eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Contributions of associative and non-associative learning to the dynamics of defensive ethograms

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Quan-Son Eric Le
   2. Daniel Hereford
   3. Chandrashekhar D Borkar
   4. Zach Aldaco
   5. Julia Klar
   6. Alexis Resendez
   7. Jonathan P Fadok

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study is deemed to be an important work that carefully deconstructs multi-faceted conditioned fear behavior in mice. The well-controlled experiments provide convincing data that will be of interest to other researchers in the field.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Translational regulation enhances distinction of cell types in the nervous system

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Toshiharu Ichinose
   2. Shu Kondo
   3. Mai Kanno
   4. Yuichi Shichino
   5. Mari Mito
   6. Shintaro Iwasaki
   7. Hiromu Tanimoto

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable paper explores the role of translational regulation in the establishment of differential gene expression between neurons and glia in Drosophila. The paper uses Ribo-seq to show extensive variation in the translation efficiency of specific transcripts between neurons and glia. The evidence supporting the model is solid, although only one example (that exhibits very strong differential transcriptional expression between one class of neurons and glia) is studied in detail for translation efficiency.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Cholinergic input to mouse visual cortex signals a movement state and acutely enhances layer 5 responsiveness

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Baba Yogesh
   2. Georg B Keller

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study by Yogesh and Keller provides a set of results describing the response properties of cholinergic input and its functional impacts in the mouse visual cortex. They found that cholinergic inputs are elevated by locomotion in a binary manner regardless of locomotor speeds, and activation of cholinergic input differently modulated the activity of Later 2/3 and Layer 5 visual cortex neurons induced by bottom-up (visual stimuli) and top-down (visuomotor mismatch) inputs. The experiments are cutting-edge and well-executed, and the results are convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Downregulation of Dickkopf-3, a Wnt antagonist elevated in Alzheimer’s disease, restores synapse integrity and memory in a disease mouse model

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Nuria Martin Flores
   2. Marina Podpolny
   3. Faye McLeod
   4. Isaac Workman
   5. Karen Crawford
   6. Dobril Ivanov
   7. Ganna Leonenko
   8. Valentina Escott-Price
   9. Patricia C Salinas

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important manuscript investigates the roles of DKK3 in AD synapse integrity. Although previous work has identified the involvement of Wnt and DKK1 in synaptic physiology, this study provides compelling evidence that suppression of DKK3 rescues the changes in excitatory synapse numbers, as well as memory deficits in an established AD model mice. The authors provide both gain and loss of function data that support the main conclusion and advance our understanding of the mechanisms by which Wnt pathway mediates early synaptic dysfunction in AD models.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Exploring natural odour landscapes: A case study with implications for human-biting insects

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jessica L. Zung
   2. Sumer M. Kotb
   3. Carolyn S. McBride

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript provides a useful qualitative analysis of hair extracts from mammals, with the goal of understanding how mosquitoes encode the chemicals in the odor. The data were collected using standard spectrometric approaches in the field of chemical ecology, but they suffer from artifacts associated with the sampling approach and analyses, and are limited in their replicates and sampling which may prevent inter-species comparisons at this point. Without additional analysis, the evidence supporting the claims currently remains unfortunately incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. CryoEM structures of the human CLC-2 voltage-gated chloride channel reveal a ball-and-chain gating mechanism

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Mengyuan Xu
   2. Torben Neelands
   3. Alexander S Powers
   4. Yan Liu
   5. Steven D Miller
   6. Grigore D Pintilie
   7. J Du Bois
   8. Ron O Dror
   9. Wah Chiu
   10. Merritt Maduke

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study examines the human voltage-gated chloride channel CLC-2. A combination of cryo-EM, electrophysiology, and computational analysis provides compelling support for a "ball and chain" mechanism of inactivation. This and other findings regarding the gating and inhibition mechanisms of the channel are of fundamental interest to ion channel physiologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Allosteric regulation of kinase activity in living cells

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Shivani Sujay Godbole
   2. Nikolay V Dokholyan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     One of the most promising strategies in development of drugs targeting kinases is provided by using allosteric control that allows specific regulation and study of kinase function without directly targeting the active site. This important paper reviews convincingly the current repertoire of tools for regulating the activity of protein kinases with the ultimate goal of developing novel approaches in treating diseases associated with signal dysregulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. An atypical basement membrane forms a midline barrier during left-right asymmetric gut development in the chicken embryo

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Cora Demler
   2. John C Lawlor
   3. Ronit Yelin
   4. Dhana Llivichuzcha-Loja
   5. Lihi Shaulov
   6. David Kim
   7. Megan Stewart
   8. Frank K Lee
   9. Natalia Shylo
   10. Paul A Trainor
   11. Thomas M Schultheiss
   12. Natasza A Kurpios

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study reports the fundamental discovery of a novel structure in the developing gut that acts as a midline barrier between left and right asymmetries. Some of the evidence supporting the dynamics, composition, and function of this novel basement membrane in the chick is solid, some is even convincing, but investigation of its origin and impact on asymmetric organogenesis remains challenging and is not yet conclusive. This careful work is of broad relevance to patterning mechanisms, the importance of the extracellular matrix, and laterality disorders.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Adulis and the transshipment of baboons during classical antiquity

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Franziska Grathwol
   2. Christian Roos
   3. Dietmar Zinner
   4. Benjamin Hume
   5. Stéphanie M Porcier
   6. Didier Berthet
   7. Jacques Cuisin
   8. Stefan Merker
   9. Claudio Ottoni
   10. Wim Van Neer
   11. Nathaniel J Dominy
   12. Gisela H Kopp

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This Research Advance provides compelling evidence connecting the ancient Egyptian trade of baboons with the ancient port city of Adulis. Combining ancient DNA methods from a single mummified baboon with historical accounts, this work fundamentally advances our understanding of the ancient baboon trade in the Red Sea. Some additional reporting of DNA contamination will make the evidence provided even stronger.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Genomic stability of self-inactivating rabies

    This article has 6 authors:

    1. Ernesto Ciabatti
    2. Ana González-Rueda
    3. Daniel de Malmazet
    4. Hassal Lee
    5. Fabio Morgese
    6. Marco Tripodi

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The authors previously developed a tool with the goal of non-toxic trans-synaptic tracing using a modified rabies virus, an important goal for the neuroscience field. The tool has the propensity to accumulate mutations over time that promote toxicity, and the manuscript here describes techniques to avoid these mutations. It remains important to show that the non-mutated virus can serve as an effective trans-synaptic tracing tool.

    Reviewed by eLife