eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Unraveling the impact of congenital deafness on individual brain organization

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Lenia Amaral
   2. Xiaosha Wang
   3. Yanchao Bi
   4. Ella Striem-Amit

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable data on the increase in individual differences in functional connectivity with the auditory cortex in individuals with congenital/early-onset hearing loss compared to individuals with normal hearing. The evidence supporting the study's claims is convincing, although additional work using resting-state functional connectivity in the future could further strengthen the results. The work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on brain plasticity and may have implications for the design of interventions and compensatory strategies.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Recording γ-secretase activity in living mouse brains

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Steven S Hou
   2. Yuya Ikegawa
   3. Yeseo Kwon
   4. Natalia Wieckiewicz
   5. Mei CQ Houser
   6. Brianna Lundin
   7. Brian J Bacskai
   8. Oksana Berezovska
   9. Masato Maesako

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Hou and colleagues describe the the use of a previously characterized FRET sensor for use in determining gamma secretase activity in the brain of living mice. In an approach that targeted the sensor to neurons, they observe patterns of fluorescent sensor readout suggesting clustered regions of secretase activity. These results once validated would be valuable in the field of Alzheimer's Disease research, yet further validation of the approach is required, as the current evidence provided is inadequate to support the conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife, Arcadia Science

3. Decoding contextual influences on auditory perception from primary auditory cortex

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Bernhard Englitz
   2. Sahar Akram
   3. Mounya Elhilali
   4. Shihab Shamma

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study explores the neural basis for a well known auditory illusion, often utilized in movie soundtracks, in which a sequence of two complex tones can be perceived as either rising or falling in pitch depending on the context in which they are presented. Convincing single-neuron data and analyses are presented to show that correlates of these pitch-direction changes are found in the ferret primary auditory cortex. While these findings provide an interesting link between cortical activity and perception, the manuscript could be clearer on the wider implications of the failure of traditional decoding models to account for these results.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Short-term social isolation acts on hypothalamic neurons to promote social behavior in a sex- and context-dependent manner

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Xin Zhao
   2. Yurim Chae
   3. Destiny Smith
   4. Valerie Chen
   5. Dylan DeFelipe
   6. Joshua W Sokol
   7. Archana Sadangi
   8. Katherine Tschida

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study substantially advances our understanding of the neural circuits that regulate social behavior by identifying a population of hypothalamic neurons in the preoptic area that promote social interactions following short-term isolation. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is solid, with well-designed experiments using validated activity-dependent tagging and manipulation methods, though some differences in outcomes between experiments highlight limitations of the tagging approach. The work will be of broad interest to neuroscientists studying social behavior, neural circuit function, and hypothalamic mechanisms and will represent a meaningful contribution to the field.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Formin-like 1β phosphorylation at S1086 is necessary for secretory polarized traffic of exosomes at the immune synapse in Jurkat T lymphocytes

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Javier Ruiz-Navarro
   2. Sara Fernández-Hermira
   3. Irene Sanz-Fernández
   4. Pablo Barbeito
   5. Alfonso Navarro-Zapata
   6. Antonio Pérez-Martínez
   7. Francesc R Garcia-Gonzalo
   8. Víctor Calvo
   9. Manuel Izquierdo Pastor

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study uses the Jurkat T cell model to study the role of Formin-like 1 β phosphorylation at S1086 on actin dynamics and exosome release at the immunological synapse. The evidence supporting these findings is compelling within the framework of the Jurkat model. As the Jurkat model is known to have a bias toward formin-mediated actin filament formation at the expense of Arp2/3-mediated branched F-actin foci observed in primary T cells, it will be beneficial in the future to confirm major findings in primary T cells.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Thymic dendritic cell-derived IL-27p28 promotes the establishment of functional bias against IFN-γ production in newly generated CD4+ T cells through STAT1-related epigenetic mechanisms

