eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Free volume theory explains the unusual behavior of viscosity in a non-confluent tissue during morphogenesis

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Rajsekhar Das
   2. Sumit Sinha
   3. Xin Li
   4. TR Kirkpatrick
   5. D Thirumalai

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study substantially advances our physical understanding of the sharp increase and saturation of the viscosity of non-confluent tissues with increasing cell density. Through the analysis of a simplified model this study provides compelling evidence that polydispersity in cell size and the softness of cells together can lead to this phenomenon. The work will be of general interest to biologists and biophysicists working on development.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Gut microbiota-derived gamma-aminobutyric acid from metformin treatment reduces hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury through inhibiting ferroptosis

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Fangyan Wang
   2. Xiujie Liu
   3. Furong Huang
   4. Yan Zhou
   5. Xinyu Wang
   6. Zhengyang Song
   7. Sisi Wang
   8. Xiaoting Wang
   9. Dibang Shi
   10. Gaoyi Ruan
   11. Xiawei Ji
   12. Eryao Zhang
   13. Zenglin Tan
   14. Yuqing Ye
   15. Chuang Wang
   16. Jesse Zhu
   17. Wantie Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on the impact of metformin-induced shifts in gut microbial community structure and metabolite levels for drug efficacy in a mouse model of liver injury. The current evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid. This paper will be of broad interest to researchers across multiple disciplines, including the microbiome, liver disease, and pharmacology.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Sleep regularity and mortality: a prospective analysis in the UK Biobank

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Lachlan Cribb
   2. Ramon Sha
   3. Stephanie Yiallourou
   4. Natalie A Grima
   5. Marina Cavuoto
   6. Andree-Ann Baril
   7. Matthew P Pase

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript provides fundamental findings on the association between sleep regularity and mortality in the UK Biobank, which is a popular topic in recent sleep and circadian research in population-based studies. The study is based on a large accelerometer study with validated follow-up of incident diseases and deaths, and the data quality and large sample size are convincing and strengthen the credibility of the conclusion. This will be of wide interest to researchers in the sleep study field, epidemiologists, practicing clinicians and the general public.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Periaqueductal gray activates antipredatory neural responses in the amygdala of foraging rats

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Eun Joo Kim
   2. Mi-Seon Kong
   3. Sanggeon Park
   4. Jeiwon Cho
   5. Jeansok John Kim

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents valuable findings describing how the midbrain periaqueductal gray matter and basolateral amygdala communicate when a predator threat is detected. Though the periaqueductal gray is usually viewed as a downstream effector, this work contributes to a growing body of literature from this lab showing that the periaqueductal gray produces effects by acting on the basolateral amygdala, the experimental design, data collection and analysis methods provide solid evidence for the main claims. The anatomical and immediately early gene evidence that the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus may serve as a mediator of dorsolateral periaqueductal gray to basolateral amygdala neurotransmission provides and impetus for future functional assessment of this possibility. This study will appeal to a broad audience, including basic scientists interested in neural circuits, basic and clinical researchers interested in fear, and behavioral ecologists interested in foraging.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Comparative brain-wide mapping of ketamine- and isoflurane-activated nuclei and functional networks in the mouse brain

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yue Hu
   2. Wenjie Du
   3. Jiangtao Qi
   4. Huoqing Luo
   5. Zhao Zhang
   6. Mengqiang Luo
   7. Yingwei Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study used single-cell whole-brain imaging of the immediate early gene Fos to identify the brain areas recruited by two anesthetics, ketamine and isoflurane. The utilization of a custom software package to align and analyze brain images for c-Fos positive cells stands out as an impressive component of the approach. The results provide solid evidence that these anesthetics might induce anesthesia via different brain regions and pathways, and raw fos showed shared and distinct activation patterns after ketamine- v. isoflurane-based anesthesia. Though differences could also be due, as the authors note, to differences in dose and route of administration. This paper may be of interest to preclinical and clinical scientists working with anesthetic and dissociative drugs.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Event-related modulation of alpha rhythm explains the auditory P300-evoked response in EEG

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Alina Studenova
   2. Carina Forster
   3. Denis Alexander Engemann
   4. Tilman Hensch
   5. Christian Sanders
   6. Nicole Mauche
   7. Ulrich Hegerl
   8. Markus Loffler
   9. Arno Villringer
   10. Vadim Nikulin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is valuable study on the mechanistic relationship between two prominent events in post-stimulus EEG: alpha desynchronization and P300 that are known for their slow/relatively late build up. The sample size is substantial. The data are compelling, showing that the P300 can be explained by desynchronization of a non-zero mean alpha oscillations over posterior sites through the baseline-shift model, at least partially. This makes a significant contribution to understanding and interpreting P300 generation (and possibly other ERP components) from concurrent changes in brain oscillations, with links to cognition.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Octopamine integrates the status of internal energy supply into the formation of food-related memories

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Michael Berger
   2. Michèle Fraatz
   3. Katrin Auweiler
   4. Katharina Dorn
   5. Tanna El Khadrawe
   6. Henrike Scholz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study dissects the role of octopamine in the interplay between internal energy homeostasis, food intake and food-related memories. The solid experimental evidence will shed additional light on previously published work and should be of interest to the growing community of biologists interested in how internal state shapes behavior, including decision making processes, learning and memory.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Wandering albatrosses exert high take-off effort only when both wind and waves are gentle

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Leo Uesaka
   2. Yusuke Goto
   3. Masaru Naruoka
   4. Henri Weimerskirch
   5. Katsufumi Sato
   6. Kentaro Q Sakamoto

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study advances our understanding of seabird responses to environmental conditions, with implications for movement ecology, flight biomechanics, animal foraging, and bio-energetics. Animal-borne data-loggers are used to generate a compelling high quality dataset on animal movement and environmental conditions. The study will interest ornithologists, comparative bio-mechanists, ocean ecologists and those interested in technological advances in animal sensors.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A Vibrio cholerae viral satellite maximizes its spread and inhibits phage by remodeling hijacked phage coat proteins into small capsids

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Caroline M Boyd
   2. Sundharraman Subramanian
   3. Drew T Dunham
   4. Kristin N Parent
   5. Kimberley D Seed

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study reports on the structure and function of capsid size-determining external scaffolding protein encoded by a Vibrio phage satellite. The structural work is of high quality and the presented reconstructions are compelling. The paper offers a substantial advance in the field of phage and virus structure and assembly, with implications for understanding the evolution of phage satellites.

   Reviewed by eLife, PREreview

10. Foxtrot migration and dynamic over-wintering range of an Arctic raptor

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Ivan Pokrovsky
    2. Teja Curk
    3. Andreas Dietz
    4. Ivan Fufachev
    5. Olga Kulikova
    6. Sebastian Rößler
    7. Martin Wikelski

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This fundamental work describes an understudied bird migration pattern using data from an Arctic raptor. With an extensive dataset and comprehensive analyses, the observed pattern is convincing. This study will be of interest to researchers exploring the ecological drivers of bird migration.

    Reviewed by eLife