eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. High-content high-resolution microscopy and deep learning-assisted analysis reveals host and bacterial heterogeneity during Shigella infection

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ana Teresa López-Jiménez
   2. Dominik Brokatzky
   3. Kamla Pillay
   4. Tyrese Williams
   5. Gizem Özbaykal Güler
   6. Serge Mostowy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript describes an AI-automated microscopy-based approach to characterize both bacterial and host cell responses associated with Shigella infection of epithelial cells. The methodology is compelling and should be helpful for investigators studying a variety of intracellular pathogens. The authors have acquired important findings regarding host and bacterial responses in the context of infection, which should be followed up with further mechanistic-based studies.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Adverse impact of female reproductive signaling on age-dependent neurodegeneration after mild head trauma in Drosophila

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Changtian Ye
   2. Ryan Ho
   3. Kenneth H Moberg
   4. James Q Zheng

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors have presented an interesting set of results showing that female sex peptide signaling adversely affects late-life neurodegeneration after early-life exposure to repetitive mild head injury in Drosophila. This fundamental work substantially advances our understanding of how sex-dependent response to TBI occurs by identifying the Sex Peptide and the immune system as modulators of sex differences. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling with rigorous inclusion of controls and appropriate statistics.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Improved base editing and functional screening in Leishmania via co-expression of the AsCas12a ultra variant, a T7 RNA polymerase, and a cytosine base editor

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Nicole Herrmann May
   2. Anh Cao
   3. Annika Schmid
   4. Fabian Link
   5. Jorge Arias-del-Angel
   6. Elisabeth Meiser
   7. Tom Beneke

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important article describes a meticulously-developed improved strategy for generation of functionally null mutants in Leishmania spp. via cytosine base editing, with reduced background toxicity and enhanced efficiency relative to a previously-described method. The authors show use of the strategy in a small-scale loss-of-function screen, providing compelling evidence that large-scale screens will be possible. The newly developed tools will be of great interest to researchers working with Leishmania and beyond.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Postural adaptations may contribute to the unique locomotor energetics seen in hopping kangaroos

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Lauren Thornton
   2. Taylor Dick
   3. John R Hutchinson
   4. Glen A Lichtwark
   5. Craig P McGowan
   6. Jonas Rubenson
   7. Alexis Wiktorowicz-Conroy
   8. Christofer J Clemente

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable biomechanical analysis of kangaroo kinematics and kinetics across a range of hopping speeds and masses is a step towards understanding a long-standing problem in locomotion biomechanics: the mechanism for how kangaroos, unlike other mammals, can increase hopping speed without a concomitant increase in metabolic cost. The authors convincingly demonstrate that changes in kangaroo posture with speed increase tendon stress/strain and hence elastic energy storage/return. This greater tendon elastic energy storage/return may counteract the increased cost of generating muscular force at faster speeds and thus allows for the invariance in metabolic cost. This methodologically impressive study sets the stage for further work to investigate the relation of hopping speed to metabolic cost more definitively.

   Reviewed by eLife, preLights

5. Neuroinfectiology of an atypical anthrax-causing pathogen in wild chimpanzees

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Tobias Gräßle
   2. Carsten Jäger
   3. Evgeniya Kirilina
   4. Jenny E. Jaffe
   5. Penelope Carlier
   6. Andrea Pizarro
   7. Anna Jauch
   8. Katja Reimann
   9. Ilona Lipp
   10. EBC consortium
   11. Roman M. Wittig
   12. Catherine Crockford
   13. Nikolaus Weiskopf
   14. Fabian H. Leendertz
   15. Markus Morawski

