eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Variation of malaria dynamics and its relationship to climate in western Kenya during 2008-2019: a wavelet approach

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Alexis Martin-Makowka
   2. Bryan O Nyawanda
   3. Anton Beloconi
   4. Godfrey Bigogo
   5. Sammy Khagayi
   6. Stephen Munga
   7. Patrick K Munywoki
   8. Ina Danquah
   9. Jürg Utzinger
   10. Penelope Vounatsou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The manuscript presents a useful analysis of the relationship between climate variables and malaria incidence, for local temperature and rainfall and the global climate driver of ENSO from 2008 to 2019 in a lowland region of East Africa, with wavelet analyses and linear regressions after time series decomposition. The paper is convincing albeit not novel in its application of wavelets to the analysis of this type of time series data for a vector-borne infection. It is less persuasive on what is learned about the role of climate variability (non-seasonal climate effects), and it is also unclear how the analysis informs climate change and malaria, and this motivation for the work is not warranted as it pertains to longer time scales than those considered. The work should be better placed in the context of what is known for malaria in East Africa and in different transmission settings.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Polyphosphate discriminates protein conformational ensembles more efficiently than DNA promoting diverse assembly and maturation behaviors

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Saloni Goyal
   2. Divya Rajendran
   3. Anup Kumar Mani
   4. Athi N Naganathan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript offers important insights into how polyphosphate (polyP) influences protein phase separation differently from DNA. The authors present compelling evidence that polyP distinguishes among protein conformational ensembles, leading to divergent condensate maturation behaviors that include unfolding and polyproline II formation. In response to reviewer feedback, the authors addressed key concerns by incorporating charge-equivalent DNA controls and extending structural analysis to FruR variants, further reinforcing the polymer-specific effects of polyP. While some discrepancies between protein systems remain unresolved, the study enhances our understanding of how biopolymers influence protein assembly and conformational transitions.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A dual ribosomal system in the zebrafish soma and germline

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Arish N Shah
   2. Friederike Leesch
   3. Laura Lorenzo-Orts
   4. Lorenz Grundmann
   5. Maria Novatchkova
   6. David Haselbach
   7. Eliezer Calo
   8. Andrea Pauli

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Shah and colleagues take advantage of the presence of maternal and somatic ribosomes in zebrafish and confirm their differential expression during development. The authors convincingly show that ribosomes previously found expressed during oogenesis are also expressed in primordial germ cells and that hybrid maternal and somatic ribosomes are formed during development. The question of ribosome heterogeneity, the expression and function of maternal versus somatically provided ribosomes are of broad interest and this fundamental work sets new directions for future functional studies of this interesting phenomenon.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Efficient coding explains neural response homeostasis and stimulus-specific adaptation

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Edward James Young
   2. Yashar Ahmadian

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work derives a valuable general theory unifying theories of efficient information transmission in the brain with population homeostasis. The general theory provides an explanation for firing rate homeostasis at the level of neural clusters with firing rate heterogeneity within clusters. Applying this theory to the primary visual cortex, the authors present solid evidence that accounts for stimulus-specific and neuron-specific adaptation. Reviewers have provided additional suggestions for improving the readability of the manuscript, as well as discussing previous results on adapting coding as well as those aspects of experimental data that are not fully explained by the present theory.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Psilocin fosters neuroplasticity in iPSC-derived human cortical neurons

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Malin Schmidt
   2. Anne Hoffrichter
   3. Mahnaz Davoudi
   4. Sandra Horschitz
   5. Thorsten Lau
   6. Marcus W Meinhardt
   7. Rainer Spanagel
   8. Julia Ladewig
   9. Georg Köhr
   10. Philipp Koch

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental study reports the effects of the psychedelic drug psilocin on iPSC-derived human cortical neurons, analyzing different aspects of structural and functional neuronal plasticity. The evidence is convincing, integrating a comprehensive characterization of 5-HT2A expression and its subcellular distribution upon treatment with psilocin at different time points. The study supports the value of using iPSC-derived human cortical neurons for testing the potentially translational effects of psilocin and other psychedelic-related compounds.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Evidence from pupillometry, fMRI, and RNN modelling shows that gain neuromodulation mediates task-relevant perceptual switches

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Gabriel Wainstein
   2. Christopher J Whyte
   3. Kaylena A Ehgoetz Martens
   4. Eli J Müller
   5. Vicente Medel
   6. Britt Anderson
   7. Elisabeth Stöttinger
   8. James Danckert
   9. Brandon R Munn
   10. James M Shine

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable paper explores the idea that transient modulations of neural gain promote switches between distinct perceptual interpretations of ambiguous stimuli. The authors provide solid evidence for this idea by pupillometry (an indirect proxy of neuromodulatory activity), fMRI, neural network modeling, and dynamical systems analyses. The highly integrative nature of this approach is rare in the field.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. In vivo imaging of inferior olive neurons reveals roles of co-activation and cerebellar feedback in olivocerebellar signaling

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Da Guo
   2. Marylka Yoe Uusisaari

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a valuable study, tackling the long-standing issue of the difficulty in imaging the inferior olive and addressing the most relevant questions with a rigorous approach. The technological advance allowed the authors to generate solid experimental evidence with high-quality data. The results are presented clearly and the analyses are rigorous.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Nup107 is a crucial regulator of torso-mediated metamorphic transition in Drosophila melanogaster

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jyotsna Kawadkar
   2. Pradyumna Ajit Joshi
   3. Ram Kumar Mishra

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study presents findings on the developmental roles of Nup107, a key nucleoporin, in regulating the larval-to-pupal transition in Drosophila melanogaster through its involvement in ecdysone signaling. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is solid, with robust experimental approaches including RNAi knockdown and rescue experiments. The authors propose that Nup107 influences EcR localization indirectly by reducing the expression of Halloween genes, a consequence of impaired Torso signaling. However, it remains uncertain whether Torso is the sole receptor tyrosine kinase involved, and this disruption ultimately leads to decreased ecdysone production. In addition, finding a mechanism would strengthen the findings as the currently proposed mechanism is not completely supported by the data.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Cytosolic Carboxypeptidase 5 maintains mammalian ependymal multicilia to ensure proper homeostasis and functions of the brain

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Rubina Dad
   2. Yujuan Wang
   3. Chuyu Fang
   4. Yuncan Chen
   5. Yuan Zhang
   6. Xinwen Pan
   7. Xinyue Zhang
   8. Emily Swanekamp
   9. Krish Patel
   10. Matthias TF Wolf
   11. Zhiguang Yuchi
   12. Xueliang Zhu
   13. Hui-Yuan Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a valuable study that explores the function of CCP5 in mouse ependymal cells. The methods, data, and analyses broadly support the claims. However, the study is incomplete as it stands. Minor weaknesses remain and the authors may wish to address them.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Distinct representational properties of cues and contexts shape fear and reversal learning

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Antoine Bouyeure
    2. Daniel Pacheco-Estefan
    3. George Jacob
    4. Malte Kobelt
    5. Marie-Christin Fellner
    6. Jonas Rose
    7. Nikolai Axmacher

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This is an important study with convincing evidence that multi-voxel fMRI activity patterns for threat-conditioned stimuli are altered by learning CS-US contingencies. The analyses are dense, but rigorous. The protocol is quite nuanced and complex, but the authors have done a fair job of explaining and presenting the results. The work is relevant for our understanding of how effective learning changes neural stimulus representation in the human brain.

    Reviewed by eLife