eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Brain age has limited utility as a biomarker for capturing fluid cognition in older individuals

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Alina Tetereva
   2. Narun Pat

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This useful manuscript challenges the utility of current paradigms for estimating brain-age with magnetic resonance imaging measures. It presents solid evidence to support the suggestion that an alternative approach focused on predicting cognition may be more beneficial. This work will be of interest to researchers working on brain-age and related models.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Extreme positive epistasis for fitness in monosomic yeast strains

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Hanna Tutaj
   2. Katarzyna Tomala
   3. Adrian Pirog
   4. Marzena Marszałek
   5. Ryszard Korona

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study offers important insights into the generation and maintenance of monosomic yeast lines and is, to our knowledge, the first to evaluate gene expression in yeast monosomies. The research introduces an innovative method to assess epistasis between genes on the same chromosome, providing solid evidence for positive epistatic interactions affecting fitness. Although the authors have substantially improved the methodology and interpretation during revision, questions regarding the interpretation of the transcriptome data have not been completely addressed.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A single-cell transcriptome atlas of pig skin characterizes anatomical positional heterogeneity

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Qin Zou
   2. Rong Yuan
   3. Yu Zhang
   4. Yifei Wang
   5. Ting Zheng
   6. Rui Shi
   7. Mei Zhang
   8. Yujing Li
   9. Kaixin Fei
   10. Ran Feng
   11. Binyun Pan
   12. Xinyue Zhang
   13. Zhengyin Gong
   14. Li Zhu
   15. Guoqing Tang
   16. Mingzhou Li
   17. Xuewei Li
   18. Yanzhi Jiang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable manuscript provides a single-cell RNA sequencing analysis of adult pig skin from different species and anatomical regions. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with identification molecular and cellular differences in pig skin, yet the analyses are incomplete in the analysis of regional- or species-based differences.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Tau polarizes an aging transcriptional signature to excitatory neurons and glia

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Timothy Wu
   2. Jennifer M Deger
   3. Hui Ye
   4. Caiwei Guo
   5. Justin Dhindsa
   6. Brandon T Pekarek
   7. Rami Al-Ouran
   8. Zhandong Liu
   9. Ismael Al-Ramahi
   10. Juan Botas
   11. Joshua M Shulman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study that defines cell type changes upon the expression of a mutant tau protein and put it into context of human postmortem tissue. Technically, the single cell mRNA sequencing data are convincing but the loss of neurons already at the earliest stages assessed in this model may rather suggest there are also elements of developmental toxicity.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Homeodomain-interacting protein kinase maintains neuronal homeostasis during normal Caenorhabditis elegans aging and systemically regulates longevity from serotonergic and GABAergic neurons

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Maria I Lazaro-Pena
   2. Adam B Cornwell
   3. Carlos A Diaz-Balzac
   4. Ritika Das
   5. Zachary C Ward
   6. Nicholas Macoretta
   7. Juilee Thakar
   8. Andrew V Samuelson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study substantially advances our understanding of how aging and stress resilience across an organism is determined by identifying a new player in this process and uncovering its mode of action. The evidence is solid as the methods, data and analyses broadly support the claims with only minor weaknesses. The work will be of broad interest to the field of aging and protein homeostasis.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Dopamine signaling regulates predator-driven changes in Caenorhabditis elegans’ egg laying behavior

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Amy Pribadi
   2. Michael A Rieger
   3. Kaila Rosales
   4. Kirthi C Reddy
   5. Sreekanth H Chalasani

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Studies of prey behavior have the potential to provide insight into the chemical encoding of stress in the brain and the mechanisms by which this generates behavioral plasticity. In this important work, the authors identify a novel predation-evoked behavior in the nematode C. elegans and implicate dopamine in its implementation. While the support for some claims in the current paper is incomplete, this work provides an exciting foundation for future studies of behavioral plasticity in this powerful system.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The Mycobacterium ulcerans toxin mycolactone causes destructive Sec61-dependent loss of the endothelial glycocalyx and vessel basement membrane to drive skin necrosis

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Louise Tzung-Harn Hsieh
   2. Belinda S Hall
   3. Jane Newcombe
   4. Tom A Mendum
   5. Sonia Santana Varela
   6. Yagnesh Umrania
   7. Michael J Deery
   8. Wei Q Shi
   9. Josué Diaz-Delgado
   10. Francisco J Salguero
   11. Rachel E Simmonds

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The toxin mycolactone is produced by Mycobacterium ulcerans which is responsible for the Buruli ulcer lesions. The authors performed a valuable study showing the effects of mycolactone on blood vessel integrity. This convincing data provides new therapeutic targets to accelerate the healing of Buruli ulcer lesions.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. From silence to song: Testosterone triggers extensive transcriptional changes in the female canary HVC

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Meng‐Ching Ko
   2. Carolina Frankl‐Vilches
   3. Antje Bakker
   4. Nina Sohnius‐Wilhelmi
   5. Pepe Alcami
   6. Manfred Gahr

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper is of interest to neuroscientists studying the effects of sex hormones on neural and behavioral plasticity, and more specifically to researchers studying the neural mechanisms underlying birdsong plasticity. The experimental design is excellent, and the work provides a comprehensive resource for understanding the intersection between testosterone's influence on gene expression and behavior. However, the work also makes claims concerning cellular effects and gene regulatory mechanisms that extend beyond the data and under the current analyses are not rigorously supported.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. New hypotheses of cell type diversity and novelty from orthology-driven comparative single cell and nuclei transcriptomics in echinoderms

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Anne Meyer
   2. Carolyn Ku
   3. William L Hatleberg
   4. Cheryl A Telmer
   5. Veronica Hinman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study is an excellent example of how one can use high-throughput technologies to address animal evolution from a cell-type perspective. The authors present a beautiful analysis of single-nucleus RNA-seq data from three embryonic stages in a sea star; this is the first single-cell data from this large group of echinoderms and the first single-nucleus transcriptomic study in any echinoderm. The authors demonstrate the presence of unique as well as previously unnoticed homologous cell types between a sea star and a sea urchin, discovery very intriguing to echinoderm developmental biologists, which will also be of great interest to scientists in the broad fields of evolution and development.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Brain and molecular mechanisms underlying the nonlinear association between close friendships, mental health, and cognition in children

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Chun Shen
    2. Edmund T Rolls
    3. Shitong Xiang
    4. Christelle Langley
    5. Barbara J Sahakian
    6. Wei Cheng
    7. Jianfeng Feng

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The findings of this study yield important new insights into the relationship between the number of close friends and mental health, cognition, and brain structure. Due to the large sample sizes, the evidence is solid but would have been improved if both of the analyzed datasets contained more closely matched measures. This work advances our understanding of how the friendship network relates to young adolescents' mental well-being and cognitive functioning and their underlying neural mechanisms.

    Reviewed by eLife