eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Cryptovaranoides is not a squamate

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Michael W Caldwell
   2. Chase D Brownstein
   3. Dalton L Meyer
   4. Simon G Scarpetta
   5. Michael SY Lee
   6. Tiago R Simões

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Cryptovaranoides, a Late Triassic animal (some 230 Ma old), was originally described as a possibly anguimorph squamate, i.e., more closely related to snakes and some extant lizards than to other extant lizards, making Squamata much older than previously thought and providing a new calibration date inside it. Following a rebuttal and a defense, this fourth important contribution to the debate makes a convincing argument that Cryptovaranoides is not a squamate. Further comparisons to potentially closely related animals such as early lepidosauromorphs would greatly benefit this study, and parts of the text require clarification.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. DIRseq as a method for predicting drug-interacting residues of intrinsically disordered proteins from sequences

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Matt MacAinsh
   2. Sanbo Qin
   3. Huan-Xiang Zhou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents a sequence-based method for predicting drug-interacting residues in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), addressing a significant challenge in understanding small-molecule:IDP interactions. The findings have solid support through examples underscoring the role of aromatic interactions. While predicted binding sites remain coarse, validation was done on a total of 10 IDPs at varying depths. The method builds on the authors' previous work and, with ad hoc modifications, is poised to benefit this emerging field.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. The interplay of membrane tension and FtsZ filament condensation on the initiation and progression of cell division in B. subtilis

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Diego A Ramirez-Diaz
   2. Lei Yin
   3. Daniela Albanesi
   4. Jenny Zheng
   5. Diego de Mendoza
   6. Ethan C Garner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental work provides solid evidence that advances our understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying bacterial cell division by examining the role of membrane tension and FtsZ condensation in sequential stages of division. The effect of accDA overexpression on membrane tension was carefully characterized. To further enhance rigor, the authors could consider examining orthogonal perturbations to membrane tension, addressing membrane tension vs. fluidity, and addressing the ability of FtsZ to bend membranes in cells.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Targeted computational design of an interleukin-7 superkine with enhanced folding efficiency and immunotherapeutic efficacy

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. See-Khai Lim
   2. Wen-Ching Lin
   3. Yi-Chung Pan
   4. Sin-Wei Huang
   5. Yao-An Yu
   6. Cheng-Hung Chang
   7. Che-Ming Jack Hu
   8. Chung-Yuan Mou
   9. Kurt Yun Mou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents the rational redesign and engineering of interleukin-7. The data from the integrated approach of using computational, biophysical, and cellular experiments are convincing. This paper is broadly relevant to those studying immunomodulation using biologics.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. The representation of facial emotion expands from sensory to prefrontal cortex with development

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Xiaoxu Fan
   2. Abhishek Tripathi
   3. Kelly Bijanki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     **eLife Assessment
     **
     This study examines an important question regarding the developmental trajectory of neural mechanisms supporting facial expression processing. Leveraging a rare intracranial EEG (iEEG) dataset including both children and adults, the authors reported that facial expression recognition mainly engaged the posterior superior temporal cortex (pSTC) among children, while both pSTC and the prefrontal cortex were engaged among adults. In terms of strength of evidence, the solid methods, data and analyses broadly support the claims with minor weaknesses.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Li Zheng
   2. Zachary Boogaart
   3. Andrew McAvan
   4. Joshua Garren
   5. Stephanie G Doner
   6. Bradley J Wilkes
   7. Will Groves
   8. Ece Yuksel
   9. Lucia Cherep
   10. Arne Ekstrom
   11. Steven M Weisberg

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work presents a useful investigation of functional and structural brain changes following navigation and verbal memory training. The analyses of whole-brain volumetric changes are convincing and support the study's main conclusion regarding the lack of a volumetric whole-brain plasticity effects. Some analyses are compelling in demonstrating the presence of longitudinal behavioural effects, the presence of functional activation changes, and the lack of hippocampal volume changes.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The 1000+ mouse project: large-scale spatiotemporal parametrization and modeling of preclinical cancer immunotherapies

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Adam L Kenet
   2. Sooraj Achar
   3. Alka Dwivedi
   4. John Buckley
   5. Marie Pouzolles
   6. Haiying Qin
   7. Christopher Chien
   8. Naomi Taylor
   9. Grégoire Altan-Bonnet

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors developed a fundamental computational method, which is intended to automatically process bioluminescence imaging-derived tumour images across anatomical regions and over time. This allows quantitative analysis of such data, and the authors applied it to describe the spatiotemporal distribution of tumour cells in response to CD19-targeted CAR-T cells that contained either CD28 or 4-1BB costimulatory domains. Some operational limitations were identified, which relate to the pipeline's reliance on predefined regions of interest instead of aligning signal sites with anatomical information, scaling, and not taking animal pose into account. Overall, the authors provide compelling evidence for the functionality of their computational approach towards automated analysis of bioluminescence imaging data, while applying it to a current topic of wide interest in cell therapy research.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Separable global and local beta burst dynamics in motor cortex of primates

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Preeya Khanna
   2. Behraz Farrokhi
   3. Hoseok Choi
   4. Sandon Griffin
   5. Ian Heimbuch
   6. Lisa Novik
   7. Katherina Thiesen
   8. John Morrison
   9. Robert J Morecraft
   10. Karunesh Ganguly

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates changes in oscillatory activity across cortical and subcortical areas during stroke recovery in a nonhuman primate model. The authors distinguish between global and local oscillatory bursts, providing solid evidence that these two types of bursts correlate with distinct aspects of movement; additionally, they show that the likelihood of these bursts occurring follows opposing trends during recovery. The study could be further improved by accounting for inter-individual differences and by some technical improvements, such as employing more robust burst detection methods and more stringent analyses.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Cell-to-cell signalling mediated via CO2: activity dependent CO2 production in the axonal node opens Cx32 in the Schwann cell paranode

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Jack Butler
   2. Lowell Mott
   3. Angus Brown
   4. Nicholas Dale

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript describes solid and very interesting findings that substantially advance our understanding of a major research question on the role of Cx32 hemichannels in the Schwann cell paranode. It provides an interdisciplinary integration of imaging, in silico approaches, and functional data. This important study proposes a new mechanism with profound physiological relevance and provides new insights into glial modulation of electrical conduction in sensory/motor myelinated nerves.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Phasic and tonic pain serve distinct functions during adaptive behaviour

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Shuangyi Tong
    2. Timothy Denison
    3. Danielle Hewitt
    4. Sang Wan Lee
    5. Ben Seymour

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      The article presents important findings of a dissociation between phasic and tonic pain functions in adaptive behavior, combining immersive VR, computational modeling, skin conductance, and EEG data. The methodology used is solid. Its ecological design and sophisticated computational modeling are major strengths. The article would benefit from adding details on hypotheses, VR implementation, sample size determination, modeling, analysis, and pain specificity.

    Reviewed by eLife