eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Specialisation of meiotic kinetochores revealed through a synthetic SAC strategy

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Lori B Koch
   2. Christos Spanos
   3. Adele L Marston

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Koch et al. describe a valuable novel methodology, SynSAC, to synchronise cells to analyse meiosis I or meiosis II or mitotic metaphase in budding yeast. The authors present convincing data to validate abscisic acid-induced dimerisation to induce a synthetic spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) arrest that will be of particular importance to analyse meiosis II. The authors use their approach to determine the composition and phosphorylation of kinetochores from meiotic metaphase I and metaphase II that will be of interest to the broader meiosis research community.

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

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

2. Improved cryo-EM reconstruction of sub-50 kDa complexes using 2D template matching

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Kexin Zhang
   2. Timothy Grant
   3. Nikolaus Grigorieff

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study builds on previous work from the same authors to present a conceptually distinct workflow for cryo-EM reconstruction that uses 2D template matching to enable high-resolution structure determination of small (sub-50 kDa) protein targets. The paper describes how density for small-molecule ligands bound to such targets can be reconstructed without these ligands being present in the template. However, the evidence described for the claim that this technique "significantly" improves the alignment of the reconstruction of small complexes is incomplete. The authors could better evaluate the effects of model bias on the reconstructed densities.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Reproducibility of Scientific Claims in Drosophila Immunity: A Retrospective Analysis of 400 Publications

   This article has 30 authors:

   1. Hannah Westlake
   2. Fabrice David
   3. Yao Tian
   4. Kenan Krakovic
   5. Asya Dolgikh
   6. Liza Juravlev
   7. Thomas Esmangart de Bournonville
   8. Alexia Carboni
   9. Claudia Melcarne
   10. Tisheng Shan
   11. Yang Wang
   12. Yizhu Mu
   13. Akshata Kotwal
   14. Nadia Pirko
   15. Jean Philippe Boquete
   16. Fanny Schüpfer
   17. Samuel Rommelaere
   18. Mickael Poidevin
   19. Zhonggeng Liu
   20. Shu Kondo
   21. Girish S. Ratnaparkhi
   22. Sveta Chakrabarti
   23. Guiqing Liu
   24. Florent Masson
   25. Li Xiaoxue
   26. Mark A. Hanson
   27. Haobo Jiang
   28. Francesca Di Cara
   29. Estee Kurant
   30. Bruno Lemaitre

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental study is part of an impressive, large-scale effort to assess the reproducibility of published findings in the field of Drosophila immunity. In a companion article, the authors analyze 400 papers published between 1959 and 2011, and assess how many of the claims in these papers have been tested in subsequent publications. In this article, the authors report the results of validation experiments to assess a subset of the claims that, according to the literature, have not been corroborated. While the evidence reported for some of these validation studies is convincing, it remains incomplete for others.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Distinct goal location beta frequency dynamics in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex across learning

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Glingna Wang
   2. Nan Zhou
   3. Zachary M Leveroni
   4. Jai Y Yu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper represents a valuable contribution to our understanding of how LFP oscillations and beta band coordination between the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of rats may relate to learning. Enthusiasm for the reported results was moderated by the concern that some key analyses need to be done, and highly relevant details about task, data, and statistics were missing. Consequently, the reviewers considered the evidence to be incomplete in this version of the manuscript.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Dual-feature selectivity enables bidirectional coding in visual cortical neurons

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. Katrin Franke
   2. Nikos Karantzas
   3. Konstantin Willeke
   4. Maria Diamantaki
   5. Kandan Ramakrishnan
   6. Hasan Atakan Bedel
   7. Pavithra Elumalai
   8. Kelli Restivo
   9. Paul Fahey
   10. Cate Nealley
   11. Tori Shinn
   12. Gabrielle Garcia
   13. Saumil Patel
   14. Alexander Ecker
   15. Edgar Y Walker
   16. Emmanouil Froudarakis
   17. Sophia Sanborn
   18. Fabian H Sinz
   19. Andreas Tolias

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors combine a modeling approach, using a digital twin, with electrophysiological evidence in two species to assess the role of inhibition in shaping selectivity in the visual cortex. The results provide an important advance beyond the classic view of sensory coding by proving compelling evidence that many neurons in visual areas exhibit dual-feature selectivity. Overall, the work exceptionally showcases how in silico experiments can generate concrete hypotheses about neuronal coding that are difficult to discover experimentally.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. A novel high-throughput single-cell DNA sequencing method reveals hidden genomic heterogeneity in the unicellular eukaryote Leishmania

