eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Dissociable memory modulation mechanisms facilitate fear amnesia at different timescales

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yinmei Ni
   2. Ye Wang
   3. Zijian Zhu
   4. Jingchu Hu
   5. Daniela Schiller
   6. Jian Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript presents valuable findings which reveal an intricate pattern of memory expression following retrieval extinction at different intervals from retrieval-extinction to test. The novel advance is in the demonstration that, relative to a standard extinction procedure, the retrieval-extinction procedure more effectively suppresses responses to a conditioned threat stimulus when testing occurs just minutes after extinction. While the data provide solid evidence that the "short-term" suppression of responding involves engagement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, there are inconsistencies in the analyses reported which obscure the interpretation and leave some of the claims with limited evidence.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Role of posterior medial thalamus in the modulation of striatal circuitry and choice behavior

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Alex J Yonk
   2. Ivan Linares-García
   3. Logan Pasternak
   4. Sofia E Juliani
   5. Mark A Gradwell
   6. Arlene J George
   7. David J Margolis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Yonk and colleagues provide a valuable, timely, and in-depth study showcasing the role of thalamostriatal inputs in learning and action selection. After characterizing the synaptic properties of these inputs onto different striatal cell types in vitro, they provide solid evidence that posterior medial thalamic nucleus (POm) terminals in striatum are activated during reward expectation and arousal. The overall function of this pathway and the degree to which results are confounded by viral contamination of surrounding nuclei and movements remain open questions.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Individuality across environmental context in Drosophila melanogaster

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Thomas F Mathejczyk
   2. Cara Knief
   3. Muhammad A Haidar
   4. Florian Freitag
   5. Tydings McClary
   6. Mathias F Wernet
   7. Gerit A Linneweber

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     There is a growing interest in understanding the individuality of animal behaviours. In this important article, the authors build and use an impressive array of high throughput phenotyping paradigms to examine the 'stability' (consistency) of behavioural characteristics in a range of contexts and over time. The results show that certain behaviours are individualistic and persist robustly across external stimuli while others are less robust to these changing parameters. The data supporting their findings is extensive and convincing. At the same time, the main analyses focus on a selected subset of the many behavioural metrics recorded, so a large fraction of the acquired data remains only lightly explored; by making these additional data available, the authors provide an invaluable resource for future work to apply alternative analytical frameworks and further mine this rich dataset.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. DTX3L ubiquitin ligase ubiquitinates single-stranded nucleic acids

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Emily L Dearlove
   2. Chatrin Chatrin
   3. Lori Buetow
   4. Syed F Ahmed
   5. Tobias Schmidt
   6. Martin Bushell
   7. Brian O Smith
   8. Danny T Huang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study reports the discovery of a novel nucleotide ubiquitylation activity by the DTX3L E3 ligase. Solid evidence is presented for ubiquitin attachment to single-stranded oligonucleotides. This very interesting biochemical finding can be used as a starting point for studies to establish relevance in a physiological setting.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. The gut contractile organoid for studying the gut motility regulated by coordinating signals between interstitial cells of Cajal and smooth muscles

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Rei Yagasaki
   2. Ryo Nakamura
   3. Yuuki Shikaya
   4. Ryosuke Tadokoro
   5. Ruolin Hao
   6. Zhe Wang
   7. Mototsugu Eiraku
   8. Masafumi Inaba
   9. Yoshiko Takahashi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study reports the development of a novel organoid system for studying the emergence of autorhythmic gut peristaltic contractions through the interaction between interstitial cells of Cajal and smooth muscle cells. The authors further utilized the system to provide convincing evidence for a previously unappreciated potential role for smooth muscle cells in regulating the firing rate of interstitial cells of Cajal. The work will be of interest to those studying development and physiology of the gut.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. The Jag2/Notch1 signaling axis promotes sebaceous gland differentiation and controls progenitor proliferation

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Syeda Nayab Fatima Abidi
   2. Sara Chan
   3. Kerstin Seidel
   4. Daniel Lafkas
   5. Louis Vermeulen
   6. Frank Peale
   7. Christian W Siebel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work aimed at deconstructing how sebaceous gland differentiation is controlled in adult skin. Using monoclonal antibodies designed to inhibit specific Notch ligands or receptors, the authors present convincing evidence that the Jag2/Notch1 signaling axis is a crucial regulator of sebocyte progenitor proliferation and sebocyte differentiation. The valuable findings presented here contribute to the growing evidence that Notch signaling is not only key during the development of the skin and its appendages but also regulates cell fate in adult homeostatic tissues. From a translational perspective, it is intriguing that the effect of Jag2 or Notch1 inhibition, which leads to the accumulation of proliferative stem/progenitor cells in the sebaceous gland and prevents sebocyte differentiation, is reversible.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Induction of hepatitis B core protein aggregation targeting an unconventional binding site

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Vladimir Khayenko
   2. Cihan Makbul
   3. Clemens Schulte
   4. Naomi Hemmelmann
   5. Sonja Kachler
   6. Bettina Böttcher
   7. Hans Michael Maric

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable work presents an interesting strategy to interfere with the HBV infectious cycle as it identifies two previously unexplored HBc-Ag binding pockets. The experimental data is compelling and opens the door to generating and testing novel anti-HBV therapies.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Single turnover transient state kinetics reveals processive protein unfolding catalyzed by Escherichia coli ClpB

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jaskamaljot Kaur Banwait
   2. Liana Islam
   3. Aaron L Lucius

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study presents the development of a single turnover stopped-flow fluorescence experiment to study the kinetics of substrate unfolding and translocation by the bacterial ClpB disaggregase. Using non-physiological nucleotides to bypass the physiological regulation mechanism of ClpB, the authors convincingly show that the ClpB disaggregase is a processive motor with a slow unfolding step preceding rapid translocation. The results of this analysis are of value for future mechanistic studies on energy-dependent unfolding, degradation, and disaggregation molecular machines.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. PPIscreenML is a method for structure-based screening of protein-protein interactions using AlphaFold

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Victoria Mischley
   2. Johannes Maier
   3. Jesse Chen
   4. John Karanicolas

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study explores simple machine learning frameworks to distinguish between interacting and non-interacting protein pairs, offering solid computational results despite some concerns about dataset generation. The authors demonstrate a modest improvement in AlphaFold-multimers' ability to differentiate these pairs. Using a simple yet sound approach, this work is a valuable contribution to the challenging problem of reconstructing protein-protein interaction networks.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Dock-and-lock binding of SxIP ligands is required for stable and selective EB1 interactions

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Teresa Almeida
    2. Eleanor Hargreaves
    3. Tobias Zech
    4. Igor Barsukov

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study provides important insights into how the EBH domain of microtubule end-binding protein 1 (EB1) interacts with SxIP peptides derived from the MACF plus-end tracking protein. The revised manuscript includes convincing ITC and NMR experiments that clarify the role of flanking residues and address the influence of dimerization and cooperativity on binding. While some mechanistic aspects remain difficult to resolve experimentally, the data and analysis now more clearly justify the proposed "dock-and-lock" model and its interpretive value. This work will be of interest to structural biologists and biophysicists studying microtubule-associated protein interactions.

    Reviewed by eLife