eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Reading instruction causes changes in category-selective visual cortex

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Jason D. Yeatman
   2. Daniel R. McCloy
   3. Sendy Caffarra
   4. Maggie D. Clarke
   5. Suzanne Ender
   6. Liesbeth Gijbels
   7. Sung Jun Joo
   8. Emily C. Kubota
   9. Patricia K. Kuhl
   10. Eric Larson
   11. Gabrielle O’Brien
   12. Erica R. Peterson
   13. Megumi E. Takada
   14. Samu Taulu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The study is important in that it investigates the effect of reading acquisition on neural responses experimentally, randomly assigning children to one of two training groups. The results provide solid evidence for learning-related changes in the (late) neural response to words, but it is not clear whether this reflects category-specific changes in visual cortex tuning. As such, the study may not yet provide a clear answer to the neuronal recycling debate within which it was framed. This paper is of potential interest to a broad audience of neuroscientists, as it addresses fundamental questions regarding the re-organization of functional cortical responses associated with learning to read.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Experience-dependent flexibility in a molecularly diverse central-to-peripheral auditory feedback system

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Michelle M Frank
   2. Austen A Sitko
   3. Kirupa Suthakar
   4. Lester Torres Cadenas
   5. Mackenzie Hunt
   6. Mary Caroline Yuk
   7. Catherine JC Weisz
   8. Lisa V Goodrich

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important paper provides detailed cellular and molecular characterization of the olivocochlear efferents that project to the inner ear. These specialized motoneurons are the only source of feedback from the brain to the ear and have been difficult to access. This study convincingly categorizes the efferents, using single nucleus RNA-sequencing and 3D reconstructions of individual fibers and their pre-synaptic contacts onto target neurons in the cochlea.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Phosphate starvation signaling increases mitochondrial membrane potential through respiration-independent mechanisms

   This article has 20 authors:

   1. Yeyun Ouyang
   2. Mi-Young Jeong
   3. Corey N Cunningham
   4. Jordan A Berg
   5. Ashish G Toshniwal
   6. Casey E Hughes
   7. Kristina Seiler
   8. Jonathan G Van Vranken
   9. Ahmad A Cluntun
   10. Geanette Lam
   11. Jacob M Winter
   12. Emel Akdogan
   13. Katja K Dove
   14. Sara M Nowinski
   15. Matthew West
   16. Greg Odorizzi
   17. Steven P Gygi
   18. Cory D Dunn
   19. Dennis R Winge
   20. Jared Rutter

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents important findings on the regulation of the phosphate export cycle and identify the phosphatase Sit4 as a crucial player in regulation of the inner membrane potential of mitochondria. Whereas some of the data are convincing, the analyses will profit from deeper insights concerning metabolism alterations (carbon sources, amino acids). The major strength however is a new insight on how the cells use alternative ways for maintaining a critical mitochondrial inner membrane potential, and therefore this study is interesting to the broad audience with interests spanning from bioenergetics, metabolism and organellar and cell biology.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Autofluorescence imaging permits label-free cell type assignment and reveals the dynamic formation of airway secretory cell associated antigen passages (SAPs)

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Viral S Shah
   2. Jue Hou
   3. Vladimir Vinarsky
   4. Jiajie Xu
   5. Manalee V Surve
   6. Charles P Lin
   7. Jayaraj Rajagopal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This interesting and important methodologic study presents exciting new data identifying approaches to evaluating the cell biology of lung disease. Namely, the ability to identify and track dynamic and coordinated activities of multiple composite cell types in response to experimental interventions. They have developed an interesting label-free approach that collects biologically-encoded autofluorescence of epithelial cells by 2-photon imaging of mouse tracheal explant culture over 2 days. This study has the potential to inform a variety of experimental conditions in lung injury and repair.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Common genetic variations in telomere length genes and lung cancer

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Ricardo Cortez Cardoso Penha
   2. Karl Smith-Byrne
   3. Joshua R Atkins
   4. Philip Haycock
   5. Siddhartha Kar
   6. Veryan Codd
   7. Nilesh J Samani
   8. Christopher P Nelson
   9. Maja Milojevic
   10. Aurélie AG Gabriel
   11. Christopher Amos
   12. Paul Brennan
   13. Rayjean J Hung
   14. Linda Kachuri
   15. James D McKay

