Latest preprint reviews

1. Statistical learning beyond words in human neonates

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Ana Fló
   2. Lucas Benjamin
   3. Marie Palu
   4. Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The manuscript provides important new insights into the mechanisms of statistical learning in early human development, showing that statistical learning in neonates occurs robustly and is not limited to linguistic features but occurs across different domains. The evidence is convincing, although an additional experimental manipulation with conflicting linguistic and non-linguistic information as well as further discussion about the linguistic vs non-linguistic nature of the stimulus materials would have strengthened the manuscript. The findings are highly relevant for researchers working in several domains, including developmental cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, linguistics, and speech pathology.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Comparative analysis of the syncytiotrophoblast in placenta tissue and trophoblast organoids using snRNA sequencing

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Madeline M Keenen
   2. Liheng Yang
   3. Huan Liang
   4. Veronica J Farmer
   5. Rohit Singh
   6. Amy S Gladfelter
   7. Carolyn B Coyne

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study is important - not only for its comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of the developmental trajectory of syncytiotrophoblasts (STBs), but also for its comparative evaluation of primary human placental tissues and two human trophoblast organoid models. The study highlights the utility of these organoid models in advancing research on human STB biology. The conclusions of this work are supported by compelling analyses and experimental evidence.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Multi-gradient Permutation Survival Analysis Identifies Mitosis and Immune Signatures Steadily Associated with Cancer Patient Prognosis

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Xinlei Cai
   2. Yi Ye
   3. Xiaoping Liu
   4. Zhaoyuan Fang
   5. Luonan Chen
   6. Fei Li
   7. Hongbin Ji

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper contains valuable ideas for methodology concerned with the identification of genes associated with disease prognosis in a broad range of cancers. However, there are concerns that the statistical properties of MEMORY are incompletely investigated and described. Further, more precise details about the implementation of the method would increase the replicability of the findings by other researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. RNase III in Salmonella Enteritidis enhances bacterial virulence by reducing host immune responses

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Bill Kwan-wai Chan
   2. Yingxue Li
   3. Hongyuhang Ni
   4. Edward Wai-chi Chan
   5. Xin Deng
   6. Linfeng Huang
   7. Sheng Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study examines the function of the rnc gene, which encodes the RNase III ribonuclease, as it relates to virulence of Salmonella Enteritidis. The authors demonstrate that the rnc gene is markedly upregulated in strains proposed to exhibit high virulence and that the product of the rnc gene promotes the expression of SodA, which contributes to the survival of Salmonella Enteritidis in the face of oxidative stress. The study also suggests that elevated levels of rnc gene expression assist Salmonella Enteritidis in evading immune responses by diminishing the presence of accumulated double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), although the evidence substantiating this and the above assertions remains incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Risking your Tail: Modeling Individual Differences in Risk-sensitive Exploration using Bayes Adaptive Markov Decision Processes

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Tingke Shen
   2. Peter Dayan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Shen et al. present a computational account of individual differences in mouse exploration when faced with a novel object in an open field from a previously published study (Akiti et al.) that relates subject-specific intrinsic exploration and caution about potential hazards to the spectrum of behaviors observed in this setting. Overall, this computational study is an important contribution that leverages a very general modeling framework (a Bayes Adaptive Markov Decision Process) to quantify and interrogate distinct drivers of exploratory behavior under potential threat. Given their assumptions, the modeling results are convincing: the authors are able to describe a substantial amount of the behavioral features and idiosyncracies in this dataset, and their model affords a normative interpretation related to inherent risk aversion and predation hazard "flexibility" of individual animals and should be of broad interest to researchers working to understand open-ended exploratory behaviors.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Structural and functional insights into Cdc45 recruitment by Sld7– Sld3 for CMG complex formation

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Hao Li
   2. Izumi Ishizaki
   3. Koji Kato
   4. XiaoMei Sun
   5. Sachiko Muramatsu
   6. Hiroshi Itou
   7. Toyoyuki Ose
   8. Hiroyuki Araki
   9. Min Yao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable paper describes the crystal structure of a complex of Sld3-Cdc45-binding domain (CBD) with Cdc45, which is essential for the assembly of an active Cdc45- MCM-GINS (CMG) double hexamers at the replication origin. Although the results shown in the paper are of interest to researchers in DNA replication and genome stability, the biochemical analysis of protein-protein interaction and DNA binding is incomplete, and the paper needs additional data and revised discussion.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Cellular and circuit features distinguish dentate gyrus semilunar granule cells and granule cells activated during contextual memory formation

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Laura Dovek
   2. Krista Marrero
   3. Edward Zagha
   4. Vijayalakshmi Santhakumar

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The aim of this useful study is to investigate the role of semilunar granule cells on memory engrams in the dentate gyrus. Which cells get recruited during contextual memory processing is a timely and significant question. However, evidence for the study's major conclusions is currently incomplete due to caveats in study design, technical limitations, and missing controls.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. DNA O-MAP uncovers the molecular neighborhoods associated with specific genomic loci

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Yuzhen Liu
   2. Christopher D McGann
   3. Mary Krebs
   4. Thomas A Perkins
   5. Rose Fields
   6. Conor K Camplisson
   7. David Z Nwizugbo
   8. Chris Hsu
   9. Shayan C Avanessian
   10. Ashley F Tsue
   11. Evan E Kania
   12. David M Shechner
   13. Brian J Beliveau
   14. Devin K Schweppe

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable new method for probing the DNA and proteins associated with targeted genomic elements in cells. The authors present solid evidence that the method can map DNA-DNA interactions for individual loci and can detect enriched proteins at repetitive DNA loci such as telomeres, but benchmarks of the method's resolution and specificity remain incomplete. The methodological details of this study will be of particular interest and utility to chromatin biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Target protein identification in live cells and organisms with a non-diffusive proximity tagging system

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Yingjie Sun
   2. Changheng Li
   3. Xiaofei Deng
   4. Wenjie Li
   5. Xiaoyi Deng
   6. Weiqi Ge
   7. Miaoyuan Shi
   8. Ying Guo
   9. Yanxun V Yu
   10. Hai-Bing Zhou
   11. Youngnam N Jin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study presents important findings that reveal SEPHS2 and VPS37C as new potential drug targets for dasatinib and hydroxychloroquine respectively in addition to confirming known targets of these drugs. The evidence provided is solid, however, some of the claims are not fully supported by the data. To enhance the conclusions and readability, the writing clarity, data analysis and justification of experimental design rationale need to be worked on to enhance the study's interest among chemical biologists, biochemists, and scientists in drug discovery.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Terminal tracheal cells of Drosophila are immune privileged to maintain their Foxo-dependent structural plasticity

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Judith Bossen
    2. Reshmi Raveendran
    3. Jingjing He
    4. Thomas Roeder

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This is a valuable report of tracheal terminal cells (TTCs) in Drosophila being immune privileged. The authors demonstrated that TTCs lack the expression of membrane-associated peptidoglycan recognition receptor PGRP-LC, which protects these cells from activating immune pathway or JNK-mediated cell death to maintain TTC homeostasis. While genetic experiments using RNAi and overexpression are mostly convincing, the data on the expression of PGRP-LCx and cell death phenotypes following immune activation are currently incomplete. The work will be of interest to researchers in innate immunity across various model systems.

    Reviewed by eLife