air pollution and how it affects myelination in the central nervous system (CNS) using an animal model of demyelination. They showed that the PM caused changes in myelination that associated with microglial activation and markers of inflammation. In vitro modeling indicates PM can activate microglial via the TLR4/NFkB signaling pathway.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors make a compelling case for a special type of potassium channel (Kv3.3) in the control of the presynaptic AP spike waveforms. Importantly, mice that lack Kv3.3 showed auditory response deficits, including increases in pre-synaptic AP halfwidth, AP latency, AP jitter and spontaneous activity. The in vivo recordings are impressive. The study contains an extensive data set and makes a compelling argument for the uniquely important role for Kv3.3 in synaptic transmission. Overall, the findings will significantly advance our understanding of the calyx of Held and the neural circuit of sound processing, as well as the functions of Kv3 channels.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors describe the hei-tag, which, when added to a genome editing enzyme, results in increased editing rates in fish embryos and mammalian cell culture. The hei-tag tool could provide a valuable alternative that can potentially boost genome editing efficiency in different species and systems. The wider applicability of this approach still requires further investigation, since the improvement of editing efficiency is so far supported by experimental data on only a few targets. It would also be important to learn how the authors' design decisions affect activity, especially when benchmarked against current state-of-art genome editing tools.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The work provides new insight into the potential role of 5hmc DNA in specific transcriptional processes. This implies that 5hmC containing DNA has specific epigenetic features beyond being a simple intermediate in interconversion between repressive 5mC and active C DNA. This work has the merit to focus the attention on a rare DNA modification, helping defining its functions, starting from in vitro evidence and extending these findings in cellular context. There are some weaknesses in the presentation of the data, the controls and the statistical analyses.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Recently liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) has emerged as a mechanism by which membraneless compartments are formed inside the cells to compartmentalize biomolecules. In this paper, the authors show that the P protein from a plant-infecting negative sense RNA virus undergoes LLPS to promote virus replication. The host casein kinase 1 phosphorylates P protein and inhibits phase separation and viral replication. This paper will be of interest to virologists and researchers who study LLPS.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript will be of interest to oncologists, cardiologists, cardio-oncologists, and primary care providers who treat patients with breast cancer and adds to the growing body of literature that identifies the increased risk for cardiotoxicity associated with breast cancer treatment and does so at the general population level. The results of this study are interesting and supported by the data provided, however they must be interpreted with caution as the database utilized includes intended treatment regimens (chemotherapy, radiotherapy) rather than the confirmed treatments patients received.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
FBXW7 is a CRL controlling the abundance of numerous transcription factors through targeted degradation. The authors use isogenic cancer and normal cell lines that differ only in the functional status of FBXW7 to examine the genome-wide effects of FBXW7. The authors demonstrate that null and missense mutations have similar large-scale effects on gene expression and chromatin modification status of many loci at intergenic and intronic regions, but that there are substantial differences in affected loci between the mutant backgrounds. This study represents the first such systematic evaluation of the impact of FBXW7 functional variation on global gene expression.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper is of general interest to a broad audience of scientists working in regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, disease modelling, and stem cell fields. It reveals organ fibroblast heterogeneity and shows that the organ-specific identity is preserved in vitro and during ectopic transplantation in vivo. The right choice of fibroblasts might therefore be critical in the fields mentioned above.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper will be of broad interest to microbiologists interested in gene expression noise and/or metabolic interactions in microbial communities. It provides a novel hypothesis that complements existing theoretical frameworks. The hypothesis is well supported by data from a mathematical model, and it its predictions could be tested experimentally in future work.
(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.)
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript is of interest to clinicians and researchers who are involved in both placement and controlling of the accuracy of the location of deep brain stimulation electrodes. The authors present a software tool combining and correlating the documentation of intraoperative neurophysiological findings with atlas and imaging data. They also show an exemplary validation of their tool in a clinical series of 52 Parkinson disease patients who underwent DBS surgery.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript is of interest to cognitive neuroscientists working in the field of (fMRI or EEG) resting-state fluctuations. The role of these fluctuations is compellingly demonstrated in solving an existing mystery about brain variability and ageing; namely, that older adults exhibit increased behavioural variability but reduced neural variability. The work should be of interest to cognitive neuroscientists using fMRI and EEG to study neural noise and inter-individual and inter-group differences, particularly in the realm of aging and age-related disorders.
