eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Altered thymic niche synergistically drives the massive proliferation of malignant thymocytes

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Erika Tsingos
   2. Advaita M Dick
   3. Baubak Bajoghli

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study combines agent-based modelling and in vivo experiments in medaka embryos to provide new insights into the role of the thymic niche in T cell development. The modelling yields some interesting and solid findings regarding the importance of thymic epithelial cells. This study would be of interest to oncologists, immunologists, and mathematical modelers.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Identifying in vivo genetic dependencies of melanocyte and melanoma development

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Sarah Perlee
   2. Yilun Ma
   3. Miranda V Hunter
   4. Jacob B Swanson
   5. Nelly M Cruz
   6. Zhitao Ming
   7. Julia Xia
   8. Timothee Lionnet
   9. Maura McGrail
   10. Richard M White

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important manuscript introduces a genetic tool utilizing mutant mitfa-Cas9 expressing zebrafish to knockout genes to analyze melanocyte function in development and tumorigenesis. The data are convincing and the authors cover potential caveats from their model that might impact its utility for future work. This work significantly adds to the existing approaches in the field, as the mitfa:Cas9 strategy taken here provides a roadmap for generating similar platforms for using other tissue-specific regulators and Cas proteins in the future.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Transcranial direct current stimulation modulates primate brain dynamics across states of consciousness

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Guylaine Hoffner
   2. Pablo Castro
   3. Lynn Uhrig
   4. Camilo Miguel Signorelli
   5. Morgan Dupont
   6. Jordy Tasserie
   7. Alain Destexhe
   8. Rodrigo Cofre
   9. Jacobo Sitt
   10. Béchir Jarraya

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study applies transcranial direct current stimulation (tCDS) to the prefrontal cortex of non-human primates during two states: (1) propofol-induced unconsciousness; and (2) wakeful performance of a fixation task. The analysis offers incomplete evidence to indicate that the effect of tDCS on brain dynamics, as recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging, is contingent on the state of consciousness during which the stimulation is applied. The findings will be of interest to researchers interested in brain stimulation and consciousness.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Motor biases reflect a misalignment between visual and proprioceptive reference frames

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Tianhe Wang
   2. J Ryan Morehead
   3. Amber Jiang
   4. Richard B Ivry
   5. Jonathan S Tsay

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study uses an original method to address the longstanding question of why reaching movements are often biased. The combination of a wide range of experimental conditions and computational modeling is a strength. Convincing evidence is presented in support of the main claim that most of the biases in 2-D movement planning originate in misalignment between visuo-proprioceptive reference frames.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Outer hair cells stir cochlear fluids

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Choongheon Lee
   2. Mohammad Shokrian
   3. Kenneth S Henry
   4. Laurel H Carney
   5. J Christopher Holt
   6. Jong-Hoon Nam

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Although others have proposed that OHC electromotility subserves cochlear amplification by acting as a "fluid pump", and evidence for this has been found using electrical stimulation of excised cochleae, this important study substantially advances our understanding of cochlear homeostasis. This is the first report to test the pumping effect in vivo and consider its implications for cochlear homeostasis and drug delivery. The manuscript provides convincing evidence for OHC-based fluid flow within the cochlea.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. The olfactory receptor SNIF-1 mediates foraging for leucine-enriched diets in C. elegans

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ritika Siddiqui
   2. Nikita Mehta
   3. Gopika Ranjith
   4. Marie-Anne Félix
   5. Changchun Chen
   6. Varsha Singh

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work is the first to suggest a model that the nematode C. elegans prefers specific bacteria (its major food source) that release high amounts of the known attractant isoamyl alcohol when supplemented with exogenous leucine and has also identified a likely receptor for the odorant isoamyl alcohol. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, and the manuscript would be improved by changes to the text that clarify and address the distinction between "supplemented" versus "enriched". The renaming of srd-12 to snif-1 should also be addressed.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Automatic learning mechanisms for flexible human locomotion

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Cris Rossi
   2. Kristan Leech
   3. Ryan Roemmich
   4. Amy J Bastian

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study introduces a novel split-belt treadmill learning task to reveal distinct and parallel learning sub-components of gait adaptation: slow and gradual error-based perceptual realignment, and a more deliberate and flexible "stimulus-response" style learning process. The behavioural results convincingly support the presence of a non-error-based learning process during continuous movements, and the computational modelling provides comprehensive further evidence for establishing this learning process. These results will be of interest for the broader motor learning community.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Sensitivity to visual features in inattentional blindness

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Makaela Nartker
   2. Chaz Firestone
   3. Howard Egeth
   4. Ian Phillips

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable findings to the field interested in inattentional blindness (IB), the phenomenon that participants fail to notice salient stimuli when their attention is directed elsewhere. This study reveals that participants who indicate no awareness of unexpected stimuli through yes/no questions ("did you notice anything unusual?"), may still show above-chance sensitivity to specific properties of these stimuli through follow-up forced-choice questions (e.g., regarding its location or color). By introducing absent trials where no IB stimulus is presented, the authors show that this is because participants are generally conservative and biased to report not noticing in inattentional blindness experiments. The evidence supporting these conclusions is convincing, the samples sizes are large and the analysis protocol is novel.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Menopausal hormone therapy and the female brain: Leveraging neuroimaging and prescription registry data from the UK Biobank cohort

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Claudia Barth
   2. Liisa AM Galea
   3. Emily G Jacobs
   4. Bonnie H Lee
   5. Lars T Westlye
   6. Ann-Marie G de Lange

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This observational study from the UK Biobank provides an important investigation into the associations between menopausal hormone therapy and brain health in a large, population-based cohort of females in the UK. A convincing model of brain aging using an open source algorithm is used. While some modest adverse brain health characteristics were associated with current mHT use and older age at last use, the findings do not support a general neuroprotective effect of mHT nor severe adverse effects on the female brain. This work addresses a topic that is of grave importance since menopausal hormone therapy and its effect on the brain should be better understood in order to provide individualized effective medical support to women going through menopause.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Host-derived Lactobacillus plantarum alleviates hyperuricemia by improving gut microbial community and hydrolase-mediated degradation of purine nucleosides

    This article has 26 authors:

    1. Yang Fu
    2. Xiao-Dan Luo
    3. Jin-Ze Li
    4. Qian-Yuan Mo
    5. Xue Wang
    6. Yue Zhao
    7. You-Ming Zhang
    8. Hao-Tong Luo
    9. Dai-Yang Xia
    10. Wei-Qing Ma
    11. Jian-Ying Chen
    12. Li-Hau Wang
    13. Qiu-Yi Deng
    14. Lukuyu Ben
    15. Muhammad Kashif Saleemi
    16. Xian-Zhi Jiang
    17. Juan Chen
    18. Kai Miao
    19. Zhen-Ping Lin
    20. Peng Zhang
    21. Hui Ye
    22. Qing-Yun Cao
    23. Yong-Wen Zhu
    24. Lin Yang
    25. Qiang Tu
    26. Wence Wang

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      The landmark significance of this manuscript is based on the mechanistic description of purine metabolism by Lactobacillus plantarum, which helps to alleviate hyperuricemia, which is a phenotype that underlies multiple disease symptoms. The evidence provided for L. plantarum's involvement in reducing hyperuricemia was exceptional, combining microbiomics, whole genomics, in vitro bacterial culture, gene knock-outs, and metabolomics. Collectively, the study shows a clear link between the gut microbiota and hyperuricemia, providing a pathway for modification to help alleviate this condition.

    Reviewed by eLife