eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Permissive and instructive Hox codes govern limb positioning

   This article has 20 authors:

   1. Yajun Wang
   2. Maik Hintze
   3. Jinbao Wang
   4. Hengxun Tao
   5. Patrick Petzsch
   6. Karl Köhrer
   7. Longfei Cheng
   8. Peng Zhou
   9. Jianlin Wang
   10. Zhaofu Liao
   11. Xu-Feng Qi
   12. Dongqing Cai
   13. Thomas Bartolomaeus
   14. Karl Schilling
   15. Joerg Wilting
   16. Stefanie Kuerten
   17. Georgy Koentges
   18. Ketan Patel
   19. Qin Pu
   20. Ruijin Huang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides the first putative evidence that alteration of the Hox code in neck lateral plate mesoderm is sufficient to induce ectopic development of forelimb buds at neck level. The authors use both gain-of-function (GOF) and loss-of-function (LOF) approaches in chick embryos to test the roles of Hox paralogy group (PG) 4-7 genes in limb development. The GOF data provide strong evidence that overexpression of Hox PG6/7 genes are sufficient to induce forelimb buds at neck level. However, the experiments using dominant negative constructs are lacking some key controls that are needed to demonstrate the specificity of the LOF effect rendering the work as a whole incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Maternal behavior influences vocal practice and learning processes in the greater sac-winged bat

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Ahana Aurora Fernandez
   2. Nora Serve
   3. Sarah-Cecil Fabian
   4. Mirjam Knörnschild

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides insights into the role of maternal behavior in the learning and ontogeny of vocalization. It finds evidence that the maternal behavior of sac-winged bats (Saccopteryx bilineata) can influence the learned territorial songs of their pups. The behavioral analyses are convincing, using longitudinal acoustic recordings and behavioral monitoring of individual mother-pup pairs across development and multiple wild bat colonies. The work will be relevant to a broad audience interested in the evolution and development of social behavior as well as sensory-motor learning.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Prediction tendency, eye movements, and attention in a unified framework of neural speech tracking

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Juliane Schubert
   2. Quirin Gehmacher
   3. Fabian Schmidt
   4. Thomas Hartmann
   5. Nathan Weisz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     These are valuable findings for those interested in how neural signals reflect auditory speech streams, and in understanding the roles of prediction, attention, and eye movements in this tracking. However, the evidence as it stands is incomplete. Further analyses are needed to clarify how the observed results relate to the relevant theoretical claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Cholecystokinin modulates age-dependent thalamocortical neuroplasticity

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Xiao Li
   2. Jingyu Feng
   3. Xiaohan Hu
   4. Peipei Zhou
   5. Tao Chen
   6. Xuejiao Zheng
   7. Peter Jendrichovsky
   8. Xue Wang
   9. Mengying Chen
   10. Hao Li
   11. Xi Chen
   12. Dingxuan Zeng
   13. Mengfan Zhang
   14. Zhoujian Xiao
   15. Ling He
   16. Stephen Temitayo Bello
   17. Jufang He

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important study demonstrating that cholecystokinin is a key modulator of auditory thalamocortical plasticity during development and in young adult but not aged mice, though cortical application of this neuropeptide in older animals appears to go some way to restoring this age-dependent loss in plasticity. A strength of this work is the use of multiple experimental approaches, which together provide convincing support for the proposed involvement of cholecystokinin. This work is likely to be influential in opening up a new avenue of investigation into the roles of neuropeptides in sensory plasticity.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Reprograming gene expression in ‘hibernating’ C. elegans involves the IRE-1/XBP-1 pathway

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Melanie Lianne Engelfriet
   2. Yanwu Guo
   3. Andreas Arnold
   4. Eivind Valen
   5. Rafal Ciosk

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study reveals that as C. elegans, a poikilothermic ("cold-blooded") animal, adapt to cold (4ºC), they display a drastic reduction in translation (assessed by polysome profiling and SUNSET). The remaining translation (by ribo-seq) correlates with mRNA levels (by RNA-seq), and the changes in gene expression at least partially require IRE-1, an established endoplasmic reticulum stress sensor. The reviewers consider the data assessing global translation and RNA expression upon cold exposure and the data demonstrating the requirement of ire-1 to be solid, but the conclusion that "transcription" is the major regulatory step and "lipid changes" can be a signal for IRE-1 activation in cold adapted worms needs substantially more evidence. Overall, this study demonstrated a good correlation between translation and RNA levels and yielded an inventory of gene changes as C. elegans adapt to cold, and will be of general interest to researchers interested in stress response and cold adaptation.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Reconstructing the phylogeny and evolutionary history of freshwater fishes (Nemacheilidae) across Eurasia since early Eocene