(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 name with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study describes the structures of filamentous forms of the enzyme P5CS from Drosophila, an enzyme important in the synthetic pathway for proline and ornithine. Three CryoEM experiments by the authors have resulted in structures of several apo and substrate-bound conformational states of the enzyme. The structures suggest that filamentation by P5CS may serve the purpose to facilitate the two-step enzymatic reaction by limiting the free diffusion of the reaction intermediate, the product of the first catalytic step and the substrate of the second, thereby increasing the reaction rate of the rate-limiting step (the second step) of the enzymatic reaction.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Liu et al present fascinating findings that significantly extend the understanding of molecular and cellular pathways of mechanical nociception in Drosophila larvae. This work is of very high interest to neuroscientists studying sensory function and its molecular underpinnings with implications for our understanding of acute sensation of painful stimuli. The approach and data are of very high quality and provide unprecedented insight into mechanosensory functions in an intact tissue environment.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Kafri and colleagues assess the contribution of protein degradation to the cell size-dependent accumulation of total protein. As cells get too big, the efficiency of cell growth decreases, which the authors propose is due to increased protein degradation in larger cells. This is an interesting and novel mechanism, and its discovery is potentially useful for future research on understanding and controlling cell growth, though the data could be further strengthened and clarified to support the conclusions.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a heterogeneous condition that leads to photoreceptor cell death and thus to different degree of blindness. The degeneration is often caused by mutations in genes expressed in rods but cones end up degenerating as well, although cones positioned in the periphery of the mouse retina appears to be most resistant. This study investigates the possible reasons of this resilience. Using a number of genetic approaches, the authors show that retinoic acid signaling derived from Muller glial cells located in the periphery of the mouse retina is implicated in local survival of cone photoreceptors in mouse models of RP. They further show that RA signaling is also present in the human peripheral retina and suggests that this may be relevant for future therapeutic strategies. The experimental design is excellent involving both loss- and gain-of-function genetic tools to prove the hypothesis that retinoic acid signaling is crucial for cone photoreceptor survival during Retinitis Pigmentosa in mice. Clinical significance remains to be tested, but otherwise the conclusions drawn from the data are well justified.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study investigates development of the mechanosensory organ on Drosophila notum using various genetic techniques. They combine live imaging, mathematical modelling, genetics and behavioural analysis to show that in the peripheral nervous system of Drosophila, entry of progenitor cells into mitosis is spatially and temporally controlled. This, the authors suggest ensures proper targeting of sensory neurons within the ventral nerve cord. The study will be of broad interest to those who work on developmental processes, and particularly to those interested in sense organ development.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This is a well conducted study on development of neonatal mouse pituitary using multiple ScRNA Seq and organoid culture models. Some weaknesses include accuracy of the language used, lack of data demonstrating the role of Wnt signaling, and lack of follicle-stellate markers and lack of characterization of pituitary defects in IL6 null mice.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The paper demonstrates the adaptation of speech after a single trial of perturbing the fundamental frequency of an utterance. The findings confirm existing theories of speech adaptation, but constitute an important missing piece of evidence in the current literature.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study investigates the mechanism of voltage-dependent activation of the KCNQ class of potassium channels that regulate neuronal firing, and are mutated in monogenic forms of epilepsy. This study makes an important technical step forward by reporting measurements of voltage-dependent conformational changes of KCNQ2/Kv7.2 channels, measurements which are known to be extremely difficult for this biologically important channel. Understanding these conformational changes allows the authors to investigate models of how voltage-dependent changes are coupled to opening of the channel pore, and also identify diverse mechanisms by which disease-linked mutations of KCNQ2/Kv7.2 may alter channel function.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In the present study, Bachmann and Morel et al., report a comprehensive survey of metabolic phenotypes and liver outcomes (gene expression, complex activities) in a unique subset of genetically diverse mouse strains. The authors focus on sex- and diet-dependent effects where notable differences are observed. These data will be a useful reference source for those interested in diet effects on metabolic phenotypes across various inbred mouse strains.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript aims to develop second-generation vaccines that protect against multiple SARS-CoV2 variants. The overall experimental design, the data, and the importance to the SARS-CoV2 pandemic are very nice, although some concerns are raised by the reviewers.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The paper presents the first comprehensive gene expression analysis of two species of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), an arterivirus that causes economically important diseases of pigs. By applying ribosome profiling to arterivirus-infected cells the authors discovered a substantial number of efficiently translated open reading frames in viral RNAs and obtained compelling evidence of changes in ribosome frameshifting efficiencies over the course of infection. The paper is of interest to virologists and researchers studying mRNA decoding, recoding, and translation.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Spacek et al. study the corticothalamic feedback of different visual stimuli on visual thalamus. With optogenetic suppression of visual cortex feedback and simultaneous multi-channel recordings in visual thalamus, the authors succeeded to acquire important data about this essential feedback loop in awake, behaving animals. The authors impressively show that the cortical feedback acts as a gain factor in thalamus for the transmission of signals from retina to cortex, specifically for natural scenes. These careful measurements performed in a well-defined circuit also advance our understanding of the role of feedback more generally in the brain.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Using single nucleus RNA sequencing, the authors have characterized all major cell types in the mouse iris and ciliary body, defined new types of iris stromal and sphincter cells, and shown cell-specific transcriptome responses in the resting, constricted, and dilated states and identified and validated antibodies and in situ hybridization probes for visualization of major iris cell types. This work will be a valuable reference for investigations of iris development, disease, and pharmacology.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This Tools and Resources article presents an innovative method for simultaneously stimulating and imaging two cortical layers in tandem while causing minimal damage to brain tissue. The method substantially builds on existing methods in several ways, while still pinpointing the limitations of existing methods that are overcome in this new approach. Three well-described sets of experiments demonstrate the method's reliability and versatility, and highlight its promise in tackling big questions about cortical microcircuit functions.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript will be of interest to the community of quantitative biologists aiming to understand the basic mechanisms of cell growth. By demonstrating, and then resolving, the problem that a common test for exponential growth can make exponential growth appear non-exponential, and can make linear growth appear exponential, the authors introduce valuable insights and analysis tools to this active field.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
A growing body of literature substantiates the physiological importance of the phenomenon of 'cell competition' induced by differences in the copy number of ribosomal proteins (Rp) in adjacent cells. Yet, the molecular players that effect cell competition in 'loser' cells have been elusive and poorly studied; the current study by Kiparaki et al makes significant headway in the field by demonstrating that a little known transcription factor, Xrp1, is the common effector of cell death in loser cells when competition is induced by Rp haplo-insufficiency. While differences in cellular translation levels were thought to be the main driver of cell death in loser cells, this work dissects this premise in detail to unequivocally show that in the absence of Xrp1, translation differences alone is not sufficient to induce loser cell death.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study sheds light on the formation of Prolactin/Galanin functional amyloids and their storage in secretory granules of the anterior pituitary gland. This study sharpens our understanding of the regulation of hormonal release from the pituitary gland. It will be of interest to the fields of endocrinology, neurobiology and cancer.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript reports for the first time associations between DNA methylation and gene expression in blood samples from 832 children. These associations are important for understanding the regulation of genes in the genome. The importance of this study is underlined by two surprising results: a minority of these associations are also observed in adult blood samples, and only half of the associations were with the nearest gene. These findings are critical for understanding the biological effects of DNA methylation changes caused by exposures and phenotypes.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This work describes a shallow WGS sequencing approach (<1x) for genome‐wide cell‐free DNA fragmentation analysis using non-negative matrix factorization (NMF). The concept of utilizing 'fragmentomics' as an early cancer detection tool is a subject of intense investigation and there have been multiple recent publications in the field. This work adds an interesting unsupervised 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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors combine the study of synthetic transcriptional enhancers with theoretical models to understand the role of Bicoid, Hunchback and Zelda during syncytial cycles. They conclude that Bcd exists in active and inactive forms; that Hb regulates transcription during some stage after initiation; and that an equilibrium model captures the relevant behaviors, implying energy expenditure during DNA binding/transcription interaction with RNAP is theoretically unnecessary.
