eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The capsule and genetic background, rather than specific individual loci, strongly influence in vitro pneumococcal growth kinetics

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Chrispin Chaguza
   2. Daan W Arends
   3. Stephanie W Lo
   4. Indri Hapsari Putri
   5. Anna York
   6. John A Lees
   7. Anne L Wyllie
   8. Daniel M Weinberger
   9. Stephen D Bentley
   10. Marien I de Jonge
   11. Amelieke JH Cremers

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important study that examines the impact of Streptococcus pneumoniae genetics on its in vitro growth kinetics, aiming to identify potential targets for vaccines and therapeutics. The study identified significant variations in growth characteristics among capsular serotypes and lineages, linked to phylogeny and high heritability, but genome-wide association studies did not reveal specific genomic loci associated with growth features independent of the genetic background. The evidence supporting these findings is convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Dynamic modulation of social gaze by sex and familiarity in marmoset dyads

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Feng Xing
   2. Alec G Sheffield
   3. Monika P Jadi
   4. Steve WC Chang
   5. Anirvan S Nandy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study establishes a methodology (machine vision and gaze pose estimation) and behavioral apparatus for examining social interactions between pairs of marmoset monkeys. It has been difficult to study social interactions using artificial stimuli rather than genuine interactions between unrestrained animals. This study makes a fundamental contribution to social neuroscience research in a laboratory setting. Their results are convincing showing that the study of unrestrained social interactions is possible with detailed quantification of position and gaze. The methodology presented here is relevant to research in social neuroscience, neuroethology, and primatology.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Relationship between cognitive abilities and mental health as represented by cognitive abilities at the neural and genetic levels of analysis

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Yue Wang
   2. Richard Anney
   3. Narun Pat

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study examines the relationship between cognition and mental health and investigates how brain, genetics, and environmental measures mediate that relationship. The methods and results are compelling and well-executed. Overall, this study will be of interest in the field of population neuroscience and in studies of mental health.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. A gradual transition toward categorical representations along the visual hierarchy during working memory, but not perception

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Chaipat Chunharas
   2. Michael J Wolff
   3. Meike D Hettwer
   4. Rosanne L Rademaker

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study examined orientation representations along the visual hierarchy during perception and working memory. The authors provide results suggesting that during working memory there is a gradient where representations are more categorical in nature later in the visual hierarchy. The evidence presented is solid, most notably a match between behavioral data, though minor weakness can be attributed to the tasks and behaviors not being designed to address this question. The findings should be of interest to a relatively broad audience, namely those interested in the relationship between sensory coding and memory.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Synaptic connectivity of sensorimotor circuits for vocal imitation in the songbird

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Massimo Trusel
   2. Ziran Zhao
   3. Danyal H Alam
   4. Ethan S Marks
   5. Maaya Z Ikeda
   6. Todd F Roberts

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The songbird vocal motor nucleus HVC contains cells that project to the basal ganglia, the auditory system, or to downstream vocal motor structures. In this fundamental study, the authors conduct optogenetic circuit mapping to clarify how four distinct inputs to HVC act on these distinct HVC cell types. They provide compelling evidence that all long range projections engage inhibitory circuits in HVC and can also exhibit cell-type specific preferences in monosynaptic input strength. Understanding HVC at this microcircuit level is critical for constraining models of song learning and production.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Distancing alters the controllability of emotional states by affecting both intrinsic stability and extrinsic sensitivity

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Jolanda Malamud
   2. Quentin Huys

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important manuscript proposes a dual behavioral/computational approach to assess emotional regulation in humans. The authors present solid evidence for the idea that emotional distancing (as routinely used in clinical interventions for e.g. mood and anxiety disorders) enhances emotional control.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The title and authors for this article are not available from our external data provider yet:
   10.48550/arxiv.2404.17495v2

8. Probing metazoan polyphosphate biology using Drosophila reveals novel and conserved polyP functions

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Sunayana Sarkar
   2. Harsha Sharma
   3. SK Yasir Hosen
   4. Jayashree S Ladke
   5. Sandra Moser
   6. Deepa Balasubramanian
   7. Sreejith Raran-Kurussi
   8. Henning J Jessen
   9. Rashna Bhandari
   10. Manish Jaiswal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Studying the biological roles of polyphosphates in metazoans has been a longstanding challenge to the field given that the polyP synthase has yet to be discovered in metazoans. This important study capitalizes on the sophisticated genetics available in the Drosophila system and uses a combination of methodologies to start to tease apart how polyphosphate participates in Drosophila development and in the clotting of Drosophila hemolymph. The data validating one of these tools (cyto-FLYX ) are solid and well-documented and they will open up a field of research into the functional roles of polyP in a metazoan model. The other tools for tissue specific knockdown of polyP (Mito-FLYX, ER-FLYX, and Nuc-FLYX) have not yet been validated but will be invaluable to the field when they are.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Genome organization by SATB1 binding to base-unpairing regions (BURs) provides a scaffold for SATB1-regulated gene expression

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Yoshinori Kohwi
   2. Xianrong Wong
   3. Mari Grange
   4. Thomas Sexton
   5. Hunter W Richards
   6. Yohko Kitagawa
   7. Shimon Sakaguchi
   8. Ya-Chen Liang
   9. Cheng-Ming Chuong
   10. Vladimir A Botchkarev
   11. Ichiro Taniuchi
   12. Karen L Reddy
   13. Terumi Kohwi-Shigematsu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a very important study in which the authors have modified ChIP-seq and 4C-seq with a urea step, which drastically changes the pattern of chromatin interactions observed for SATB1, but not other proteins (including CTCF). The study highlights that the urea protocols provide a complementary view of protein-chromatin interactions for some proteins, which can uncover previously hidden, functionally significant layers of chromatin organization. If applied more widely, these protocols may significantly further our understanding of chromatin organization. The study's findings are supported by a wealth of controls, making the evidence compelling.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The antigenic landscape of N1 neuraminidase in human influenza A virus strains isolated between 2009 and 2020

    This article has 18 authors:

    1. João Paulo Portela Catani
    2. Anouk Smet
    3. Tine Ysenbaert
    4. Laura Amelinck
    5. Yvonne Chan
    6. Dan Tadmor
    7. Philip Davidson
    8. Satyajit Ray
    9. Eric Camire
    10. Liqun Han
    11. Jianxin Zhang
    12. Guadalupe Cortés
    13. Katherine Roebke
    14. Bianca Baum
    15. John Hamberger
    16. Maryann Giel-Moloney
    17. Xavier Saelens
    18. Thorsten U Vogel

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      Catani and colleagues provide data on antigenic properties of neuraminidase proteins of pandemic H1N1 and show that antigenic diversity of the neuraminidase from 2009 to 2020 largely falls into two groups. These antigenic groups map to two phylogenetic groups, and substitutions at positions 432 and 321 are likely associated with the antigenic change. These data and results allow useful insights into the antigenic properties of N1 influenza and the evidence supporting the conclusions is solid.

    Reviewed by eLife