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Vendula Bohlen Šlechtová
   2. Tomáš Dvořák
   3. Jörg Freyhof
   4. Maurice Kottelat
   5. Boris Levin
   6. Alexander Golubtsov
   7. Vlastimil Šlechta
   8. Joerg Bohlen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this important study, the authors reconstruct the evolutionary history of a large and widespread group of freshwater fishes (Nemacheilidae) across Eurasia since the early Eocene, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis with very comprehensive samplings including 471 specimens belonging to 250 living species. The authors convincingly infer that range expansions of the family were facilitated by tectonic connections, favorable climatic conditions, and orogenic processes, adding to our understanding of the effects of climatic change on biodiversity during the Cenozoic. This work is of interest to evolutionary biologists, ichthyologists, paleontologists, and general readers.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A host enzyme reduces metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) by inactivating intestinal lipopolysaccharide

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Zhiyan Wang
   2. Nore Ojogun
   3. Yiling Liu
   4. Lu Gan
   5. Zeling Xiao
   6. Jintao Feng
   7. Wei Jiang
   8. Yeying Chen
   9. Benkun Zou
   10. ChengYun Yu
   11. Changshun Li
   12. Asha Ashuo
   13. Xiaobo Li
   14. Mingsheng Fu
   15. Jian Wu
   16. Yiwei Chu
   17. Robert S Munford
   18. Mingfang Lu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study highlights the key role of the gut-liver axis mediated by LPS in causing hepatic steatosis. The authors provide solid evidence, in vivo, in vitro, and in silico, for the role of acyloxyacyl hydrolase in mediating this effect using KO mice subjected to MASD-inducing diets. The findings are significant for the liver research community and others interested in the gut-liver axis.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. The ciliary kinesin KIF7 controls the development of the cerebral cortex by acting differentially on SHH signaling in dorsal and ventral forebrain

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. María Pedraza
   2. Valentina Grampa
   3. Sophie Scotto-Lomassese
   4. Julien Puech
   5. Aude Muzerelle
   6. Azka Mohammad
   7. Sophie Lebon
   8. Nicolas Renier
   9. Christine Metin
   10. Justine Masson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides convincing evidence that the Kinesin protein family member KIF7 regulates the development of the cerebral cortex and its connectivity and the specificity of Sonic Hedgehog signaling by controlling the details of Gli repressor vs activator functions. This study provides new insights into general aspects of cortical development.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Mast cells promote pathology and susceptibility in tuberculosis

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Ananya Gupta
   2. Vibha Taneja
   3. Javier Rangel-Moreno
   4. Nilofer Naqvi
   5. Abhimanyu
   6. Yun Tao
   7. Mushtaq Ahmed
   8. Kuldeep Singh Chauhan
   9. Daniela Trejo-Ponce de Leon
   10. Gustavo Ramírez-Martínez
   11. Luis Jiménez-Alvarez
   12. Cesar Luna-Rivero
   13. Joaquin Zuniga
   14. Deepak Kaushal
   15. Shabaana A Khader

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this useful study, the authors utilize published scRNA-seq data to highlight the potential importance of mast cells (MCs) in TB granulomas, presenting a solid comparative assessment of chymase- and tryptase-expressing MCs in the lungs of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected individuals and non-human primates. While the authors appropriately discussed the inconsistencies across models, adoptive transfer experiments in MC-deficient mice would substantially strengthen the causal link between MCs and TB outcomes, providing more direct functional validation of the proposed role of MCs in TB pathogenesis.

   Reviewed by eLife, Arcadia Science

10. C-C chemokine receptor 4 deficiency exacerbates early atherosclerosis in mice

    This article has 10 authors:

    1. Toru Tanaka
    2. Naoto Sasaki
    3. Aga Krisnanda
    4. Hilman Zulkifli Amin
    5. Ken Ito
    6. Sayo Horibe
    7. Kazuhiko Matsuo
    8. Ken-ichi Hirata
    9. Takashi Nakayama
    10. Yoshiyuki Rikitake

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This valuable study provides in-vivo evidence that CCR4 regulates the early inflammatory response during atherosclerotic plaque formation. The authors propose that altered T-cell response plays a role in this process, shedding light on mechanisms that may be of interest to medical biologists, biochemists, cell biologists, and immunologists. The work is currently considered incomplete pending textual changes and the inclusion of proper controls.

    Reviewed by eLife