(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 name with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The paper will be of interest to a broad audience of developmental biologists, as it provides evidence for a population of novel bipotent cells, which possess a signature of both muscle and connective tissue. This work implies an adjustment to our current understanding of cell fate decision in myogenesis and fibrogenesis. Combining the sophisticated lineage tracing and single-cell RNAseq analysis, the key claims of the paper are well supported.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper will be of interest to researchers who perform single-molecule fluorescence imaging experiments as well as those who want to include machine learning in their data analyses. The authors have developed a machine learning algorithm that addresses some of the data analysis challenges in the field of single-molecule fluorescence imaging. The methods are rigorously benchmarked using simulated data and tested using real data. There are some concerns whether Tapqir is general enough for use by the broader community of single-molecule fluorescence researchers.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This is an important study that comprehensively compares the activities of different base editors in both medaka and zebrafish. The authors also provide a web tool for experimental design allowing approximately 30% of known human disease associated nucleotide variants to be modeled in fish with validated editors within days following injection. While other studies have shown similar activities in zebrafish, the authors nicely demonstrate the ability to generate phenotypes using different base editors in both zebrafish and medaka that correlate with specific base changes. This gene editing system coupled with the ability to design gRNAs efficiently with a web interface will likely have a lasting impact on the field.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this manuscript, the authors provide promising results for the treatment of age-related sarcopenia with AdipoRon, a drug that targets the receptors for adiponectin. This is a well done study using an agonist (AdipoRon) involved in lipid and mitochondrial metabolism regulation to mitigate age related muscle loss in mice.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper studies spontaneous and evoked excitatory synaptic transmission in cultured hippocampal neurons using a genetically encoded fluorescent glutamate sensor. The central finding of this study is that after photobleaching, the spontaneous release of glutamate recovers rapidly, while the evoked release of glutamate recovers much more slowly. This study is potentially of very high interest to neurobiologists as there has been a long-running interest in understanding spontaneous versus evoked neurotransmitter release. Clarification of a few key technical issues central to the study is required to fully interpret the study.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Synapses convey information in the brain, including signals from the environment. The changes in the incoming signals can alter the efficacy of synaptic transmission, which in turn can be represented by the changes in synaptic structure that is particularly evident in the postsynaptic compartment called spines. This study uses a custom-built superresolution microscope to follow individual spine shape and the dynamics of the resident scaffolding protein PSD95 simultaneously, to study the effects of rearing mice in an enriched environment relative to a simple standard cage. The imaging data are of superb quality. The authors find that regardless of the rearing condition, dynamic changes in the sizes of spine head and PSD95 are detected that do not necessarily correlate with each other. Furthermore, mice reared in an enriched environment show less variable spine head size. While these findings may be of potential interest to neuroscientists studying synaptic network architecture, a clarification of the biological question being addressed, and validation of the method used to monitor PSD95, would considerably strengthen the study and enhance its overall impact.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The current study follows up on previous studies from this group, uncovering the role of olfactory signaling in the migratory locust. Specifically, it follows up on a recent report demonstrating that 4-vinylanisole serves as a locust aggregation pheromone. Here, this pheromone is also assigned an instrumental role in control and synchronization of female sexual maturation. This study will be useful for the understanding of swarming behaviour in locusts, and it will also interest those who work on behaviour and its modulation.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Koch et al. quantified the abundance of the core clock molecules and their binding affinities, thereby providing critical information for our quantitative understanding of the core transcriptional negative feedback loop of the mammalian circadian clock. Furthermore, they used mathematical modeling to incorporate the quantified information and identified the hidden role of PER:CRY complex, enhancing the mobility of BMAL1:CLOCK to new target sites. The work makes the important contribution that the displacement type repression frees CLOCK-BMAL1 to bind to other targets and activate several sets of genes. This is an important insight, but some of the data need further explanation and some statements ought to change to improve the manuscript.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper describes a two-sample randomization study of the impact of several measures of epigenetic aging acceleration (four different DNA methylation clocks) on risk for various common cancers (prostate, colon, lung, ovary, and breast). Data from large case-control cancer GWAS results are leveraged, as well as large cohort GWAS (UK Biobank and FinnGen) and GWAS of epigenetic aging. The most convincing finding is an an estimated effect of GrimAge on colon cancer risk (while results for other cancers are null or suggestive). This analysis is an important contribution as it addresses a question of substantial interest in cancer epidemiology.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper introduces a flexible microfluidics-based single-cell genomics technology that expands and improves over existing custom droplet-based scRNA-seq protocols (inDrops and Drop-seq) in important ways: better data quality, simplified workflow, high cell recovery, and flexibility towards other single-cell applications, as exemplified by HyDrop-based single-cell ATAC-seq. Its flexibility should allow the research community to develop and implement new and custom workflows on this platform, including single-cell multi-omics technologies.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Bat landings are remarkable because they are typically inverted and can involve two, three or four limbs securing the substrate, ranging from cave ceilings to leaves. How different bat species accomplish landing in such a remarkable dynamic fashion and how this ability may have evolved is a mystery. Boersma and Swartz resolved this question by studying how a wide range of bat species land in a unique biomechanics field study conducted across the world, which they complemented with a phylogenetic analysis that provides new insights into how bat landing behavior may have evolved in relation to substrate mechanics. The new evolutionary insight into how bat landing style relates to peak substrate contact force will be of interest to comparative biomechanists, movement ecologists and evolutionary biologists alike. Finally, the markedly different landing strategies for complex natural surfaces may inspire roboticists to design more effective landing and grasping solutions for complex surfaces.