eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Out-of-balance Growth Enables Cost-free Synthesis of the Flagellum and Other Proteins in a Single Bacterium

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Mayra Garcia-Alcala
   2. Josiah C Kratz
   3. Philippe Cluzel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study addresses a discrepancy between population-level growth laws and single-cell correlations. It shows, for flagellar and synthetic genes in E. coli, that while gene expression of certain genes reduces population-average growth, expression levels positively correlate with growth at the single-cell level. The measurements are mostly convincing, and the proposed mechanism-inheritance of growth factors such as ribosomes during asymmetric division- explains this observation. The theoretical analysis would benefit from clearer explanations and robustness checks.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Retinotopic coding organizes the interaction between internally and externally oriented brain networks

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Adam Steel
   2. Peter A Angeli
   3. Caroline E Robertson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study addresses an important question about how large-scale brain networks interact, and specifically how the default mode network exchanges information with the sensory cortex. The analyses are sophisticated, but at present provide incomplete evidence for the claims made in the paper.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Visual Attention in The Fovea and The Periphery during Visual Search

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Jie Zhang
   2. Xiaocang Zhu
   3. Shanshan Wang
   4. Zhengyu Ma
   5. Hossein Esteky
   6. Yonghong Tian
   7. Robert Desimone
   8. Huihui Zhou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The valuable study aims to differentiate between foveal and peripheral attentional mechanisms in visual and frontal brain regions in monkeys engaged in a free-gaze visual search task. The authors interpret differences in responses between target and nontarget conditions as feature-based attention; however, this may not be the correct interpretation. The authors do not provide enough information on how they distinguish foveal and peripheral RFs. Consequently, the study provides only incomplete evidence that does not support the authors' conclusions, and the significance of the findings is not strong.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Membrane rupture and independent extension of sister membranes drive cytokinesis in C. elegans embryos

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Jingjing Liang
   2. Tingrui Huang
   3. Xun Huang
   4. Mei Ding

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this manuscript, based on electron microscopy observations of C. elegans embryos, the authors make the bold claim that the plasma membrane ruptures during cell division and that closure of this opening by membrane extension contributes to cytokinesis. Although the findings are potentially valuable, the evidence in support of the authors' claims is inadequate.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Synaptic vesicle undocking induces low frequency depression

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Melissa Silva
   2. Federico F Trigo
   3. Isabel Llano
   4. Alain Marty

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental work substantially advances our understanding of short-term plasticity mechanisms by providing evidence for release-independent low-frequency synaptic depression that reflects a redistribution of vesicles within the readily releasable pool, via a reduction in docking site occupancy due to vesicle undocking. The evidence supporting this model is convincing, with rigorous electrophysiological and computational analysis. The work will be of broad interest to cellular neuroscientists and synaptic physiologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Slap restricts oncogenic Src-family kinase signaling to maintain colonic epithelial homeostasis

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Dana Naim
   2. Zouheir Houhou
   3. Florent Cauchois
   4. Valérie Simon
   5. Francina Langa Vives
   6. Zeinab Homayed
   7. Conception Paul
   8. Michael Hahne
   9. Julie Pannequin
   10. Julie Nguyen
   11. Audrey Sirvent
   12. Serge Roche

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors previously identified SLAP as a key suppressor of the Src tyrosine kinase and a tumor suppressor. In this important study, the authors show SLAP functions in a cell-autonomous fashion in colon stem cells and propose solid evidence that SLAP reduces tumorigenesis by inhibiting an EphB2-SRC axis.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Transposons contribute to splice-isoform diversity in the Drosophila brain

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Malak Choucri
   2. Christoph D Treiber

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study addresses a timely question regarding the contribution of transposable elements to splice isoform diversity in the Drosophila brain, directly engaging with recent conflicting findings in the field. The work provides convincing evidence that TE-gene chimeric transcripts are detectable and that prior discrepancies largely arise from methodological differences in computational pipelines and experimental design. The combination of reanalysis, methodological clarification, and targeted validation represents a technical contribution that will be of interest to researchers studying transcriptome complexity and transposable elements. However, the strength of evidence would be further enhanced by increased methodological transparency, more rigorous experimental controls, and a more cautious interpretation of functional implications.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Adaptive evolution to thermal stress underpins climate resilience in a cosmopolitan arthropod

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Gaoke Lei
   2. Huiling Zhou
   3. Zongyao Ma
   4. Yating Duan
   5. Yanting Chen
   6. Fengluan Yao
   7. Minsheng You
   8. Liette Vasseur
   9. Geoff M Gurr
   10. Shijun You

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study deepens our understanding of how populations of a given species may diverge in their molecular and physiological patterns as a result of adaptation to different thermal regimes. By approaching this question from multiple directions, the authors provide solid evidence for adaptive changes in three strains of the diamondback moth after only three years of experimental evolution, and support the causal involvement of the PxSODC gene in thermal adaptation to both cold and hot temperatures. This work would benefit from more sophisticated phylogenetic analyses, better statistical support, and a more detailed discussion of the differences in the three strains at the pathway level.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Direction and orientation preferences in mouse superior colliculus and its retinal inputs exhibit a topography of cardinal biases atop locally mixed tuning

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Zhewen He
   2. María Florencia González Fleitas
   3. Raikhangul Gabdrashova
   4. Sylvia Schröder

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a potentially important work on the organization of visual information in the rodent superior colliculus. It reports that the selectivity of neurons to line orientation and motion in the visual image is largely governed by the sensitivities of retinal neurons and their ordered projection to the superior colliculus. If confirmed, these conclusions could substantially revise prior thinking in this field. However, in the present state, the methods and analysis are incomplete and cannot justify all the claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. A mechanistic theory of planning in prefrontal cortex

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Kristopher T Jensen
    2. Peter Doohan
    3. Mathias Sablé-Meyer
    4. Sandra Reinert
    5. Alon Baram
    6. Thomas Akam
    7. Timothy EJ Behrens

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important study advances our understanding of the neural substrate of planning trajectories towards a goal by using recurrent neural networks. The manuscript provides solid evidence for most of the claims, but it remains unclear whether the dynamics do indeed bear the defining characteristics of attractors, and the interpretation and scope of some claims may need to be reassessed in light of prior work. The work will be of broad interest to theoretical and systems neuroscientists and to cognitive scientists.

    Reviewed by eLife