eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Echolocating bats prefer a high risk-high gain foraging strategy to increase prey profitability

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Laura Stidsholt
   2. Antoniya Hubancheva
   3. Stefan Greif
   4. Holger R Goerlitz
   5. Mark Johnson
   6. Yossi Yovel
   7. Peter T Madsen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents important findings on the hunting strategies and energy intake of a bat in the wild. It combines several methods (biologging, captive experiment, and DNA metabarcoding) to provide convincing evidence for the claims. While relevant for researchers in the broad field of animal ecology, in its the current form, the significance of the results may be hard to appreciate for a general audience.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. MMP14 cleaves PTH1R in the chondrocyte-derived osteoblast lineage, curbing signaling intensity for proper bone anabolism

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Tsz Long Chu
   2. Peikai Chen
   3. Anna Xiaodan Yu
   4. Mingpeng Kong
   5. Zhijia Tan
   6. Kwok Yeung Tsang
   7. Zhongjun Zhou
   8. Kathryn Song Eng Cheah

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this study, the authors presented the novel findings that PTH signaling plays a significant role in bone formation in hypertrophic chondrocyte (HC)-derived osteoblasts and MMP14 cleaves PTH1R and inhibits PTH signaling. These studies significantly contribute to our understanding of molecular mechanisms of postnatal bone formation and adult bone remodeling, especially the HC cells in this process. The study was well-designed and well-conducted. The data in this study are convincing and support the conclusion made by the authors.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A task-general connectivity model reveals variation in convergence of cortical inputs to functional regions of the cerebellum

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Maedbh King
   2. Ladan Shahshahani
   3. Richard B Ivry
   4. Jörn Diedrichsen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper should be a high priority for neuroscientists interested in the role of connectivity in generating cognitive functions, especially with respect to the cerebellum (which has more neurons than any other part of the human brain). This study makes a compelling case for convergent connectivity from cortex to cerebellum supporting a variety of cognitive functions in the cerebellum. However, insufficient details were provided for proper evaluation of claims, and some of the claims (such as directionality of cortico-cerebellar inferences) may not be supported by the analyses.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Constitutive activation and oncogenicity are mediated by loss of helical structure at the cytosolic boundary of thrombopoietin receptor mutant dimers

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Jean-Philippe Defour
   2. Emilie Leroy
   3. Sharmila Dass
   4. Thomas Balligand
   5. Gabriel Levy
   6. Ian C Brett
   7. Nicolas Papadopoulos
   8. Céline Mouton
   9. Lidvine Genet
   10. Christian Pecquet
   11. Judith Staerk
   12. Steven O Smith
   13. Stefan N Constantinescu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This very well-written paper advances our understanding of the mechanism of activation of the thrombopoietin receptor (TpoR), a very important cytokine receptor that regulates megakaryocyte differentiation and platelet production. The authors supply an elegant combination of NMR and cell biology experiments to support their conclusions and the data are of high quality.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. The Slingshot phosphatase 2 is required for acrosome biogenesis during spermatogenesis in mice

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Ke Xu
   2. Xianwei Su
   3. Kailun Fang
   4. Yue Lv
   5. Tao Huang
   6. Mengjing Li
   7. Ziqi Wang
   8. Yingying Yin
   9. Tahir Muhammad
   10. Shangming Liu
   11. Xiangfeng Chen
   12. Jing Jiang
   13. Jinsong Li
   14. Wai-Yee Chan
   15. Jinlong Ma
   16. Gang Lu
   17. Zi-Jiang Chen
   18. Hongbin Liu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study reports the physiological role of Ssh2 in spermatogenesis as a critical factor for acrosome biogenesis. Loss of SSh2 in round spermatids prevents the fusion of proacrosomal vesicles leading to fragmented acrosomes due to impaired actin bundling and dephosphorylation of COFILIN. This work would be more convincing if mutations in this gene could be identified in human infertile men. Moreover, the proposed mechanism needs cross-validation in future work.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Csf1 from marrow adipogenic precursors is required for osteoclast formation and hematopoiesis in bone

