eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Kinesin-1, -2, and -3 motors use family-specific mechanochemical strategies to effectively compete with dynein during bidirectional transport

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Allison M Gicking
   2. Tzu-Chen Ma
   3. Qingzhou Feng
   4. Rui Jiang
   5. Somayesadat Badieyan
   6. Michael A Cianfrocco
   7. William O Hancock

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In their study, Gicking et al. study the physical properties of artificial complexes composed of the dynein-dynactin-BicD2 (DDB) complex linked to one of three classes of kinesins (1, 2, or 3) via a DNA scaffold. They find that all three kinesins can move to the plus-end of microtubules when coupled to the DDB complex. This is surprising because motors in the kinesin-2 and kinesin-3 families have been shown to have a higher load sensitivity. However, the authors show that the faster reattachment kinetics of these motors compensate for their faster detachment rates under load. This work is relevant to both the biophysics field for advancing knowledge in fundamental science, and in the neuroscience field since disruption of neuronal transport leads to a variety of neurodegenerative diseases.

     (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. Chronic Ca2+ imaging of cortical neurons with long-term expression of GCaMP-X

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Jinli Geng
   2. Yingjun Tang
   3. Zhen Yu
   4. Yunming Gao
   5. Wenxiang Li
   6. Yitong Lu
   7. Bo Wang
   8. Huiming Zhou
   9. Ping Li
   10. Nan Liu
   11. Ping Wang
   12. Yubo Fan
   13. Yaxiong Yang
   14. Zengcai V Guo
   15. Xiaodong Liu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper addresses the toxicity of fluorescent calcium indicators, comparing two series of indicators (GCaMPs and GCaMP-Xs) in mouse neurons. The paper documents GCaMP toxicity during development and following prolonged strong expression, and establishes that GCaMP-X indicators are less toxic. The paper will be of interest primarily to neuroscientists who use fluorescence calcium indicators to monitor calcium dynamics during neuronal 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. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Landmark-based spatial navigation across the human lifespan

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Marcia Bécu
   2. Denis Sheynikhovich
   3. Stephen Ramanoël
   4. Guillaume Tatur
   5. Anthony Ozier-Lafontaine
   6. Colas N Authié
   7. José-Alain Sahel
   8. Angelo Arleo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is an important study that investigates whether older adults have selective impairments in allocentric navigation (using distal cues to navigate). Using a combination of ecologically inspired real-world navigation, virtual reality, eye tracking, and body-tracking, the study reports, for the first time, that older adults show no difference from younger adults when using geometry to navigate a Y maze. Instead, their deficits appear to relate to perceptual difficulties with processing individual landmarks. This large sample study therefore provides somewhat compelling evidence of age-related difficulties in processing landmarks visually rather than a selective deficit in allocentric navigation.

     (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. Hepatic AMPK signaling dynamic activation in response to REDOX balance are sentinel biomarkers of exercise and antioxidant intervention to improve blood glucose control

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Meiling Wu
   2. Anda Zhao
   3. Xingchen Yan
   4. Hongyang Gao
   5. Chunwang Zhang
   6. Xiaomin Liu
   7. Qiwen Luo
   8. Feizhou Xie
   9. Shanlin Liu
   10. Dongyun Shi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     There is a debate whether ROS (reactive oxygen species) generated through redox signaling could be a friend or foe. There are several paradoxical studies (both animal and human) wherein exercise health benefits were reported to be accompanied by increases in ROS generation. Utilizing the in-vitro studies as well as mice model work, this manuscript illustrates the different regulatory mechanisms of exercise and antioxidant intervention on redox balance and blood glucose level in diabetes. The manuscript does address some advancements in the area of research specialization.

     (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

5. High-throughput automated methods for classical and operant conditioning of Drosophila larvae

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Elise C Croteau-Chonka
   2. Michael S Clayton
   3. Lalanti Venkatasubramanian
   4. Samuel N Harris
   5. Benjamin MW Jones
   6. Lakshmi Narayan
   7. Michael Winding
   8. Jean-Baptiste Masson
   9. Marta Zlatic
   10. Kristina T Klein

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     A new and interesting operant conditioning paradigm is established for the Drosophila larva. A novel role for serotonergic pathways in the VNC in operant learning points to new circuits and mechanisms for learning and memory. Impressive technology opens doors for new and exciting studies on learned behavior in the small and tractable circuits of the larva.