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This useful article provides evidence of the potential neuropathogenicity of Bacillus cereus serovar anthracis in wild chimpanzees. The authors provide an extensive characterization of four chimpanzees that died acutely from anthrax. The study provides incomplete traditional histopathologic evidence of neuroinvasion since the meninges could not be evaluated, which weakens the authors' conclusions. The work will be of interest to infectious disease researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Base editing of Ptbp1 in neurons alleviates symptoms in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Desiree Böck
   2. Maria Wilhelm
   3. Jonas Mumenthaler
   4. Daniel Fabio Carpanese
   5. Peter I Kulcsár
   6. Simon d'Aquin
   7. Alessio Cremonesi
   8. Anahita Rassi
   9. Johannes Häberle
   10. Tommaso Patriarchi
   11. Gerald Schwank

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important study suggesting that neuron-specific loss of function of the RNA splicing factor Ptbp1 in striatal neurons induces dopaminergic markers and alleviates motor defects in a 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) mouse model of Parkinson's Disease. The evidence supporting the rescue of motor deficits following Ptbp1 manipulation is solid, and, while additional characterization of dopaminergic neuronal identity may be required in future studies, these results have clear implications for Parkinson's disease therapeutics. The study also addresses recent controversial literature on cell reprogramming in Parkinson's Disease and will be of interest to researchers with a focus on the application of gene therapy to rescue neurodegeneration.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Whole-brain neural substrates of behavioral variability in the larval zebrafish

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Jason Manley
   2. Alipasha Vaziri

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Manley and Vaziri introduce an important new method for brain-wide imaging of cellular activity in zebrafish and provide evidence for the applicability of this technique. They use this method to explore the question of how neural variability gives rise to variability in behavior. The analyses used are mostly convincing, although questions regarding spatial and temporal imaging resolution and their effects on the study's interpretations and conclusions suggest only partial support for some of the central results.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Brain-derived estrogens facilitate male-typical behaviors by potentiating androgen receptor signaling in medaka

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Yuji Nishiike
   2. Shizuku Maki
   3. Daichi Miyazoe
   4. Kiyoshi Nakasone
   5. Yasuhiro Kamei
   6. Takeshi Todo
   7. Tomoko Ishikawa-Fujiwara
   8. Kaoru Ohno
   9. Takeshi Usami
   10. Yoshitaka Nagahama
   11. Kataaki Okubo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an overall compelling set of findings on the role of centrally produced estrogens in the control of behaviors in male medaka. The significance of the findings rests on the revealed potential mechanism between brain derived estrogens modulating social behaviors in males , supported by the analysis of multiple transgenic lines. The evidence for the broader claim is incomplete since it has not been extended to female medaka, and further experimentation would be necessary to fully validate the conclusions on the role of brain-derived estrogens. Nonetheless, the findings have led to important hypotheses on the hormonal control of behaviors in teleosts that can be tested further.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. High-Resolution Laminar Identification in Macaque Primary Visual Cortex Using Neuropixels Probes

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Li A Zhang
   2. Peichao Li
   3. Edward M Callaway

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides insights and strategies for assessing laminar structure in vivo in the visual cortex of the macaque monkey with high-density linear electrode arrays. The paper provides convincing evidence demonstrating that signals in higher frequency bands, related to the discharge of action potentials, are of substantially better use for achieving well-resolved cortical layer identification than are signals in lower frequency bands typically associated with local field potentials and standard-practice Current Source Density (CSD) analyses. These findings are of interest to a wide range of neuroscientists making comparisons between cortical layers or recording with array electrodes.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Rab11 suppresses neuronal stress signaling by localizing dual leucine zipper kinase to axon terminals for protein turnover

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Seung Mi Kim
    2. Yaw Quagraine
    3. Monika Singh
    4. Jung Hwan Kim

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This important manuscript shows that axonal transport of Wnd is required for its normal degradation by the Hiw ubiquitin ligase pathway. In Hiw mutants, the Wnd protein accumulates in nerve terminals. In the absence of axonal transport, Wnd levels also rise and lead to excessive JNK signaling, disrupting neuronal function. These are interesting findings supported by convincing data. However, how Rab11 is involved in Golgi processing or axonal transport of Wnd is not resolved as it is clear that Rab11 is not travelling with Wnd to the axon.

    Reviewed by eLife