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Inactivation of ryanodine receptors (RyR1) is an important physiologic phenomenon disruption of which leads to skeletal muscle and heart diseases. By comparing cryoEM structures of RyR1 in closed, open, and inactivated states, this study provides structural insights into RyR1 calcium-dependent inactivation (CDI). The results rationalize how some disease-causing mutations in RyR1 eliminate CDI of the channel. The study will be of interest to ion channel structural biologists and physiologists studying skeletal muscle pathologies.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this work, del Alamo and colleagues illustrate the ability of recent Deep Learning techniques to predict diverse conformational states in proteins, as opposed to single static models reflecting individual states. Although they are limited to a small number of test cases of membrane proteins, the examples are of interest to members of the community, who are currently unable to reliably model the essential conformational changes required for function, at least until Deep Learning methods can be improved along these lines.
(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.)”
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors examined the role of height in cancer, coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease risk factors, using four different designs. They found that height increases risk of cancer and decreases risk of coronary heart disease, while the associations for the cardiovascular disease risk factors were largely null. This will be mainly of interest to epidemiologists.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper will be of interest to the cancer biology community. The study leverages high-throughput genomic and proteomic data to evaluate the role of aneuploidy on functional pathway changes in cancer.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript will be of interest to the community interested in how the coordinated activity of neurons influence both coding and behaviour. It successfully combines a sophisticated model of the visual system with data analysis to support a well-formulated hypothesis of the importance of general decoding. This is a potentially important contribution, that addresses a widely observed, but puzzling, relation between perceptual performance and noise correlations.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper describes a reprogramming platform for studying mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells that can overcome the current technology limitations in studying MAITs. With more detailed elucidation the identity of reprogrammed MAIT cells compared to endogenous MAITs, this paper will of broad interest to those studying the role of these cells in tumor immunity.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study is potentially of high significance to a broad audience of scientists working on vascular reactivity and the role of ion channels in controlling endothelial cell signaling and vessel contractility. The study uses novel Endothelial cell specific knockout mice of Polycystin-1 and 2 (PC1 and PC2) proteins to show the requirement of PC1 and PC2 in flow-mediated vasodilation, how PC-1 and PC-2 interact and that their functions are interdependent. The findings from this study are novel and significant. The animal models used in this study are state of the art and the data overall are of high quality. However, additional data are needed to support the conclusions of the study. Further, additional controls and clarifications are required.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Leptospirosis is an important zoonotic disease with a major global health impact. Although the role of rats as hosts is well known, it is less clear how important the fine-scale local and simultaneous presence of infected rats is relative to contact with water that could have been contaminated by rats elsewhere, or some time in the past. This study leverages a fine-scaled spatial dataset on human infection data and rat abundance to address this question, using a carefully developed statistical model that incorporates key variables and takes into account spatial variation. The models show that 'rattiness', a proxy for local rat abundance, might be an important driver of human infection risk, suggesting that rodent control measures might be an avenue for lowering the risk of infection with Leptospira 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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study investigated the neural tracking of music using novel methodology. The core finding was stronger neuronal entrainment to "spectral flux" than to other, more commonly tested features such as amplitude envelope. As such the study is methodologically sophisticated and provides novel insight on the neuronal mechanisms of music perception.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The de novo crystal structure of the cyanobacterial enzyme CylK, which assembles cylindrocyclophane natural products, is reported. The substrate-binding site and critical catalytic residues were identified through a combination of anion soaking, mutagenesis, molecular dynamic simulations. The insights from this work are relevant in understanding biological Friedel-Crafts alkylation and also in enzyme engineering and catalyst designs. This is a very comprehensive study that provides new mechanistic insights for this enzyme and it will be of interest to all who are involved in enzyme engineering, catalyst design, and natural product discovery.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The authors attempt to derive a threshold of genetic distance, beyond which two microbial strains diverge in their behavior in an ecological community. The question is of broad interest to ecology, especially microbial ecology. To answer this question, the authors followed the population dynamics of individual strains derived from a natural microbial community under constant environmental conditions in the lab. The statistical framework could be improved, and a more rigorous account of how the phylogenetic inference of strains and species was made should be given.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Microglia are a key cell type in the brain that clear debris following tissue injury, infections, or in neurodegenerative diseases. This role is influenced strongly by directed migration of microglia towards the regions of brain injury or infection. TREM2 is a myeloid protein expressed in microglia that has been linked to Alzheimer's Disease, but the mechanisms of how TREM2 loss-of-function mutations affect microglial function is unclear. Here, Jairaman and colleagues address this question using CRISPR-based knockout of TREM2 in human iPSC-derived microglia. The study finds that TREM2 KO microglia have greatly exaggerated ADP/ATP evoked Ca signals, which is found to arise from increases in P2Y12 and P2Y13 receptor expression and enhanced receptor-evoked Ca signaling. TREM2 KO microglia show alterations in cell migration, which include, on the one hand, increased cell motility, but also reduced turning, and importantly, markedly reduced directed migration. The experiments and analysis are carefully performed using appropriate controls and the results are novel and add to our understanding of how loss-of-function TREM2 mutations impact microglial migration and the ensuing microglia-mediated clearance of plaques and damage seen in AD. Several weaknesses cloud the interpretation, but if appropriately addressed, this could be an important paper for the field.