     (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. Non-rapid eye movement sleep determines resilience to social stress

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Brittany J Bush
   2. Caroline Donnay
   3. Eva-Jeneé A Andrews
   4. Darielle Lewis-Sanders
   5. Cloe L Gray
   6. Zhimei Qiao
   7. Allison J Brager
   8. Hadiya Johnson
   9. Hamadi CS Brewer
   10. Sahil Sood
   11. Talib Saafir
   12. Morris Benveniste
   13. Ketema N Paul
   14. J Christopher Ehlen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This well-written report provides new insights for neuroscientists studying sleep architecture and stress sensitivity. A particularly important conclusion is that differences in sleep architecture before chronic social defeat stress may serve as a predictive biomarker of stress resilience. Overall the work is very strong, but there are some conceptual and methodological issues that need to be addressed.

     (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. Deep learning-based feature extraction for prediction and interpretation of sharp-wave ripples in the rodent hippocampus

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Andrea Navas-Olive
   2. Rodrigo Amaducci
   3. Maria-Teresa Jurado-Parras
   4. Enrique R Sebastian
   5. Liset M de la Prida

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of interest to the neuroscience community studying brain oscillations. It presents a new method to detect sharp-wave ripples in the hippocampus with deep learning techniques, instead of the more traditional signal processing approach. The overall detection performance improves and this technique may help identify and characterize previously undetected physiological events.

     (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. Selection and the direction of phenotypic evolution

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. François Mallard
   2. Bruno Afonso
   3. Henrique Teotónio

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a potentially important paper that takes advantage of an unusually comprehensive evolutionary genetic dataset to tease apart the relationship between genetic variation and phenotypic divergence over the ~medium term (50 generations). The questions addressed have broad relevance across evolution, conservation, and agricultural fields, and this paper will particularly appeal to evolutionary biologists. Nonetheless, the strength of evidence is incomplete for the major results and conclusions reported.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Sweepstakes reproductive success via pervasive and recurrent selective sweeps

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Einar Árnason
   2. Jere Koskela
   3. Katrín Halldórsdóttir
   4. Bjarki Eldon

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Analysis of molecular data from genome sequencing provides crucial information on the diversity of biological and evolutionary processes that shape genetic diversity. However, the models of genetic evolution used to make these inferences sometimes oversimplify important aspects of species biology. This study shows that accounting for high variance in reproductive success in models can better explain the genetic diversity of an extremely fecund marine species, the Atlantic cod. The manuscript is scientifically sound and provides careful statistical analyses of alternative evolutionary models. It concludes that pervasive selection, rather than demographic changes or sweepstakes reproduction, is one of the main drivers of genetic diversity in Atlantic cod.

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

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Spinal premotor interneurons controlling antagonistic muscles are spatially intermingled

    This article has 18 authors:

    1. Remi Ronzano
    2. Sophie Skarlatou
    3. Bianca K Barriga
    4. B Anne Bannatyne
    5. Gardave Singh Bhumbra
    6. Joshua D Foster
    7. Jeffrey D Moore
    8. Camille Lancelin
    9. Amanda M Pocratsky
    10. Mustafa Görkem Özyurt
    11. Calvin Chad Smith
    12. Andrew J Todd
    13. David J Maxwell
    14. Andrew J Murray
    15. Samuel L Pfaff
    16. Robert M Brownstone
    17. Niccolò Zampieri
    18. Marco Beato

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      The experiments presented in this extensive study by Ronzano et al. are a tour-de-force investigating the spatial organization of premotor interneurons in the mouse spinal cord to re-examine the fundamental question of whether there is spatial segregation of interneurons with monosynaptic connections to motoneurons innervating functionally antagonistic (flexor and extensor) pairs of limb muscles. The authors' premotor circuit mapping experiments, involving four different collaborating laboratories applying an extensive set of complementary rabies virus-based trans-synaptic circuit tracing techniques, convincingly demonstrate complete spatial overlap among flexor and extensor premotor interneurons, contradicting previous mapping results that suggest spatial segregation. The present results revise our understanding of the spatial organization of spinal premotor circuits with fundamental implications for understanding spinal motor circuit function.

      (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