eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Concurrent decoding of distinct neurophysiological fingerprints of tremor and bradykinesia in Parkinson’s disease

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Peter M Lauro
   2. Shane Lee
   3. Daniel E Amaya
   4. David D Liu
   5. Umer Akbar
   6. Wael F Asaad

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study aimed to identify rhythms linked to primary symptoms of Parkinson's disease such as involuntary shaking of the limbs and slowness. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, although validating their behavioural measures and considering the relationship between signatures from different brain regions would have strengthened the study. The work will be of broad interest to movement control, movement disorders, and brain stimulation fields.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Origin of wiring specificity in an olfactory map revealed by neuron type–specific, time-lapse imaging of dendrite targeting

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Kenneth Kin Lam Wong
   2. Tongchao Li
   3. Tian-Ming Fu
   4. Gaoxiang Liu
   5. Cheng Lyu
   6. Sayeh Kohani
   7. Qijing Xie
   8. David J Luginbuhl
   9. Srigokul Upadhyayula
   10. Eric Betzig
   11. Liqun Luo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     When a neuron is born it correlates with where it targets in the neuropil and this has been best demonstrated in the olfactory lobe of Drosophila. This important study uses sophisticated genetics and advanced live imaging to provide a compelling description of how neuronal dendrites explore the targeting field, eliminate excessive branches, and assort into the correct region during development. In the process, it develops valuable tools. It brings us closer to a comprehensive understanding of how the birth order of a neuron translates to dendrite patterning within the Drosophila antennal lobe circuit

   Reviewed by eLife

3. UBQLN2 restrains the domesticated retrotransposon PEG10 to maintain neuronal health in ALS

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Holly H Black
   2. Jessica L Hanson
   3. Julia E Roberts
   4. Shannon N Leslie
   5. Will Campodonico
   6. Christopher C Ebmeier
   7. G Aaron Holling
   8. Jian Wei Tay
   9. Autumn M Matthews
   10. Elizabeth Ung
   11. Cristina I Lau
   12. Alexandra M Whiteley

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Black et al., provide evidence that levels of Paternally Expressed Gene 10 (PEG10) protein are regulated by Ubqln2 and that proteolytic fragments from PEG10 cleavage induce changes in gene expression, in particular genes that encode proteins involved in axon biology. Based on these data and the finding of an increase in PEG10 levels and alterations of proteins regulated by PEG10 in the spinal cord of ALS patients, they propose that abnormal induction of PEG10-regulated genes is involved in ALS. However, the evidence for these claims and PEG10 involvement could be strengthened, and the rigor of the work could be enhanced in places.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Cortical magnification eliminates differences in contrast sensitivity across but not around the visual field

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Michael Jigo
   2. Daniel Tavdy
   3. Marc M Himmelberg
   4. Marisa Carrasco

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study provides a provocative potential challenge to explain sensitivity across the visual field by using cortical magnification factors. The evidence supporting this theoretical challenge is solid in general, although the inclusion of subject-specific measurements of cortical magnification factors would have strengthened the study. The work will be of interest to vision researchers of both basic and medical science.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Neural dynamics underlying self-control in the primate subthalamic nucleus

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Benjamin Pasquereau
   2. Robert S Turner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study by Pasquereau and Turner examined the activity neurons in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) while monkeys performed a task in which they had to withhold their response during a delay period whose length was defined by a specific cue. The results indicate that the activity of STN neurons was modulated by reward size and delay. The results are potentially important for understanding how STN regulates behavior such as self-control, but the reviewers thought that the study is incomplete as the analyses, at least in the presented forms, have some potential problems and some analyses require clarification.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. The evolution and structure of snake venom phosphodiesterase (svPDE) highlight its importance in venom actions