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript is of interest to readers working on neuronal network dynamics and development. It uses an in vitro model to characterize the emergence of complex topology in neuronal circuits. The presented mathematical tools for data analysis are sophisticated and supported by numerical simulations. However, further investigation is required to delineate the specific mechanisms of network formation.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript harnesses an organoid model of human neurulation to unravel the role of the Hippo signalling pathway in the specification of the three key ectodermal cell types. The authors then investigate how these mechanisms are dysregulated in an organoid model of Huntington’s disease. The overall conclusions of this work are mostly supported by the data, though the implications of the regulatory relationships studied here to Huntington's Disease in adults would need further elucidation. With some clarifications of data acquisition and experimental logic, this work will be of broad interest to readers interested in the process of neurulation and how dysregulation of developmental mechanisms may lead to disease conditions in adulthood.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper is of interest to entomologists caring for genetic pest control or molecular biologists following synthetic biology. The authors describe a fruit fly strain that combines constructs that establish both repressible female-lethality and genetic incompatibility based on CRISPR transactivation. They show that this strain has high penetrance for these two traits and that it can suppress wild-type flies when released into cycling cage populations. The paper is thus a neat technology demonstration for a genetic control strategy possibly applicable to other insects including pests or disease vectors.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this study, the authors use structural, functional and immunopeptidomics analysis to provide insights into how HLA-C C1/C2 dimorphism impacts T cell recognition. This knowledge is important in immunotherapies targeting HLA-C-specific T cells. Overall, the experiments are well-performed, and the conclusions are largely supported by the presented data.
(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 name with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study brings new insight into how organisms maintain homeostasis under stress conditions and has implications for our understanding both development and disease. The study provides evidence that NHR-49 protects animals from hypoxia by activating autophagy, and that it acts independently of the well-described canonical HIF-1 hypoxia response. The experiments are well done, and the conclusions from the results are largely appropriate. The impact of this study will be highest in the specific field of hypoxia, with more moderate impact for wider audiences interested in understanding of how biological maintain homeostasis under stress.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This work reports several cryoEM structures of clamp loader-sliding clamp complexes, which are required for DNA replication and repair in all domains of life, and is of interest to researchers studying DNA metabolism and motor proteins. The findings provide new insight into the mechanism of clamp loading and the mechanisms by which ligands affect the conformational dynamics of motor proteins to facilitate their reactions.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This is important work trying to decipher some of the potential benefits and pathways from exercise. SCA2 was most impacted by exercise, and this correlated with Sestrin increases that proportionally led to decreases in the disease causing SCA2 protein (but not SCA3 so much). Sestrin alone was able to affect the disease severity in SCA2 flies, via the interaction with mTOR and the autophagy pathway.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this manuscript, the authors studied, using different types of microscopy, the structure and function of podosomes in primary human osteoclasts, providing interesting new insights into the organization and dynamics of the osteoclast sealing zone. The authors describe the general structure of the actin rings of osteoclasts and explore the dynamics of actin and associated proteins in the actin ring, proposing a model in which the function of podosomes during bone resorption is accomplished through the coordination of islets of the actin core and not through the global coordination of all podosome subunits that form the sealing zone. This article has the potential to generate a significant impact in the field of osteoclast biology. Notably, this study could also expand the understanding of matrix degradation/invasion in other tissues.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
How do fish suck food underwater? Using new artificial food particles that are radio opaque and naturally buoyant, Provini et al. imaged the roller-coaster ride that food particles make being sucked-in from outside to inside the fish, using 3D stereo high-speed fluoroscopy. The recordings show fish to have an intriguing ability to generate flows that center the food particles as they enter the buccal cavity that carries them from the outside to the center of the digestive tract. Remarkably, the flow patterns in the mouth that accomplish this seem to differ between the two species of fish studied, although samples sizes are small at present. These new insights will interest biologists working on suction feeding mechanisms ranging from millimeter-sized carnivorous water plants, tadpoles and fish larvae, to large fish and marine mammals, and even gigantic whales. Bioinspired engineers designing rapid underwater suction apparatuses may benefit from harnessing the new insights to elegantly center items of interest.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This work reports a genome editing strategy that enables blocking and tetracycline-controlled re-expression of fluorescently-tagged proteins from endogenous loci. The authors combine this with the photoactivatable tet-on/off system, a knocksideways approach, as well as the auxin-inducible degron system to improve spatial and temporal control of gene expression. They demonstrate the applicability of the methods by studying the localization, function and protein-expression dynamics of the Rab11-family of small GTPases. Using these approaches, the authors discover subtle differences in the localization as well as expression and degradation kinetics of Rab11a/b/Rab25. The work will be of broad interest to molecular and cell biologists.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The paper describes a novel neural-network-based strategy for imputing unmeasured genotypes, which is standard part of most association testing pipelines. The method, while computationally intensive to train, can perform the imputation quickly and conveniently, and has the potential to be a practically-appealing alternative to existing methods. However, further work will be required to realize this potential, and further data are required to support the accuracy of the method.