eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Human and macaque pairs employ different coordination strategies in a transparent decision game

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Sebastian Moeller
   2. Anton M Unakafov
   3. Julia Fischer
   4. Alexander Gail
   5. Stefan Treue
   6. Igor Kagan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment:

     This paper by Möller and colleagues investigates and compares spontaneous turn-taking behavior by pairs of macaque monkeys and human participants in a social coordination game. The study uses a novel format for interaction - the "transparent game" in which subjects play together on a clear glass screen, so that decisions take on properties of continuousness. The results suggest differences between species in their tendencies toward cooperative, mutually beneficial behaviors, with humans exhibiting more prosocial tendencies. Interestingly, training with humans could encourage the monkeys to become less selfish and adopt a turn-taking strategy. The behavior analyses are rigorous and convincingly support the conclusions, and the study is likely to be of interest to researchers in the field of social neuroscience and decision-making, as well as to a more general audience who studies cognition, psychology, economics, especially game theory, and animal behavior.

     (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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Optogenetic induction of appetitive and aversive taste memories in Drosophila

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Meghan Jelen
   2. Pierre-Yves Musso
   3. Pierre Junca
   4. Michael D Gordon

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work convincingly shows that taste memory formation requires the same circuit substrates and mechanisms as olfactory memory formation. While the exact mechanisms remain to be elucidated, the compelling data and approach represent a valuable foundation for the study of molecular and circuit mechanisms underpinning taste memory formation and the role of brain energy therein. This study will be of particular interest to the large community of scientists studying the mechanisms and circuits of memory formation in the fly and possibly beyond.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Didemnin B and ternatin-4 differentially inhibit conformational changes in eEF1A required for aminoacyl-tRNA accommodation into mammalian ribosomes

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Manuel F Juette
   2. Jordan D Carelli
   3. Emily J Rundlet
   4. Alan Brown
   5. Sichen Shao
   6. Angelica Ferguson
   7. Michael R Wasserman
   8. Mikael Holm
   9. Jack Taunton
   10. Scott C Blanchard

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment:

     Juette and coworkers employed single-molecule fluorescence, cryogenic-electron microscopy structures, and in vivo measurements to investigate the mechanism whereby two natural products with potential as cancer therapeutics, didemnin B and ternatin-4, act. The compounds are shown to inhibit tRNA accommodation within the ribosomal A site during translation elongation by interfering with movement of eukaryotic elongation factor 1 alpha after its activation by the GTPase activation site of the ribosome, with the degree and nature of this restriction differing subtly between the two compounds, leading to more marked differences in their effects on global translation and cell growth. The compelling results of this interdisciplinary work solidify prior conclusions, particularly on didemnin B, and illuminate the similarities and differences on how these two drugs interfere with the normal functioning of the elongating ribosome in vitro and inhibit protein synthesis and cell growth in vivo. Some revisions of figures and text are required to clarify the results and the authors' interpretations.

     (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, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Evidence for dopaminergic involvement in endogenous modulation of pain relief

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Simon Desch
   2. Petra Schweinhardt
   3. Ben Seymour
   4. Herta Flor
   5. Susanne Becker

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important paper that is of interest to researchers interested in the psychological and neurochemical mechanisms of pain and pain relief. It shows that the perception of pain relief is modulated by controllability, surprise and novelty seeking. Moreover, these modulations are influenced by dopaminergic but not by opioidergic manipulations. These findings are supported by solid evidence.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Clonal transcriptomics identifies mechanisms of chemoresistance and empowers rational design of combination therapies

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Sophia A Wild
   2. Ian G Cannell
   3. Ashley Nicholls
   4. Katarzyna Kania
   5. Dario Bressan
   6. CRUK IMAXT Grand Challenge Team
   7. Gregory J Hannon
   8. Kirsty Sawicka

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment:

     This manuscript describes a highly novel barcoding strategy for forward genetic lineage tracing of tumor cells in vitro and in the in vivo environment. The technique, coined WILDseq, can be used to track cells present in vitro which are enriched or depleted in the in vivo environment. Treatment further contributes to clonal expansion and retraction and emergence of populations with sensitivity to alternate agents. The studies are rigorously conducted and are highly impactful.

