eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Movie reconstruction from mouse visual cortex activity

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Joel Bauer
   2. Troy W Margrie
   3. Claudia Clopath

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study uses state-of-the-art neural encoding and video reconstruction methods to achieve a substantial improvement in video reconstruction quality from mouse neural data. It provides a convincing demonstration of how reconstruction performance can be improved by combining these methods. The goal of the study was improving reconstruction performance rather than advancing theoretical understanding of neural processing, so the results will be of practical interest to the brain decoding community.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The C3-C3aR axis modulates trained immunity in alveolar macrophages

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Alexander P Earhart
   2. Rafael Aponte Alburquerque
   3. Marick Starick
   4. Aasritha Nallapu
   5. Lorena Garnica
   6. Ayse Naz Ozanturk
   7. Rahul Kumar Maurya
   8. Xiaobo Wu
   9. Jeffrey A Haspel
   10. Hrishikesh S Kulkarni

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study explores how complement protein C3 and its signalling may modulate immune training in alveolar macrophages. The findings are an important contribution to the field of trained immunity. The data presented is mainly solid, but incomplete in parts.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Contributions of insula and superior temporal sulcus to interpersonal guilt and responsibility in social decisions

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Maria Gädeke
   2. Tom Eric Willems
   3. Omar Salah Ahmed
   4. Bernd Weber
   5. Rene Hurlemann
   6. Johannes Schultz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript provides valuable novel insights into the role of interpersonal guilt in social decision-making by showing that responsibility for a partner's bad lottery outcomes influences happiness. Through the integration of neuroimaging and computational modelling methods, and by combining findings from two studies, the authors provide solid support for their claims. The findings will be of interest to researchers in the field of social neuroscience and decision making.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Characterization and modulation of human insulin degrading enzyme conformational dynamics to control enzyme activity

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Jordan M Mancl
   2. Wenguang G Liang
   3. Nicholas L Bayhi
   4. Hui Wei
   5. William C Budell
   6. Joshua H Mendez
   7. Tobin R Sosnick
   8. Bridget Carragher
   9. Clinton S Potter
   10. Wei-Jen Tang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The manuscript by Mancl et al. provides important mechanistic insights into the conformational dynamics of Insulin Degrading Enzyme (IDE), a zinc metalloprotease involved in the clearance of amyloid peptides. Supported by a compelling combination of time-resolved cryo-EM, SEC-SAXS, enzymatic assays, and both all-atom and coarse-grained simulations, the study reveals an insulin-induced allosteric transition and transient β-sheet interactions underlying IDE's unfoldase activity, thereby refining our understanding of IDE's functional cycle and offering a structural framework for developing substrate-selective modulators of M16 metalloproteases. The latest round of revisions further improves clarity and presentation by updating structural statistics, correcting minor textual inconsistencies, and refining supplemental materials, fully addressing the remaining reviewer comments.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. CRISPR-edited DPSCs constitutively expressing BDNF enhance dentin regeneration in injured teeth

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ji Hyun Kim
   2. Muhammad Irfan
   3. Sreelekshmi Sreekumar
   4. Atsawasuwan Phimon
   5. Stephanie Kim
   6. Seung Chung

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study on the effect of the trophic factor BDNF upon dental cells is an understudied subject that is relevant to dental regeneration and repair. Given that the topic is new and has not been covered previously, the report is a useful foray into a new area of investigation, although several experimental results could be strengthened. The connection of BDNF and dental health is a solid attempt in potentially translating trophic factor signaling clinically, which has been stymied in past efforts.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Molecular architecture of thylakoid membranes within intact spinach chloroplasts