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Gabriel H Negreira
   2. Pieter Monsieurs
   3. Jean-Claude Dujardin
   4. Malgorzata A Domagalska

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study, which tackles the challenge of analyzing genome integrity and instability in unicellular pathogens by introducing a novel single-cell genomics approach, presents compelling evidence that this new tool outperforms standard whole-genome amplification techniques. While thorough and rigorous, the work's impact would increase by providing scripts and data, as well as a description of the biological relevance that would make this method more appealing to the broad community studying genetic heterogeneity in diverse organisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Disruption of theta-timescale spiking impairs learning but spares hippocampal replay

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Abhilasha Joshi
   2. Alison E Comrie
   3. Samuel Bray
   4. Abhijith Mankili
   5. Jennifer A Guidera
   6. Rhino Nevers
   7. Xulu Sun
   8. Emily Monroe
   9. Viktor Kharazia
   10. Ryan Ly
   11. Daniela Astudillo Maya
   12. Denisse Morales-Rodriguez
   13. Jai Yu
   14. Anna Kiseleva
   15. Victor Perez
   16. Loren M Frank

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study employs a closed-loop, theta-phase-specific optogenetic manipulation of medial septal parvalbumin-expressing neurons in rats and reports that disrupting theta-timescale coordination impairs performance of challenging aspects of spatial behaviors, while sparing hippocampal replay and spatial coding in hippocampal place cells. The findings are expected to advance theoretical understanding of learning and memory operations and to provide practical implications for the application of similar optogenetic approaches. The experiments were viewed as technically rigorous, but the strength of evidence provided in the current version of the manuscript was viewed as incomplete, mostly due to limited analyses and the descriptions of some of the experimental protocols.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. The long non-coding RNA Dreg1 is required for optimal ILC2 development

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Sara Quon
   2. Adelynn Tang
   3. Nadia Iannarella
   4. Kael Schoffer
   5. Wing Fuk Chan
   6. Timothy M Johanson
   7. Ajithkumar Vasanthakumar
   8. Rhys S Allan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a useful study that investigates the role of the long non-coding RNA Dreg1 for the development, differentiation, or maintenance of group 2 ILC (ILC2). The authors generate Dreg1-/- mice and show a reduction of group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2). However, the strength of evidence supporting the impact of Dreg1 on Gata3 expression, a transcription factor required for ILC2 cell fate decisions, and the cell-intrinsic requirement of Dreg1 for ILC2 remain incomplete. This study will be of interest to immunologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Symmetric brain-liver circuits mediate lateralized regulation of hepatic glucose output

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Zhonglong Wang
   2. Xiangfei Gong
   3. Li Jiang
   4. Ke Wang
   5. Xinyuan Sun
   6. Yingxi Li
   7. Mengtong Ran
   8. Yanshen Chen
   9. Hongdong Wang
   10. Xuehui Chu
   11. Shun Wang
   12. Junjie Wang
   13. Xiao Zheng
   14. Haiping Hao
   15. Hao Xie

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript proposes a lateralized, lobe-specific brain-liver sympathetic neurocircuit regulating hepatic glucose metabolism and presents anatomical evidence for sympathetic crossover at the porta hepatis using viral tracing and neuromodulation approaches. While the topic is of important significance and the methodologies are, in principle, state-of-the-art, significant concerns regarding experimental design, incomplete methodological reporting, sparse and ambiguous labeling, and overi-nterpretation of the data substantially weaken support for the study's central conclusions, thereby limiting the study's completeness. The work will be of interest to biologists, clinicians, and physiologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Conformational Variability of HIV-1 Env Trimer and Viral Vulnerability

    This article has 2 authors:

    1. Yiwei Cao
    2. Wonpil Im

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      In this useful study, the authors conducted an impressive amount of atomistic simulations with a realistic asymmetric lipid bilayer to probe how the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env) transmembrane domain, cytoplasmic tail, and membrane environment influence ectodomain orientation and antibody epitope exposure. The simulations convincingly show that ectodomain motion is dominated by tilting relative to the membrane and explicitly demonstrate the role of membrane asymmetry in modulating the protein conformation and orientation. However, due to the qualitative nature of the conducted analyses, the evidence for the coupling between membrane-proximal regions and the antigenic surface is considered incomplete. With stronger integration of prior experimental and computational literature, this work has the potential to serve as a reference for how Env behaves in a realistic, glycosylated, membrane-embedded context.

    Reviewed by eLife