     (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 names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Identification of epigenetic modulators as determinants of nuclear size and shape

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Andria C Schibler
   2. Predrag Jevtic
   3. Gianluca Pegoraro
   4. Daniel L Levy
   5. Tom Misteli

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment:

     In this manuscript the authors describe targeted, imaging-based RNAi screens to identify novel modulators of nuclear size and shape — two traits that are diagnostic and prognostic for many human diseases including cancers. The work provides novel insights into how and what dictates nuclear morphology, further decoupling key different components of lamins, chromatin, and the nuclear envelope, but there are some notable concerns regarding the scoring approach applied in the screen and hit validation. The authors also provide new evidence that lamin A may directly bind to (modified) histone H3 and how histone H3 disease mutations impact nuclear shape; this aspect of the manuscript would benefit from a more thorough analysis.

     (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 #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Noncovalent antibody catenation on a target surface greatly increases the antigen-binding avidity

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Jinyeop Song
   2. Bo-Seong Jeong
   3. Seong-Woo Kim
   4. Seong-Bin Im
   5. Seonghoon Kim
   6. Chih-Jen Lai
   7. Wonki Cho
   8. Jae U Jung
   9. Myung-Ju Ahn
   10. Byung-Ha Oh

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment:

     The authors sought to enhance antibody binding to target antigens via reversible catenation, as an alternative to affinity maturation, beginning by computationally establishing parameters under which this type of binding enhancement via avidity effects would occur, and then following up with proof-of-principle experiments. While computational predictions and experiments are in excellent agreement, some controls that would further strengthen data interpretation are lacking. If generally applicable, the approach would accelerate efforts to develop antibodies with enhanced binding potency relative to their progenitors, applicable to any area of research employing antibodies.

     (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

8. Parallel evolution of reduced cancer risk and tumor suppressor duplications in Xenarthra

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Juan Manuel Vazquez
   2. Maria T Pena
   3. Baaqeyah Muhammad
   4. Morgan Kraft
   5. Linda B Adams
   6. Vincent J Lynch

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment:

     This study is a useful extension of previous work on the relationship between body size and cancer risk and the mechanisms by which large-bodied mammals reduce their cancer risk. Through solid analyses of the genomes and several aspects of the cell biology of sloths, armadillos and their relatives, the study explores whether the evolution of large body size in their relatives (some extinct) was correlated with genomic changes such as the duplication of tumor suppressor genes, experimentally demonstrating that cells of Xenarthrans (sloths, armadillos, anteaters) are exceptionally sensitive to DNA damage. The study concerns a topic of great interest and contributes to our understanding of how cancer risk has evolved in mammals.

     (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

9. Latent functional diversity may accelerate microbial community responses to temperature fluctuations

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Thomas P Smith
   2. Shorok Mombrikotb
   3. Emma Ransome
   4. Dimitrios - Georgios Kontopoulos
   5. Samraat Pawar
   6. Thomas Bell

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment:

     This manuscript will be of interest to microbial ecologists and biogeochemists working on soil carbon cycling and responses to climate warming. This study uses an elegant experiment to show that standing variation, both phylogenetic and phenotypic, enables microbial community adaptation to higher temperatures. The authors' conclusions are supported by the data, and this work lays a foundation for future experimental and modeling studies.

     (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

10. Antiviral function and viral antagonism of the rapidly evolving dynein activating adaptor NINL

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Donté Alexander Stevens
    2. Christopher Beierschmitt
    3. Swetha Mahesula
    4. Miles R Corley
    5. John Salogiannis
    6. Brian V Tsu
    7. Bryant Cao
    8. Andrew P Ryan
    9. Hiroyuki Hakozawki
    10. Samara L Reck-Peterson
    11. Matthew D Daugherty

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This is an interesting discovery of a role for NINL in antiviral defense through modulation of interferon signaling. They found that there is diversifying selection of this factor as well as viral antagonism. This discovery paves the way to a better understanding of how viruses and hosts co-evolve.

      (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