eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Inhibitory G proteins play multiple roles to polarize sensory hair cell morphogenesis

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Amandine Jarysta
   2. Abigail LD Tadenev
   3. Matthew Day
   4. Barry Krawchuk
   5. Benjamin E Low
   6. Michael V Wiles
   7. Basile Tarchini

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study examines an important aspect of the development of the auditory system, the role of guanine nucleotide-binding protein subunits, GNAIs, in stereociliary bundle formation and orientation, by examining bundle phenotypes in multiple compound GNAI mutants. The experiments are highly rigorous and thorough and include detailed quantifications of bundle morphologies and changes. The depth and care of the study are impressive, with convincing results regarding the roles of GNAIs in stereociliary bundle development. Further, the reviewers believe this to be the definitive study of the role of GNAIs in bundle orientation and development.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The Impact of Stability Considerations on Genetic Fine-Mapping

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Alan Aw
   2. Lionel Chentian Jin
   3. Nilah Ioannidis
   4. Yun S. Song

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work is a valuable exploration of a new stability-guided fine-mapping method, which aims to identify causal genetic variations, by extending the previously proposed PICS method. While the results are empirically validated using functional annotations, their evaluation is incomplete and lacks extensive simulations where true causal variants are known. The approach to improving fine-mapping of causal variants presented will be of interest to geneticists and biomedical researchers using genetic data to guide their investigations.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Pancreatic cancer symptom trajectories from Danish registry data and free text in electronic health records

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Jessica Xin Hjaltelin
   2. Sif Ingibergsdóttir Novitski
   3. Isabella Friis Jørgensen
   4. Troels Siggaard
   5. Siri Amalie Vulpius
   6. David Westergaard
   7. Julia Sidenius Johansen
   8. Inna M Chen
   9. Lars Juhl Jensen
   10. Søren Brunak

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents valuable findings on the symptoms and disease trajectories preceding a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in Denmark. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although an error analysis of the text mining evaluation results and a discussion on how the findings can be applied in practice would strengthen the study. The work will be of interest to public health researchers and clinicians working on pancreatic cancer.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Nationwide mammography screening participation in Denmark during the COVID-19 pandemic: An observational study

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Tina Bech Olesen
   2. Henry Jensen
   3. Henrik Møller
   4. Jens Winther Jensen
   5. Berit Andersen
   6. Ilse Vejborg
   7. Sisse H Njor

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This article is of broad interest to public health researchers and to health policymakers in populations with national screening programs. It provides important knowledge on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on participation in mammography screening in Denmark by socio-economic indicators. The study provides convincing evidence for how the pandemic exacerbated disparities in breast cancer screening in Denmark.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. A twin UGUA motif directs the balance between gene isoforms through CFIm and the mTORC1 signaling pathway

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. R Samuel Herron
   2. Alexander K Kunisky
   3. Jessica R Madden
   4. Vivian I Anyaeche
   5. May Z Maung
   6. Hun-Way Hwang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this valuable report, the authors explore the connection between mTORC signaling and APA regulated by the CFIm complex. Using a combination of genetic and functional genomics approaches, the study reveals that a twin UGUA motif is a potent cis acting regulation of PAS usage that is recognized by CFIm. Overall, the evidence in general is convincing and supports the conclusions and provides the field with additional mechanistic insight of how signaling connects to APA regulatory machinery.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Dynamic organization of cerebellar climbing fiber response and synchrony in multiple functional components reduces dimensions for reinforcement learning

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Huu Hoang
   2. Shinichiro Tsutsumi
   3. Masanori Matsuzaki
   4. Masanobu Kano
   5. Mitsuo Kawato
   6. Kazuo Kitamura
   7. Keisuke Toyama

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study of the dimensionality and synchrony of calcium responses in Purkinje cells measured across a large region of the cerebellar cortex over the course of learning. This work has the potential to inform our understanding of the functional organization of the cerebellum and longstanding hypotheses about the role of cerebellar climbing fibers in the induction of learning and in the timing of movement, but the evidence provided for the many sweeping claims is incomplete. The paper would benefit from additional statistical analyses to more rigorously evaluate the central claims, with consideration of appropriate comparison groups and potential confounds.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Theoretical analysis reveals a role for RAF conformational autoinhibition in paradoxical activation

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Gaurav Mendiratta
   2. Edward Stites

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study uses mathematical modelling to demonstrate that conformational autoinhibition of the RAF kinase is an important feature of its paradoxical activation by pharmacological inhibitors. This part of the theoretical analysis is highly compelling but its extension to the investigation of how the binding of 14-3-3 adaptors additionally contributes to the paradoxical activation phenomenon is incomplete and would benefit from more rigorous experimental validation. With the experimental part addressing 14-3-3-dependent regulation strengthened or the 14-3-3 part completely removed, this paper would be of considerable interest to cell biologists and cancer biologists, ultimately paving the way for improved RAF therapeutics.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Transparency of research practices in cardiovascular literature

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Gabriel O Heckerman
   2. Eileen Tzng
   3. Arely Campos-Melendez
   4. Chisomaga Ekwueme
   5. Adrienne Mueller

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a descriptive paper in the field of metascience, which documents levels of accessibility and reproducible research practices in the field of cardiovascular science. As such, it does not make a theoretical contribution, but it argues, first, that there is a problem for this field, and second, it provides a baseline against which the impact of future initiatives to improve reproducibility can be assessed. The study was pre-registered and the methods and data are clearly documented. This kind of study is extremely labour-intensive and represents a great deal of work.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A rapid review of COVID-19’s global impact on breast cancer screening participation rates and volumes from January to December 2020

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Reagan Lee
   2. Wei Xu
   3. Marshall Dozier
   4. Ruth McQuillan
   5. Evropi Theodoratou
   6. Jonine Figueroa
   7. On Behalf of UNCOVER and the International Partnership for Resilience in CancerSystems (I-PaRCS), Breast Cancer Working Group 2

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents important evidence of the impact of the covid pandemic on breast cancer screening globally but with important variations by healthcare setting. The data analysis is comprehensive, using solid systematic review methods. The results will be of interest to public health policymakers and health care and cancer control practitioners and researchers across the globe.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Isoform-specific disruption of the TP73 gene reveals a critical role for TAp73γ in tumorigenesis via leptin

    This article has 10 authors:

    1. Xiangmudong Kong
    2. Wensheng Yan
    3. Wenqiang Sun
    4. Yanhong Zhang
    5. Hee Jung Yang
    6. Mingyi Chen
    7. Hongwu Chen
    8. Ralph W de Vere White
    9. Jin Zhang
    10. Xinbin Chen

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      TP73 is a member of the p53 family of tumor suppressors. The authors provide compelling evidence that a TAp73-alpha to TAp73-gamma switch could be a frequent phenomenon in human cancers and provide novel evidence that TAp73-gamma has oncogenic functions via Leptin. The authors provide a substantial amount of high-quality data and convincingly demonstrate a novel function of this specific isoform of p73 in lipid metabolism and tumorigenesis.

    Reviewed by eLife