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Neural activity measured in both electrophysiological and functional neuroimaging experiments are often temporally correlated, and the timescales of such correlation in ongoing neural activity, or intrinsic neural timescales, show a hierarchical pattern across the cortical surface. The present study establishes a close link between these timescales and functional connectivity in the brains of non-human primates, suggesting that temporal autocorrelation is an important organizing feature of large-scale neural activity.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In their study, Rivera-Luogo et al. investigate the main role of respiration in Listeria monocytogenes pathogenicity, whether it is more important for redox balance control (ratio of balance NAD+/NADH) or generation of proton motive force. Drawing on results from an elegant heterologous NOX system supporting regeneration of NAD without producing proton motive force, the authors propose that NAD regeneration, i.e. redox balance, is more important for Listeria than proton motive force as a result of respiration. This is clearly a new way of perceiving respiration that should be of interest broadly to the microbiology community and broader readership.
(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 name with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study identifies a cryptic ubiquitin-binding site on the proteasome-associated deubiquitinase UCH37 and reveals that branched ubiquitin chains are bound and processed differently from mono-ubiquitin modifications. The authors use a variety of elegant biochemical and biophysical approaches to characterize this new binding site, and the conclusions are very well supported by the experimental data. These findings provide important new insights into the cleavage of branched ubiquitin chains during protein degradation by the 26S proteasome, therefore represent a critical advance to the ubiquitin-proteasome field and our understanding of how ubiquitin signaling regulates protein turnover in the cell, and will be of interest to a broad audience.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The paper develops a mathematical approach to study the allocation of cortical area to sensory representations in the presence of resource constraints. The theory is applied to study sensory representations in the somatosensory system. This problem is largely unexplored, the results are novel and can be of interest to experimental and theoretical neuroscientists.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Windoffer et al. developed an image processing platform to quantify the 3D network of keratin filaments. The concept of this approach is based on 3D visualization of fluorescently labeled proteins using confocal scanning microscopy. The major advantage of this approach is that after initial segmentation of the network, filaments are divided into pieces for detailed analyses in silico. This approach allows for quantification of the segmented polymer and compute some of the network properties of the keratin filaments in cells, in cultured cells ex vivo and specific cell types in situ. Additionally, this approach allows nice visualization of the keratin network in 3D. The resulting contribution is original, provides insight at both a methodological and biological levels, and extends emerging information about the high resolution structure of intermediate filaments in situ using cryoelectron tomography.
(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. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #3 opted to remain anonymous to the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study investigates the role of acid sensing channels in pH homeostasis required for normal rhythmic muscle contractions in the defecation cycle of C .elegans. It is of importance to scientists with interest in ASIC channel function, pH homeostasis and the cellular mechanisms underlying generation of ultradian rhythms.
(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.)”
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Cui et al. colleagues carried out a longitudinal analysis of blood cell counts in a cohort of patients with ALS patients. They found increased numbers of neutrophils and monocytes that negatively correlated with ALSFRS-R score, but not with rate of disease progression. In addition, increased levels in NK and central memory TH2 T cells correlated with a lower risk of death, while increased levels of CD4 CD45RA effector memory and CD8 T cells were correlated with a higher risk of death. These findings have broad implications for ALS pathogenesis and the development of immune-based ALS therapies tailored to specific immune cell populations.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper reports a new species of armored dinosaur from rocks in southwestern China dated to the beginning of the Jurassic Period. This represents the first valid species of armored dinosaur from the Early Jurassic in Asia, as although the presence of armored dinosaurs in Asia has been documented for decades based on isolated jaw bones referred to Thyreophora-the group of armored dinosaurs-none that material was complete enough for diagnosis to a known or new species. This new specimen demonstrates the rapid diversification and distribution of armored dinosaurs across the northern hemisphere early in their evolutionary history.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript addresses a phenomenon of great interest to researchers in cell metabolism and cancer biology: namely, why do cancer cells often secrete high levels of lactate, despite the presence of abundant oxygen to power nutrient oxidation (Warburg effect). The authors propose that lactate export and subsequent extracellular acidification provides a selective advantage and the concomitant rise in intracellular pH is sufficient to drive flux through glycolysis, thereby sustaining the Warburg effect. This is an intriguing hypothesis that ties together many published observations, but it would require further support both from the technical and conceptual side.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Evolution of ageing remains only partially understood, and this research will be of interest to evolutionary biologists, entomologists, or anyone intrigued by senescence. The authors focus on following a large number of ant (C. obscurior) colonies and provide intriguing data in relation to age-specific mortality and reproduction. The gist of their argument is that the mortality is decreasing with age while reproduction (production of sexuals) is increasing with age, such that there is little evidence of ageing in this species. The experimental design is elegant and the data collection thorough, providing insight into the rarely observed final stages of an ant colonies life. The analyses are mostly sound, but the conclusions would benefit from a broader exploration of the structure and constraints inherent to ant societies.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript reports an open-source platform for the storage and processing of single-molecule, camera-based, imaging data. This platform would facilitate data sharing and reproducibility and would be of great interest to practitioners of single-molecule imaging experiments, both experienced and new to the field. Although the platform requires a bit more testing, troubleshooting, and documenting, it represents significant and important steps towards unifying and standardizing how the field stores and processes data and towards expanding the base of researchers who can easily employ single-molecule imaging methods.
