eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The potential of inversions to accumulate balanced sexual antagonism is supported by simulations and Drosophila experiments

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Christopher S McAllester
   2. John E Pool

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study proposes a new model that could solve some long-standing puzzles about inversion polymorphisms in Drosophila melanogaster by invoking sexually antagonism and negative frequency-dependent selection. While the idea developed here is a valuable contribution to the field, the experiment only addresses one element of the hypothesis, so that the empirical evidence in support of the model remains incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Measuring changes in Plasmodium falciparum census population size in response to sequential malaria control interventions

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Kathryn E Tiedje
   2. Qi Zhan
   3. Shazia Ruybal-Pésantez
   4. Gerry Tonkin-Hill
   5. Qixin He
   6. Mun Hua Tan
   7. Dionne C Argyropoulos
   8. Samantha L Deed
   9. Anita Ghansah
   10. Oscar Bangre
   11. Abraham R Oduro
   12. Kwadwo A Koram
   13. Mercedes Pascual
   14. Karen P Day

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study highlights how the diversity of the malaria parasite population diminishes following the initiation of effective control interventions but quickly rebounds as control wanes. The data presented is convincing and the work shows how genetic studies could be used to monitor changes in disease transmission.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Antimicrobial activity of iron-depriving pyoverdines against human opportunistic pathogens

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Vera Vollenweider
   2. Karoline Rehm
   3. Clara Chepkirui
   4. Manuela Pérez-Berlanga
   5. Magdalini Polymenidou
   6. Jörn Piel
   7. Laurent Bigler
   8. Rolf Kümmerli

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study highlights the use of siderophores as antibacterials, and the authors also discuss the consequences and efficacy of 'siderophore therapy' in more complex communities/environments. The evidence supporting the overall hypotheses ranges is largely convincing. The work will be of broad interest to people working in the fields of evolutionary ecology, microbiology and medical sciences.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. IS200/IS605 Family-Associated TnpB Increases Transposon Activity and Retention

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Davneet Kaur
   2. Thomas E. Kuhlman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study uses an innovative set of reporter assays to probe the role of the TnpB protein in IS608 transposition. The work provides independent support for the recently reported homing activity of TnpB, where the transposon is restored following excision, and suggests an additional function for TnpB in enhancing the transposase activity of the TnpA transposase. The overall approach is solid, but the authors should consider how the activity of the TnpB protein used, or the levels of ωRNA, impact their model.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Maresin 1 repletion improves muscle regeneration after volumetric muscle loss

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Jesus A Castor-Macias
   2. Jacqueline A Larouche
   3. Emily C Wallace
   4. Bonnie D Spence
   5. Alec Eames
   6. Pamela Duran
   7. Benjamin A Yang
   8. Paula M Fraczek
   9. Carol A Davis
   10. Susan V Brooks
   11. Krishna Rao Maddipati
   12. James F Markworth
   13. Carlos A Aguilar

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a compelling study on pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory lipids in relation to skeletal muscle injury. It convincingly identifies pro-inflammatory lipids during recovery predisposing to fibrosis, and maresin 1 as an anti-inflammatory lipid reducing fibrosis, improved muscle regeneration, partially restoring contractile function, of fundamental potential clinical application.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Tracking subjects’ strategies in behavioural choice experiments at trial resolution

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Silvia Maggi
   2. Rebecca M Hock
   3. Martin O'Neill
   4. Mark Buckley
   5. Paula M Moran
   6. Tobias Bast
   7. Musa Sami
   8. Mark D Humphries

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors introduce a potentially valuable novel method that provides trial-by-trial probabilistic estimates of learning and decision-making strategies inferred from choice behavior across species. This approach could prove more useful over traditional techniques for arbitrating between strategies and detecting when learning happens, and because it is computationally lightweight. Reviewers identified several concerns that limit the strength of the evidence provided, rendering the findings incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. RatInABox, a toolkit for modelling locomotion and neuronal activity in continuous environments

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Tom M George
   2. Mehul Rastogi
   3. William de Cothi
   4. Claudia Clopath
   5. Kimberly Stachenfeld
   6. Caswell Barry

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     George et al. present a convincing new Python toolbox ("RatInABox") that allows researchers to generate synthetic behavior and neural data specifically focusing on hippocampal functional cell types (place cells, grid cells, boundary vector cells, head direction cells).

     This is valuable for theory-driven research where synthetic benchmarks should be used. Beyond just navigation, it can be highly useful for novel tool development that requires jointly modeling behavior and neural data. The authors provide convincing evidence of its utility with well documented and easy to use code and the corresponding manuscript.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Enhanced KNa1.1 Channel Underlies Cortical Hyperexcitability and Seizure Susceptibility after Traumatic Brain Injury

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Ru Liu
   2. Lei Sun
   3. Le Du
   4. Xi Guo
   5. Meng Jia
   6. Qun Wang
   7. Jianping Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This potentially valuable study provides some evidence that upregulation of sodium-activated potassium channels contributes to neuronal hyperexcitability and seizures following traumatic brain injury. However, the evidence supporting a direct link is incomplete. This work will be of interest to epilepsy and ion channel researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Acute avoidance of hydrogen sulfide is modulated by external and internal states in C. elegans

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Longjun Pu
   2. Lina Zhao
   3. Jing Wang
   4. Johan Henriksson
   5. Patrick Laurent
   6. Changchun Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The manuscript aims to better understand the mechanisms underlying the behavioral responses of C. elegans to hydrogen sulfide, a toxin known to exert remarkable effects on animal physiology in a range of contexts. To this end, the authors provide a series of useful findings regarding the mechanisms by which hydrogen sulfide may be sensed, their relationships to other gas-sensing pathways, and the role of a variety of physiological pathways in responding to hydrogen sulfide exposure. While some of the findings are solid, other aspects of the paper are incomplete, such that some claims are incompletely supported, and an integrated understanding of the authors' observations does not clearly emerge.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Comparative neuroimaging of sex differences in human and mouse brain anatomy

    This article has 9 authors:

    1. Elisa Guma
    2. Antoine Beauchamp
    3. Siyuan Liu
    4. Elizabeth Levitis
    5. Jacob Ellegood
    6. Linh Pham
    7. Rogier B Mars
    8. Armin Raznahan
    9. Jason P Lerch

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      In this important study, Guma and colleagues describe the use of structural neuroimaging to assess the cross-species convergence of sex differences in global and regional brain volumes in humans and mice. The goal of the work is to inform to what extent mouse studies of these aforementioned sex differences have relevance to humans. The authors suggest which aspects of brain anatomy (as measured by volume) are conserved or not, across species, which has theoretical and practical implications beyond a single sub-field. The evidence to support the findings is solid, it uses methods and data analysis that are appropriate and validated.

    Reviewed by eLife