eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Multi-Scale Anti-Correlated Neural States Dominate Naturalistic Whole-Brain Activity

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Dora Gözükara
   2. Djamari Oetringer
   3. Nasir Ahmad
   4. Linda Geerligs

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript presents a novel investigation of organizational principles governing brain activity at both global and local scales during naturalistic viewing paradigms, an important advance for theoretical neuroscience, functional neuroimaging, and neurology. The authors demonstrate that brain activity during naturalistic viewing is dominated by two anti-correlated states that toggle between each other with a third transitional state mediating between them. The evidence supporting this finding is compelling, with the successful replication across three independent datasets (StudyForrest, NarrattenTion, and CamCAN) a particular strength.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Improved sensory representations as a result of temporal adaptation

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Amber Marijn Brands
   2. Zilan Oz
   3. Nikolina Vukšić
   4. Paulo Ortiz
   5. Iris Isabelle Anna Groen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study examined how sensory adaptation supports visual perception in the presence of noise. The authors used a combination of human psychophysics, electroencephalography (EEG), and deep neural networks to show that adaptation to noise can improve perception. The results are solid but are, at present, weakened by a number of concerns, including some related to the experimental design and some regarding the interpretation of the results in terms of particular mechanisms. With these concerns adequately addressed, the study and conclusions would be likely to be of broad interest to the neuroscience community.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Ventromedial striatal dopamine dynamically integrates motivated action and reward proximity

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Eugenia Z Poh
   2. Nicky L Buitelaar
   3. Gino Hulshof
   4. Lucie Mazé
   5. Pieter N de Greef
   6. Georgios Zaverdinos
   7. Ingo Willuhn

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript describes a series of studies using four different Go/No Go task variants in combination with fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to determine the role of dopamine release in the ventromedial striatum in action selection, controllability of reward pursuit, effort, and reward approach. The authors conclude that dopamine signals in the ventromedial striatum integrate the invigoration of action initiation with continuous estimation of spatial, but not temporal, proximity to rewards. There are, however, a number of concerns regarding methodology that could affect the interpretation of the results. Thus, while the findings are useful, they are considered incomplete, with the primary claims only partially supported.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Conformational Changes of the ABC Transporter BmrA Depend on Membrane Curvature

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Alicia Damm
   2. Kemil Belhadji
   3. Raj Kumar Sadhu
   4. Su-Jin Paik
   5. Aurélie Di-Cicco
   6. John Manzi
   7. Michele Castellana
   8. Raju Regmi
   9. Emmanuel Margeat
   10. Maxime Dahan
   11. Pierre Sens
   12. Daniel Lévy
   13. Patricia Bassereau

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study investigates whether the activity of an ABC transporter, BmrA, can be modulated by mechanical stimuli. The authors develop a single-molecule experimental system to address this question, although aspects of the methodological framework are incomplete. This work also develops a convincing theoretical model to explain the effect of membrane curvature on the conformational transitions observed during the activity cycle of this membrane protein. This study is of interest to the fields of membrane biophysics and membrane transport.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. In extracto cryo-EM reveals eEF2 as a major hibernation factor on 60S and 80S particles

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Zahra Seraj
   2. Ximena Zottig
   3. Chun-Ying Huang
   4. Anna B Loveland
   5. Stephen Diggs
   6. Emily Sholi
   7. Nikolaus Grigorieff
   8. Andrei A Korostelev

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this important work, it is demonstrated that certain high-resolution cryo-EM structures can be obtained by using concentrated cell extracts without purification. The compelling results with the mammalian ribosomes demonstrate the utility of this approach for this molecule and complexes with elongation factor 2. Moreover, this work also demonstrates the utility of 2D template matching for particle picking for structure determination by single-particle averaging pipelines.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Bone marrow hemogenic endothelial cells contribute multilineage hematopoietic progenitors in adult mice

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jing-Xin Feng
   2. Mei-Ting Yang
   3. Caiyi C. Li
   4. Ferenc Livák
   5. Abdalla Abdelmaksoud
   6. Dunrui Wang
   7. Giovanna Tosato

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study proposed hemogenic endothelium in adult BM using lineage tracing. Though the study is potentially valuable, the data is incomplete due to the lack of control and insufficient analysis. There is potential for the study to be improved by further revision.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. FRG1 Regulates Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay by Modulating UPF1 Levels

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Ananya Palo
   2. Talina Mohapatra
   3. Anamika Singh
   4. Shithij Thalakkat
   5. Suryasikha Mohanty
   6. Rajeeb Kumar Swain
   7. Manjusha Dixit

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study by Palo et al proposes that FRG1 functions as a negative regulator of Nonsense-Mediated mRNA decay (NMD) by associating with the exon junction complex (EJC) and destabilizing UPF1 independently of DUX4. The authors present solid evidence to dissect the relationship between FRG1 and DUX4 in NMD. However, the evidence to support the claim that FRG1 is a component of the EJC or the NMD machinery is incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Maternal SETDB1 enables development beyond cleavage stages by extinguishing the MERVL-driven 2-cell totipotency transcriptional program in the mouse embryo

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Tie-Bo Zeng
   2. Zhen Fu
   3. Mary F Majewski
   4. Ji Liao
   5. Marie Adams
   6. Piroska E Szabó

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on maternal SETDB1 as a key chromatin repressor that shuts down the 2C gene program and enables normal mouse embryonic development. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although the inclusion of a causality test, a mechanistic understanding of SETDB1 targeting, and phenotypic quantification would have greatly strengthened the study. The work will be of broad interest to biologists working on embryonic development, stem cells and gene regulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Cell cycle-resolved Hi-C reveals unexpected plasticity of A/B compartments across interphase

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Linda Choubani
   2. Hisashi Miura
   3. Takako Ichinose
   4. Asami Oji
   5. Rory T Cerbus
   6. Ichiro Hiratani

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript provides valuable insight into how genome organization changes as cells progress through the cell cycle after mitotic exit. The conclusions are supported by solid, rigorous data, and the use of sorted unsynchronized cells rather than cells treated with drugs is a particular strength. Two sharp genome remodeling events are identified at G1-S and to a lesser extent, at S-G2 transitions. A discussion on the limitations of Hi-C and a broader interpretation of results in the context of other mechanistic models would strengthen the overall rigor.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Jam2 Signaling Functions Downstream of Hand2 To Initiate The Formation Of Organ-Specific Vascular Progenitors In Zebrafish

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Martyna Griciunaite
    2. Julius Martinkus
    3. Sanjeeva Metikala
    4. Ricardo DeMoya
    5. Suman Gurung
    6. Diandra Rufin Florat
    7. Saulius Sumanas

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important study addresses the question of how organ-specific blood vessels form during different stages of development, and how specific genes may regulate these processes. New genetic tools were developed to label distinct endothelial cell populations and track them over time in different mutant backgrounds. The results are solid; however, additional data quantification, lineage tracing, and cell autonomy experiments would further strengthen the conclusions.

    Reviewed by eLife