eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Ecological diversification in rapidly evolving populations

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Daniel P.G.H. Wong
   2. Benjamin H. Good

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this important theoretical contribution, the authors study the evolution of large microbial populations competing for resources in the challenging and relevant regime of overlapping ecological and evolutionary timescales. The modeling approach is overall convincing, anlthough its presentation would benefit from clarifications, e.g. on assumptions and approximations. The results will be of broad interest to researchers in evolutionary biology, ecology and microbiology.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Proteolytic remodeling by Yme1 enables mitochondrial-derived compartment formation

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Sai Sangeetha Balasubramaniam
   2. Amy E. Curtis
   3. Jonathan R. Friedman
   4. Adam L. Hughes

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study demonstrates that the inner membrane protease YME1 contributes to the formation of mitochondrial-derived compartments in yeast through the modulation of both the lipid transporter UPS2 and the MICOS complex. The evidence supporting this model is solid, although this manuscript could be improved by providing additional evidence supporting the independent roles for UPS2 and MICOS regulation in this process. This work will be of interest to cell biologists, biochemists, and geneticists interested in understanding the molecular basis of mitochondrial regulation and function.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Cognitive control networks in human and macaque

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Valentina Mione
   2. Freja Holm Kristensen
   3. Moataz Assem
   4. Urs Schüffelgen
   5. Søren Kyllingsbæk
   6. Mark Buckley
   7. Daniel J. Mitchell
   8. John Duncan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable contribution to comparative cognitive neuroscience by directly mapping functional homologues of the human multiple-demand network in macaques using a matched spatial maze task. However, the evidence is incomplete due to methodological asymmetries in task design and preprocessing parameters that warrant careful consideration. The work will be of interest to researchers studying the evolution of cognitive control and cross-species neuroimaging.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Virus specific impacts on honey bee flight performance are mediated by the octopamine pathway

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Naomi G Kaku
   2. Michelle L Flenniken

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates how distinct honey bee viruses differentially alter flight performance through interactions with octopamine signaling pathways. The combination of behavioral flight assays, pharmacological perturbation, and transcriptomic analyses provides solid evidence that virus-specific effects on flight are associated with octopamine signaling. However, some of the stronger mechanistic conclusions regarding direct regulation of octopamine signaling remain incomplete without more specific validation of receptor-level effects and direct quantification of octopamine levels or signaling activity.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Fragile polyQ assemblies cause Golgipathy in Huntington’s disease

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Lixiang Ma
   2. Xinyu Chen
   3. Yang Liu
   4. Lijun Dai
   5. Fangzhou Ye
   6. Weiqi Yang
   7. Hada Buhe
   8. Jixin Ma
   9. Chenyun Song
   10. Li Li
   11. Dandan Fan
   12. Fanxun Chen
   13. Haoman Chen
   14. Jianwei Shuai
   15. Jianzhong Su
   16. Hexige Saiyin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this study, the authors propose a role for the Huntingtin protein in the organization of the Golgi apparatus and examine the effect of polyQ aggregates at the Golgi. The observations are interesting and potentially important for the field; however, the key claim that polyQ HTT functionally disrupts the Golgi (Golgipathy) is incompletely supported by the data.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Synaptotagmin isoforms differentially regulate glutamate and GABA release in the lateral habenula

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Dustin N White
   2. J Keenan Kushner
   3. Kelly E Winther
   4. Dillon J McGovern
   5. Tamara Basta
   6. Zoe R Donaldson
   7. Charles A Hoeffer
   8. David H Root
   9. Michael HB Stowell

