eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A novel high-throughput single-cell DNA sequencing method reveals hidden genomic heterogeneity in the unicellular eukaryote Leishmania

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Gabriel H Negreira
   2. Pieter Monsieurs
   3. Jean-Claude Dujardin
   4. Malgorzata A Domagalska

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study, which tackles the challenge of analyzing genome integrity and instability in unicellular pathogens by introducing a novel single-cell genomics approach, presents compelling evidence that this new tool outperforms standard whole-genome amplification techniques. While thorough and rigorous, the work's impact would increase by providing scripts and data, as well as a description of the biological relevance that would make this method more appealing to the broad community studying genetic heterogeneity in diverse organisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Disruption of theta-timescale spiking impairs learning but spares hippocampal replay

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Abhilasha Joshi
   2. Alison E Comrie
   3. Samuel Bray
   4. Abhijith Mankili
   5. Jennifer A Guidera
   6. Rhino Nevers
   7. Xulu Sun
   8. Emily Monroe
   9. Viktor Kharazia
   10. Ryan Ly
   11. Daniela Astudillo Maya
   12. Denisse Morales-Rodriguez
   13. Jai Yu
   14. Anna Kiseleva
   15. Victor Perez
   16. Loren M Frank

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study employs a closed-loop, theta-phase-specific optogenetic manipulation of medial septal parvalbumin-expressing neurons in rats and reports that disrupting theta-timescale coordination impairs performance of challenging aspects of spatial behaviors, while sparing hippocampal replay and spatial coding in hippocampal place cells. The findings are expected to advance theoretical understanding of learning and memory operations and to provide practical implications for the application of similar optogenetic approaches. The experiments were viewed as technically rigorous, but the strength of evidence provided in the current version of the manuscript was viewed as incomplete, mostly due to limited analyses and the descriptions of some of the experimental protocols.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. The long non-coding RNA Dreg1 is required for optimal ILC2 development

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Sara Quon
   2. Adelynn Tang
   3. Nadia Iannarella
   4. Kael Schoffer
   5. Wing Fuk Chan
   6. Timothy M Johanson
   7. Ajithkumar Vasanthakumar
   8. Rhys S Allan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a useful study that investigates the role of the long non-coding RNA Dreg1 for the development, differentiation, or maintenance of group 2 ILC (ILC2). The authors generate Dreg1-/- mice and show a reduction of group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2). However, the strength of evidence supporting the impact of Dreg1 on Gata3 expression, a transcription factor required for ILC2 cell fate decisions, and the cell-intrinsic requirement of Dreg1 for ILC2 remain incomplete. This study will be of interest to immunologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Symmetric brain-liver circuits mediate lateralized regulation of hepatic glucose output

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Zhonglong Wang
   2. Xiangfei Gong
   3. Li Jiang
   4. Ke Wang
   5. Xinyuan Sun
   6. Yingxi Li
   7. Mengtong Ran
   8. Yanshen Chen
   9. Hongdong Wang
   10. Xuehui Chu
   11. Shun Wang
   12. Junjie Wang
   13. Xiao Zheng
   14. Haiping Hao
   15. Hao Xie

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript proposes a lateralized, lobe-specific brain-liver sympathetic neurocircuit regulating hepatic glucose metabolism and presents anatomical evidence for sympathetic crossover at the porta hepatis using viral tracing and neuromodulation approaches. While the topic is of important significance and the methodologies are, in principle, state-of-the-art, significant concerns regarding experimental design, incomplete methodological reporting, sparse and ambiguous labeling, and overi-nterpretation of the data substantially weaken support for the study's central conclusions, thereby limiting the study's completeness. The work will be of interest to biologists, clinicians, and physiologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Conformational Variability of HIV-1 Env Trimer and Viral Vulnerability

