eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Visual routines for detecting causal interactions are tuned to motion direction

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Sven Ohl
   2. Martin Rolfs

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides a valuable contribution to our understanding of causal inference in visual perception. The evidence provided through multiple well-designed psychophysical experiments is convincing. The current study targets very specific visual features of launch events, future work will be able to build on this to study the implementation of causal inference in general.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Lesions in a songbird vocal circuit increase variability in song syntax

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Avani Koparkar
   2. Timothy L Warren
   3. Jonathan D Charlesworth
   4. Sooyoon Shin
   5. Michael S Brainard
   6. Lena Veit

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Songbirds provide a tractable model system to study mechanisms of vocal production and sequencing, and past work showed that the lesions to LMAN, the output of a basal ganglia thalamocortical loop, reduced vocal variability, consistent with a role in motor exploration. In this fundamental work, the authors rigorously examined how lesions to an understudied neighboring region, MMAN, part of a parallel basal ganglia loop, affect singing in Bengalese finches, whose songs exhibit complex sequential transitions. The authors provide compelling evidence that MMAN lesions resulted in increased sequential variability but do not affect syllable acoustic structure, showing that distinct frontal systems can have distinct functions for producing and sequencing song syllables.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Visual experience shapes functional connectivity between occipital and non-visual networks

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Mengyu Tian
   2. Xiang Xiao
   3. Huiqing Hu
   4. Rhodri Cusack
   5. Marina Bedny

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides evidence supporting the idea that postnatal experience plays an instructive role in shaping the patterns of functional connectivity between extrastriate visual cortex and frontal regions during development, by comparing neonates, blind and sighted adults. The evidence supporting the authors' claim is solid. Nevertheless, substantial weaknesses remain in mechanistic interpretation and alignment with relevant developmental frameworks. This study will be of significant interest to neuroscientists and neuroimaging researchers focused on vision, plasticity and development.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. The potassium channel subunit KV1.8 (Kcna10) is essential for the distinctive outwardly rectifying conductances of type I and II vestibular hair cells

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Hannah R Martin
   2. Anna Lysakowski
   3. Ruth Anne Eatock

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides direct evidence showing that Kv1.8 channels provide the basis for several potassium currents in the two types of sensory hair cells found in the mouse vestibular system. This is an important finding because the nature of the channels underpinning the unusual potassium conductance gK,L in type I hair cells has been under scrutiny for many years. The experimental evidence is compelling and the analysis is rigorous. The study will be of interest to cell and molecular biologists as well as vestibular and auditory neuroscientists.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Progressively shifting patterns of co-modulation among premotor cortex neurons carry dynamically similar signals during action execution and observation

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Zhonghao Zhao
   2. Marc H Schieber

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study reports on the characteristics of premotor cortical population activity during the execution and observation of a moderately complex reaching and grasping task. By using new variants of well-established techniques to analyse neural population activity, the authors provide solid evidence that while the geometry of neural population activity changes between execution and observation, their dynamics are largely preserved. Although these findings are novel and robust, pending additional controls and analyses, the authors should further clarify the functional implications of their findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Stochastic parabolic growth promotes coexistence and a relaxed error threshold in RNA-like replicator populations

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Mátyás Paczkó
   2. Eörs Szathmáry
   3. András Szilágyi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides a valuable theoretical exploration of non-enzymatic sustained replication of RNA systems, in the parabolic growth regime of the evolution of putative primordial replicators. It provides convincing evidence that parabolic growth mitigates the error threshold catastrophe, thus demonstrating another way in which this regime contributes to the maintenance of genetic diversity. The findings shed light on relevant evolutionary regimes of primordial replicators, with potential applicability to our understanding of the origin of life.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Germline cis variant determines epigenetic regulation of the anti-cancer drug metabolism gene dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPYD)

