eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Unsupervised discovery of family specific vocal usage in the Mongolian gerbil

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Ralph E Peterson
   2. Aman Choudhri
   3. Catalin Mitelut
   4. Aramis Tanelus
   5. Athena Capo-Battaglia
   6. Alex H Williams
   7. David M Schneider
   8. Dan H Sanes

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study provides an experimental paradigm and state-of-the-art analysis method for studying the existence of call types and transition differences among Mongolian gerbil families in a naturalistic environment. The analyses are convincing, with a thorough treatment of the acoustic data and a demonstration of the robustness of the observed effect across days. The work will likely be of interest to the auditory neuroscience and neuroethology communities.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. WRNIP1 prevents transcription-associated genomic instability

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Pasquale Valenzisi
   2. Veronica Marabitti
   3. Pietro Pichierri
   4. Annapaola Franchitto

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable paper examines the role of the WRNIP1 AAA+ ATPase in regulating R-loop formation, which induces a conflict with active replication forks and transcription. The authors provide convincing evidence to support a role of the ubiquitin-binding UBZ domain of WRNIP1 in R-loop suppression generated by this conflict. The work is of interest to researchers who work on genome stability/instability.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. An engineered biosensor enables dynamic aspartate measurements in living cells

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Kristian Davidsen
   2. Jonathan S Marvin
   3. Abhi Aggarwal
   4. Timothy A Brown
   5. Lucas B Sullivan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study reports jAspSnFR3, a biosensor that enables high spatiotemporal resolution of aspartate levels in living cells. To develop this sensor, the authors used a structurally guided amino acid substitution in a glutamate/aspartate periplasmic binding protein to switch its specificity towards aspartate. The in vitro and in cellulo functional characterization of the biosensor is convincing, but evidence of the sensor's effectiveness in detecting small perturbations of aspartate levels and information on its behavior in response to acute aspartate elevations in the cytosol are still lacking.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. An open-source, high-resolution, automated fluorescence microscope

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Ando Christian Zehrer
   2. Ana Martin-Villalba
   3. Benedict Diederich
   4. Helge Ewers

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study provides compelling evidence that the low-cost and open-hardware UC2 microscopy framework can be expanded to enable single-molecule localization microscopy. The authors managed to fit the instrumentation and control thereof in a unit that can be placed in a small stage-top-incubator. Together with providing adapted software for data acquisition and data analysis, the UC.STORM setup can rival the capabilities of comparable commercial instruments at a fraction of the costs.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Task-specific invariant representation in auditory cortex

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Charles R Heller
   2. Gregory R Hamersky
   3. Stephen V David

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study provides insights into how the brain constructs categorical neural representations during a difficult auditory target detection task. Through recordings of simultaneous single-unit activity in primary and secondary auditory areas, compelling evidence is provided that categorical neural representations emerge in a secondary auditory area, i.e., PEG. The study is of interest to neuroscientists and can also potentially shed light on human psychological studies.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Multi-level processing of emotions in life motion signals revealed through pupil responses

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Tian Yuan
   2. Li Wang
   3. Yi Jiang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides convincing evidence that emotional information in biological motion can induce different patterns of pupil responses, which could serve as a behavioral marker of an autistic trait. These results broaden our understanding of how emotional biological motion can automatically trigger physiological changes and reveal the potential of using emotional-modulated pupil response to facilitate the diagnosis of social cognitive disorders. The work will be of broad interest to cognitive neuroscience, psychology, affective neuroscience, and vision science.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Combinatorial expression of γ-protocadherins regulates synaptic connectivity in the mouse neocortex

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yi-jun Zhu
   2. Cai-yun Deng
   3. Liu Fan
   4. Ya-Qian Wang
   5. Hui Zhou
   6. Hua-tai Xu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors used an innovative modified 10X genomic sequencing method to detect cPCDHg is-forms in pyramidal neurons. With solid electrophysiological recordings, they showed that neurons expressing the same sets of cPCDHg isoforms are less likely to form synapses with each other. These valuable findings confirms previous results and extend our understanding of cPCDHg diversity and neuronal connectivity.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Genetically defined nucleus incertus neurons differ in connectivity and function

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Emma D Spikol
   2. Ji Cheng
   3. Michelle Macurak
   4. Abhignya Subedi
   5. Marnie E Halpern

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents an important finding on the anatomical connectivity and functional roles of the previously uncharacterized neuronal populations in the nucleus incertus. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with imaging and manipulations of the genetically targeted populations of neurons. The work presents a significant milestone for future mechanistic studies of the nucleus incertus.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Distance and grid-like codes support the navigation of abstract social space in the human brain

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Zilu Liang
   2. Simeng Wu
   3. Jie Wu
   4. Wen-Xu Wang
   5. Shaozheng Qin
   6. Chao Liu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study tackles a significant question: Does the brain apply spatial navigation systems to evaluate decision options in conceptual social spaces? The investigation is useful as it seeks to address this intriguing hypothesis. The findings offer partial support: a solid analysis revealed characteristic grid-like patterns associated with decision-making directions. However, it remains uncertain whether these effects are genuinely due to navigating a conceptual social space or potentially confounded by changes in visual stimuli. The experimental design may not be capable of definitively resolving this issue.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Binding of LncDACH1 to dystrophin impairs the membrane trafficking of Nav1.5 protein and increases ventricular arrhythmia susceptibility

    This article has 21 authors:

    1. Genlong Xue
    2. Jiming Yang
    3. Yang Zhang
    4. Ying Yang
    5. Ruixin Zhang
    6. Desheng Li
    7. Tao Tian
    8. Jialiang Li
    9. Xiaofang Zhang
    10. Changzhu Li
    11. Xingda Li
    12. Jiqin Yang
    13. Kewei Shen
    14. Yang Guo
    15. Xuening Liu
    16. Guohui Yang
    17. Lina Xuan
    18. Hongli Shan
    19. Yanjie Lu
    20. Yang Baofeng
    21. Zhenwei Pan

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This study presents an important contribution to cardiac arrhythmia research by demonstrating long noncoding RNA Dachshund homolog 1 (lncDACH1) tunes sodium channel functional expression and affects cardiac action potential conduction and rhythms. The evidence supporting the major claims are convincing. The work will be of broad interest to cell biologists and cardiac electrophysiologists.

    Reviewed by eLife