eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Dawn of segmented bilaterians unveiled by soft-bodied fossils in microbial pseudomorphs from the Basal Cambrian

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Xiaoguang Yang
   2. Deng Wang
   3. Farid Saleh
   4. Zhiliang Zhang
   5. Jie Sun
   6. Wenjing Hao
   7. Kentaro Uesugi
   8. Tsuyoshi Komiya
   9. Xing Wang
   10. Jian Han

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important manuscript reports exceptionally preserved, millimeter-scale segmented bilaterian microfossils from the early Cambrian Fortunian Kuanchuanpu Formation in South China. The authors propose that these non-biomineralized animals were preserved through microbial pseudomorphs rather than direct phosphatization, filling a critical taphonomic and evolutionary gap in early animal evolution. The physical preservation and high-resolution imaging of the fossils are convincing, but the theoretical grounds for establishing "true segmentation" versus superficial annulation/homonomy remain underdeveloped and need revision and further context. The new fossils and their taphonomy will be of broad interest to the paleontology community and those interested in early animal evolution.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The cell cycle regulates cell-penetrating peptide cytosolic uptake via differential expression of KCNH1 potassium channel

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Francisco Tomás Ribeiro
   2. Ali Hallaj
   3. Roger Mora
   4. Anita Lüthi
   5. Evgeniya Trofimenko
   6. Christian Widmann

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study reveals valuable links between cell-penetrating peptide uptake and the cell cycle, membrane voltage and an endogenous potassium channel. The evidence is solid, and further experiments would strengthen the proposed mechanism and the degree of the mechanism's generalization. The findings will interest researchers working on delivery of therapeutic molecules into cells.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Cryo-electron tomography sheds light on the largest protein in the Trypanosoma brucei tripartite attachment complex

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Irina Bregy
   2. Robin Benjamin Eberle
   3. Julika Radecke
   4. Amin Khosrozadeh
   5. Jaime Llodrá
   6. Akira Noga
   7. Hugo van den Hoek
   8. Mara Kern
   9. Beat Haenni
   10. Benjamin D Engel
   11. Philip Stettler
   12. André Schneider
   13. C Alistair Siebert
   14. Takashi Ishikawa
   15. Benoît Zuber
   16. Torsten Ochsenreiter

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable insights into the architecture of the tripartite attachment complex in Trypanosoma brucei and how it may preserve mitochondrial genome anchoring during basal body movement. Cryo-electron tomography and structural modelling provide solid support for the observed variability in filament length and basal body positioning, although the proposed mechanism involving p197 repeat orientation awaits direct molecular validation. These findings will interest researchers studying mitochondrial DNA inheritance, organelle organization, and the cell biology of kinetoplastid parasites.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Targeting Polθ Helicase with RP-3467: Preclinical Validation and Clinical Response in a gBRCA1 ovarian cancer patient with an acquired PARPi resistance mutation in TP53BP1

   This article has 32 authors:

   1. Ezra Y Rosen
   2. Marie-Claude Mathieu
   3. Gino B Ferraro
   4. Philippe Mochirian
   5. Claude Godbout
   6. Hugo Poirier
   7. Sara Fournier
   8. Danielle Henry
   9. Hyeyeon Kim
   10. Robert Papp
   11. Shou Yun Yin
   12. Marie-Eve Leclaire
   13. Robert Houle
   14. Parham Nejad
   15. Joseph D Schonhoft
   16. Karl E Zahn
   17. W Cameron Black
   18. Michel Gallant
   19. Insil Kim
   20. Danielle Ulanet
   21. Paul Basciano
   22. Artur Veloso
   23. Victoria Rimkunas
   24. Timothy A Yap
   25. Robin Guo
   26. Nicholas Mai
   27. Maria Koehler
   28. Michael Zinda
   29. Anne Roulston
   30. Michal Zimmermann
   31. Stephen J Morris
   32. Agnel Sfeir

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Loss of POLQ function is synthetically lethal with BRCA1 or BRCA2 deficiency, as is pharmacological inhibition of its motor (ATPase) or polymerase activity. This important manuscript validates an inhibitor of the DNA polymerase theta (POLθ) motor domain in biochemical and cell-based assays and provides evidence of its efficacy against homologous recombination-deficient tumors in preclinical and clinical settings, particularly in combination with PARP inhibitors. The experiments are rigorous, the evidence is convincing, and the results are appropriately interpreted. This work will be of considerable interest to the ovarian cancer research community.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Lipid-Driven Biophysical Selection of β-Furanoside-5’-Phosphate as the Sole Scaffold of Extant RNA

