eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A network perspective on the role of c-di-GMP-associated protein complexes in biofilm formation

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. M-F Noirot-Gros
   2. P Larsen
   3. S Forester
   4. R Wilton
   5. K. M. Kemner
   6. R Briandet
   7. G Babnigg
   8. P. Noirot

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study presents a comprehensive exploration of c-di-GMP-associated protein interaction networks in Pseudomonas fluorescens, with a particular focus on biofilm-related phenotypes. The evidence is convincing, supported by a genome-wide yeast two-hybrid screen, phenotypic analyses, and experimental validation. The work identifies multiple interaction hubs and provides a resource that will be of use to the biofilm and c-di-GMP communities, while additional mechanistic exploration would further enhance its impact by clarifying the biological roles of many of the identified interactions.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Sex differences in exploration–exploitation strategies during home-cage decision making

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Chantelle L. Murrell
   2. Alex A. Legaria
   3. Katie B. McCullough
   4. Andrew Nwacha
   5. Monsurat O. Nasiru
   6. Sebastian Alves Ferreira Dias
   7. Rebecca Chase
   8. Mason R. Barrett
   9. Matt Gaidica
   10. Naoki Hiratani
   11. Meaghan C. Creed
   12. Joseph D. Dougherty
   13. Susan E. Maloney
   14. Alexxai V. Kravitz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Murrell et al. describe a high-throughput method, the Feeding Experimentation Device (FED3), to study food foraging strategies in mice. The authors provide solid evidence about key sex differences in foraging strategies, specifically the finding of greater male win-stay behavior. Further consideration of how sex differences could be uniquely influenced by FED3 testing conditions (e.g., single-housing, hormones) and task demands (e.g., 100-0 vs. 80-20) would be helpful. Given this open source FED3 platform, the authors provide valuable findings that have utility to the field of behavioral neuroscience, specifically to those interested in studying reward-related behavior.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Comparative multi-omics of the macrophage response to infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex bacteria reveals pathogen-driven epigenomic reprogramming

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Thomas J. Hall
   2. Morgane Mitermite
   3. John F. O’Grady
   4. John A. Browne
   5. Gillian P. McHugo
   6. Emily L. Clark
   7. Mazdak Salavati
   8. Stephen V. Gordon
   9. David E. MacHugh

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study conducted by Hall and colleagues advances our understanding of host-pathogen co-evolution by providing an elegant multi-omic comparative framework that uncovers a profound, pathogen-directed epigenomic reprogramming of bovine alveolar macrophages uniquely driven by host-adapted Mycobacterium bovis. Convincing evidence supports these findings and draws on robust, multi-layered high-throughput sequencing data integrated with large-scale cattle GWAS metadata to prioritize actionable genetic variants linked to disease susceptibility and to highlight key immune response genes/pathways upregulated in response to infection and pathogen-specific host adaptation mechanisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Verbal versus Nonverbal Processing Leads to Generalized Hemispheric Laterality Effects that Span Multiple Networks

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Wendy Sun
   2. Lauren M. DiNicola
   3. Randy L. Buckner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates how verbal and nonverbal working-memory processing is distributed across large-scale functional networks in the human brain using precision fMRI. By leveraging extensive within-subject data and individualized network mapping, the authors provide solid evidence that hemispheric specialization for verbal versus nonverbal information extends across multiple association networks and is reproducible across independent datasets. The use of state-of-the-art precision neuroimaging approaches reveals fine-grained laterality patterns that are likely obscured in conventional group analyses.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Metabolic Trans-Omic Analysis Reveals Key Regulatory Disruption of Energy Metabolism in Alzheimer’s Disease

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Tomoharu Katayama
   2. Hikaru Sugimoto
   3. Keigo Morita
   4. Hirohisa Watanabe
   5. Shinya Kuroda

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a useful application of trans-omic network analyses to existing human brain datasets, generating systems-level insights into metabolic dysregulation in Alzheimer's disease. Overall, the authors' analytical choices are solid, with appropriate use of existing data and methods, and with many of their results confirming previous findings. However, some of the authors' key claims, related to previously unknown details of regulatory relationships, are only partially supported due to limitations in dataset cell-type resolution and network robustness, as well as a lack of functional validation. This work will be of interest to cellular or systems neurobiologists studying Alzheimer's disease and could serve as a helpful starting point for future work.