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Ting Zhang
   2. Alisa Ambrodji
   3. Huixing Huang
   4. Kelly J Bouchonville
   5. Amy S Etheridge
   6. Remington E Schmidt
   7. Brianna M Bembenek
   8. Zoey B Temesgen
   9. Zhiquan Wang
   10. Federico Innocenti
   11. Deborah Stroka
   12. Robert B Diasio
   13. Carlo R Largiadèr
   14. Steven M Offer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript presents valuable findings on the identification of epigenetically mediated control for the recognition of dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPYD) gene expression that is linked with cancer treatment resistance using 5-fluorouracil. The evidence is compelling, supported by data from patient-derived specimens and direct assessment of 5-fluorouracil sensitivity, which provides confidence in the proposed mechanisms. The model is additionally supported by genome data from a population with high "compromised allele frequency". This work will interest those studying drug resistance in cancer therapy.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Mutant mice lacking alternatively spliced p53 isoforms unveil Ackr4 as a male-specific prognostic factor in Myc-driven B-cell lymphomas

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Anne Fajac
   2. Iva Simeonova
   3. Julia Leemput
   4. Marc Gabriel
   5. Aurélie Morin
   6. Vincent Lejour
   7. Annaïg Hamon
   8. Jeanne Rakotopare
   9. Wilhelm Vaysse-Zinkhöfer
   10. Eliana Eldawra
   11. Marina Pinskaya
   12. Antonin Morillon
   13. Jean-Christophe Bourdon
   14. Boris Bardot
   15. Franck Toledo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study using engineered mouse models provides a first and compelling demonstration of a pathogenic phenotype associated with lack of expression of p53AS, an isoform of the p53 protein with a different C-terminus than canonical p53. The role of this isoform has been elusive so far and this first demonstration represents a substantial advance in our understanding of the complex role(s) of p53 isoforms. The revised manuscript adequately addresses previous concerns.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Comparative transcriptomics reveal a novel tardigrade-specific DNA-binding protein induced in response to ionizing radiation

   This article has 25 authors:

   1. Marwan Anoud
   2. Emmanuelle Delagoutte
   3. Quentin Helleu
   4. Alice Brion
   5. Evelyne Duvernois-Berthet
   6. Marie As
   7. Xavier Marques
   8. Khadija Lamribet
   9. Catherine Senamaud-Beaufort
   10. Laurent Jourdren
   11. Annie Adrait
   12. Sophie Heinrich
   13. Geraldine Toutirais
   14. Sahima Hamlaoui
   15. Giacomo Gropplero
   16. Ilaria Giovannini
   17. Loic Ponger
   18. Marc Geze
   19. Corinne Blugeon
   20. Yohann Couté
   21. Roberto Guidetti
   22. Lorena Rebecchi
   23. Carine Giovannangeli
   24. Anne De Cian
   25. Jean-Paul Concordet

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study offers valuable insight into the remarkable resistance of tardigrades to ionizing radiation by showing that radiation treatment induces a suite of DNA repair proteins and by identifying a strongly induced tardigrade-specific DNA-binding protein that can reduce the number of double-strand breaks in human U2OS cells. The evidence of upregulation of repair proteins is convincing, and the case for a role of the newly identified protein in repair can be strengthened as genetic tools for tardigrades become better developed. The results will interest the fields of DNA repair and radiobiology as well as tardigrade biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Acyl-CoA thioesterase-2 facilitates β-oxidation in glycolytic skeletal muscle in a lipid supply dependent manner

    This article has 13 authors:

    1. Carmen Bekeova
    2. Ji In Han
    3. Heli Xu
    4. Evan Kerr
    5. Brittney Blackburne
    6. Shannon C. Lynch
    7. Clementina Mesaros
    8. Marta Murgia
    9. Rajanikanth Vadigepalli
    10. Joris Beld
    11. Roberta Leonardi
    12. Nathaniel W. Snyder
    13. Erin L. Seifert

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This study presents new data highlighting the importance of appropriate coenzyme A handling in the mitochondria for maintaining appropriate energy production capacity. Several findings regarding the role of a key metabolic enzyme in how skeletal muscle cells use different substrates for energy production are valuable and supported by solid evidence, but there are concerns whether the data support the conclusion that ACOT2 regulates mitochondrial matrix acyl-CoA levels in white skeletal muscle to facilitate fatty acid oxidation β-oxidation.

    Reviewed by eLife