eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Transposons contribute to splice-isoform diversity in the Drosophila brain

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Malak Choucri
   2. Christoph D Treiber

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study addresses a timely question regarding the contribution of transposable elements to splice isoform diversity in the Drosophila brain, directly engaging with recent conflicting findings in the field. The work provides convincing evidence that TE-gene chimeric transcripts are detectable and that prior discrepancies largely arise from methodological differences in computational pipelines and experimental design. The combination of reanalysis, methodological clarification, and targeted validation represents a technical contribution that will be of interest to researchers studying transcriptome complexity and transposable elements. However, the strength of evidence would be further enhanced by increased methodological transparency, more rigorous experimental controls, and a more cautious interpretation of functional implications.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Experimental evolution to thermal stress indicates climate resilience in a cosmopolitan arthropod

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Gaoke Lei
   2. Huiling Zhou
   3. Zongyao Ma
   4. Yating Duan
   5. Yanting Chen
   6. Fengluan Yao
   7. Minsheng You
   8. Liette Vasseur
   9. Geoff M Gurr
   10. Shijun You

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study deepens our understanding of how populations of a given species may diverge in their molecular and physiological patterns as a result of adaptation to different thermal regimes. By approaching this question from multiple directions, the authors provide convincing evidence for adaptive changes in three strains of the diamondback moth after only three years of experimental evolution. This work will be of interest to anyone working on the response of pest species to environmental change and to workers on adaptive evolution in general.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Direction and orientation preferences in mouse superior colliculus and its retinal inputs exhibit a topography of cardinal biases atop locally mixed tuning

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Zhewen He
   2. María Florencia González Fleitas
   3. Raikhangul Gabdrashova
   4. Sylvia Schröder

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a potentially important work on the organization of visual information in the rodent superior colliculus. It reports that the selectivity of neurons to line orientation and motion in the visual image is largely governed by the sensitivities of retinal neurons and their ordered projection to the superior colliculus. If confirmed, these conclusions could substantially revise prior thinking in this field. However, in the present state, the methods and analysis are incomplete and cannot justify all the claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. A mechanistic theory of planning in prefrontal cortex

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Kristopher T Jensen
   2. Peter Doohan
   3. Mathias Sablé-Meyer
   4. Sandra Reinert
   5. Alon Baram
   6. Thomas Akam
   7. Timothy EJ Behrens

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study advances our understanding of the neural substrate of planning trajectories towards a goal by using recurrent neural networks. The manuscript provides solid evidence for most of the claims, but it remains unclear whether the dynamics do indeed bear the defining characteristics of attractors, and the interpretation and scope of some claims may need to be reassessed in light of prior work. The work will be of broad interest to theoretical and systems neuroscientists and to cognitive scientists.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. The CLAMP GA-binding transcription factor regulates heat stress-induced transcriptional repression

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Joseph Aguilera
   2. Jingyue Duan
   3. Kaitlyn Cortez
   4. Rachel S Lee
   5. Angelica Aragon
   6. Mukulika Ray
   7. Erica Larschan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents evidence that the Chromatin-linked adaptor for MSL complex proteins (CLAMP) GA-binding transcription factor (TF) regulates ~75% of HS-induced repression in Drosophila and suggests that CLAMP is the first known transcription factor to induce heat-stress-mediated repression of gene expression. While mechanistic details remain to be sorted out, this manuscript provides convincing evidence that novel pathways involving the CLAMP transcription factor repress gene expression during heat shock stress.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Human CD1c-autoreactive T cells recognise Mycobacterium tuberculosis–infected antigen-presenting cells and display cytotoxic effector programmes

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. Matthew Milton
   2. Sahar H Farag
   3. Diana Garay-Baquero
   4. Jennie Gullick
   5. Daniel Burns
   6. Rita Szoke-Kovacs
   7. Patrick Trimby-Smith
   8. Alex Look
   9. Richard Stopforth
   10. Marco Lepore
   11. David K Cole
   12. Laura Denney
   13. Andrew White
   14. Sally Sharpe
   15. Alasdair Leslie
   16. Andres Vallejo
   17. Liku Tezera
   18. Paul Elkington
   19. Salah Mansour

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study investigates how CD1c-restricted T cells respond to Mtb-infected APCs, leading to increased cytokine production and cytotoxic activity that may help control Mtb infection. While the work is important and will interest researchers in the field, the supporting evidence is incomplete and could be strengthened by additional experiments. Experiments would: (i) evaluate THP1-CD1c cells to determine whether MHC surface expression is reduced or entirely abolished, (ii) enhance confidence in the purity of the CD1c-specific T cell population isolated from blood, and (iii) suggest what additional signal THP1-CD1c cells treated with Mtb express that is absent from the untreated cells.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Evaluating the applicability of replication success metrics in animal-to-human translation: A simulation study

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Carolyne Jie Huang
   2. Samuel Pawel
   3. Kimberley Elaine Wever
   4. Benjamin Victor Ineichen
   5. Rachel Heyard

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a detailed and well-designed simulation study of the utility of replication metrics in animal-to-human study translations in bridging the gap between laboratory discoveries and health practice, a critical consideration in turning laboratory scientific research findings into tangible, real-world applications, to directly help human health. The study approaches are solid, and the findings are important, as they offer insights into clinical research translations to advance health decision-making. There is some potential for the strength and applicability of the presented evidence to be improved upon revision.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Gene dosage imbalance disrupts systemic metabolism in the Dp16 Down syndrome mouse model

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Fangluo Chen
   2. Muzna Saqib
   3. Christy M Nguyen
   4. Dylan C Sarver
   5. Y Eugene Yu
   6. Susan Aja
   7. Marcus M Seldin
   8. G William Wong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This article describes the comprehensive metabolic phenotype of a mouse model of Down Syndrome, together with supporting transcriptomic, metabolomic, and biochemical data. While the work is largely descriptive, the evidence presented is convincing and highlights similarities and differences in male and female mice. This is a valuable study that provides essential groundwork for the further genetic dissection of dosage-sensitive genes causing metabolic dysregulation in Down Syndrome.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A pilot study for whole proteome tagging in Caenorhabditis elegans

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Matthew Eroglu
   2. Oliver Hobert

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The nematode C. elegans is an ideal model in which to achieve the ambitious goal of having a genome-wide atlas of protein expression and localization. In this paper, the authors develop a rational strategy for at-scale tagging of all protein coding genes with fluorescent markers, providing solid evidence that it would be a feasible foundation for a community-based, genome-wide effort. This work should serve as an important springboard for discussions about how to achieve this worthy and impactful goal.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. NAD boosting mediated by CD38 inhibition drives reversal of a pathological vicious cycle of intracrine activity and inflammation in eyelid meibomian gland dysfunction

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. Yuki Hamada
    2. Takehide Sakamoto
    3. Daisuke Yarimizu
    4. Hikari Uehara
    5. Xinyan Shao
    6. Tom Macpherson
    7. Emi Hasegawa
    8. Masao Doi

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      The authors provide valuable data linking NAD+ dependent HSD3b6 gene expression in the eyelid to a vicious cycle involving decreased steroidogenesis and AR signaling, pro-inflammatory cytokine release, inflammation, CD38 activation, and further NAD+ decline, which induces meibomian gland atrophy leading to dry eye disease. Overall, the presented work provides evidence for the pathologic relationship between a pro-inflammatory environment, intracrine activity, and the NAD+ cofactor. However, the current study does not clearly establish the proposed intracrine mechanism and may largely reflect systemic hormonal effects resulting from the global Had3b6 knockout, leading to an incomplete narrative.

    Reviewed by eLife