eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Collective directional memory controls the range of epithelial cell migration

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Helena Canever
   2. Hugo Lachuer
   3. Quentin Delaunay
   4. François Sipieter
   5. Nicolas Audugé
   6. Philippe P. Girard
   7. Nicolas Borghi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors make the valuable observation that directional memory during epithelial cell migration is enhanced compared to single-cell migration. They attribute this effect to adherens junctions and vinculin dimerization. In the work, central measures should be defined more precisely, and the support for their claims about the roles of adherens junctions and vinculin dimerization in memory enhancement remains incomplete.

     [Editors' note: this paper was previously reviewed by another journal.]

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Diet-conditioned microbiota enhances fecal microbiota transplantation efficacy in alcoholic liver disease through caproic acid-PPARα signaling

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Nishu Choudhary
   2. Ashi Mittal
   3. Sandeep Kumar
   4. Kavita Yadav
   5. Anupama Kumari
   6. Deepanshu Maheshwari
   7. Jaswinder Singh Maras
   8. Anupam Kumar
   9. Shiv K Sarin
   10. Shvetank Sharma

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study provides valuable findings suggesting that modifying the donor's diet improves the effectiveness of fecal transplant therapies for liver disease. Although the reported results are of value, the evidence supporting the overall conclusions is incomplete. In particular, causal inferences regarding the effects of microbiota composition, as well as caproic acid signaling on the phenotypes studied, need further confirmation.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Metabolic compensation via gluconeogenesis explains the non-essentiality of glycogen phosphorylase as an insecticidal target in Plutella xylostella

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Yifei Zhou
   2. Yanqi Kang
   3. Yan Liu
   4. Ruichi Li
   5. Dongliang Wang
   6. Chong Yi
   7. Yifan Li
   8. Yalin Zhang
   9. Zhen Tian
   10. Jiyuan Liu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study addresses the mechanism of action of benzoylurea insecticides and explores the metabolic consequences of inhibiting glycogen breakdown in insects. Both reviewers identify major flaws with the premise of the work. The strength of the provided evidence is inadequate as the data do not, or poorly, support several central claims. The significance of the findings is considered marginal.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Understanding neural circuit principles for representation learning through joint-embedding predictive architectures

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Ashena Gorgan Mohammadi
   2. Manu Srinath Halvagal
   3. Friedemann Zenke

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript proposes a valuable idea on how cortical networks may learn a helpful representation of sensory stimuli. The model implementing this idea is tested in multiple experimental paradigms. However, the evidence remains incomplete as to whether the method supports both invariance and equivariance and whether it can estimate the dynamics of the moving object.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Learned and inferred valence arise from interactions between stable and dynamic subnetworks

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Marc E Normandin
   2. Pedro M Ogallar
   3. Matthew R Lopez
   4. Isabel A Muzzio

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study examines how the prelimbic cortex represents learned and generalized threat over time and identifies potentially distinct stable and dynamic subnetworks that may support these functions. The work is conceptually interesting and is strengthened by the longitudinal calcium imaging approach and the inclusion of key control groups. However, the evidence supporting the claims is incomplete, particularly because the interpretations regarding inference, time-dependent representational change, and the dissociation of neural activity from freezing behavior extend beyond what is currently established by the data.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Predicting functional topography of the human visual cortex from cortical anatomy at scale

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Fernanda L. Ribeiro
   2. Robert Satzger
   3. Felix Hoffstaedter
   4. Christian Bürger
   5. Peer Herholz
   6. David Linhardt
   7. Noah C. Benson
   8. D. Samuel Schwarzkopf
   9. Alexander M. Puckett
   10. Steffen Bollmann
   11. Martin N. Hebart

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study presents a tool that uses brain anatomy to predict the layout and size of early visual maps, and it is strengthened by the use of a large and diverse collection of scans to examine differences across people and groups. The evidence is solid for the general usefulness of the approach, but incomplete for some of the broader claims about prediction accuracy and use across data sets, particularly for estimates of map size and for showing that the model improves on repeated functional measurements. This paper is likely to be of significant interest to visual perception researchers, especially those who use fMRI.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Modulation of human dorsal root ganglion neuron excitability by Nav1.7 inhibition

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Akie Fujita
   2. Sooyeon Jo
   3. Robert G Stewart
   4. Tomás Osorno
   5. Alyssa Ferraiuolo
   6. Kevin Carlin
   7. Bruce P Bean

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Fujita et al. examine the effects of AM-2099, a Nav1.7 inhibitor, on the excitability of human dorsal root ganglion neurons and compare these results to their prior study of Nav1.8 inhibition by suzetrigine. They show that the Nav1.7 inhibitor primarily alters action potential threshold and initiation, but not repetitive firing, whereas Nav1.8 inhibition elicits much stronger inhibition on repetitive firing. These complementary roles of Nav1.7 and Nav1.8 provide a plausible cellular explanation for the limited clinical success of Nav1.7 inhibitors compared to Nav1.8 inhibitors for chronic pain. While the conclusions are important and solid, there are some key shortcomings that should be addressed to strengthen the study.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Revealing the benefit of eye motion for acuity under emulated cone loss

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Hannah K Doyle
   2. James Fong
   3. Ren Ng
   4. Austin Roorda

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This short report is an important study that visual acuity declines nonlinearly with cone dropout, while eye motion partially compensates by improving sampling from remaining cones. The method for experimentally simulating cone dropout is compelling, leveraging state-of-the-art imaging and testing in human subjects. Inclusion of additional analysis on absolute cone density and eye motion would further strengthen the study.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Conservation Blind Spot: The Critical Role of Larval Stage in Assessing Extinction Risk

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yanfang Song
   2. Yongle Wang
   3. Qingqing Li
   4. Zhiyong Yuan
   5. Weiwei Zhou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study analyses correlations between traits of Chinese frog species and their Red List status, finding differences between adults and larvae and thus pointing to the importance of considering different life-cycle stages in this and possibly other animal groups when assessing species extinction risks. The current study is, however, incomplete because of unclear threat categories for tadpoles, the omission of other key species traits, and insufficient statistical analysis.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Anatomy and mechanics of tsetse fly blood feeding

    This article has 13 authors:

    1. Stephan Löwe
    2. Laura Hauf
    3. Elisabeth Meyer-Natus
    4. Dianah Katiti
    5. Dennis Petersen
    6. Alexander Kovalev
    7. Sebastian Büsse
    8. Anna Steyer
    9. Yoko Matsumura
    10. Wolfgang Böhme
    11. Daniel Masiga
    12. Stanislav Gorb
    13. Markus Engstler

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This work provides a fundamental advance through a detailed and integrative analysis of how the tsetse fly feeds on blood, demonstrating that successful penetration depends on subtle structural adaptations rather than extreme forces or unusual anatomy. By combining high-resolution imaging, innovative biomechanical measurements, and experiments on artificial skin, the study offers complementary and compelling evidence, with clear data supporting a robust mechanistic interpretation. These findings have broad significance as they clarify the biomechanics of vector feeding with implications for the transmission of diseases such as African trypanosomiasis across diverse hosts.

    Reviewed by eLife