eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Kinetic regulation of kinesin’s two motor domains coordinates its stepping along microtubules

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yamato Niitani
   2. Kohei Matsuzaki
   3. Erik Jonsson
   4. Ronald D Vale
   5. Michio Tomishige

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides compelling evidence that kinesin's stepping mechanism is governed by strain-induced conformational changes in its nucleotide-binding pockets. Using pre-steady state kinetics and single-molecule assays, the authors demonstrate that the neck linker's conformation differentially modulates nucleotide affinity and detachment rates, establishing an asynchronous chemo-mechanical cycle that prevents simultaneous detachment. Supported by cryo-EM structural data, the work presents an important advance in our understanding of kinesin's hand-over-hand movement.

     [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

2. The title and authors for this article are not available from our external data provider yet:
   10.48550/arxiv.2303.14159v8

3. Movie reconstruction from mouse visual cortex activity

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Joel Bauer
   2. Troy W Margrie
   3. Claudia Clopath

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study uses state-of-the-art neural encoding and video reconstruction methods to achieve a substantial improvement in video reconstruction quality from mouse neural data, providing a convincing demonstration of how reconstruction performance can be improved by combining these methods. The findings showed that model ensembling and the number of neurons used for reconstruction were key determinants of reconstruction accuracy, but the theoretical contribution to understanding neural encoding was less clear. The treatment of how image masking improved reconstruction performance was also incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. The C3-C3aR axis modulates trained immunity in alveolar macrophages

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Alexander P. Earhart
   2. Rafael Aponte Alburquerque
   3. Marick Starick
   4. Aasritha Nallapu
   5. Lorena Garnica
   6. Ayse Naz Ozanturk
   7. Rahul Kumar Maurya
   8. Xiaobo Wu
   9. Jeffrey A. Haspel
   10. Hrishikesh S. Kulkarni

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study explores how complement protein C3 and its signalling may modulate immune training in alveolar macrophages. The findings are an important contribution to the field of trained immunity. The data presented is mainly solid, but incomplete in parts.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Contributions of insula and superior temporal sulcus to interpersonal guilt and responsibility in social decisions

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Maria Gädeke
   2. Tom Willems
   3. Omar Salah Ahmed
   4. Bernd Weber
   5. René Hurlemann
   6. Johannes Schultz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript provides valuable novel insights into the role of interpersonal guilt in social decision-making by showing that responsibility for a partner's bad lottery outcomes influences happiness. Through the integration of neuroimaging and computational modelling methods, and by combining findings from two studies, the authors provide solid support for their claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Characterization and modulation of human insulin degrading enzyme conformational dynamics to control enzyme activity

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jordan M Mancl
   2. Wenguang G Liang
   3. Nicholas L Bayhi
   4. Hui Wei
   5. Bridget Carragher
   6. Clinton S Potter
   7. Wei-Jen Tang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The manuscript by Mancl et al. provides valuable mechanistic insights into the conformational dynamics of Insulin Degrading Enzyme (IDE), a zinc metalloprotease involved in the clearance of various bioactive peptides. Supported by a convincing combination of cryo-EM, SEC-SAXS, enzymatic assays, and molecular dynamics simulations, the study characterizes the dynamic transitions between IDE's open and closed states in the presence of a sub-saturating concentration of insulin. This work contributes to a refined model of IDE's functional cycle, enhancing our understanding of its role in proteolysis.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. CRISPR-Edited DPSCs, Constitutively Expressing BDNF Enhance Dentin Regeneration in Injured Teeth

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ji Hyun Kim
   2. Muhammad Irfan
   3. Sreelekshmi Sreekumar
   4. Stephanie Kim
   5. Atsawasuwan Phimon
   6. Seung Chung

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides a potentially useful investigation into the positive role of BDNF/TrkB signaling in implanted dental pulp stem cells to enhance dentin regeneration in the context of dental caries. Some of the key methods used need to be much better documented, and the data should be strengthened and added to in support of several of the claims of functional benefit, which are inadequately supported at present. Additional details for the validation of the reagents and techniques are needed to support the interpretation of the results.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Molecular architecture of thylakoid membranes within intact spinach chloroplasts

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Wojciech Wietrzynski
   2. Lorenz Lamm
   3. William HJ Wood
   4. Matina-Jasemi Loukeri
   5. Lorna Malone
   6. Tingying Peng
   7. Matthew P Johnson
   8. Benjamin D Engel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The macromolecular organization of photosynthetic complexes within the thylakoids of higher plant chloroplasts has been a topic of significant debate. Using in situ cryo-electron tomography, this study reveals the native thylakoid architecture of spinach thylakoid membranes with single-molecule precision. The experimental methods are unique and compelling, providing important information for understanding the structural features that impact photosynthetic regulation in vascular plants and addressing several long-standing questions about the organization and regulation of photosynthesis.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Bcl11b orchestrates subcerebral projection neuron axon development via cell-autonomous, non-cell-autonomous, and subcellular mechanisms

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yasuhiro Itoh
   2. Mollie B. Woodworth
   3. Luciano C. Greig
   4. Anne K. Engmann
   5. Dustin E. Tillman
   6. John J. Hatch
   7. Jeffrey D. Macklis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important contribution to the field demonstrates the role of a single transcription factor with cell-autonomous functions in the differentiation of two distinct neuronal populations in regulating the interactions between those cells in a non-autonomous manner to generate their final organized projection pattern. There are additional quantifications and controls that would enhance the convincing nature of the study and would raise the strength of the evidence from incomplete if they were performed.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Fast and slow synaptic plasticity enables concurrent control and learning

    This article has 2 authors:

    1. Brendan A Bicknell
    2. Peter E Latham

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This paper provides an important proposal for why learning can be much faster and more accurate if synapses have a fast component that immediately corrects errors, as well as a slower component that corrects behavior averaged over a longer timescale. It is convincingly shown that integrating these two learning timescales improves performance compared to classical strategies, particularly in terms of robustness and generalization when learning new target signals. However, the biological plausibility and justification for the proposed rapid learning mechanism require further elaboration and supporting mechanistic examples.

    Reviewed by eLife