eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A generic binding pocket for small molecule IKs activators at the extracellular inter-subunit interface of KCNQ1 and KCNE1 channel complexes

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Magnus Chan
   2. Harutyun Sahakyan
   3. Jodene Eldstrom
   4. Daniel Sastre
   5. Yundi Wang
   6. Ying Dou
   7. Marc Pourrier
   8. Vitya Vardanyan
   9. David Fedida

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     By combining electrophysiological analysis of mutant channels and molecular dynamics simulations, this important study identifies a common binding site for two structurally distinct activators of KCNQ1-KCNE1 channels. The findings represent an important advance for the field, with convincing functional and computational data to support the claims. The work will be of interest to those studying the binding of small molecule drugs to membrane protein complexes.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The myocardium utilizes a platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (Pdgfra)–phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling cascade to steer toward the midline during zebrafish heart tube formation

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Rabina Shrestha
   2. Tess McCann
   3. Harini Saravanan
   4. Jaret Lieberth
   5. Prashanna Koirala
   6. Joshua Bloomekatz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a valuable study that shows the involvement of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling downstream of platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha in latero-medial migration of cardiomyocytes during the formation of the early heart tube during zebrafish development. The authors provide convincing evidence using multiple drugs and expression of a dominant negative PI3K subunit, to inhibit the pathway, approaches that show the strong alignment of phenotypes, and which are quantified using live imaging. The demonstration of cardiomyocyte protrusions biased in the direction of migration, and randomised after PI3K inhibition, is a promising area for future exploration.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Functional and pharmacological analyses of visual habituation learning in larval zebrafish

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Laurie Anne Lamiré
   2. Martin Haesemeyer
   3. Florian Engert
   4. Michael Granato
   5. Owen Randlett

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable manuscript attempts to identify the brain regions and cell types involved in habituation to dark flash stimuli in larval zebrafish. Habituation being a form of learning widespread in the animal kingdom, the investigation of neural mechanisms underlying it is a worthwhile endeavor. The authors use a combination of behavioral analysis, neural activity imaging, and pharmacological manipulation to investigate brain-wide mechanisms of habituation. While the data presented are solid, the authors conclude that there is no simple relationship between pharmacological intervention, neural activity patterns, and behavioral outcomes, and a robust causative link can therefore not be established.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. The evolutionary mechanism of non-carbapenemase carbapenem-resistant phenotypes in Klebsiella spp

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. Natalia C Rosas
   2. Jonathan Wilksch
   3. Jake Barber
   4. Jiahui Li
   5. Yanan Wang
   6. Zhewei Sun
   7. Andrea Rocker
   8. Chaille T Webb
   9. Laura Perlaza-Jiménez
   10. Christopher J Stubenrauch
   11. Vijaykrishna Dhanasekaran
   12. Jiangning Song
   13. George Taiaroa
   14. Mark Davies
   15. Richard A Strugnell
   16. Qiyu Bao
   17. Tieli Zhou
   18. Michael J McDonald
   19. Trevor Lithgow

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The study integrates experiments and data of various kinds to address the important biomedical problem of carbapenems resistance in Klebsiella. The authors present compelling evidence for loci that are sufficient for carbapenem resistance in this strain, with further evidence of their fitness cost. This study will be of interest to those across multiple audiences, including the microbial evolution community, and those interested in the biomedical problem of antibiotic resistance.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Structural and regulatory insights into the glideosome-associated connector from Toxoplasma gondii

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Amit Kumar
   2. Oscar Vadas
   3. Nicolas Dos Santos Pacheco
   4. Xu Zhang
   5. Kin Chao
   6. Nicolas Darvill
   7. Helena Ø Rasmussen
   8. Yingqi Xu
   9. Gloria Meng-Hsuan Lin
   10. Fisentzos A Stylianou
   11. Jan Skov Pedersen
   12. Sarah L Rouse
   13. Marc L Morgan
   14. Dominique Soldati-Favre
   15. Stephen Matthews

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors describe the first full-length crystal structure and solution conformation of the GAC protein from Toxoplasma gondii. The data are convincing and support a model in which GAC uses multiple conformations and lipid-binding surfaces. This paper presents an important contribution to our understanding of the molecular machinery involved in host cell invasion, but questions remain about how this protein links to the cytoskeleton and functions during the invasion process.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Pan-Canadian survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cervical cancer screening and management: cross-sectional survey of healthcare professionals

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Mariam El-Zein
   2. Rami Ali
   3. Eliya Farah
   4. Sarah Botting-Provost
   5. Eduardo L Franco
   6. Survey Study Group

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study explored practitioners' assessments of the impact of the pandemic on cervical cancer screening and follow-up. This is a very important topic that could continue to have implications for how this screening process is delivered now, after the pandemic. The authors need to more fully describe their methodology and temper conclusions to fit within those limitations.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Zinc activation of OTOP proton channels identifies structural elements of the gating apparatus

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Bochuan Teng
   2. Joshua P Kaplan
   3. Ziyu Liang
   4. Kevin Saejin Chyung
   5. Marcel P Goldschen-Ohm
   6. Emily R Liman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study discovers that zinc ions can activate some OTOP proton channels, identifying a pharmacological tool for research, and further establishing that OTOP channels gate. The data presented provide convincing support for the conclusions made by the authors, and the study is expected to be of considerable interest to physiologists investigating OTOP and other proton channels.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Early language exposure affects neural mechanisms of semantic representations

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Xiaosha Wang
   2. Bijun Wang
   3. Yanchao Bi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides important evidence regarding the development of concept representations, using functional brain imaging to compare concept structure in people with different amounts of language experience. The analyses, which are overall solid, suggest that representations in the left lateral anterior temporal lobe differ as a function of childhood language experience.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Model discovery to link neural activity to behavioral tasks

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Jamie D Costabile
   2. Kaarthik A Balakrishnan
   3. Sina Schwinn
   4. Martin Haesemeyer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This useful paper describes a sensitive method for identifying the contributions of different behavioral and stimulus parameters to neural activity. The method has been convincingly validated using simulated data and applied to example state of the art data sets from mouse and zebrafish. The method could be productively applied to a wide range of experiments in behavioral and systems neuroscience, but it remained unclear how it relates to or improves on similar, existing methods.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Instantaneous antidepressant effect of lateral habenula deep brain stimulation in rats studied with functional MRI

    This article has 12 authors:

    1. Gen Li
    2. Binshi Bo
    3. Puxin Wang
    4. Peixing Qian
    5. Mingzhe Li
    6. Yuyan Li
    7. Chuanjun Tong
    8. Kaiwei Zhang
    9. Baogui Zhang
    10. Tianzi Jiang
    11. Zhifeng Liang
    12. Xiaojie Duan

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The authors present an important contribution to the field of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for depression by providing further evidence for the validity of the lateral habenula as a DBS target. The evidence provided is compelling and particularly strong in its use of fMRI to delineate target subregions best corresponding both to clinical and downstream fMRI response. This study provides information relevant to both surgical targeting and the mechanism of action for this DBS target.

    Reviewed by eLife