eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Translational reading frame determines the pathogenicity of C-terminal frameshift deletions in MeCP2: an alternative therapeutic approach

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Jacky Guy
   2. Elena Hein
   3. Bea Alexander-Howden
   4. Timur von Bock und Polach
   5. Tricia Mathieson
   6. Benjamin P. Kleinstiver
   7. Huda Zoghbi
   8. Adrian Bird

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study offers important insight into the pathogenic basis of intragenic frameshift deletions in the carboxy-terminal domain of MECP2, which account for some Rett syndrome cases, yet similar variants also appear in unaffected individuals. Using base editing and mouse models, the authors present convincing evidence supporting the pathogenicity of select deletion variants, with potential implications for therapeutic development. However, comments regarding the analysis of publicly available genetic databases should be addressed to strengthen the conclusions and provide greater clarity to the field.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Spatial learning in multi-scale environments: Roles of hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex, and retrosplenial cortex

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yidan Qiu
   2. Senning Zheng
   3. Huakang Li
   4. Shuting Lin
   5. Ruiwang Huang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The goal of this useful study is to examine learning-related changes in neural representations of global and local spatial reference frames in a spatial navigation task. Although the study addresses an interesting question, the evidence for neural representations in the hippocampus and retrosplenial cortex remains incomplete because of confounds in the experimental design and partial data analysis. There are further concerns about the framing of the study in the context of the relevant literature as well as the discussion.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Prolonged oscillating kisspeptin neuron activity underlies the preovulatory luteinizing hormone surge in mice

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Ziyue Zhou
   2. Cheng-Yu Huang
   3. Allan E. Herbison

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work advances our understanding of the role of kisspeptin neurons in regulating the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge in females. The evidence demonstrating increased neuronal activity in anterior hypothalamic kisspeptin neurons just before the LH surge is compelling, though additional neuroanatomical evidence showing the specificity of the methods would strengthen the study. It also confirms that high circulating levels of estradiol, but also other unidentified factors, are required for the full daily activation. This research will be of interest to reproductive biologists and neuroscientists studying the female ovarian cycle.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. The urban tree of life: quantifying relationships between body size and urban tolerance for more than 30,000 plant and animal species

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Corey T. Callaghan
   2. Diana E. Bowler
   3. Vaughn Shirey
   4. Brittany M. Mason
   5. Laura H. Antão
   6. Ingmar Staude
   7. John H. Wilshire
   8. Thomas Merckx

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides an important assessment of how body size influences the occurrence of macro-organisms in urban areas across the globe. Size in most plants, but only some animal families, was positively associated with urban tolerance. The data set is impressive, but the evidence for broad-scale conclusions is incomplete due to methodological issues that need to be resolved.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Enteropathogenic E. coli-mediated Fast and Coordinated Ca²⁺ responses regulate NF-κB activation

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Fangrui Guo
   2. Roberto Ornelas Guevara
   3. Linda Oussaedine
   4. Geneviève Dupont
   5. Laurent Combettes
   6. Guy Tran Van Nhieu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study reports important advances in our understanding of how enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) interacts at the intestinal interface. Solid data describe a novel model of spatially coordinated calcium signaling to modulate NF-kB activation; additional data and clarification of methods would improve the strength of these conclusions. These findings, which integrate imaging, genetics, and computational modeling, provide a new way to consider host-pathogen interactions in EPEC infections that may lead to improved therapies.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Synergistic MAPT mutations as a platform to uncover modifiers of tau pathogenesis

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Miles R Bryan
   2. Michael F Almeida
   3. Kyle Pellegrino
   4. Carli K Opland
   5. J Ethan Paulakonis
   6. Jake McGillion-Moore
   7. Hanna Trzeciakiewicz
   8. Diamond King
   9. Xu Tian
   10. Jui-Heng Tseng
   11. Jonathan C Schisler
   12. Nicholas G Brown
   13. Ben A Bahr
   14. Todd J Cohen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents compelling new data that combine two FTD-tau mutations, P301L/S320F (PL-SF), that reliably induce spontaneous full-length tau aggregation across multiple cellular systems. The findings are important for the field of neurodegenerative disease. The strength of evidence is solid; however, several conclusions would benefit from more validation.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Decoding Spine Nanostructure in Mental Disorders Reveals a Schizophrenia-Linked Role for Ecrg4

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yutaro Kashiwagi
   2. Qingrui Liu
   3. Yasuhiro Go
   4. Ryo Saito
   5. Atsu Aiba
   6. Takanobu Nakazawa
   7. Shigeo Okabe

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     By investigating spine nanostructure and dynamics across multiple genetic mouse models for neurodevelopmental disorders, this important study has the potential to uncover convergent or divergent synaptic phenotypes that may be specifically associated with autism versus schizophrenia risk. While the imaging and breadth are impressive, there are potential methodological concerns, especially around statistical analyses, which render the evidence incomplete and should be addressed. The purely in vitro nature of the study also slightly limits the generalisability of the findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Sex-biased expression of enteroendocrine cell-derived hormones contributes to higher fat storage in Drosophila females

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Puja Biswas
   2. Elizabeth J Rideout

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study provides a systematic and solid comparison of sex-biased enteroendocrine peptide expression, including AstC and Tk, to show that these peptides contribute to female-biased fat storage. The major research question of this study is based on the authors' previous papers, and therefore, the presented results are incremental. This study serves as a foundation for future investigation of regulatory mechanisms for the sex-biased fat content by AstC and Tk.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Emergence of Functional Heart-Brain Circuits in a Vertebrate

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Luis Hernandez-Nunez
   2. Joana Avrami
   3. Sky Shi
   4. Areni Markarian
   5. Annette Kim
   6. Jonathan Boulanger-Weill
   7. Virginia Rutten
   8. Arman Zarghani-Shiraz
   9. Misha B Ahrens
   10. Florian Engert
   11. Mark C Fishman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this important manuscript, the authors establish a vertebrate model for studying the development of circuits that control heart rate. This contribution uses a combination of experimental techniques to provide compelling information for scientists looking to understand how heart rate regulation emerges during development.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Non-decision time-informed collapsing threshold diffusion model: A joint modeling framework with identifiable time-dependent parameters

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Amir Hosein Hadian Rasanan
    2. Lukas Schumacher
    3. Michael D Nunez
    4. Gabriel Weindel
    5. Jörg Rieskamp

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study provides a valuable advance in understanding how decision boundaries may change over time during simple choices by introducing a method that uses information about non-decision components to improve parameter estimates. The evidence supporting the main claims is convincing, with clear demonstrations on simulated and real data, although additional model comparison work would further strengthen confidence. The findings will be of interest to researchers studying human decision processes and the methods used to analyse them.

    Reviewed by eLife