eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. An international observational study to assess the impact of the Omicron variant emergence on the clinical epidemiology of COVID-19 in hospitalised patients

   This article has 47 authors:

   1. Bronner P Gonçalves
   2. Matthew Hall
   3. Waasila Jassat
   4. Valeria Balan
   5. Srinivas Murthy
   6. Christiana Kartsonaki
   7. Malcolm G Semple
   8. Amanda Rojek
   9. Joaquín Baruch
   10. Luis Felipe Reyes
   11. Abhishek Dasgupta
   12. Jake Dunning
   13. Barbara Wanjiru Citarella
   14. Mark Pritchard
   15. Alejandro Martín-Quiros
   16. Uluhan Sili
   17. J Kenneth Baillie
   18. Diptesh Aryal
   19. Yaseen Arabi
   20. Aasiyah Rashan
   21. Andrea Angheben
   22. Janice Caoili
   23. François Martin Carrier
   24. Ewen M Harrison
   25. Joan Gómez-Junyent
   26. Claudia Figueiredo-Mello
   27. James Joshua Douglas
   28. Mohd Basri Mat Nor
   29. Yock Ping Chow
   30. Xin Ci Wong
   31. Silvia Bertagnolio
   32. Soe Soe Thwin
   33. Anca Streinu-Cercel
   34. Leonardo Salazar
   35. Asgar Rishu
   36. Rajavardhan Rangappa
   37. David SY Ong
   38. Madiha Hashmi
   39. Gail Carson
   40. Janet Diaz
   41. Rob Fowler
   42. Moritz UG Kraemer
   43. Evert-Jan Wils
   44. Peter Horby
   45. Laura Merson
   46. Piero L Olliaro
   47. ISARIC Clinical Characterisation Group

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript compares COVID-19 mortality during the pre-Omicron and Omicron emergence periods in several countries and finds evidence suggesting the Omicron variant was associated with lower mortality than previous dominant variants. This paper will be of interest to infectious disease scientists both for its content and its methods, as it validates that population-level variant frequency can be a good proxy for individual-level variant data to derive insights on variant biology with population data.

     (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

2. Evolution of neural activity in circuits bridging sensory and abstract knowledge

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Francesca Mastrogiuseppe
   2. Naoki Hiratani
   3. Peter Latham

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The findings of the paper are of interest to scientists studying the learning of abstract representations. It provides insights into how feedforward networks evolve during a process of learning to map stimuli onto abstract classes via gradient descent. The results are appealing and the analyses thorough. As well, the paper makes some experimental predictions. It could benefit from a deeper discussion on how the findings may generalize to biologically more realistic networks and tasks.

     (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

3. Germline/soma distinction in Drosophila embryos requires regulators of zygotic genome activation

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Megan M Colonnetta
   2. Paul Schedl
   3. Girish Deshpande

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The early differentiation of germ cells, those that will form egg and sperm, is a critical and nearly universal step in animal development. This paper reveals new layers of molecular and cellular regulation that control this process in the fly, and as such be of broad interest to cell and developmental biologists, especially those interested in critical cell fate decisions. The paper contains a wealth of experimental data demonstrating that processes generally thought to be restricted to somatic cells alter the differentiation of germ cells, but provides only limited functional interpretation of the observed phenotypes.

     (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. Distinct neurexin-cerebellin complexes control AMPA- and NMDA-receptor responses in a circuit-dependent manner

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Jinye Dai
   2. Kif Liakath-Ali
   3. Samantha Rose Golf
   4. Thomas C Südhof

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of broad interest to neuroscientists studying mechanisms regulating synapse formation and maintenance. Following up on the previous work by the authors on trans-synaptic signaling complexes involving neurexins and cerebellins, this study shows that the basic framework of the complexes operates broadly across different synapses in the brain albeit with subtle differences. The experiments are carefully executed, while some key conclusions could be better supported by additional data.