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study is of interest to epidemiologists and geneticists studying the association between telomere length and lung cancer risk. This work provides useful insight into risk factors for lung cancer. Overall, the results of this study are solid, as the genetic instrument used here is better powered and the battery of MR analysis makes this broad set of results convincing compared to previous work.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Epidermal threads reveal the origin of hagfish slime

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Yu Zeng
   2. David C Plachetzki
   3. Kristen Nieders
   4. Hannah Campbell
   5. Marissa Cartee
   6. M Sabrina Pankey
   7. Kennedy Guillen
   8. Douglas Fudge

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The study is a careful investigation of the physical properties of hagfish slime and the underlying cellular framework that enables this extraordinary evolutionary innovation. It is a careful and detailed measurement with clear images. However, there is a need for a better contextualizing of the findings as a broader biological question, including the evolution of functional novelty, the adaptive processes, and the links between genetic and phenotypic evolution. Furthermore, the conclusions on the evolutionary origins and underlying genetics of hagfish slime based on comparative transcriptomic data need to be better supported.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A neuroepithelial wave of BMP signalling drives anteroposterior specification of the tuberal hypothalamus

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Kavitha Chinnaiya
   2. Sarah Burbridge
   3. Aragorn Jones
   4. Dong Won Kim
   5. Elsie Place
   6. Elizabeth Manning
   7. Ian Groves
   8. Changyu Sun
   9. Matthew Towers
   10. Seth Blackshaw
   11. Marysia Placzek

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The manuscript aims to provide a comprehensive insight into the development of the tuberal hypothalamus of the chick embryo. It thus presents a useful tool for scientists working in this particular subfield. However, the manuscript is incomplete as it is impossible for the reader to follow the conclusions made by the authors because the presentation of the data is not streamlined and the text is difficult to follow, even for experts.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Evaluation of antibody kinetics and durability in healthy individuals vaccinated with inactivated COVID-19 vaccine (CoronaVac): A cross-sectional and cohort study in Zhejiang, China

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Hangjie Zhang
   2. Qianhui Hua
   3. Nani Nani Xu
   4. Xinpei Zhang
   5. Bo Chen
   6. Xijun Ma
   7. Jie Hu
   8. Zhongbing Chen
   9. Pengfei Yu
   10. Huijun Lei
   11. Shenyu Wang
   12. Linling Ding
   13. Jian Fu
   14. Yuting Liao
   15. Juan Yang
   16. Jianmin Jiang
   17. Huakun Lv

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents important evidence that boosting with the Sinovac Coronavac inactivated vaccine would provide considerable protection from ancestral SARS-CoV-2 in terms of elicited neutralizing antibodies but would offer minimal protection against Omicron subvariants. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although using a dilution series instead of one plasma dilution for Omicron neutralization would have strengthened the study. The work will be of very wide interest to the biomedical community and beyond, since it points to the need for a better booster vaccine in China.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Initiation of HIV-1 Gag lattice assembly is required for recognition of the viral genome packaging signal

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Xiao Lei
   2. Daniel Gonçalves-Carneiro
   3. Trinity M Zang
   4. Paul D Bieniasz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work presents valuable findings that advance our understanding of the roles of the CA domain in specific binding of HIV-1 Gag to the viral genomic RNA. The compelling evidence obtained using the modified CLIP-seq and chemical crosslinking approaches support the authors' conclusion that the initial Gag lattice formation mediated by CA is essential for Gag recognition of the 5' Ψ sequence. This work will be of interest to virologists working on gRNA packaging of not only HIV-1 but also other RNA viruses.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. GWAS and functional studies suggest a role for altered DNA repair in the evolution of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Saba Naz
    2. Kumar Paritosh
    3. Priyadarshini Sanyal
    4. Sidra Khan
    5. Yogendra Singh
    6. Umesh Varshney
    7. Vinay Kumar Nandicoori

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is a growing threat to global public health. By analysing a large database of clinical Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, the authors of this study identify previously unrecognized genetic mutations that might be implicated in improved mycobacterial survival under antibiotic treatment. Using laboratory and experimental infection models, they present evidence that these mutations should be considered potential genetic markers of reduced antibiotic efficacy and accelerated acquisition of TB drug resistance.

    Reviewed by eLife