eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Spatial frequency adaptation modulates population receptive field sizes

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Ecem Altan
   2. Catherine A Morgan
   3. Steven C Dakin
   4. D Samuel Schwarzkopf

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This well-designed study combining psychophysical and fMRI data presents a valuable finding regarding how adaptation alters spatial frequency processing in the cortex. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although inclusion of more participants and better quality of the fMRI data would have strengthened the study. The study will be of interest to cognitive and perceptual neuroscientists working on human and non-human primates.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Sequence action representations contextualize during early skill learning

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Debadatta Dash
   2. Fumiaki Iwane
   3. William Hayward
   4. Roberto F Salamanca-Giron
   5. Marlene Bönstrup
   6. Ethan R Buch
   7. Leonardo G Cohen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study asks how the neural representation of individual finger movements changes during the early periods of sequence learning. By combining a new method for extracting features from human magnetoencephalography data and decoding analyses, the authors provide solid evidence of an early, swift change in the brain regions correlated with sequence learning, including a set of previously unreported frontal cortical regions. The authors also show that offline contextualization during short rest periods is the basis for improved performance. Further confirmation of these results on multiple movement sequences would further strengthen the key claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Molecular characterization of gustatory second-order neurons reveals integrative mechanisms of gustatory and metabolic information

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Rubén Mollá-Albaladejo
   2. Manuel Jiménez-Caballero
   3. Juan Antonio Sanchez-Alcaniz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable insights into the organization of second-order circuits of gustatory neurons, particularly in how these circuits integrate opposing taste inputs and are modulated by metabolic state to regulate feeding behavior. Through an elegant combination of complementary techniques, the authors identify the target neurons involved in gustatory integration. The evidence supporting their conclusions is convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. A biofilm-tropic Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophage uses the exopolysaccharide Psl as receptor

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Brenna Walton
   2. Serena Abbodante
   3. Michaela Ellen Marshall
   4. Justyna M Dobruchowska
   5. Amani Alvi
   6. Larry A Gallagher
   7. Nikhil Vallikat
   8. Zhemin Zhang
   9. Daniel J Wozniak
   10. Edward W Yu
   11. Geert-Jan Boons
   12. Eric Pearlman
   13. Arne Rietsch

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study identifies a novel bacteriophage that can use the exopolysaccharide Psl of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to infect and disrupt biofilms. The work is convincing and suggests a novel approach to control biofilms that is relevant to researchers working on biofilms, specifically in Pseudomonas, on phage physiology and discovery, and on alternatives to controlling bacterial pathogens.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Endogenous FGFs drive ERK-dependent cell fate patterning in 2D human gastruloids

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Kyoung Jo
   2. Zong-Yuan Liu
   3. Gauri Patel
   4. Zhiyuan Yu
   5. LiAng Yao
   6. Seth Teague
   7. Craig Johnson
   8. Jason Spence
   9. Idse Heemskerk

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work is an important contribution to understanding the role of FGF signaling in the induction of primitive-like cells in a 2D system of human gastrulation. The authors provide compelling evidence showing that endogenous FGF ligands, acting through FGF receptors localized basolaterally, are determinant in the acquisition of specific cell fates. These observations will be of broad relevance to the FGF field.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. A macroevolution-inspired approach to reveal novel antibiotic resistance mechanisms

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Fernanda T Subtil
   2. Teresa FG Machado
   3. Holly Douglas
   4. Joanna M Kirkpatrick
   5. Mark Skehel
   6. Acely Garza-Garcia
   7. Luiz Pedro S de Carvalho

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study introduces an approach to discovering antibiotic resistance determinants by leveraging diverse susceptibility profiles among related mycobacterial species, with particular relevance to high-level resistance against natural product-derived antibiotics. The research provides convincing evidence for the role of ADP-ribosylation enzymes in rifamycin resistance among mycobacteria, whilst also demonstrating that antibiotic susceptibility is not correlated with growth rate or intracellular compound concentration. Although some broader claims require additional experimental support, this work lays a significant foundation for understanding the complexity of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in mycobacteria and opens new avenues for future antimicrobial research.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Coordinated Tbx3/Tbx5 transcriptional control of the adult ventricular conduction system

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Ozanna Burnicka-Turek
   2. Katy A Trampel
   3. Brigitte Laforest
   4. Michael T Broman
   5. Xinan H Yang
   6. Zoheb Khan
   7. Eric Rytkin
   8. Binjie Li
   9. Ella Schaffer
   10. Margaret Gadek
   11. Kaitlyn M Shen
   12. Igor R Efimov
   13. Ivan P Moskowitz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The work presented is important for our understanding of the development of the cardiac conduction system and its regulation by T-box transcription factors. The conclusions are supported by convincing data. Overall this is an excellent study that advances our understanding of cardiac biology and has implications beyond the immediate field of study.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Adaptive Integration of Perceptual and Reward Information in an Uncertain World

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Prashanti Ganesh
   2. Radoslaw M Cichy
   3. Nicolas W Schuck
   4. Carsten Finke
   5. Rasmus Bruckner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study by Ganesh and colleagues examined how both the value and salience of sensory information can affect economic decision-making. The results provide insights into how different sources of uncertainty found in the real world, including those related to the perception of objects and those related to values associated with objects, can together influence decision-making behavior in systematic ways. The evidence is solid but overlaps with previous studies and could be improved by clarifying novelty and experimental details and considering additional models.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Competition for the conserved branch point sequence influences physiological outcomes in pre-mRNA splicing

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Karen Larisssa Pereira de Castro
   2. Jose M Abril
   3. Kuo-Chieh Liao
   4. Haiping Hao
   5. John Paul Donohue
   6. William K Russell
   7. William S Fagg

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important manuscript provides insights into the competition between Splicing Factor 1 (SF1) and Quaking (QKI) for binding at the ACUAA branch point sequence in a model intron, regulating exon inclusion. The study employs convincing, rigorous transcriptomic, proteomic, and reporter assays, with both mammalian cell culture and yeast models.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The Shigella flexneri effector IpaH1.4 facilitates RNF213 degradation and protects cytosolic bacteria against interferon-induced ubiquitylation

    This article has 9 authors:

    1. Luz Saavedra-Sanchez
    2. Mary S Dickinson
    3. Shruti S Apte
    4. Yifeng Zhang
    5. Maarten De Jong
    6. Samantha Skavicus
    7. Nicholas S Heaton
    8. Neal M Alto
    9. Jorn Coers

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      In this manuscript, the authors report the fundamental finding that a secreted ubiquitin ligase of Shigella, called IpaH1.4, mediates the degradation of a host defense factor, RNF213. The data are convincing and represent a major contribution to our understanding of cell-autonomous immunity and bacterial pathogenesis as they provide new mechanistic insight into how the cytosolic bacterial pathogen Shigella flexneri evades IFN-induced host immunity.

    Reviewed by eLife