eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Linking Germline Telomere Removal to Global Programmed DNA Elimination in Tetrahymena Genome Differentiation

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Kohei Nagao
   2. Kazufumi Mochizuki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study reveals intriguing connections between chromosome breakage and DNA elimination during programmed genome rearrangement in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila. By developing a novel FISH approach that distinguishes germline and somatic telomeres, the authors provide compelling evidence that chromosome breakage removes germline telomeres along with hundreds of kilobases of germline-limited sequences. By disrupting a single chromosome breakage site, they further showed that DNA elimination was globally affected, which opens up a new direction for mechanistic studies. Thus, this work reveals additional similarity between the programmed DNA elimination in ciliates and nematodes that underlies the transition from germline to somatic telomeres.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Imp1 acts as a dosage- and stage-dependent temporal rheostat orchestrating radial glial fate transitions and cortical morphogenesis

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Romie Angelo G. Azur
   2. Daniel Feliciano
   3. Isabel Espinosa-Medina
   4. Raghabendra Adhikari
   5. Joaquin Lilao-Garzón
   6. Ella Jensen
   7. Ching-Po Yang
   8. Tzumin Lee

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents new insights into the post-transcriptional mechanisms that govern cortical development. Through state-of-the-art methodology to track neuronal birth order, the data provide compelling evidence that Imp1 (Igf2bp1/Zbp1) orchestrates radial glia fate transitions and cortical neurogenesis. The findings establish a new framework for understanding how post-transcriptional mechanisms integrate with transcriptional and epigenetic regulatory layers to control cortical temporal patterning.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Skull Bone Marrow Drainage and Its Associations with Inflammation, Sleep Quality, and Cognitive Performance

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Ying Zhou
   2. Haidi Jin
   3. Xiao Zhu
   4. Yifei Li
   5. Ziyu Zhou
   6. Xin Huang
   7. Huihong Ke
   8. Mengmeng Fang
   9. Jianzhong Sun
   10. Min Lou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a well-executed intrathecal MRI tracer study that provides valuable early in vivo evidence for CSF drainage into human skull bone marrow and explores clinically relevant associations using robust imaging methodology and regional analyses. However, the evidence supporting the interpretation of early (4 h) tracer signal as impaired clearance is incomplete, and appears difficult to reconcile with established CSF tracer kinetics. They also note that the reported links to sleep and cognitive performance are weakened by reliance on subjective, retrospective questionnaires rather than objective physiological measurements.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Transforming a Fragile Protein Helix into an Ultrastable Scaffold via a Hierarchical AI and Chemistry Framework

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Jun Qiu
   2. Guojin Tang
   3. Tianfu Feng
   4. Bin Zheng
   5. Yuanhao Liu
   6. Peng Zheng

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable work describes a computational and experimental workflow that turns a moderately stable α-helical bundle into a very stable fold. The authors advance our understanding of α-helix stabilization and provide a convenient framework with implications for the protein design field. The main claims are supported by convincing evidence through sound and well-validated methods, yet further characterization would strengthen specific conclusions for the design of mechanically, thermally, and chemically stable α-helical bundles.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. AutoMorphoTrack: A modular framework for quantitative analysis of organelle morphology, motility, and interactions at single-cell resolution

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Armin Bayati
   2. Jackson G. Schumacher
   3. Xiqun Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work describes a useful computational tool for automated morphometry of dynamic organelles from microscope images. However, the supporting evidence and novelty of the manuscript as presented are incomplete and could be improved. The work will be of interest to microscopists and bioimage analysts who are non-experts but wish to improve quantitative analysis of cellular structures.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Complex environmental cycles reveal evolution of circadian activity waveform and thermosensitive timeless splicing

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Pragya Niraj Sharma
   2. Vasu Sheeba

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study examines how mismatched light and temperature cycles shape Drosophila locomotor timing and temperature-dependent timeless splicing, and leverages long-term early/late selection lines to probe evolutionary plasticity. The strength of evidence is incomplete at present, mainly because startle/masking under step cues could confound the behavioural readouts, and tim's involvement remains correlative. The authors should address masking in the behaviour analyses and provide causal support for tim's role.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Simple Methods to Acutely Measure Multiple Timing Metrics among Sexual Repertoire of Male Drosophila

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yutong Song
   2. Dongyu Sun
   3. Xiao Liu
   4. Fan Jiang
   5. Xuejiao Yang
   6. Woo Jae Kim

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful paper describes a software tool, "DrosoMating", which allows automated, high-throughput quantification of 6 common metrics of courtship and mating behaviors in Drosophila melanogaster. The validity of the tool is quite convincingly demonstrated by comparing expert human assessments with those made by DrosoMating. The work, however, does not address how DrosoMating compares with or advances on other existing tools for exactly the same purpose, whether it can be used for studies of other Drosophila species, and/or whether finer aspects of courtship response timing - which depend on proximal female signals to the male - could be extracted with more detailed analyses. Some additional statistical analyses would also help further strengthen the authors' current conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Rank- and Threat-Dependent Social Modulation of Innate Defensive Behaviors

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Ling-yun Li
   2. Xinjian Gao
   3. Ya-tang Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors investigate how dominance hierarchy shapes defensive strategies in mice under two naturalistic threats: a transient visual looming stimulus and a sustained live rat. This study provides important insights into how social context and dominance hierarchy modulate innate defensive behaviors across distinct naturalistic threats. The strength of evidence is convincing, with detailed classification and analysis of behaviors.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Decoding state specific connectivity during speech production and perception

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yasamin Esmaeili
   2. Amirhossein Khalilian-Gourtani
   3. Orrin Devinsky
   4. Werner Doyle
   5. Patricia Dugan
   6. Daniel Friedman
   7. Adeen Flinker

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work represents a valuable finding of how single-trial functional connectivity may be used to infer different cognitive states involved in speech perception and production. Although the data and analyses are overall convincing, the theoretical advance and novelty of the finding are less clear. With a clearer idea of the functional significance of the connectivity data, the paper would be of interest to those interested in brain networks and communication.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. High-Throughput Quantification of Population Dynamics using Luminescence

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Malte Muetter
    2. Daniel Angst
    3. Roland Regoes
    4. Sebastian Bonhoeffer

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      Muetter et al. provide an important argument that luminescence is a reliable, high-throughput alternative to colony-forming units (CFU) for super-MIC investigations, particularly when the quantity of interest is biomass. By examining 20 antimicrobials spanning 11 classes, the work shows that discrepancies between CFU and luminescence are often biological (filamentation, Viable But Not Culturable). The work provides a compelling view of how these three common measurements (luminescence, optical density, and CFU) relate to one another across a range of drug treatments, although testing on clinical isolates could be of further benefit.

    Reviewed by eLife