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ze-Run Zhao
   2. Qian-Qian Chen
   3. Hao-Xing Xu
   4. Bing-Yue Zhao
   5. Cheng-Cheng Gu
   6. Xiao Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study reports on the relative lipid permeabilities of different ribonucleotide isomers. The findings are valuable for prebiotic chemistry and protocell research because they offer an additional possible explanation for how the canonical ribonucleotide isomers were selected. The strength of the evidence is solid, being supported by experimental and computational approaches, although the step from differential permeability to selection is less firmly supported.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Connectomic Analysis of Mitochondria in the Central Brain of Drosophila

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Kit D Longden
   2. Patricia K Rivlin
   3. Michał Januszewski
   4. Erika Neace
   5. Louis K Scheffer
   6. Christopher Ordish
   7. Jody Clements
   8. Elliott Phillips
   9. Natalie Smith
   10. Satoko Takemura
   11. Lowell Umayam
   12. Claire Walsh
   13. Emily A Yakal
   14. Timothy F Musial
   15. Michael J Devine
   16. Michael B Reiser
   17. Stephen M Plaza
   18. Stuart Berg

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides a valuable resource describing the size, density, and synaptic proximity of mitochondria across thousands of neurons in the Drosophila brain, drawn from a well-annotated electron microscopy dataset. The evidence supporting the main descriptive findings is mostly solid, though some measured parameters contain internal inconsistencies and the proposed links between mitochondrial properties and neural activity or energy use remain speculative. The work will interest neuroscientists studying mitochondrial biology, energetics, and connectomics, and lays a foundation for future studies connecting mitochondrial organization to neural circuit function.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Pain is so close to pleasure: the same dopamine neurons can mediate approach and avoidance in Drosophila

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Daniel Döringer
   2. Christian Rohrsen
   3. Benjamin de Bivort
   4. Wolf Huetteroth
   5. Björn Brembs

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a valuable study that uses several operant paradigms to test Drosophila for the appetitive or aversive behavioral effects of self-activation of specific dopaminergic neuron (DAN) populations. The work provides solid data, although the range of paradigms and genetic driver lines will require more specific future evidence in case-by-case assays. The results suggest that a more nuanced view of the role of these neurons in ongoing behaviour and learning is necessary. The results will be of broad interest to the neuroscience community.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Context makes the difference: Temporally Resolved Dopaminergic Teaching Signals Shape Associative Memory in Drosophila Larvae

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Denise Weber
   2. Anna-Maria Jürgensen
   3. Juliane Kinnigkeit
   4. Martin P Nawrot
   5. Andreas S Thum

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable insights into how the timing of dopamine signals can influence associative learning and memory in fruit fly larvae at the single-cell level. Combining optogenetic manipulation of individual dopaminergic neurons and computational modeling of circuit computations provides some convincing evidence for the underlying circuit-level mechanisms. However, there are also aspects of incomplete evidence that require key control and validation experiments. The work will be of interest to researchers studying the neural mechanisms of learning and memory.'

   Reviewed by eLife

9. The psychedelic DOI decreases the modularity of the cortical network by increasing cortico-cortical and thalamo-cortical functional influence

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Roman Doronin
   2. Eduard Stroukov
   3. Georg B Keller

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study combines cortex-wide activity imaging and optogenetics to characterize large-scale changes in functional connectivity following administration of the psychedelic DOI, as well as the circuit mechanisms underlying them. It provides solid evidence that DOI reduces the modularity of cortical networks and has concurrent effects on both cortico-cortical and cortico-thalamic functional connectivity. The study will be of broad interest to basic scientists working on the circuit mechanisms of psychedelics, as well as to researchers studying humans who may wish to reverse-translate their findings into mice.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Correlative light–electron microscopy reveals fundamentally different axonal architectures for fast and modulatory transmission

    This article has 10 authors:

    1. Kok-Sin Lee
    2. Daniela A Sahlender
    3. Jerome R Blanc
    4. Anne Jorstad
    5. Celia Gasselin
    6. Stéphanie Clerc-Rosset
    7. Foivos Markopoulos
    8. Carl CH Petersen
    9. Anthony Holtmaat
    10. Graham W Knott

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This paper provides fundamental data on the ultrastructural signatures of neuromodulatory axons in mouse cortex obtained from exceptionally high-quality correlated light- and volume electron microscopy. They report unique vesicle and synapse configurations of cholinergic and serotonergic axons, providing compelling structural support for volume transmission.

    Reviewed by eLife