eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The representation of facial emotion expands from sensory to prefrontal cortex with development

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Xiaoxu Fan
   2. Abhishek Tripathi
   3. Kelly R Bijanki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study examines a valuable question regarding the developmental trajectory of neural mechanisms supporting facial expression processing. Leveraging a rare intracranial EEG (iEEG) dataset including both children and adults, the authors reported that facial expression recognition mainly engaged the posterior superior temporal cortex (pSTC) among children, while both pSTC and the prefrontal cortex were engaged among adults. However, the sample size is relatively small, with analyses appearing incomplete to fully support the primary claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Li Zheng
   2. Zachary Boogaart
   3. Andrew McAvan
   4. Joshua Garren
   5. Stephanie Doner
   6. Bradley J Wilkes
   7. Will Groves
   8. Ece Yuksel
   9. Lucia Cherep
   10. Arne D Ekstrom
   11. Steven M Weisberg

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work presents a useful investigation of functional and structural brain changes following navigation and verbal memory training. The analyses of whole-brain structural changes are incomplete and would benefit from a more comprehensive approach to support the study's main conclusion regarding the lack of a structural whole-brain plasticity effect. However, some analyses are exhaustive and compelling in demonstrating the presence of longitudinal behavioural effects, the presence of functional activation changes, and the lack of hippocampal volume changes.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. The 1000+ mouse project: large-scale spatiotemporal parametrization and modeling of preclinical cancer immunotherapies

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Adam L Kenet
   2. Sooraj Achar
   3. Alka Dwivedi
   4. John Buckley
   5. Marie Pouzolles
   6. Haiying Qin
   7. Christopher Chien
   8. Naomi Taylor
   9. Grégoire Altan-Bonnet

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors developed a fundamental computational method, which is intended to automatically process bioluminescence imaging-derived tumour images across anatomical regions and over time. This allows quantitative analysis of such data, and the authors applied it to describe the spatiotemporal distribution of tumour cells in response to CD19-targeted CAR-T cells that contained either CD28 or 4-1BB costimulatory domains. Some operational limitations were identified, which relate to the pipeline's reliance on predefined regions of interest instead of aligning signal sites with anatomical information, scaling, and not taking animal pose into account. Overall, the authors provide compelling evidence for the functionality of their computational approach towards automated analysis of bioluminescence imaging data, while applying it to a current topic of wide interest in cell therapy research.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Separable global and local beta burst dynamics in motor cortex of primates

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Preeya Khanna
   2. Behraz Farrokhi
   3. Hoseok Choi
   4. Sandon Griffin
   5. Ian Heimbuch
   6. Lisa Novik
   7. Katherina Thiesen
   8. John Morrison
   9. Robert J Morecraft
   10. Karunesh Ganguly

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates changes in oscillatory activity across cortical and subcortical areas during stroke recovery in a nonhuman primate model. The authors distinguish between global and local oscillatory bursts, providing solid evidence that these two types of bursts correlate with distinct aspects of movement; additionally, they show that the likelihood of these bursts occurring follows opposing trends during recovery. The study could be further improved by accounting for inter-individual differences and by some technical improvements, such as employing more robust burst detection methods and more stringent analyses.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Cell-to-cell signalling mediated via CO2: activity dependent CO2 production in the axonal node opens Cx32 in the Schwann cell paranode

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Jack Butler
   2. Lowell Mott
   3. Angus Brown
   4. Nicholas Dale

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript describes solid and very interesting findings that substantially advance our understanding of a major research question on the role of Cx32 hemichannels in the Schwann cell paranode. It provides an interdisciplinary integration of imaging, in silico approaches, and functional data. This important study proposes a new mechanism with profound physiological relevance and provides new insights into glial modulation of electrical conduction in sensory/motor myelinated nerves.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Phasic and tonic pain serve distinct functions during adaptive behaviour

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Shuangyi Tong
   2. Timothy Denison
   3. Danielle Hewitt
   4. Sang Wan Lee
   5. Ben Seymour

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The article presents important findings of a dissociation between phasic and tonic pain functions in adaptive behavior, combining immersive VR, computational modeling, skin conductance, and EEG data. The methodology used is solid. Its ecological design and sophisticated computational modeling are major strengths. The article would benefit from adding details on hypotheses, VR implementation, sample size determination, modeling, analysis, and pain specificity.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The zoo of the gene networks capable of pattern formation by extracellular signaling

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Kevin Martinez-Anhom
   2. Isaac Salazar-Ciudad

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study presents valuable theoretical insights by attempting to classify pattern-forming gene subnetworks and exploring their potential mechanisms. However, the results are incomplete, as they rely on oversimplified models, limited classifications, and assumptions that may not hold in more complex or realistic scenarios.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Extrusion-modulated DnaA activity oscillations coordinate DNA replication with biomass growth

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Dengjin Li
   2. Hai Zheng
   3. Yang Bai
   4. Zheng Zhang
   5. Hao Cheng
   6. Xiongliang Huang
   7. Ting Wei
   8. Arieh Zaritsky
   9. Terence Hwa
   10. Chenli Liu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work provides valuable insights by introducing a post-translational extrusion mechanism that could reshape how we understand the coupling between DnaA activity and DNA-replication initiation. While solid evidence is presented for some of the key results, other claims rest on indirect proxies and could be improved.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Mycobacterium tuberculosis partitions the Krebs cycle to persist under iron starvation

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Agnese Serafini
   2. Acely Garza-Garcia
   3. Davide Sorze
   4. Luiz Pedro Sorio de Carvalho
   5. Riccardo Manganelli

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This well-designed, valuable study uses isotope tracing to analyse how iron limitation alters TCA cycle metabolism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, revealing potential antibiotic targets for non-replicating bacteria in the host. The findings provide insights into metabolic remodelling under iron-limited conditions. Whilst some of the evidence is solid, the data around the GABA shunt is incomplete, requiring genetic validation, as was done for the glyoxylate shunt. Questions remain about the underlying mechanisms and their specific role in M. tuberculosis pathogenesis.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Degradation of LMO2 in T cell leukaemia results in collateral breakdown of transcription complex partners and causes LMO2-dependent apoptosis

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. Naphannop Sereesongsaeng
    2. Carole JR Bataille
    3. Angela J Russell
    4. Nicolas Bery
    5. Fernando Sialana
    6. Jyoti Choudhary
    7. Ami Miller
    8. Terry H Rabbitts

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This paper reports the development of proteins and small molecules that drive bridge LMO2, an oncogenic transcription factor in T-ALL, to E3 ligases (Cereblon and VHL), and demonstrates their effectiveness in degrading FMO2, causing growth arrest and inducing apoptosis in T cell lines in vitro. The findings are valuable because they provide evidence that intrinsically disordered proteins can be targeted for degradation by PROTAC-type chemicals. The paper also provides a route for rational PROTAC design based on intracellular antibody paratopes. Overall, the paper is supported by solid evidence and will be of interest to chemical biologists and cancer pharmacologists.

    Reviewed by eLife