eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The genetic and dietary landscape of the muscle insulin signalling network

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Julian van Gerwen
   2. Stewart WC Masson
   3. Harry B Cutler
   4. Alexis Diaz Vegas
   5. Meg Potter
   6. Jacqueline Stöckli
   7. Søren Madsen
   8. Marin E Nelson
   9. Sean J Humphrey
   10. David E James

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study provides a unique tool for assessing the range of phosphorylation in insulin reactions due to genetic variation and dietary influence through the utilization of genetically distinct mouse strains. The discoveries of this study hold substantial importance, as they shed light on the interplay between genetic attributes and environmental conditions in shaping the insulin-signaling network within skeletal muscle, a crucial regulator of metabolism. The supporting evidence presented is compelling, and the work is anticipated to captivate a wide audience within the metabolism discipline due to its extensive appeal and by providing inspiration for further hypothesis-driven research.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. A reservoir of timescales emerges in recurrent circuits with heterogeneous neural assemblies

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Merav Stern
   2. Nicolae Istrate
   3. Luca Mazzucato

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental work uses computational network models to suggest a possible origin of the wide range of time scales observed in cortical activity. This claim is supported by convincing evidence based on comparisons between mathematical theory, simulations of spiking network models, and analysis of recordings from the orbitofrontal cortex. This manuscript will be of interest to the broad community of systems and computational neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Modulation of protein-DNA binding reveals mechanisms of spatiotemporal gene control in early Drosophila embryos

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Sahla Syed
   2. Yifei Duan
   3. Bomyi Lim

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable work explores how transcription factors regulate transcription through cooperative binding to enhancers. Through experiments and modeling, the authors show convincingly that the cooperativity of transcription factor binding regulates transcriptional bursting and the extent of the amount of time that the target promoter remains in an active state.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Interpersonal alignment of neural evidence accumulation to social exchange of confidence

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Jamal Esmaily
   2. Sajjad Zabbah
   3. Reza Ebrahimpour
   4. Bahador Bahrami

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this important study, Esmaily and colleagues investigate the "confidence matching" between two agents and present a useful exploration of its computational and physiological correlates. Further analyses would be helpful to provide a tighter link between fluctuations of confidence, pupil size, EEG response, and computational variables, to delineate the causal relations between these quantities, which are nevertheless incompletely documented at present.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. A prefrontal network model operating near steady and oscillatory states links spike desynchronization and synaptic deficits in schizophrenia

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. David A Crowe
   2. Andrew Willow
   3. Rachael K Blackman
   4. Adele L DeNicola
   5. Matthew V Chafee
   6. Bagrat Amirikian

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript reports important new results, but it provides incomplete support for its claims. Recent data has shown that schizophrenia-related synaptic alterations induce changes in neural network synchrony, and this manuscript provides the first theoretical understanding of the underlying network mechanisms. Proper support for this result, however, requires a tighter link between the computational model and the experimental data and a more in-depth understanding of the model mechanisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Effect of an enhanced public health contact tracing intervention on the secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in educational settings: The four-way decomposition analysis

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Olivera Djuric
   2. Elisabetta Larosa
   3. Mariateresa Cassinadri
   4. Silvia Cilloni
   5. Eufemia Bisaccia
   6. Davide Pepe
   7. Laura Bonvicini
   8. Massimo Vicentini
   9. Francesco Venturelli
   10. Paolo Giorgi Rossi
   11. Patrizio Pezzotti
   12. Alberto Mateo Urdiales
   13. Emanuela Bedeschi
   14. The Reggio Emilia Covid-19 Working Group

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides a potentially useful assessment of the effect of testing contacts of cases in school classes when identified, rather than at the end of quarantine, on both the number of secondary infections and other outcomes including tracing delay and identification of the possible source of infection. The authors find that the intervention likely led to a decrease in tracing delay and an increase in the number of possible sources of infection, though were unable to determine whether secondary transmission decreased, due in part to unmeasured confounding. While the surveillance system described provides a solid dataset appropriate for this analysis, the description of methods, study outcomes, and consideration of potential confounding factors is incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor signaling maintains epithelial barrier integrity

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Nadja S Katheder
   2. Kristen C Browder
   3. Diana Chang
   4. Ann De Maziere
   5. Pekka Kujala
   6. Suzanne van Dijk
   7. Judith Klumperman
   8. Tzu-Chiao Lu
   9. Hongjie Li
   10. Zijuan Lai
   11. Dewakar Sangaraju
   12. Heinrich Jasper

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study reveals a novel mechanism of Acetylcholine- Acetylylcholine receptor signaling in regulating gut barrier function in Drosophila, which provides important implications on the pathway played in human diseases, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary DiseaseCOPD. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Long-timescale anti-directional rotation in Drosophila optomotor behavior

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Omer Mano
   2. Minseung Choi
   3. Ryosuke Tanaka
   4. Matthew S Creamer
   5. Natalia CB Matos
   6. Joseph W Shomar
   7. Bara A Badwan
   8. Thomas R Clandinin
   9. Damon A Clark

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The present study provides a valuable new perspective on the optomotor response based on an inversion of the behavior under specific (non-natural) conditions that may help elucidate the principles of this specific behavior. The evidence provided is convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Erythrocyte invasion-neutralising antibodies prevent Plasmodium falciparum RH5 from binding to basigin-containing membrane protein complexes

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Abhishek Jamwal
   2. Cristina F Constantin
   3. Stephan Hirschi
   4. Sebastian Henrich
   5. Wolfgang Bildl
   6. Bernd Fakler
   7. Simon J Draper
   8. Uwe Schulte
   9. Matthew K Higgins

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This elegantly performed and rigorous study generates new and conceptually important insights into the interaction between an essential malaria parasite invasion ligand (and vaccine candidate) called PfRH5, and its erythrocyte surface integral membrane receptor basigin. The authors provide compelling evidence based on rigorous biochemical assays that erythrocyte basigin is predominantly expressed in a complex with one of two distinct erythrocyte membrane proteins called PMCA and MCT1 and that PfRH5 binds to these complexes better than to isolated basigin. Certain invasion-inhibitory antibodies, that do not prevent binding of PfRH5 to isolated basigin, do in contrast prevent binding to the basigin complexes, explaining the mode of action of these previously enigmatic antibodies and providing valuable data towards the improved design of vaccines based on PfRH5.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. A comprehensive model of Drosophila epithelium reveals the role of embryo geometry and cell topology in mechanical responses

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. Mohamad Ibrahim Cheikh
    2. Joel Tchoufag
    3. Miriam Osterfield
    4. Kevin Dean
    5. Swayamdipta Bhaduri
    6. Chuzhong Zhang
    7. Kranthi Kiran Mandadapu
    8. Konstantin Doubrovinski

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      Using a novel micropipette-based, minimally invasive approach in combination with theoretical and computational analysis, this important work probes tissue mechanics in the Drosophila embryo. The authors provide compelling evidence for the applicability of their method, which reveals important differences between the mechanical properties on the apical and basal tissue sides. This work should be of broad interest to scientists studying tissue mechanics, membranes, and developmental processes.

    Reviewed by eLife