(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.)
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- Jan 2022
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript addresses the important topic of how changes in gonadal testosterone relate to alterations in gonadal physiology. An important aspect of gonadal testosterone is that it can be an imperfect measure of symptoms related to testosterone deficiency. Therefore, biomarkers that are reflective of testosterone physiology might enable us to more deeply understand the connections between testosterone concentrations and eu- and hypogonadism. The authors performed a proteomic analysis in blood from 30 healthy males at baseline, treated with medical castration and again with testosterone replacement. Associated proteins identified using an unbiased approach were studied further in an independent cohort of 75 hypogonadal and eugonadal men with infertility. Overall, the authors found that 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase, insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 6 and fructose-bisphosphate aldolase are candidate circulating protein biomarkers. This body of work is certainly novel and should be of interest to the field in hormonal regulation and physiology.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
With the increased interest in phage therapy to treat antibiotic resistant infections, there are questions about the ease at which bacteria evolve phage resistance. To examine this, Castledine et al. cultured a set of bacterial isolates from a patient pre- and during phage therapy and also experimentally evolved a mixture of the bacterial isolates from the patient in the absence or presence of phage in vitro. Overall, the authors observed similarities between the evolutionary outcomes (genomic and phenotypic) in the patient and in vitro.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this manuscript, the authors use long-term population records for 157 mammal species to investigate how populations respond to annual weather anomalies, whether the responses are explained by species' life-history traits, and whether responses vary among species and biomes. They find that populations of shorter-lived species that have larger litter sizes respond more to weather anomalies than longer-lived species with smaller litter sizes. Their results can help understand and predict how different species may respond to climate change, and ultimately, what makes species more sensitive to climate change.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The manuscript by Wang and colleagues expands our understanding of the neural circuit mechanisms underpinning innate sexual behaviors in Drosophila. It exploits an arsenal of sophisticated tools to demonstrate that the neuropeptide Drosulfakinin (DSK) modulates female sexual receptivity via 71G01-neurons > Dsk-m-neurons > CCKLR-17D3 receptor expressing neurons. The study also introduces new transgenic tools that will be valuable for the community and will be of interest to neuroscientists exploring neuropeptide function and female sexual behavior.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this manuscript, Mozhui and colleagues used several epigenetic predictors, of which most come from other manuscript that have not yet been peer reviewed, to test how they differ between genetically diverse mice from the BXD family (by looking at metabolic traits and lifespan). They also identified several quantitative trait loci for the different predictors, using linkage analysis, which could shed some light on the underlying biology of epigenetic mouse ageing. One of the question that remains is how generalizable (some of) the findings are given that the follow-up analyses were only done using liver tissue.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Public Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript is of interest to readers in the field of metabolomics, particularly lipidomics. It measures hundreds of cord and plasma lipid species in mother-child pairs in a longitudinal fashion starting in gestation up to four years after birth. The authors perform regression analyses of cord lipid species with clinical characteristics at birth and 4 years old to support the key claims of the paper.
