eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A methylation-phosphorylation switch controls EZH2 stability and hematopoiesis

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Pengfei Guo
   2. Rebecca C Lim
   3. Keshari Rajawasam
   4. Tiffany Trinh
   5. Hong Sun
   6. Hui Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a fundamental study describing a novel methylation event on EZH2 that regulates EZH2 protein stability and hematopoiesis. The methodologies are sound and the conclusions are largely supported by solid data. The work will be of interest to biomedical researchers in the field of cancer epigenetics.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Analyses of allele age and fitness impact reveal human beneficial alleles to be older than neutral controls

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Alyssa M. Pivirotto
   2. Alexander Platt
   3. Ravi Patel
   4. Sudhir Kumar
   5. Jody Hey

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Drawing on a human population genomic data set, this valuable study seeks to show that potentially advantageous alleles are on average older than neutral alleles, invoking the action of balancing selection as the underlying explanation. Currently it is unfortunately unclear how robust the estimates of allele ages are, and the evidence for the authors' proposal is therefore at this stage incomplete. If confirmed, the conclusions would be of interest to population genomicists, especially those studying humans.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Multiple guidance mechanisms control axon growth to generate precise T-shaped bifurcation during dorsal funiculus development in the spinal cord

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Bridget M Curran
   2. Kelsey R Nickerson
   3. Andrea R Yung
   4. Lisa V Goodrich
   5. Alexander Jaworski
   6. Marc Tessier-Lavigne
   7. Le Ma

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study expands our understanding of the role of two axon guidance factors in a specific axon guidance decision. The strength of the study is the compelling axonal labeling and quantification, which allows the authors to establish precise consequences of the loss of each guidance factor or receptor.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Perceptual error based on Bayesian cue combination drives implicit motor adaptation

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Zhaoran Zhang
   2. Huijun Wang
   3. Tianyang Zhang
   4. Zixuan Nie
   5. Kunlin Wei

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents an important finding on the influence of visual uncertainty and Bayesian cue combination on implicit motor adaptation in young healthy participants, hereby linking perception and action during implicit adaptation. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing. The normative approach of the proposed PEA model, which combines ideas from separate lines of research, including vision research and motor learning, opens avenues for future developments. This work will be of interest to researchers in sensory cue integration and motor learning.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Feedback inhibition by a descending GABAergic neuron regulates timing of escape behavior in Drosophila larvae

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Jiayi Zhu
   2. Jean-Christophe Boivin
   3. Alastair Garner
   4. Jing Ning
   5. Yi Q Zhao
   6. Tomoko Ohyama

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The aim of this important study is to functionally characterize neuronal circuits underlying the escape behavior in Drosophila larvae. Upon detection of a noxious stimulus, larvae follow a series of stereotyped movements that include bending of their body, rolling and crawling away. This paper combines quantitative behavioral analyses, cell-type specific manipulations, optogenetics, calcium imaging, immunostaining, and connectomic analysis to provide convincing evidence of an inhibitory descending pathway that controls the switch from rolling to fast crawling behaviors of the larval escape response.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Insights in neuronal tuning: Navigating the statistical challenges of autocorrelation and missing variables

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Fredrik Nevjen
   2. Benjamin Adric Dunn

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents important new insights into how best to address common problems encountered in the statistical analysis of neural data, including those related to temporal autocorrelations and unknown variables. The authors show that certain approaches, including those using cross-validation and permutation tests, are better than others at controlling error rates, particularly false negatives. At present, the evidence presented is incomplete, including a lack of more rigorous theoretical justifications for the differences observed between the different approaches tested and a focus on p-values without considering effect sizes, but could be improved with substantial revisions that address these issues.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Automating an insect biodiversity metric using distributed optical sensors: an evaluation across Kansas, USA cropping systems

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Klas Rydhmer
   2. James O Eckberg
   3. Jonathan G Lundgren
   4. Samuel Jansson
   5. Laurence Still
   6. John E Quinn
   7. Ralph Washington
   8. Jesper Lemmich
   9. Thomas Nikolajsen
   10. Nikolaj Sheller
   11. Alex M Michels
   12. Michael M Bredeson
   13. Steven T Rosenzweig
   14. Emily N Bick

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors propose a new methodology to survey insects, using new sensors and analytical capabilities that could be valuable for addressing urgent conservation challenges. While the results of the optical sensors appear to be comparable to those obtained with classical survey methodologies, current analyses are considered incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Fitness landscape of substrate-adaptive mutations in evolved amino acid-polyamine-organocation transporters

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Foteini Karapanagioti
   2. Úlfur Águst Atlason
   3. Dirk J Slotboom
   4. Bert Poolman
   5. Sebastian Obermaier

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important manuscript describes experimental evolution experiments using a novel genetic system in yeast, showing that solute carrier transporters can incorporate additional functionality through the introduction of point mutations to either the ligand binding site or gating helices. These findings provide convincing evidence to establish that for Amino Acid transporters of the APC-type family, evolution to recognize new substrates passes through generalist intermediates that can transport most amino acids.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Exploiting fluctuations in gene expression to detect causal interactions between genes

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Euan Joly-Smith
   2. Mir Mikdad Talpur
   3. Paige Allard
   4. Fotini Papazotos
   5. Laurent Potvin-Trottier
   6. Andreas Hilfinger

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     By taking advantage of noise in gene expression, this important study introduces a new approach for detecting directed causal interactions between two genes without perturbing either. The main theoretical result is supported by a proof. Preliminary simulations and experiments on small circuits are solid, but further investigations are needed to demonstrate the broad applicability and scalability of the method.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Exceptional longevity of mammalian ovarian and oocyte macromolecules throughout the reproductive lifespan

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. Ewa K Bomba-Warczak
    2. Karen M Velez
    3. Luhan T Zhou
    4. Christelle Guillermier
    5. Seby Edassery
    6. Matthew L Steinhauser
    7. Jeffrey N Savas
    8. Francesca E Duncan

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This important study highlights cell types preserving long-lived proteins and lays a foundation for identifying exceptionally long-lived proteins in the ovary. Convincing evidence describes helpful data about protein turnover and identifies long-lived macromolecules in oocytes and somatic cells during mouse ovarian aging. This work will be of interest to researchers working on aging and reproductive health.

    Reviewed by eLife