eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Spatiotemporal relationships between extreme weather events and arbovirus transmission across Brazil

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Victoria M Cox
   2. Felipe Campos de Melo Iani
   3. Wes Hinsley
   4. Pedro S Peixoto
   5. Flavio Codeço Coelho
   6. Carlos Augusto Prete
   7. Megan O’Driscoll
   8. Neil Ferguson
   9. Samir Bhatt
   10. Nuno R Faria
   11. Ilaria Dorigatti

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable findings from a spatiotemporal analysis of arbovirus case notification data from 2013 to 2020 in Brazil, reporting associations between covariates representing potential drivers of arbovirus transmission and recorded incidence. The work is methodologically solid, though it is unclear how much explanatory power inclusion of the covariates adds. The findings will be of interest to researchers working on the epidemiology of arboviruses.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Currentscape analysis of dendritic inputs during place field dynamics

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Bence Fogel
   2. Balázs B Ujfalussy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study offers a valuable advance for neuroscience by extending a visualization tool that enables intuitive assessment of how dendritic and synaptic currents shape the output of neurons. The evidence supporting the tool's capabilities is convincing and solid, with well-documented code, algorithmic innovation, and application to hippocampal pyramidal neurons - although experimental confirmation of the predictions is not provided. The work will be of interest to computational and systems neuroscientists seeking accessible methods to examine dendritic computations.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Multi-timescale neural adaptation underlying long-term musculoskeletal reorganization

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Roland Philipp
   2. Yuki Hara
   3. Naohito Ohta
   4. Naoki Uchida
   5. Tomomichi Oya
   6. Tetsuro Funato
   7. Kazuhiko Seki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates how the nervous system adapts to changes in body mechanics using a tendon transfer surgery that imposes a mismatch between muscle contraction and mechanical action. Using electromyography (EMG) to track muscle activity in two macaque monkeys, the authors conclude that there is a two-phase recovery process that reflects different underlying strategies. However, neither monkey's data includes a full set of EMG and kinematic measurements, and the two datasets are not sufficiently aligned with each other from a behavioural point of view; as a result, the evidence supporting the conclusions is solid but could be improved.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Synaptic density and relative connectivity conservation maintain circuit stability across development

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ingo Fritz
   2. Feiyu Wang
   3. Ricardo Chirif
   4. Nikos Malakasis
   5. Julijana Gjorgjieva
   6. André Ferreira Castro

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors have performed a potentially valuable new kind of analysis in connectomics, mapping to an interesting developmental problem of synaptic input to sensory neurons. While the analysis itself is solid, the authors have drawn broader conclusions than are directly supported by the presented data. With more measured claims and greater clarity and explanations for the analysis, the study could potentially become stronger.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. The titin N2A-MARP signalosome constrains muscle longitudinal hypertrophy in response to stretch

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Robbert van der Pijl
   2. Jochen Gohlke
   3. Joshua Strom
   4. Eva Peters
   5. Shengyi Shen
   6. Stefan Conijn
   7. Zaynab Hourani
   8. Stephan Lange
   9. Ju Chen
   10. Paul Langlais
   11. Siegfried Labeit
   12. Henk Granzier
   13. Coen Ottenheijm

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study presents important insights into the regulation of muscle hypertrophy, regulated by Muscle Ankyrin Repeat Proteins (MARPs) and mTOR. The methods are overall solid and complementary, with only minor limitations. Overall, the findings will be of interest for both muscle-biology specialists and the broader mechanobiology community.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Quinolines interfere with heme-mediated activation of artemisinins

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Melissa R Rosenthal
   2. Daniel E Goldberg

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study is important as it demonstrates that 4-aminoquinoline antimalarials antagonize artemisinin activity under physiologically relevant conditions. Using isogenic parasite lines and a chemical probe, the authors provide mechanistic insight and compelling evidence implicating PfCRT in this antagonism. However, some weaknesses have been identified that limit full interpretation of the findings, which are based solely on in vitro assays, though the results have implications that will be of importance in optimizing future antimalarial combination strategies.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. vassi – verifiable, automated scoring of social interactions in animal groups

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Paul Nührenberg
   2. Aneesh PH Bose
   3. Alex Jordan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents vassi, a Python package that streamlines the preparation of training data for machine-learning-based classification of social behaviors in animal groups. This package is a valuable resource for researchers with computational expertise, implementing a framework for the detection of directed social interactions within a group and an interactive tool for reviewing and correcting behavior detections. However, the strength of evidence that the method is widely applicable remains incomplete, performance on benchmark dyadic datasets is comparable to existing approaches, and performance scores on collective behavioral datasets are low. While the package can analyze behavior in large groups of animals, it only outputs dyadic interactions within these groups and does not account for behaviors where more than two animals may be interacting.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Abnormal shear stress induces ferroptosis in endothelial cells via KLF6 downregulation

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jingang Cui
   2. Zhiyu Fan
   3. Suoqi Ding
   4. Jiazhen Zhang
   5. Huihong Shen
   6. Syeda Armana Zaidi
   7. Yongsheng Ding

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable findings on the role of KLF6 in in vitro endothelial cells exposed to altered (high or low) shear stress with a customized microfluidic device to investigate mechanisms of atherosclerosis. The finding that altered shear stress results in endothelial cell ferroptosis through reduced expression of KLF6 is compelling and adds a new layer of complexity to the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic plaques. However, the inclusion of an arterial cell line and re-evaluation of the statistical tests used would strengthen the authors' conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Unbend: Correction of local beam-induced sample motion in cryo-EM images using a 3D spline model

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Lingli Kong
   2. Ximena Zottig
   3. Johannes Elferich
   4. Nikolaus Grigorieff

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper describes Unbend - a new method for measuring and correcting motions in cryo-EM images, with a particular emphasis on more challenging in situ samples such as lamella and whole cells. The method, which fits a B-spline model using cross-correlation-based local patch alignment of micrograph frames, represents a valuable tool for the cryo-EM community. The authors elegantly use 2D template matching to provide solid evidence that Unbend outperforms the previously reported method of Unblur by the same authors. The paper would benefit from the inclusion of a similar analysis for established alternative methods, such as MotionCor2.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. A Novel 3D Visualization Method in Mice Identifies the Periportal Lamellar Complex (PLC) as a Key Regulator of Hepatic Ductal and Neuronal Branching Morphogenesis

    This article has 10 authors:

    1. Tongtong Xu
    2. Fujun Cao
    3. Ruihan Zhou
    4. Qin Chen
    5. Jian Zhong
    6. Yulin Wang
    7. Chaoxin Xiao
    8. Banglei Yin
    9. Chong Chen
    10. Chengjian Zhao

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study identifies the Periportal Lamellar Complex (PLC), an important new structure revealed by a novel 3D imaging method. However, the evidence supporting its distinct cellular identity and functional role is currently incomplete, as it relies on transcriptomic re-analysis and correlation without direct experimental validation. Addressing the key issues of methodological rigor and providing functional evidence is essential to fully substantiate these significant claims.

    Reviewed by eLife