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper addresses a key question regarding the molecular mechanisms underlying GABA and glutamate release from co-releasing neurons projecting from the entopeduncular nucleus (EPN) to the lateral habenula (LHb) in mice. The authors conclude that the two neurotransmitters are released from separate vesicle pools and rely on distinct molecular machinery; these conclusions contrast with previous functional studies at the same synapse, suggesting that GABA and glutamate are co-packaged within the same vesicles. The study employs useful electrophysiological and imaging approaches, however, a key limitation is the use of Cre lines that also label a purely glutamatergic EPN population projecting to the LHb. This inadequate methodology complicates the interpretation of the data and weakens the central conclusions regarding neurotransmitter co-release mechanisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Simplifying principles that underlie the highly complex peptide motif of the promiscuous chicken class I molecule, BF2*21:01

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Michael Harrison
   2. Paul E Chappell
   3. Samer Halabi
   4. Maria Danysz
   5. Enock M Mararo
   6. Łukasz Magiera
   7. Clemens Hermann
   8. Michael J Deery
   9. Kathryn S Lilley
   10. Hans-Joachim Wallny
   11. David W Avila
   12. William Mwangi
   13. Venugopal Nair
   14. Susan M Lea
   15. Nicola Ternette
   16. Jim Kaufman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates the peptide-binding principles of promiscuous chicken MHC molecules. The data from crystallography, mass spectrometry, and modeling are convincing. However, the presentation would benefit from streamlining and clear links between data and conclusions. This paper will be of broad interest to immunologists and those interested in vaccine development.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Head before heart: cognitive empathy emerges before affective empathy in the developing brain

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Chiara Bulgarelli
   2. Paola Pinti
   3. Tessel Bazelmans
   4. Antonia Hamilton
   5. Emily J Jones

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors have presented a study which addresses a recognised gap in the literature, the emergence of the neural correlates of cognitive and affective empathy in children; they introduce a task for measuring both positive and negative empathy in a relatively large group of children aged 3-5. The task was combined with functional near-infrared spectroscopy to examine brain regions involved in the task. The findings are interpreted as providing evidence for the earlier emergence of cognitive than affective empathy. The study represents a valuable contribution to understanding the development of cognitive function, but in its current form, the strength of support for the conclusion is incomplete due to limited support for the comparison to the adult literature and a need to more clearly justify the pre-selected brain regions, their links to empathy and the justification of the hypotheses.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. The cistrome response to hypoxia in human umbilical vein endothelial cells

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Ayush Singh
   2. Viktor Pastukh
   3. Justin T Roberts
   4. Zachary M Turpin
   5. Zehta S Glover
   6. Grant T Daly
   7. Jane M Benoit
   8. Mark N Gillespie
   9. Hank W Bass

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important study that applies a new chromatin profiling technique to the study of cellular responses to low oxygen. The authors provide convincing evidence for distinct kinetic phases of the response and identify many new putative regulators of the response. This work will be of broad interest to those studying low oxygen responses and transcriptional regulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The Par complex regulates apical-basal cell polarity through modulation of FAK signaling homeostasis

    This article has 21 authors:

    1. Meiai He
    2. Lining Liang
    3. Yulu Wang
    4. Yongyu Chen
    5. Hao Sun
    6. Lin Guo
    7. Changpeng Li
    8. Jingcai He
    9. Yanhua Wu
    10. Shiyu Chen
    11. Tingting Yang
    12. Fei Meng
    13. Qiwen Ren
    14. Linna Dong
    15. Lin Liu
    16. Qianqian Zou
    17. Tianya Zhang
    18. Xinyue Hou
    19. Qing Guo
    20. Dajing Qin
    21. Hui Zheng

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study presents a valuable finding that the Par polarity complex, but not Crumbs or Scrib, regulates morphological remodeling during the naive-to-primed transition of pluripotent stem cells, with later effects on differentiation and neural tube organoid lumen formation. The evidence is incomplete, as the developmental significance of the PAR KO phenotype requires clearer framing and deeper characterization, and the proposed signaling pathway is currently presented more strongly than the data support. The work will be of interest to developmental and stem cell biologists studying polarity, pluripotent-state transitions, epithelialization, and lumen formation.

    Reviewed by eLife