Latest preprint reviews

1. Identifying in vivo genetic dependencies of melanocyte and melanoma development

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Sarah Perlee
   2. Yilun Ma
   3. Miranda V Hunter
   4. Jacob B Swanson
   5. Zhitao Ming
   6. Julia Xia
   7. Timothée Lionnet
   8. Maura McGrail
   9. Richard M White

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents a new method for generating cell-type restricted knockouts in zebrafish and it reports several interesting applications of this method to study pigmentation and melanomagenesis. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with rigorous characterization of several knock out mutations that provide a proof of principle. The work will be of broad interest to cell, skin, and cancer biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Transcranial direct current stimulation modulates primate brain dynamics across states of consciousness

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Guylaine Hoffner
   2. Pablo Castro
   3. Lynn Uhrig
   4. Camilo M Signorelli
   5. Morgan Dupont
   6. Jordy Tasserie
   7. Alain Destexhe
   8. Rodrigo Cofre
   9. Jacobo Sitt
   10. Bechir Jarraya

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study applies transcranial direct current stimulation (tCDS) to the prefrontal cortex of non-human primates during two states: (1) propofol-induced unconsciousness; and (2) wakeful performance of a fixation task. The analysis offers incomplete evidence to indicate that the effect of tDCS on brain dynamics, as recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging, is contingent on the state of consciousness during which the stimulation is applied. The findings will be of interest to researchers interested in brain stimulation and consciousness.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. The Origin of Movement Biases During Reaching

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Tianhe Wang
   2. Ryan J Morehead
   3. Jonathan S Tsay
   4. Richard B Ivry

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study uses an original approach to address the longstanding question of why reaching movements are often biased. The combination of a wide range of experimental conditions and computational models is a strength. However, the modeling assumptions are not well-substantiated, the modeling analysis is insufficient with its focus on fits to average and not individual subject data, and the results are limited to biases in reach direction and do not consider biases in reach extent. Taken together, the evidence supporting the main claims is incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Outer hair cells stir cochlear fluids

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Choongheon Lee
   2. Mohammad Shokrian
   3. Kenneth S Henry
   4. Laurel H Carney
   5. Joseph C Holt
   6. Jong-Hoon Nam

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Although others have proposed that OHC electromotility subserves cochlear amplification by acting as a "fluid pump", and evidence for this has been found using electrical stimulation of excised cochleae, this important study substantially advances our understanding of cochlear homeostasis. This is the first report to test the pumping effect in vivo and consider its implications for cochlear homeostasis and drug delivery. The manuscript provides convincing evidence for OHC-based fluid flow within the cochlea.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Olfactory basis for essential amino acid perception during foraging in Caenorhabditis elegans

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ritika Siddiqui
   2. Nikita Mehta
   3. Gopika Ranjith
   4. Marie-Anne Felix
   5. Changchun Chen
   6. Varsha Singh

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important study, supported by solid data, that suggests a model for diet selection in C. elegans. The significance is that while C. elegans has long been known to be attracted to bacterial volatiles, what specific bacterial volatiles may signify to C. elegans is largely unknown. This study also provides evidence for a possible odorant/GPCR pairing.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Automatic learning mechanisms for flexible human locomotion

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Cristina Rossi
   2. Kristan A Leech
   3. Ryan T Roemmich
   4. Amy J Bastian

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study introduces a novel split-belt treadmill learning task to reveal distinct and parallel learning sub-components of gait adaptation: slow and gradual error-based perceptual realignment, and a more deliberate and flexible "stimulus-response" style learning process. While the behavioural results convincingly support the presence of a non-error-based learning process during continuous movements, the computational modelling provides incomplete evidence for establishing the nature of this secondary learning process.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Sensitivity to visual features in inattentional blindness

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Makaela Nartker
   2. Chaz Firestone
   3. Howard Egeth
   4. Ian Phillips

