eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Identifying the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypic correlation between complex human traits using a gene-based approach

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Jialiang Gu
   2. Chris Fuller
   3. Peter Carbonetto
   4. Xin He
   5. Jiashun Zheng
   6. Hao Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     To evaluate phenotypic correlations between complex traits, this study aimed to measure the genetic overlap of traits by evaluating GWAS signals assisted by eQTL signals. They suggested an improved version of the previous Sherlock to integrate SNP-level signals into gene-level signals. Then they compared 59 human traits to identify known and novel genetic distance relationships. This work is valuable to the field, but still needs substantial improvement because many parts of the paper are incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Restoring data balance via generative models of T cell receptors for antigen-binding prediction

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Emanuele Loffredo
   2. Mauro Pastore
   3. Simona Cocco
   4. Rémi Monasson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study introduces a data augmentation approach based on generative unsupervised models to address data imbalance in immune receptor modeling. Support for the findings is solid, showing that the use of generated data increases the performance of downstream supervised prediction tasks, e.g., TCR-peptide interaction prediction. However, the validation, mainly relying on synthetic data, could be completed, especially regarding unseen epitopes, and given the exclusive focus on CDR3β. The results should be of interest to the communities working on immunology and biological sequence data analysis.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Orderly mitosis shapes interphase genome architecture

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Krishnendu Guin
   2. Adib Keikhosravi
   3. Raj Chari
   4. Gianluca Pegoraro
   5. Tom Misteli

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study combines microscopy and CRISPR screening in two different cell lines to identify factors involved in global chromatin organization, using centromere clustering as a proxy. Follow-up cell cycle synchronisation studies confirm roles in centromere clustering in mitosis. However, incomplete characterisation of the cell lines used limits the interpretation of the findings. The study will interest researchers studying genome organisation in mitosis.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Distinct evolutionary trajectories of two integration centres, the central complex and mushroom bodies, across Heliconiini butterflies

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Max S Farnworth
   2. Yi Peng Toh
   3. Theodora Loupasaki
   4. Elizabeth A Hodge
   5. Basil el Jundi
   6. Stephen H Montgomery

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The analysis of neural morphology across Heliconiini butterfly species revealed brain area-specific changes associated with new foraging behaviours. While the volume of the centre for learning and memory, the mushroom bodies, was known to vary widely across species, new, valuable results show conservation of the volume of a center for navigation, the central complex. The presented evidence is convincing for both volumetric conservation in the central complex and fine neuroanatomical differences associated with pollen feeding, delivered by experimental approaches that are applicable to other insect species. This work will be of interest to evolutionary biologists, entomologists, and neuroscientists.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Transport kinetics across interfaces between coexisting liquid phases

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Lars Hubatsch
   2. Stefano Bo
   3. Tyler S Harmon
   4. Anthony A Hyman
   5. Christoph A Weber
   6. Frank Jülicher

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study offers a valuable theoretical framework for quantifying molecular transport across interfaces between coexisting liquid phases, emphasizing interfacial resistance as a central factor governing transport kinetics. The mathematical derivations are solid. To enhance the paper's relevance and broaden its appeal, it would be helpful to clarify how the key equations connect to existing literature and to elucidate the physical mechanisms underlying scenarios that give rise to substantial interfacial resistance.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Multimodal MRI Marker of Cognition Explains the Association Between Cognition and Mental Health in UK Biobank

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Irina Buianova
   2. Mateus Silvestrin
   3. Jeremiah Deng
   4. Narun Pat

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable work advances our understanding of the relation between multimodal MRI, cognition, and mental health. Convincing use of statistical learning techniques in UK Biobank data shows that 48% of the variance between an 11-task derived g-factor and imaging data can be explained. Overall, this paper contributes to the study of brain-behaviour relations and will be of interest for both its methods and its findings on how much variance in g can be explained.

     [Editorial note: a previous version was reviewed by Biological Psychiatry]

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Protein phase change batteries drive innate immune signaling and cell fate

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Alejandro Rodriguez Gama
   2. Tayla Miller
   3. Shriram Venkatesan
   4. Jeffrey J Lange
   5. Jianzheng Wu
   6. Xiaoqing Song
   7. Dan Bradford
   8. Malcolm Cook
   9. Jay R Unruh
   10. Randal Halfmann

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study investigates the self-assembly activity of death-fold domains. The data collected using advanced microscopy and distributed amphifluoric FRET-based flow cytometry methods provide solid evidence for the conclusions, although the interpretations based on these conclusions remain speculative in some cases. This paper is broad interest to those studying a variety of biological pathways involved in inflammatory responses and various forms of cell death.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Selective life-long suppression of an odor processing channel in response to critical period experience

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Hans C Leier
   2. Julius Jonaitis
   3. Alexander J Foden
   4. Abigail J Wilkov
   5. Annika E Ross
   6. Paola Van der Linden Costello
   7. Heather T Broihier
   8. Andrew M Dacks

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study in the Drosophila antennal lobe, which contains multiple non-equivalent sensory channels, provides valuable new insight into how early-life sensory experience can produce lasting, cell-type-specific changes in neural circuit function. The work convincingly demonstrates that glial-mediated pruning during a defined developmental window leads to persistent suppression of odor responses in one olfactory neuron type, while sparing another. The evidence is solid and supported by multiple complementary approaches, although some mechanistic interpretations remain speculative and would benefit from additional functional testing.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Modeling metabolic disease susceptibility and resilience in genetically diverse mice

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Candice N Baker
   2. Jeffrey M Harder
   3. Daniel A Skelly
   4. Isabella Gerdes Gyuricza
   5. Margaret Gaca
   6. Matthew Vincent
   7. Allison Ingalls
   8. Mark P Keller
   9. Alan D Attie
   10. Madeleine Braun
   11. Michael Stitzel
   12. Edison T Liu
   13. Nadia Rosenthal
   14. Gary A Churchill

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors used three genetically diverse mouse models to investigate the impact of genome diversity on metabolic disease outcomes, such as obesity and glucose tolerance. This study is important because it integrates comprehensive metabolic analyses and multi-tissue phenotyping across sexes to reveal pathways relevant to obesity and its complications; the data are convincing and uncover several pathways that advance understanding of disease etiology while suggesting potential therapeutic avenues to prevent obesity-related health risks. There are limitations, such as a limited number of mouse strains used in the work, the 9-week feeding regime may be too short to capture full metabolic remodeling, and the mechanisms by which the immune-adipose axis impacts the broader phenotype are not fully described. Overall, the study is compelling, but the manuscript could be improved by justifying the strain selection, addressing the concern about the feeding duration, and providing stronger mechanistic support or discussion.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Large-scale identification of plasma membrane repair proteins revealed spatiotemporal cellular responses to plasma membrane damage

    This article has 2 authors:

    1. Yuta Yamazaki
    2. Keiko Kono

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This work provides an important resource identifying 72 proteins as novel candidates for plasma membrane and/or cell wall damage repair in budding yeast, and describes the temporal coordination of exocytosis and endocytosis during the repair process. The data are convincing; however, additional experimental validation will better support the claim that repair proteins shuttle between the bud tip and the damage site.

    Reviewed by eLife