eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A multiplex of connectome trajectories enables several connectivity patterns in parallel

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Parham Mostame
   2. Jonathan Wirsich
   3. Thomas Alderson
   4. Ben Ridley
   5. Anne-Lise Giraud
   6. David W Carmichael
   7. Serge Vulliemoz
   8. Maxime Guye
   9. Louis Lemieux
   10. Sepideh Sadaghiani

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work uses an innovative approach to understand similarities between haemodynamic and electrophysiological activity of the human brain, and how the brain might carry out multiple functions concurrently across different brain regions by using multiple timescales. The study provides convincing evidence to indicate that while spatially similar functional brain networks are found in both modalities, there is a tendency for these to occur asynchronously. This work will be of interest to neurophysiological and brain imaging researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics with machine learning for predicting progression from prediabetes to diabetes

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Jiang Li
   2. Yuefeng Yu
   3. Ying Sun
   4. Yanqi Fu
   5. Wenqi Shen
   6. Lingli Cai
   7. Xiao Tan
   8. Yan Cai
   9. Ningjian Wang
   10. Yingli Lu
   11. Bin Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study combines prospective cohort, metabolomics and machine learning to identify a panel of nine circulating metabolites that improved the ability in risk prediction of progression from prediabetes to diabetes. The findings are convincing, and using current state-of-the-art methods the data and analyses support the claims. This paper provides insights into the integration of these metabolites into clinical and public health practice.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Nonlinear sensitivity to acoustic context is a stable feature of neuronal responses to complex sounds in auditory cortex of awake mice

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Marios Akritas
   2. Alex G Armstrong
   3. Jules M Lebert
   4. Arne F Meyer
   5. Maneesh Sahani
   6. Jennifer F Linden

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides important findings regarding the stability over time of the response properties of neurons in the auditory cortex, including their nonlinear sensitivity to sound context. The data obtained from chronic recordings combined with nonlinear stimulus-response estimation provide convincing evidence that auditory cortical representations are stable over a period of days to weeks. While this study should be of widespread interest to sensory neuroscientists, the paper would be strengthened by a more thorough assessment and discussion of the effects of context and of the stability of the responses, as well as by the inclusion of more information about the location and types of neurons that were sampled.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Multifaceted role of galanin in brain excitability

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Nicolas N Rieser
   2. Milena Ronchetti
   3. Adriana Lea Lea Hotz
   4. Stephan CF Neuhauss

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study investigated the effects of the peptide galanin on brain Ca2+ activity in zebrafish, which provides a useful model organism for whole-brain imaging because of its transparency. They found that galanin has distinct effects on hyperactivity and expression of galanin changes after activity increases. The strength of evidence was incomplete particularly for some of the conclusions regarding the use of convulsants and relevance to epilepsy because of limitations to the methods and interpretations of results.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. An improved bacterial single-cell RNA-seq reveals biofilm heterogeneity

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Xiaodan Yan
   2. Hebin Liao
   3. Chenyi Wang
   4. Chun Huang
   5. Wei Zhang
   6. Chunming Guo
   7. Yingying Pu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work introduces an important new method for depleting ribosomal RNA from bacterial single-cell RNA sequencing libraries, demonstrating its applicability for studying heterogeneity in microbial biofilms. The findings provide convincing evidence for a distinct subpopulation of cells at the biofilm base that upregulates PdeI expression. Future studies exploring the functional relationship between PdeI and c-di-GMP levels, along with the roles of co-expressed genes within the same cluster, could further enhance the depth and impact of these conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. PRR adjuvants restrain high stability peptides presentation on APCs

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Bin Li
   2. Jin Zhang
   3. Taojun He
   4. Hanmei Yuan
   5. Hui Wu
   6. Peng Wang
   7. Chao Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides interesting insights into the mechanisms of action of adjuvants. It shows that adjuvants, MPLA and CpG especially, modulate the peptide repertoires presented on the surface of antigen presenting cells, and surprisingly, adjuvant favored the presentation of low-stability peptides rather than high-stability peptides by antigen presenting cells. As a result, the low stability peptide presented in adjuvant groups elicits T cell response effectively. Evidence in support of these conclusions is solid, and this paper would be of interest to vaccinologists and immunologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Functional genomics reveals strain-specific genetic requirements conferring hypoxic growth in Mycobacterium intracellulare

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yoshitaka Tateishi
   2. Yuriko Ozeki
   3. Akihito Nishiyama
   4. Yuta Morishige
   5. Yusuke Minato
   6. Anthony David Baughn
   7. Sohkichi Matsumoto

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study makes a valuable contribution by elucidating the genetic determinants of growth and fitness across multiple clinical strains of Mycobacterium intracellulare, an understudied non-tuberculous mycobacterium. Using transposon sequencing (Tn-seq), the authors identify a core set of 131 genes essential for bacterial adaptation to hypoxia, providing a convincing foundation for anti-mycobacterial drug discovery.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Intestinal microbiome dysbiosis increases Mycobacteria pulmonary colonization in mice by regulating the Nos2-associated pathways

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. MeiQing Han
   2. Xia Wang
   3. Lin Su
   4. Shiqi Pan
   5. Ningning Liu
   6. Duan Li
   7. Liang Liu
   8. JunWei Cui
   9. Huajie Zhao
   10. Fan Yang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study shows the effect of gut dysbiosis on the colonization of mycobacteria in the lung. The data with comprehensive analysis of gene expression profiles in the lung with dysbiotic mice is compelling and goes beyond the current state of the art. However, the mechanistic insight, where the lung epithelial cell line was used, and the experiments with Mtb infection are currently incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A lytic transglycosylase connects bacterial focal adhesion complexes to the peptidoglycan cell wall

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Carlos A Ramirez Carbo
   2. Olalekan G Faromiki
   3. Beiyan Nan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The manuscript by Carbo et al. reports a novel role for the MltG homolog AgmT in gliding motility in M. xanthus. The authors provide convincing data to demonstrate that AgmT is a cell wall lytic enzyme (likely a lytic transglycosylase), its lytic activity is required for gliding motility, and that its activity is required for proper binding of a component of the motility apparatus to the cell wall. The findings are valuable as they contribute to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the interaction between gliding motility and the bacterial cell wall.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Interleukin-1 prevents SARS-CoV-2-induced membrane fusion to restrict viral transmission via induction of actin bundles

    This article has 16 authors:

    1. Xu Zheng
    2. Shi Yu
    3. Yanqiu Zhou
    4. Kuai Yu
    5. Yuhui Gao
    6. Mengdan Chen
    7. Dong Duan
    8. Yunyi Li
    9. Xiaoxian Cui
    10. Jiabin Mou
    11. Yuying Yang
    12. Xun Wang
    13. Min Chen
    14. Yaming Jiu
    15. Jincun Zhao
    16. Guangxun Meng

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study provides important insights into how IL-1 cytokines protect cells against SARS-CoV-2 infection. By inducing a non-canonical RhoA/ROCK signaling pathway, IL-1beta inhibits the ability of SARS-CoV-2 infected cells to fuse with uninfected cells and produce syncytia. Convincing evidence underlies the identification of the key signaling components required for this inhibitory phenotype, and suggests that this process may also function to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in vivo.

    Reviewed by eLife