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Cheng-Tsung Pan
   2. Chien-Chu Lin
   3. I-Jin Lin
   4. Kun-Yi Chien
   5. Yeong-Shin Lin
   6. Hsiao-Han Chang
   7. Wen-Guey Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript reports important findings regarding the evolution of snake venom proteins. The conclusions are convincing and are based on appropriate and validated methodology in line with the current state-of-the-art. The findings will be of interest to biologists and biochemists interested in the evolution of venoms as well as those generally interested in the evolution of molecular novelties.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Structural insights into regulation of CNNM-TRPM7 divalent cation uptake by the small GTPase ARL15

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Luba Mahbub
   2. Guennadi Kozlov
   3. Pengyu Zong
   4. Emma L Lee
   5. Sandra Tetteh
   6. Thushara Nethramangalath
   7. Caroline Knorn
   8. Jianning Jiang
   9. Ashkan Shahsavan
   10. Lixia Yue
   11. Loren Runnels
   12. Kalle Gehring

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this potentially important study, Mahbub and colleagues examine how the small GTPase ARL15 regulates ion transport. Using a complementary array of techniques, the authors gathered solid evidence for the binding of ARL15 to CNNM proteins, resulting in a proposal how this may affect the function of the TRPM7 channel. Additional experiments are required to fully substantiate the claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Recurrent hypoxia in a rat model of sleep apnea during pregnancy leads to microglia-dependent respiratory deficits and persistent neuroinflammation in adult male offspring

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Carly R. Mickelson
   2. Andrea C. Ewald
   3. Maia G. Gumnit
   4. Armand L. Meza
   5. Abigail B. Radcliff
   6. Stephen M. Johnson
   7. Jonathan N. Ouellette
   8. Bailey A. Kermath
   9. Avtar S. Roopra
   10. Michael E. Cahill
   11. Jyoti J. Watters
   12. Tracy L. Baker

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     These authors provide compelling evidence that gestational intermittent hypoxia, a component of sleep apnea during pregnancy, increases inflammation in the spinal cords of male mice. Increased inflammation is robustly linked to deficits in respiratory plasticity both biochemically and via functional depletion assays. These data are important given the fact that male infants have worse outcomes in the NICU and are at higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Eelbrain, a Python toolkit for time-continuous analysis with temporal response functions

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Christian Brodbeck
   2. Proloy Das
   3. Marlies Gillis
   4. Joshua P Kulasingham
   5. Shohini Bhattasali
   6. Phoebe Gaston
   7. Philip Resnik
   8. Jonathan Z Simon

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Brodbeck et al. offer a timely and important contribution to how neural signals in response to continuous temporal modulations (as seen in speech and language processing) can be modelled effectively using temporal response functions. They offer a convincing new approach that includes a novel application of a boosting algorithm in addition to an accessible and didactically useful toolbox for analysis. With further comparison to existing toolboxes, or a more extensive comparison of boosting and ridge regression via simulation, this work will have a compelling impact on methods in speech and language neuroscience, as well as in cognitive neuroscience more broadly.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The large GTPase Sey1/atlastin mediates lipid droplet- and FadL-dependent intracellular fatty acid metabolism of Legionella pneumophila

    This article has 15 authors:

    1. Dario Hüsler
    2. Pia Stauffer
    3. Bernhard Keller
    4. Desirée Böck
    5. Thomas Steiner
    6. Anne Ostrzinski
    7. Simone Vormittag
    8. Bianca Striednig
    9. A Leoni Swart
    10. François Letourneur
    11. Sandra Maaß
    12. Dörte Becher
    13. Wolfgang Eisenreich
    14. Martin Pilhofer
    15. Hubert Hilbi

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment:

      This important study advances our understanding of host-derived lipid droplets' interaction with intracellular pathogens. The use of amoeba species Dictyostelium discoideum as a host for Legionella pneumophila infection is compelling and goes beyond the current state of the art, but the strength of evidence is incomplete, and the main claims are only partially supported by the data. With the experimental part strengthened, this paper would be of interest to cell biologists and microbiologists working on the interaction of microbes with host cells.

    Reviewed by eLife