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Yiwei Cao
   2. Wonpil Im

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this useful study, the authors conducted an impressive amount of atomistic simulations with a realistic asymmetric lipid bilayer to probe how the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env) transmembrane domain, cytoplasmic tail, and membrane environment influence ectodomain orientation and antibody epitope exposure. The simulations convincingly show that ectodomain motion is dominated by tilting relative to the membrane and explicitly demonstrate the role of membrane asymmetry in modulating the protein conformation and orientation. However, due to the qualitative nature of the conducted analyses, the evidence for the coupling between membrane-proximal regions and the antigenic surface is considered incomplete. With stronger integration of prior experimental and computational literature, this work has the potential to serve as a reference for how Env behaves in a realistic, glycosylated, membrane-embedded context.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Impaired Adaptive Learning in Chronic Pain Contributes to Apathy

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Xinyuan Yan
   2. Crina M Peterson
   3. Lisa M Schmidt
   4. Seth Koenig
   5. Donald R Nixdorf
   6. Alexander Herman
   7. David P Darrow

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides a useful application of computational modelling to examine how people with chronic pain learn under uncertainty, contributing to efforts to link pain with motivational processes. However, the evidence supporting the main claims is incomplete, as the modelling differences are not reflected in observable behaviour or pain measures, and the interpretation extends beyond what the data can substantiate. The conclusions would benefit from a clearer explanation of the behavioural differences that underlie the computational findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Pathogen-Phage Geomapping to Overcome Resistance

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Camilla Do
   2. Keiko C Salazar
   3. Justin R Clark
   4. Austen L Terwilliger
   5. Paul Ruchhoeft
   6. Paul Nicholls
   7. Anthony W Maresso

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study establishes a workflow based on environmental sampling for the discovery of bacteriophages capable of infecting antibiotic-resistant pathogens. The experimental design, analysis, and results demonstrating the effectiveness of the workflow are convincing, although a broader sampling scheme and more careful framing of the data within the current limitations of viral taxonomy could strengthen the work. This study will interest researchers working on bacterial infections, environmental microbiology, and phage-based alternatives for addressing antimicrobial resistance.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Dissociable neural substrates of integration and segregation in exogenous attention

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yu-Jie Chen
   2. Ai-Su Li
   3. Yang Yu
   4. Su Hu
   5. Xun He
   6. Yang Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides the first direct neuroimaging evidence for the integration-segregation theory of exogenous attention underlying inhibition of return, using an optimized IOR-Stroop fMRI paradigm to dissociate integration and segregation processes and to demonstrate that attentional orienting modulates semantic- and response-level conflict processing. Although the empirical evidence is compelling, clearer justification of the experimental logic, more cautious framing of behavioral and regional interpretations, and greater transparency in reporting and presentation are needed to strengthen the conclusions. The work will be of broad interest to researchers investigating visual attention, perception, cognitive control, and conflict processing.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Comparative developmental transcriptomics of Drosophila mushroom body neurons highlights the mevalonate pathway as a regulator of axon growth

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Lora Fahdan
   2. Hagar Meltzer
   3. Noa Wigoda
   4. Ron Rotkopf
   5. Oren Schuldiner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work contributes a transcriptional dataset that identifies potential genes involved in axon initial growth and axon regrowth, followed by a characterization of axon phenotypes after knockdown of a subset of these genes. Focused experiments on a single gene, Pmvk, highlight the potential role of the mevalonate pathway in axon regrowth. The methods are convincing, though partially incomplete. The data establish a basis for further studies on axonal development and will be of interest to both developmental neurobiologists and those seeking to develop molecular tools to target, monitor, and manipulate axon morphology and function.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Prior cocaine use disrupts identification of hidden states by single units and neural ensembles in orbitofrontal cortex

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Wenhui Zong
    2. Lauren E Mueller
    3. Zhewei Zhang
    4. Jingfeng Zhou
    5. Geoffrey Schoenbaum

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important work shows that a history of cocaine self-administration disrupts the orbitofrontal cortex's ability to encode similarities between distinct sensory stimuli that possess identical task information - hidden states. The evidence supporting these conclusions is compelling, with methods and analyses spanning self-administration, a novel 'figure 8' sequential odor task, recordings from 3,881 single units, and sophisticated firing analyses revealing complex orbitofrontal representations of task structure. These results will be of broad interest to psychologists, neuroscientists, and clinicians.

    Reviewed by eLife