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

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

6. PXGS: a Poly-Transgene Expression System based on Mutually Exclusive Splicing of Dscam

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Renee Yin Yu
   2. Alyeri Bucio-Mendez
   3. Brian E Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study describes PXGS, a poly-transgene expression system that exploits the mutually exclusive splicing of Dscam variable exon 4 to enable conditional, simultaneous expression of up to 12 transgenes in Drosophila, addressing a longstanding limitation in which conditional co-expression has been restricted to a handful of genes. The approach is conceptually elegant and technically accessible, with potential applications spanning neuroscience, synthetic biology, and biomanufacturing across arthropod species. The evidence that Dscam exon 4 splicing is preserved in a UAS vector and that individual alternates can be replaced with functional transgenes is solid, and the in vivo axonal re-wiring application provides a convincing proof of principle. Quantitative characterization of expression levels, a direct demonstration of expression across all twelve positions, and additional imaging controls would further substantiate the system's utility and scope.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Relating layer fMRI signals to acoustics and intracranial neuronal activity in the human auditory cortex in a naturalistic design

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Hsin-Ju Lee
   2. Jyrki Ahveninen
   3. Hsiang-Yu Yu
   4. Chien-Chen Chou
   5. Cheng-Chia Lee
   6. Wen-Jui Kuo
   7. Hankyeol Lee
   8. Kamil Uludag
   9. Fa-Hsuan Lin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on linking the frequency of neural activity to cortical depths of blood flow in a naturalistic setting of participants listening to music. The presentation of evidence in the version of the original submission is incomplete, as further clarifications in methods and results, as well as performing additional analyses, would strengthen the study. The work will be of interest to cognitive neuroscientists working on multimodal recordings, auditory perception and music.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Diverse paths for chemoreception in ciliated neurons contacting the cerebrospinal fluid in the spinal cord

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Emily Verran
   2. Louise Moizan
   3. Loeva Tocquer
   4. Feng B Quan
   5. Claire Wyart

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides a useful anatomical resource by mapping the expression of four putative chemoreceptors in spinal cerebrospinal fluid-contacting neurons (CSF-cNs) of larval zebrafish. These descriptive findings offer an interesting entry point to explore how the nervous system senses signals within the spinal fluid microenvironment. The evidence supporting the spatial expression patterns of these receptors is convincing, utilizing high-resolution hybridization chain reaction (HCR) to validate previous transcriptomic data. However, the evidence remains incomplete regarding the actual functional roles of these receptors, as the study lacks protein-level validation, evidence of ligand availability in the CSF, or functional assays to demonstrate active chemoreception.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A Membrane-Disruptive Action of VBIT-4 Challenges Its Role as a Widely Used VDAC1 Oligomerization Inhibitor

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Varun Ravishankar
   2. Luís Borges-Araújo
   3. Megha Rajendran
   4. Elodie Lafargue
   5. Deborah Byrne
   6. Nicolas Buzhinsky
   7. Mya S Wolfe
   8. Wendy Fitzgerald
   9. Nina A Bautista
   10. Bethel G Beyene
   11. Motahareh G Larimi
   12. Jean-Pierre Duneau
   13. James Sturgis
   14. Sergey M Bezrukov
   15. Ignacio Casuso
   16. Tatiana Rostovtseva
   17. Lucie Bergdoll

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work provides a reassessment of VBIT-4, a compound previously proposed to inhibit oligomerization of the crucial protein known as the mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion channel. Combining complementary experimental approaches with molecular dynamics simulations, the authors provide compelling evidence that VBIT-4 primarily disrupts lipid membranes and induces channel-independent cytotoxicity. The study has important implications for interpreting previous work using VBIT-4 as a probe of channel function and highlights the need to consider membrane-disruptive effects when evaluating drug mechanisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Congenital aphantasia reveals frontotemporal and cingulate structural alterations underlying conscious access to imagery

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Yusaku Takamura
    2. Romain Delsanti
    3. Laurent Cohen
    4. Paolo Bartolomeo
    5. Jianghao Liu

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This valuable study provides novel evidence that congenital aphantasia is associated with structural differences in frontotemporal and cingulate systems, with relative sparing of early visual regions and major visual pathways. The multimodal structural imaging approach is carefully implemented and will be of interest to researchers studying mental imagery and aphantasia. However, the strength of evidence is incomplete because the data cannot adjudicate between alternative cognitive interpretations, and the multiple discovery streams make the findings better viewed as key exploratory evidence, rather than as establishing a definitive structural phenotype of aphantasia.

    Reviewed by eLife