(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 name with the authors.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The paper by Sun et al. addresses the role of gasdermins GSDMD and GSDME in fracture healing and inflammation after injury. The study is very significant for the understanding the role of GSDMD and GSDME in bone homoeostasis and in particular fracture healing. The reported data are very strong and in support of the proposed/studied hypothesis.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This study introduces the killifish as a potential model for immune aging and immunosenescence and characterizes the changes in age-associated immune-repertoire. The authors convincingly show a decrease in diversity of the large expanded B-cell clones that is greater than small clones and a more pronounced change in the intestinal antibody repertoire with age. These results strongly suggest that killifish undergo age-related immunosenescence. Adding functional measures of the immune system would strengthen this conclusion.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Gaffield and Christie investigate how the cerebellum contributes to the reward-driven, periodic licking behavior by using electrophysiology and calcium imaging in awake mice. The authors reveal that the cerebellar Purkinje cells can signal temporal information about the onset and offset of ongoing movements: this may be potentially important in understanding the mechanism for cerebellar temporal processing. However, further data analysis is required to support the main conclusion.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript describes a tour-de-force approach to determine how the five subunits of the human tRNA ligase complex interact with each other. The authors combine X-ray crystallography of individual protein domains with combinatorial reconstitution analysis and cross-linking mass spectrometry to define and purify a minimal tRNA ligase complex core. Their reductionist and highly analytical approach produces a treasure-trove of data with exceptional quality, the true value of which will become apparent once additional structural information (from e.g. cryo-electron microscopy) becomes available, enabling independent biochemical validation.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This manuscript describes an investigation of the evolution of monostable rhodopsins, typically found in vertebrates. It highlights that single amino acid changes in vertebrate rhodopsins can create a partial bistable retinal pigment that can be photoconverted back to the ground state or it will slowly convert back to the ground state retinal isomer. The rationale for the experiments came from the discovery of a very interesting activation mechanism of the nonvisual pigment Opn5L1. This work has important implications for how our visual pigments have been optimized during evolution, and it contributes important insights into engineering bistable pigments for optogenetic applications.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Thiol agents, such as dithiothreitol (DTT), are toxic to many species, but the mechanisms of toxicity is incompletely understood. In this work, the authors use the animal C. elegans, a small worm, to propose a new mechanisms for how DTT causes organismal growth arrest. Specifically, they suggest that DTT causes reduction in the key molecule S-adenosyl methionine (SAM), which is used as a methyl donor to modify proteins, lipid, and/or other macromolecules. The genetic and supplementation experiments by the authors are compelling, but no direct evidence is provided that SAM levels are indeed lower following exposure of C. elegans to DTT.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The cohesin complex is involved in both sister chromatid cohesion (SCC) and intra-chromatid loop formation. Combining molecular genetic and cytological tools with genome-wide calibrated ChIP and HiC analyses in budding yeast, the authors elegantly show that Eco1 and Eco1-mediated Smc3 acetylation promote the boundary formation of chromatin loops by cohesin, which is critical for both meiotic recombination in prophase I and sister chromatid segregation in meiosis II. Cohesin's role in the boundary formation is independent of meiotic DNA replication and of antagonizing a cohesion releasing protein, Wapl. Future studies will reveal the molecular mechanisms of how Eco1-mediated Smc3 acetylation stabilizes cohesin at convergent transcription sites for boundary formation.
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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This is a strong and concise paper using mathematical modelling to explore the conditions under which reproductive division of labour can evolve. It clarifies open questions regarding scenarios where specialising individuals experience diminishing returns from engaging in division of labour. The authors provide a comprehensive set of analyses highlighting when division of labour can evolve under such conditions and when not. The paper's primary claims are supported by the analysis provided, and the paper is likely of interest to evolutionary biologists, ecologists, computational biologists, and microbiologists.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
The role of integrins in macrophage function in tissues is not well understood. Using conditional knockout mice with defective integrin (beta1 and beta2) or talin expression, the authors determine that beta1 integrins and talon are each required for normal morphology and efferocytosis by tissue macrophages. This contrasts with chemotaxis in a 3D environments, which is intact in the absence of integrins, as found for dendritic cells and neutrophils. This is an important finding as it established a molecular mechanism for functional integration of macrophages in diverse tissue microenvironments.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper will be of interest to a large class of neuroscientists who work with MRI. It presents the Digital Brain Bank website and project, which is an effort to curate and share high-quality post-mortem co-registered MRI and histology data of healthy human brains, pathological human brains, and brains from a variety of other species. These data allow investigators to address scientific questions that cannot be answered with in vivo imaging alone and are accompanied by an online browser-based viewer. The described datasets provide a highly valuable resource for multiscale investigations of brain architecture and comparative neuroanatomy, which is unique in its selection of modalities and species.
(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.)
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper provides a novel method for characterizing the functional topography of the striatum based on functional connectivity profiles. Importantly, a series of ambitious analyses provide compelling (if somewhat indirect) evidence via associations to SPECT imaging, in patient populations (Parkinson's Disease), and under drug manipulation (L-DOPA), that this organization is strongly associated with the distribution of dopamine transporter concentrations. Markers of dopamine neurophysiology and signaling, especially those available in standard, non-invasive imaging acquisitions, are of great interest across a wide number of research domains.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
Three of Nature's life-sustaining processes, respiration, photosynthesis, and nitrogen fixation, all rely on proteins (Fe-S protein) that contain simple inorganic cofactors constructed of Fe and S (Fe-S clusters). Fe-S proteins also participate in a huge and diverse array of metabolic processes. As such there has been considerable interest over the past two decades towards understanding how Fe-S clusters are formed and distributed to their cognate proteins. A related issue, the topic of the present work, is: why is it that many Fe-S proteins from diverse microbial species cannot be heterologously produced in Escherichia coli in active forms? This issue is of considerable interest not only from the perspective of microbial Fe-S proteins but also for heterologous expression of active eukaryotic Fe-S proteins. The study provides insights on the phylogenetic and biosynthetic limitations concerning formation of functional heterologously expressed Fe-S proteins.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
In this manuscript, the authors address important problems in the field of synthetic biology about scalability, robustness, and modularity. They used multiple strains to build gene circuits and demonstrate the modular composition of strain circuits with an automated design strategy to achieve a target behavior from a large space of possible functional circuit architectures. The major claims of the manuscript are well supported by solid quantitative data and systematic mathematical modeling analysis, and the approaches used are thoughtful and rigorous. This paper is of interest to synthetic biologists within the field of designing community-level behaviors, such as distributed computing, in multicellular consortia.
(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.)
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Evaluation Summary:
This paper will be of interest to developmental neurobiologists working on the transcriptional control of neural cell fate and connectivity. The data largely support the authors' finding that a single homeodomain transcription factor is a circuit-wide specifier of cell fate that functions combinatorially with other factors in the development of the C. elegans pharyngeal nervous system. The authors speculate about intriguing similarities between the nematode pharyngeal nervous system and vertebrate enteric nervous systems.
(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 name with the authors.)
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