     (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. Normative decision rules in changing environments

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Nicholas W Barendregt
   2. Joshua I Gold
   3. Krešimir Josić
   4. Zachary P Kilpatrick

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper investigates scenarios in which the environment changes during the course of a decision, and shows that optimal behavior can be highly complex. It will be of broad interest to researchers in psychology, behavioural economics, and neuroscience interested in decision-making in real-world tasks. It also awaits detailed empirical testing.

     (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

6. Consequences of PDGFRα+ fibroblast reduction in adult murine hearts

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Jill T Kuwabara
   2. Akitoshi Hara
   3. Sumit Bhutada
   4. Greg S Gojanovich
   5. Jasmine Chen
   6. Kanani Hokutan
   7. Vikram Shettigar
   8. Anson Y Lee
   9. Lydia P DeAngelo
   10. Jack R Heckl
   11. Julia R Jahansooz
   12. Dillon K Tacdol
   13. Mark T Ziolo
   14. Suneel S Apte
   15. Michelle D Tallquist

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     A murine genetic platform reducing fibroblast expression shows normal background indicators of cardiac structure and contractile function. Yet it shows a reduced functional compromise, on ischemic or hypertrophic challenge. This suggests its value for studies of the effect of fibrosis following normal or pathological change.

     (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

7. Evolution of cell size control is canalized towards adders or sizers by cell cycle structure and selective pressures

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Felix Proulx-Giraldeau
   2. Jan M Skotheim
   3. Paul François

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper develops evolutionary simulations to identify the type of molecular networks that can give rise to size control. We now know a lot about the functional consequences and underlying molecular biology of different cell size control strategies, but comparatively less about which factors select for particular mechanisms. The authors address this point in an evolutionary framework. They show that the evolution of a specific cell size control mechanism is dependent on the cell cycle structure. The paper will interest researchers in development, evolution, and physics of biological systems.

     (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. DNA passes through cohesin’s hinge as well as its Smc3–kleisin interface

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. James E Collier
   2. Kim A Nasmyth

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper addresses the mechanism of entrapment of DNA in the cohesin SMC complex. Through a series of biochemical studies, the paper convincingly demonstrates that DNA enters cohesin rings through the hinge and SMC3/SCC1 interfaces. How such entrapment is regulated is important for different biological activities including sister chromatid cohesion and the formation of DNA loops. The paper will be of interest to researchers in SMC biology, DNA recombination and 3D genome organization.

     (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

9. Self-organization of songbird neural sequences during social isolation

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Emily L Mackevicius
   2. Shijie Gu
   3. Natalia I Denisenko
   4. Michale S Fee

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Adult zebra finch song is highly stereotyped, and it is driven by correspondingly stereotyped neural sequences in premotor cortical nucleus HVC. By imaging HVC activity in juvenile birds isolated from social contact with tutors, the authors discover that stereotyped HVC sequences can exist even without exposure to tutor song. Interestingly, after tutoring, existing sequences in the HVC of isolate birds transitioned from being uncoupled to vocal output to highly coupled to newly copied tutor syllables. Together, these data provide a fascinating glimpse into mechanistic foundations of how nature and nurture work together to a learned motor sequence.

     (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

10. Ligand-induced shifts in conformational ensembles that describe transcriptional activation

    This article has 6 authors:

    1. Sabab Hasan Khan
    2. Sean M Braet
    3. Stephen John Koehler
    4. Elizabeth Elacqua
    5. Ganesh Srinivasan Anand
    6. C Denise Okafor

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      The manuscript will be of broad interest to readers in the fields of biochemistry, structural, molecular, and evolutionary biology. It outlines a systematic approach in characterizing nuclear receptor ligands based on the conformational ensemble of the receptor, further exploring the idea that perturbation of the ensemble orchestrates function. The results from the combined use of experiments and simulation are promising, suggesting that the change in the ensemble is responsible for 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 #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

    Reviewed by eLife