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. Leilei Zhong
   2. Jiawei Lu
   3. Jiankang Fang
   4. Lutian Yao
   5. Wei Yu
   6. Tao Gui
   7. Michael Duffy
   8. Nicholas Holdreith
   9. Catherine A Bautista
   10. Xiaobin Huang
   11. Shovik Bandyopadhyay
   12. Kai Tan
   13. Chider Chen
   14. Yongwon Choi
   15. Jean X Jiang
   16. Shuying Yang
   17. Wei Tong
   18. Nathanial Dyment
   19. Ling Qin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper is of potential interest for scientists who study bone marrow stem/progenitor cells, bone remodeling, and metabolism. Using Adipoq-Cre-based conditional deletion of Csf1 and scRNA-seq approaches, the authors provide compelling evidence that a subset of cells in murine bone marrow, characterized by AdipoQ expression, are a major source of M-CSF to regulate osteoclast formation and bone remodeling. This is a well-written, well-executed set of studies, the data from which largely support the above key claim.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Alexander Soutschek
   2. Philippe N Tobler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents an important reanalysis of a prior dataset testing effects of D2 antagonism on choices in a delay discounting task. While the prior report using standard analyses showed no effects, the current study used a DDM to examine more carefully possible effects on different subcomponents of the decision process. This approach revealed compelling evidence of contrasting effects of D2 blockade on the effect of reward size differences and bias on choice behavior, findings which should be of broad interest to neuroscientists trying to understand dopamine function or the factors influencing choice behavior.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Characterisation of the immune repertoire of a humanised transgenic mouse through immunophenotyping and high-throughput sequencing

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Eve Richardson
   2. Špela Binter
   3. Miha Kosmac
   4. Marie Ghraichy
   5. Valentin von Niederhäusern
   6. Aleksandr Kovaltsuk
   7. Jacob D Galson
   8. Johannes Trück
   9. Dominic F Kelly
   10. Charlotte M Deane
   11. Paul Kellam
   12. Simon J Watson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Humanized transgenic mice represent an important tool for antibody discovery and vaccine profiling but their similarity to human immune responses has not been established so far. In this manuscript, Richardson et al. comprehensively characterize IgH repertoires of Ky mice that carry human immunoglobulin heavy (IgH) and light chain (Igk and l) genes. The data presented here will be useful for setting a foundation for the use of this model, as well as other similar transgenic models, in future studies.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Reducing societal impacts of SARS-CoV-2 interventions through subnational implementation

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Mark M Dekker
   2. Luc E Coffeng
   3. Frank P Pijpers
   4. Debabrata Panja
   5. Sake J de Vlas

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a valuable contribution to the SARS-CoV-2 modelling literature that will be of interest to infectious disease modellers studying the impact of spatially heterogeneous interventions for transmission control. The calibration and analysis of the proposed model is sound and and the results provide convincing evidence that supports the claim that localised interventions could potentially reduce societal impact while maintaining outbreak control. However, the paper provides little insight into what drives the regional diffusion in the Netherlands and how that diffusion could be affected by local lockdowns and a more thorough exploration of the model is warranted. There is also an opportunity to consider behavioural consequences, feasibility, and potential ethical implications of the proposed approach in greater depth.

   Reviewed by eLife, ScreenIT

10. IL-4 and helminth infection downregulate MINCLE-dependent macrophage response to mycobacteria and Th17 adjuvanticity

    This article has 14 authors:

    1. Judith Schick
    2. Meltem Altunay
    3. Matthew Lacorcia
    4. Nathalie Marschner
    5. Stefanie Westermann
    6. Julia Schluckebier
    7. Christoph Schubart
    8. Barbara Bodendorfer
    9. Dennis Christensen
    10. Christian Alexander
    11. Stefan Wirtz
    12. David Voehringer
    13. Clarissa Prazeres da Costa
    14. Roland Lang

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The effect of helminth infection on vaccination against tuberculosis infection and disease is an important area of study. In this manuscript, the authors build off of a large body of prior data showing that mycobacterial antigens upregulate MINCLE whilst the cytokine IL-4 downregulates MINCLE. As IL-4 is upregulated during Helminth infections, this can antagonize Th1/Th17 responses. By using two different models of helminth infection, the authors demonstrate an organ-specific impairment of Th17 responses in a vaccination setting with a MINCLE-dependent adjuvant. The work is topical and may have important translational implications for patients with tuberculosis and helminth co-infections and/or vaccination regimens for patients with helminth infections. The study will be of interest to individuals studying the convergence of different infectious diseases.

    Reviewed by eLife