eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Hybridization led to a rewired pluripotency network in the allotetraploid Xenopus laevis

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Wesley A Phelps
   2. Matthew D Hurton
   3. Taylor N Ayers
   4. Anne E Carlson
   5. Joel C Rosenbaum
   6. Miler T Lee

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper reports fundamental findings that substantially advance our understanding of a major research question - how hybridization events influence gene regulatory programs and how evolutionary pressures have shaped these programs in response to such events. The methods, data, and analyses are solid and broadly support the claims with only minor weaknesses. This convincing work uses appropriate and validated methodology in line with the current state-of-the-art.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Identification of a carbohydrate recognition motif of purinergic receptors

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Lifen Zhao
   2. Fangyu Wei
   3. Xinheng He
   4. Antao Dai
   5. Dehua Yang
   6. Hualiang Jiang
   7. Liuqing Wen
   8. Xi Cheng

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Purines are native molecules that affect processes in the immune system, among others. The manuscript describes a valuable investigation of the mode of binding of purines, especially their carbohydrate moiety, to human receptors in cell culture and by computer-based modelling. Solid evidence is presented about the way purines interact with and activate two receptors.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Death by a thousand cuts through kinase inhibitor combinations that maximize selectivity and enable rational multitargeting

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ian R Outhwaite
   2. Sukrit Singh
   3. Benedict-Tilman Berger
   4. Stefan Knapp
   5. John D Chodera
   6. Markus A Seeliger

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on an alternative method that combines multiple inhibitors to maximize on-target inhibition and minimize off-target inhibition. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although a proper validation of the methodology could strengthen the paper. The work will be of interest to scientists working in the field of drug discovery, particularly in the field of kinase inhibitors.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Astrocyte and L-lactate in the anterior cingulate cortex modulate schema memory and neuronal mitochondrial biogenesis

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Mastura Akter
   2. Mahadi Hasan
   3. Aruna Surendran Ramkrishnan
   4. Zafar Iqbal
   5. Xianlin Zheng
   6. Zhongqi Fu
   7. Zhuogui Lei
   8. Anwarul Karim
   9. Ying Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study that investigates the role of astrocytic Gi signaling in the anterior cingulate cortex in the modulation of extracellular L-lactate level and consequently impairment in flavor-place associates (PA) learning. However, whereas some of the behavioral observations and signaling mechanism data are compelling, the conclusions about effects on memory and the role of L-lactate are based on inadequate methods. With the addition of a few key experiments, this work will be of interest to neuroscientists studying learning and memory and the contribution of astrocytes to these processes.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Single-cell sequencing highlights heterogeneity and malignant progression in actinic keratosis and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Dan-Dan Zou
   2. Ya-Zhou Sun
   3. Xin-Jie Li
   4. Wen-Juan Wu
   5. Dan Xu
   6. Yu-Tong He
   7. Jue Qi
   8. Ying Tu
   9. Yang Tang
   10. Yun-Hua Tu
   11. Xiao-Li Wang
   12. Xing Li
   13. Feng-Yan Lu
   14. Ling Huang
   15. Heng Long
   16. Li He
   17. Xin Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study delineates the molecular changes driving the progression from actinic keratosis (AK) to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). Using state-of-the-art single-cell RNA profiling of 138,982 cells from 13 samples of six patients including AK, squamous cell carcinoma in situ (SCCIS), cSCC, and their matched normal tissues, thus covering comprehensive clinical courses of cSCC, the authors provide an invaluable data resource. This study identified several previously unreported and interesting candidate genes involved in different stages of the malignant progression of skin neoplasias, which have been validated in situ, and partially in vitro. Although data analysis needs improvement and comparison to other published data sets to fully support the claims and conclusions, these findings substantially advance our understanding of the molecular changes leading to skin cancer.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Homeostasis, injury, and recovery dynamics at multiple scales in a self-organizing mouse intestinal crypt

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Louis Gall
   2. Carrie Duckworth
   3. Ferran Jardi
   4. Lieve Lammens
   5. Aimee Parker
   6. Ambra Bianco
   7. Holly Kimko
   8. David Mark Pritchard
   9. Carmen Pin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors developed a valuable mathematical model that describes the spatiotemporal dynamics of cells in the intestinal crypt. The proposed model makes an important contribution to the field, allowing a better understanding of the formation and response dynamics of the intestinal crypt through the effective evaluation of health, disease, and treatment conditions. The authors provided solid evidence of the validity of their model and their conclusions, but some minor claims are not properly justified in the current manuscript. This paper is meant for computational biologists and cancer researchers working on oncotherapies for the intestinal epithelium.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Temporal transcriptomic dynamics in developing macaque neocortex

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Longjiang Xu
   2. Zan Yuan
   3. Jiafeng Zhou
   4. Yuan Zhao
   5. Wei Liu
   6. Shuaiyao Lu
   7. Zhanlong He
   8. Boqin Qiang
   9. Pengcheng Shu
   10. Yang Chen
   11. Xiaozhong Peng

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a useful resource for the gene expression profiles of different cell types in the parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex of prenatal macaques. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, and revision has clarified some of the cell isolation and cell classification issues flagged by reviewers. This dataset will be of interest to developmental neurobiologists and could potentially be used for future comparative studies on early brain development.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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