eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Obesogenic diet induces circuit-specific memory deficits in mice

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Ioannis Bakoyiannis
   2. Eva Gunnel Ducourneau
   3. Mateo N'diaye
   4. Alice Fermigier
   5. Celine Ducroix-Crepy
   6. Clementine Bosch-Bouju
   7. Etienne Coutureau
   8. Pierre Trifilieff
   9. Guillaume Ferreira

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work is valuable for those who study how diet and metabolism impact neurological function, specifically learning and memory since it investigates the impact of high-fat diet intake during the preadolescent period on memory performances. The data convincingly showed the possibility to reverse memory deficits related to obesity by manipulating selected hippocampal circuits. The claims would benefit from additional controls and analyses.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Association of lithocholic acid with skeletal muscle hypertrophy through TGR5-IGF-1 and skeletal muscle mass in cultured mouse myotubes, chronic liver disease rats and humans

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Yasuyuki Tamai
   2. Akiko Eguchi
   3. Ryuta Shigefuku
   4. Hiroshi Kitamura
   5. Mina Tempaku
   6. Ryosuke Sugimoto
   7. Yoshinao Kobayashi
   8. Motoh Iwasa
   9. Yoshiyuki Takei
   10. Hayato Nakagawa

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper, of interest to both basic scientists and clinicians, addresses the clinically important condition of reduced muscle mass in human chronic liver disease. It seeks causative mechanisms under these conditions. It uses in vivo and in vitro techniques to draw associations between bile acid concentrations and muscle disease. They implicate a specific bile acid for the first time.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Combined lineage tracing and scRNA-seq reveals unexpected first heart field predominance of human iPSC differentiation

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Francisco X Galdos
   2. Carissa Lee
   3. Soah Lee
   4. Sharon Paige
   5. William Goodyer
   6. Sidra Xu
   7. Tahmina Samad
   8. Gabriela V Escobar
   9. Adrija Darsha
   10. Aimee Beck
   11. Rasmus O Bak
   12. Matthew H Porteus
   13. Sean M Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The derivation of cardiomyocytes from the first and second heart fields is a well-studied phenomenon in animal models, however, due to ethical concerns, has not been studied in human heart development. The authors utilize hiPSC technology to demonstrate that it is the FHF and SHF that give rise to cardiomyocytes which is an important step in furthering our understanding of early human heart development.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Balancing selection on genomic deletion polymorphisms in humans

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Alber Aqil
   2. Leo Speidel
   3. Pavlos Pavlidis
   4. Omer Gokcumen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Detecting and quantifying balancing selection is a notoriously difficult challenge. In this study, the authors use both empirical analyses and simulations to characterize the amount of balancing selection in the human genome, focusing specifically on the contribution of polymorphic deletions. These results will be of interest to population and human geneticists. Although the presented evidence supports some degree of balancing selection among shared ancient polymorphisms, these findings primarily rely on the elimination of alternative explanations rather than a direct estimation of the extent of balancing selection. The conclusions are also based on simulations of a single demographic model without testing the robustness to other plausible model parameters.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Early and lifelong effects of APOE4 on neuronal gene expression networks relevant to Alzheimer’s disease

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Brian P. Grone
   2. Kelly A. Zalocusky
   3. Yanxia Hao
   4. Seo Yeon Yoon
   5. Patrick Arriola
   6. Yadong Huang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of broad interest to readers in the field of Alzheimer's disease, neurodegeneration, and single-cell omics. The identification of shared pathways across different cell types and ages is an important contribution to our understanding of APOE4 gene regulation in a cell type-specific manner. A combination of snRNAseq in APOE mouse models and human iPSC cells supports the key claims in the paper.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Metrics of high cofluctuation and entropy to describe control of cardiac function in the stellate ganglion

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Nil Z Gurel
   2. Koustubh B Sudarshan
   3. Joseph Hadaya
   4. Alex Karavos
   5. Taro Temma
   6. Yuichi Hori
   7. J Andrew Armour
   8. Guy Kember
   9. Olujimi A Ajijola

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study will interest basic and clinical scientists and, potentially, device manufacturers interested in the regulation of heart rate in health and disease. A major control of the heart is from the nervous system originating in a neuronal cluster sitting outside the heart called the stellate ganglia. This study has identified the neural code associated with a healthy heart and describes how it changes in disease. Whether the change in code is cause or effect remains equivocal although normalising the code may have valued therapeutic benefit. The study opens the way for sophisticated mimicking of healthy neural code applied to a diseased heart as a potential electroceutical approach.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. BRCA1/BRC-1 and SMC-5/6 regulate DNA repair pathway engagement during Caenorhabditis elegans meiosis

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Erik Toraason
   2. Alina Salagean
   3. David E Almanzar
   4. Jordan E Brown
   5. Colette M Richter
   6. Nicole A Kurhanewicz
   7. Ofer Rog
   8. Diana E Libuda

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     DNA double-strand breaks are a major threat to genome stability. In this study, the roles of two DNA repair proteins, Brc-1 and Smc-5, are investigated in C. elegans meiotic cells, to investigate the DSB repair pathways using the homolog or the sister chromatid as template . The results highlight a regulatory role of Brc-1 and Smc-5 as repressors of repair with the sister chromatid. The experiments are generally well executed, and the findings will be of interest to the DNA repair and C. elegans meiosis communities.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Lineage-specific differences and regulatory networks governing human chondrocyte development

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Daniel Richard
   2. Steven Pregizer
   3. Divya Venkatasubramanian
   4. Rosanne M Raftery
   5. Pushpanathan Muthuirulan
   6. Zun Liu
   7. Terence D Capellini
   8. April M Craft

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The study presented in this manuscript is of interest to cartilage biologists studying the mechanisms of chondrocyte differentiation. The authors investigated transcriptomic profiles of hESC-derived articular and growth plate chondrocytes. To characterize the regulatory landscapes with respective transcriptomes, they mapped chromatin accessibility in hESC derived chondrocyte lineages and mouse embryonic chondrocytes using ATAC-sequencing and revealed lineage-specific gene regulatory networks. They further validated functional interactions of two transcription factors, Runx2 and RELA, with their predicted genomic targets. This study could help us understand chondrocyte differentiation.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Microglia shape the embryonic development of mammalian respiratory networks

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Marie-Jeanne Cabirol
   2. Laura Cardoit
   3. Gilles Courtand
   4. Marie-Eve Mayeur
   5. John Simmers
   6. Olivier Pascual
   7. Muriel Thoby-Brisson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study presents novel experimental data from a mutant mouse model lacking microglia (Pu.1-/- mouse line), indicating that these cells have an important role in the embryonic establishment of critical neural circuits in the brainstem generating breathing motor behavior in mice. This paper is of interest to scientists within the field of microglia as well as respiratory neurobiology as it provides original key information about a new role of microglia in the embryonic development of respiratory circuits. Overall, the data are clearly presented and rigorous. Some of the conclusions should be toned down as the data in another microglia depletion model do not support some claims of the paper.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Alternative splicing of apoptosis genes promotes human T cell survival

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Davia Blake
    2. Caleb M Radens
    3. Max B Ferretti
    4. Matthew R Gazzara
    5. Kristen W Lynch

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      Apoptotic regulators have long been known to often be expressed in pairs of pro- and anti-apoptotic isoforms. This demonstration of how a program of these splicing changes contributes to immune responses adds an important new understanding of both apoptosis and T cell biology.

      (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

    Reviewed by eLife