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable findings to the field interested in inattentional blindness (IB), reporting that participants indicating no awareness of unexpected stimuli through yes/no questions, still show above-chance sensitivity to specific properties of these stimuli through follow-up forced-choice questions (e.g., its color). The results suggest that this is because participants are conservative and biased to report not noticing in IB. The authors conclude that these results provide evidence for residual perceptual awareness of inattentionally blind stimuli and that therefore these findings cast doubt on the claim that awareness requires attention. Although the samples are large and the analysis protocol novel, the evidence supporting this interpretation is still incomplete, because effect sizes are rather small, the experimental design could be improved and alternative explanations have not been ruled out.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Menopausal hormone therapy and the female brain: leveraging neuroimaging and prescription registry data from the UK Biobank cohort

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Claudia Barth
   2. Liisa AM Galea
   3. Emily G Jacobs
   4. Bonnie H Lee
   5. Lars T Westlye
   6. Ann-Marie G de Lange

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This observational study from the UK Biobank provides an important investigation into the associations between menopausal hormone therapy and brain health in a large, population-based cohort of females in the UK. A solid model of brain aging using an open source algorithm is used. While some modest adverse brain health characteristics were associated with current mHT use and older age at last use, the findings do not support a general neuroprotective effect of mHT nor severe adverse effects on the female brain. This work addresses a topic that is of grave importance since menopausal hormone therapy and its effect on the brain should be better understood in order to provide individualized effective medical support to women going through menopause.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Host-derived Lactobacillus plantarum alleviates hyperuricemia by improving gut microbial community and hydrolase-mediated degradation of purine nucleosides

   This article has 26 authors:

   1. Yang Fu
   2. Xiao-Dan Luo
   3. Jin-Ze Li
   4. Qian-Yuan Mo
   5. Xue Wang
   6. Yue Zhao
   7. You-Ming Zhang
   8. Hao-Tong Luo
   9. Dai-Yang Xia
   10. Wei-Qing Ma
   11. Jian-Ying Chen
   12. Li-Hau Wang
   13. Qiu-Yi Deng
   14. Lukuyu Ben
   15. Muhammad Kashif Saleemi
   16. Xian-Zhi Jiang
   17. Juan Chen
   18. Kai Miao
   19. Zhen-Ping Lin
   20. Peng Zhang
   21. Hui Ye
   22. Qing-Yun Cao
   23. Yong-Wen Zhu
   24. Lin Yang
   25. Qiang Tu
   26. Wence Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The landmark significance of this manuscript is based on the mechanistic description of purine metabolism by Lactobacillus plantarum, which helps to alleviate hyperuricemia, which is a phenotype that underlies multiple disease symptoms. The evidence provided for L. plantarum's involvement in reducing hyperuricemia was exceptional, combining microbiomics, whole genomics, in vitro bacterial culture, gene knock-outs, and metabolomics. Collectively, the study shows a clear link between the gut microbiota and hyperuricemia, providing a pathway for modification to help alleviate this condition.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Visualizing sarcomere and cellular dynamics in skeletal muscle to improve cell therapies

    This article has 10 authors:

    1. Judith Hüttemeister
    2. Franziska Rudolph
    3. Michael H. Radke
    4. Claudia Fink
    5. Dhana Friedrich
    6. Stephan Preibisch
    7. Martin Falcke
    8. Eva Wagner
    9. Stephan E. Lehnart
    10. Michael Gotthardt

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study offers valuable information on how titin derived from different nuclei within the syncytium is organized and integrated during skeletal muscle development and remodeling. The authors developed a novel mCherry titin knock-in mice with the fluorophore mCherry inserted into titin's Z-disk region to track the titin during cell fusion. The approach using mcherry adds to understanding of the role and localization of titin in controlling stiffness of striated muscles and fine tuning contraction. The results demonstrate that the integration of titin into the sarcomere is tightly regulated, with its unexpected mobility aiding in the uniform distribution of titin post-cell fusion. Although the experimental approach is convincing, the work is very qualitative in its approaches, and the data needs rigorous statistical analysis. There is a need for some clarification concerning numbers of animals and control groups. Future studies will need more rigorous data analysis and interpretation.

    Reviewed by eLife