eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. IL-27 limits HSPC differentiation during infection and protects from stem cell exhaustion

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Daniel L Aldridge
   2. Zachary Lanzar
   3. Anthony T Phan
   4. David A Christian
   5. Ryan D Pardy
   6. Booki Min
   7. Ross Kedl
   8. Christopher A Hunter

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The article presents important findings describing the role of IL27 in maintaining HSCs at steady state, and in emergency haematopoiesis in response to T. goodii by limiting the inflammatory monocyte outcomes. The evidence provided are solid and support that IL27 acts at the level of HSCs and not downstream. This study will be of interest to immunologists and hematologists, as well as infectious disease researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Atomistic simulation of voltage activation of a truncated BK channel

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Zhiguang Jia
   2. Jianhan Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study addresses the structural basis of voltage-activation of BK channels using atomistic simulations of several microseconds, to assess conformational changes that underlie both voltage-sensing and gating of the pore. The findings, including movement of specific charged residues, combined with the degree to which these movements are coupled to pore movements, provide a solid basis for understanding voltage-gating mechanisms in this class of channels. This paper will likely be of interest to ion channel biologists and biophysicists focused on voltage-dependent channel gating mechanisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Single-cell transcriptomics of X-ray irradiated Drosophila wing discs reveals heterogeneity related to cell-cycle status and cell location

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Joyner Cruz
   2. William Y Sun
   3. Alexandra Verbeke
   4. Iswar K Hariharan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study uses standard single-cell RNA-seq analyses combined with methods from the social sciences to reduce heterogeneity in gene expression in Drosophila imaginal wing disc cells treated with 4000 rads of ionizing radiation. The use of this methodology from social sciences is novel in Drosophila and allows them to identify a subpopulation of cells that is disproportionately responsible for much of the radiation-induced gene expression. Their compelling analyses reveal genes that are expressed regionally after irradiation, including ligands and transcription factors that have been associated with regeneration, as well as others whose roles in response to irradiation are unknown. This paper would be of interest to researchers in the field of DNA damage responses, regeneration, and development.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Identification of the Regulatory Elements and Protein Substrates of Lysine Acetoacetylation

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Qianyun Fu
   2. Terry Nguyen
   3. Bhoj Kumar
   4. Parastoo Azadi
   5. Y George Zheng

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study reports a method to detect and analyze a novel post-translational modification, lysine acetoacetylation (Kacac), finding it regulates protein metabolism pathways. The study unveils epigenetic modifiers involved in placing this mark, including key histone acetyltransferases such as p300, and concomitant HDACs, which remove the mark. Proteomic and bioinformatics analysis identified many human proteins with Kacac sites, potentially suggesting broad effects on cellular processes and disease mechanisms. The data presented are solid and the study will be of interest to those studying protein and metabolic regulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. A high-throughput approach for the efficient prediction of perceived similarity of natural objects

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Philipp Kaniuth
   2. Florian P Mahner
   3. Jonas Perkuhn
   4. Martin N Hebart

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors show that an automated approach using artificial neural networks, which focuses on behaviourally relevant dimensions, can predict human similarity data up to a certain level of granularity. This study has the potential to be a valuable contribution to the broader field of cognitive computational neuroscience, as it provides a tool for the automated collection of similarity judgments under certain conditions. However, as of now, the significance of this method is somewhat limited because of its inability to generalise beyond between-category distinctions and the limited model evaluation. In terms of broader implications, the degree to which this work provides insights into DNN-brain alignment and a better understanding of the functional organisation of the visual system is supported by incomplete evidence.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Resilience of A Learned Motor Behavior After Chronic Disruption of Inhibitory Circuits

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Zsofia Torok
   2. Laura Luebbert
   3. Jordan Feldman
   4. Alison Duffy
   5. Alexander A Nevue
   6. Shelyn Wongso
   7. Claudio V Mello
   8. Adrienne Fairhall
   9. Lior Pachter
   10. Walter G Gonzalez
   11. Carlos Lois

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study demonstrates that silencing of inhibitory interneurons in zebra finch HVC, a premotor nucleus critical for song production, disrupts song. However, song naturally recovers in a way that is surprisingly independent of LMAN, a distinct premotor nucleus required for normal song plasticity. The authors provide solid evidence that disruption is associated with microglial activation, activation of MHCI, synaptic changes, and altered neural dynamics in HVC. However, the manuscript would benefit from a clearer narrative structure, contextualization of the microglial results, and quantitative analyses to fully characterize song syntax and recovery after LMAN lesions.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Convergent evolution of epigenome recruited DNA repair across the Tree of Life

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. J Grey Monroe
   2. Chaehee Lee
   3. Daniela Quiroz
   4. Mariele Lensink
   5. Satoyo Oya
   6. Matthew Davis
   7. Evan Long
   8. Kevin A Bird
   9. Alice Pierce
   10. Kehan Zhao
   11. Daniel Runcie

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper describes the study of the evolution of the N-terminal domain of the MSH6 mismatch repair protein in regard to the presence or absence of histone reader domains. While the presence of the histone reader domains was previously known, the phylogenetic analysis of these domains performed here establishing their insertion through convergent evolution is important, definitively done, and establishes an interesting feature of the MSH6 family of proteins. The work is convincing but the presentation of the structural features of MSH6 could be improved.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Auditory stimuli extend the temporal window of visual integration by modulating alpha-band oscillations

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Mengting Xu
   2. Biao Han
   3. Qi Chen
   4. Lu Shen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable insights into how auditory stimuli influence the temporal dynamics of visual perception by modulating brain rhythms (oscillations) in the alpha band. The authors present convincing evidence that auditory input induces a drop in visual alpha frequency, increasing the time window for audio-visual integration, and subsequently shifting the predictive role from prestimulus alpha frequency to alpha phase. The conclusions are well-supported by the combination of psychophysics, electrophysiological recordings (EEG), non-invasive brain stimulation (tACS), and computational modelling.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Δ133p53α and Δ160p53α isoforms of the tumor suppressor protein p53 exert dominant-negative effect primarily by co-aggregation

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Liuqun Zhao
   2. Tanel Punga
   3. Suparna Sanyal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates the molecular mechanisms by which the p53 isoforms Δ133p53α and Δ160p53α exert dominant-negative effects on full-length p53 (FLp53). Through a combination of chromatin immunoprecipitation, transcriptional reporter assays, subcellular localization analyses, and protein aggregation experiments, the authors provide solid evidence that these N-terminally truncated isoforms promote co-aggregation with FLp53, disrupting its transcriptional activity and cellular distribution. The revised manuscript successfully addresses prior reviewer concerns, and the findings are well supported by the experimental data.

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

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

10. Stimulus dependencies—rather than next-word prediction—can explain pre-onset brain encoding in naturalistic listening designs

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Inés Schönmann
    2. Jakub Szewczyk
    3. Floris P de Lange
    4. Micha Heilbron

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This fundamental study investigates whether neural prediction of words can be measured through pre-activation of neural network word representations in the brain; convincing evidence is provided that neural network representations of neighboring words are correlated in natural language. This study urges future studies to carefully differentiate between neural activity that predicts the upcoming word and neural activity that encodes the current words, which contain information that can be used to predict the upcoming word. The study is of potential interest to researchers investigating language encoding in the brain or in large language models.

    Reviewed by eLife