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Jie Zhang
   2. Hui Tang
   3. Haoming Wu
   4. Xuewen Pang
   5. Rong Jin
   6. Yu Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a useful reassessment of the potential role of dendritic cell-derived IL-27 p28 cytokine in the functional maturation of CD4+CD8- thymocytes, and CD4+ recent thymic emigrants. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid and serves to reaffirm what has been previously described, with the overall advance in understanding the mechanism(s) responsible for the intrathymic functional programming of CD4+ T cells being limited.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. ATG6 interacting with NPR1 increases Arabidopsis thaliana resistance to Pst DC3000/avrRps4 by increasing its nuclear accumulation and stability

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Baihong Zhang
   2. Shuqin Huang
   3. Shuyu Guo
   4. Yixuan Meng
   5. Yuzhen Tian
   6. Yue Zhou
   7. Hang Chen
   8. Xue Li
   9. Jun Zhou
   10. Wenli Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates the role of ATG6 in regulating NPR1, a key protein in the plant immune response. The authors present compelling evidence that ATG6 not only interacts with NPR1 in both the cytoplasm and nucleus but also enhances its stability and nuclear accumulation, leading to increased resistance to Pst DC3000/avrRps4 infection in Arabidopsis thaliana. The work incorporates a variety of approaches from molecular biology, confocal imaging, and biochemistry, which together strengthen the conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Khdc3 Regulates Metabolism Across Generations in a DNA-Independent Manner

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Liana Senaldi
   2. Nora Hassan
   3. Sean Cullen
   4. Uthra Balaji
   5. Natalie Trigg
   6. Jinghua Gu
   7. Hailey Finkelstein
   8. Kathryn Phillips
   9. Colin Conine
   10. Matthew Smith-Raska

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important mouse study shows that wild-type female progeny of Khdc3 mutants have abnormal gene expression relating to hepatic metabolism, which persists over multiple generations and passes through both female and male lineages. A role for small RNAs on this phenomenon is proposed, and evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing. Further experiments are required to functionally validate the role of small RNAs in transmission of the phenotype. The work will be of interest to researchers in the field of DNA-independent mechanism of inheritance.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A shade-responsive microProtein in the Arabidopsis ATHB2 gene regulates elongation growth and root development

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Ashleigh Edwards
   2. Maurizio Junior Chiurazzi
   3. Anko Blaakmeer
   4. Ylenia Vittozzi
   5. Ashish Sharma
   6. Sanne Matton
   7. Valdeko Kruusvee
   8. Daniel Straub
   9. Giovanna Sessa
   10. Monica Carabelli
   11. Giorgio Morelli
   12. Stephan Wenkel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Through a genome-wide screen for functional alternative transcription start sites (TSS) in Arabidopsis, the authors provide evidence for widespread transcription of potential microproteins from previously annotated protein-coding genes. Functional analysis of AtHB2-miP, derived from the C-terminal region of transcription factor AtHB2 and predicted to form non-productive dimers with ATHB2, suggested that this microprotein could affect AtHB2 functions in shade responses, root growth, and iron homeostasis. The work is valuable as a case study of how new microproteins could act to modulate gene regulation in response to environmental change, but the focus on a single gene, the lack of precision in AtHB2-miP measurement and missing controls, and the relatively minor phenotypic effects mean that data supporting microprotein production as a vital regulatory strategy are incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The domesticated transposon protein L1TD1 associates with its ancestor L1 ORF1p to promote LINE-1 retrotransposition

    This article has 14 authors:

    1. Gülnihal Kavaklioglu
    2. Alexandra Podhornik
    3. Terezia Vcelkova
    4. Jelena Marjanovic
    5. Mirjam A Beck
    6. Trinh Phan-Canh
    7. Theresia Mair
    8. Claudia Miccolo
    9. Aleksej Drino
    10. Mirko Doni
    11. Gerda Egger
    12. Susanna Chiocca
    13. Miha Modic
    14. Christian Seiser

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important paper reports functional interactions between L1TD1, an RNA binding protein (RBP), and its ancestral LINE-1 retrotransposon which is not modulated at the translational level. The evidence for the association between L1TD1 and LINE-1 ORF1p is solid. The work implies that the transposon-derived RNA binding protein in the human genome can interact with the ancestral transposable element from which this protein was initially derived. This work spurs interesting questions for cancer types, where LINE1 and L1TD1 are aberrantly expressed.

    Reviewed by eLife