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Wojciech Wietrzynski
   2. Lorenz Lamm
   3. William HJ Wood
   4. Matina-Jasemi Loukeri
   5. Lorna Malone
   6. Tingying Peng
   7. Matthew P Johnson
   8. Benjamin D Engel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The macromolecular organization of photosynthetic complexes within the thylakoids of higher plant chloroplasts has been a topic of significant debate. Using in situ cryo-electron tomography, this study reveals the native thylakoid architecture of spinach thylakoid membranes with single-molecule precision. The experimental methods are unique and compelling, providing important information for understanding the structural features that impact photosynthetic regulation in vascular plants and addressing several long-standing questions about the organization and regulation of photosynthesis.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Bcl11b orchestrates subcerebral projection neuron axon development via cell-autonomous, non-cell-autonomous, and subcellular mechanisms

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yasuhiro Itoh
   2. Mollie B Woodworth
   3. Luciano C Greig
   4. Anne K Engmann
   5. Dustin E Tillman
   6. John J Hatch
   7. Jeffrey D Macklis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important contribution to the field demonstrates the role of a single transcription factor with cell-autonomous functions in the differentiation of two distinct neuronal populations in regulating the interactions between those cells in a non-autonomous manner to generate their final organized projection pattern. There are additional quantifications and controls that would enhance the study and would improve the strength of the evidence from incomplete if they were performed.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Fast and slow synaptic plasticity enables concurrent control and learning

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Brendan A Bicknell
   2. Peter E Latham

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper provides an important proposal for why learning can be much faster and more accurate if synapses have a fast component that immediately corrects errors, as well as a slower component that corrects behavior averaged over a longer timescale. It is convincingly shown that integrating these two learning timescales improves performance compared to classical strategies, particularly in terms of robustness and generalization when learning new target signals. However, the biological plausibility and justification for the proposed rapid learning mechanism require further elaboration and supporting mechanistic examples.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. The myeloid cell-driven transdifferentiation of endothelial cells into pericytes promotes the restoration of BBB function and brain self-repair after stroke

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Tingbo Li
   2. Ling Yang
   3. Jiaqi Tu
   4. Yufan Hao
   5. Zhu Zhu
   6. Yingjie Xiong
   7. Qingzhu Gao
   8. Lili Zhou
   9. Guanglei Xie
   10. Dongdong Zhang
   11. Xuzhao Li
   12. Yuxiao Jin
   13. Yiyi Zhang
   14. Bingrui Zhao
   15. Nan Li
   16. Xi Wang
   17. Jie-Min Jia

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study aims to understand the role of endothelial cell differentiation into pericytes in the restoration of blood-brain barrier function after ischemic stroke. Identification of pericytes derived from endothelial cells and the involvement of myeloid cell-derived TGFβ1 signaling are compelling new findings, but future studies will be needed to validate the origin and nature of these pericytes. The work will be of interest to blood-brain barrier and basic and translational stroke researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Optogenetic control of Protein Kinase C-epsilon activity reveals its intrinsic signaling properties with spatiotemporal resolution

    This article has 17 authors:

    1. Qunxiang Ong
    2. Crystal Jing Yi Lim
    3. Yilie Liao
    4. Justin Tze-Yang Ng
    5. Ler Ting Rachel Lim
    6. Shernys Xuan Yi Koh
    7. Sher En Chan
    8. Pheobe Lee Yu Ying
    9. Huijun Lim
    10. Chen Rui Ye
    11. Loo Chien Wang
    12. Siok Ghee Ler
    13. Radoslaw M Sobota
    14. Yaw Sing Tan
    15. Gerald I Shulman
    16. Xiaoyong Yang
    17. Weiping Han

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This manuscript introduces Opto-PKCε, an optogenetic tool that enabled important findings derived from interactome and phosphoproteome studies. Light-dependent recruitment of Opto-PKCε to the plasma membrane revealed the specific phosphorylation of the insulin receptor at Thr 1160. In turn, recruitment to mitochondria led to phosphorylation of the complex I subunit NDUFS4, correlating with reduced spare respiratory capacity. The evidence supporting these conclusions is solid, although additional clarification on data analysis would further enhance readability.

    Reviewed by eLife