eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Targeted depletion of uterine glandular Foxa2 induces embryonic diapause in mice

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Mitsunori Matsuo
   2. Jia Yuan
   3. Yeon Sun Kim
   4. Amanda Dewar
   5. Hidetoshi Fujita
   6. Sudhansu K Dey
   7. Xiaofei Sun

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript reports the complex interactions that take place in the uterus between the endometrium and the blastocyst during and after embryonic diapause, a period of suspended animation that occurs in some mammals including the mouse, the model used here. The authors showed that one gene, Foxa2, interacts with two other genes, Msx1 and LIF, to control the success and duration of diapause. This will be of broad interest to researchers in the field of developmental biology and reproduction. It is a carefully done study, providing new information on the complex process that is diapause in which an embryo goes into suspended animation until it receives appropriate signaling from the uterine endometrial secretions to reactivate.

     (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. Intergenerational adaptations to stress are evolutionarily conserved, stress-specific, and have deleterious trade-offs

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Nicholas O Burton
   2. Alexandra Willis
   3. Kinsey Fisher
   4. Fabian Braukmann
   5. Jonathan Price
   6. Lewis Stevens
   7. L Ryan Baugh
   8. Aaron Reinke
   9. Eric A Miska

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors study intergenerational adaptation patterns in four relatively closely related nematode species, using previously established experimental procedures. Phenotypic and transcriptomic data are used to compare responses to stress triggers in the offspring generation between the species. The authors conclude that at least some of the responses are evolutionary conserved.

     (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. Decreased recent adaptation at human mendelian disease genes as a possible consequence of interference between advantageous and deleterious variants

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Chenlu Di
   2. Jesus Murga Moreno
   3. Diego F Salazar-Tortosa
   4. M Elise Lauterbur
   5. David Enard

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of interest for scientists studying human genetic adaptation and disease. The work improves on previous studies addressing the question of recent positive selection on genes underlying Mendelian diseases, by examining larger datasets of disease genes as well as carefully controlling for confounding factors that could result in disease genes and non-disease genes showing different patterns of genetic variation. The authors suggest that interference between strongly deleterious recessive mutations can reduce adaptation at disease genes, although this conclusion is weakened by the fact that the signal is only observed in Africa.

     (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

4. NHE6 depletion corrects ApoE4-mediated synaptic impairments and reduces amyloid plaque load

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Theresa Pohlkamp
   2. Xunde Xian
   3. Connie H Wong
   4. Murat S Durakoglugil
   5. Gordon Chandler Werthmann
   6. Takaomi C Saido
   7. Bret M Evers
   8. Charles L White
   9. Jade Connor
   10. Robert E Hammer
   11. Joachim Herz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of interest to a broad range of neuroscientists, particularly those interested in ApoE biology and Alzheimer's disease (AD), as it reveals a novel mechanism that counteracts AD-linked amyloid plaque burden and synapse dysfunction in mice. Overall, the methodology is sound, sophisticated, and employs animal models that more closely mimic human diseases, and the results are interesting and compelling. Whilst the mechanistic hypothesis proposed by the authors is consistent with the data, plausible alternative explanations remain.

     (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

5. Mapping circuit dynamics during function and dysfunction

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Srinivas Gorur-Shandilya
   2. Elizabeth M Cronin
   3. Anna C Schneider
   4. Sara Ann Haddad
   5. Philipp Rosenbaum
   6. Dirk Bucher
   7. Farzan Nadim
   8. Eve Marder

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript presents a method to characterize diverse neural activity patterns arising from a small invertebrate circuit. This is of practical interest to invertebrate neuroscientists. The application of unsupervised methods to characterize qualitatively distinct regimes of spiking neural circuits is very interesting. The challenges and lessons learned in this study are therefore of broader interest to those seeking to quantitatively characterize large sets of neural data across many subjects. The survey could be improved by further validation of the derived clusters.

     (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

6. Emergence and function of cortical offset responses in sound termination detection

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Magdalena Solyga
   2. Tania Rinaldi Barkat

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     There has been a great deal of recent interest in the neural basis for offset responses given their hypothesised importance to perception. This tests the relevance of offset responses to duration perception in a mouse model in addition to examining the brain basis. The work is thorough and well executed. The work demonstrates offset responses that occurs for the first time in auditory cortex distinct from A1 where prevention of offsets by activating cells causes worsening of behavioural performance.

     (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. Zika virus causes placental pyroptosis and associated adverse fetal outcomes by activating GSDME

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Zikai Zhao
   2. Qi Li
   3. Usama Ashraf
   4. Mengjie Yang
   5. Wenjing Zhu
   6. Jun Gu
   7. Zheng Chen
   8. Changqin Gu
   9. Youhui Si
   10. Shengbo Cao
   11. Jing Ye

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The manuscript addresses an important question with broad relevance to the fields of virology, reproductive biology and immunology, and cell death. The primary conclusion of viral-induced cell death is well supported. Some mechanistic details of the pathway remain unclear.

     (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. Transition to siblinghood causes a substantial and long-lasting increase in urinary cortisol levels in wild bonobos

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Verena Behringer
   2. Andreas Berghänel
   3. Tobias Deschner
   4. Sean M Lee
   5. Barbara Fruth
   6. Gottfried Hohmann

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper documents in wild bonobos significant physiological changes in response to becoming a sibling for the first time. The authors find that new siblings' cortisol increases dramatically, while their neopterin (a marker of immune function) decreases. This paper will be of interest to those who study development, life history transitions, and colleagues at the intersection of physiology and behavior, in particular in primates and other mammals with slow life histories.

     (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

9. Cytotoxic CD4+ T cells driven by T-cell intrinsic IL-18R/MyD88 signaling predominantly infiltrate Trypanosoma cruzi-infected hearts

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Carlos-Henrique D Barbosa
   2. Fábio B Canto
   3. Ariel Gomes
   4. Layza M Brandao
   5. Jéssica R Lima
   6. Guilherme A Melo
   7. Alessandra Granato
   8. Eula GA Neves
   9. Walderez O Dutra
   10. Ana-Carolina Oliveira
   11. Alberto Nóbrega
   12. Maria Bellio

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is an interesting study, conducted in mice, that demonstrates for the first time the presence of a large population of cytotoxic CD4+ T lymphocytes in infection with Trypanosoma cruzi, a relevant human pathogen. At present, the relevance of these cells in protective immunity engendered by the host remains unclear. Additional experiments are needed to characterize the functionality of these cytotoxic CD4 T cells vis-a-vis the canonical Th1 T cells. This paper can be of interest to scientists interested in immune responses to parasitic infections.

     (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

10. Redox-controlled reorganization and flavin strain within the ribonucleotide reductase R2b–NrdI complex monitored by serial femtosecond crystallography

    This article has 27 authors:

    1. Juliane John
    2. Oskar Aurelius
    3. Vivek Srinivas
    4. Patricia Saura
    5. In-Sik Kim
    6. Asmit Bhowmick
    7. Philipp S Simon
    8. Medhanjali Dasgupta
    9. Cindy Pham
    10. Sheraz Gul
    11. Kyle D Sutherlin
    12. Pierre Aller
    13. Agata Butryn
    14. Allen M Orville
    15. Mun Hon Cheah
    16. Shigeki Owada
    17. Kensuke Tono
    18. Franklin D Fuller
    19. Alexander Batyuk
    20. Aaron S Brewster
    21. Nicholas K Sauter
    22. Vittal K Yachandra
    23. Junko Yano
    24. Ville RI Kaila
    25. Jan Kern
    26. Hugo Lebrette
    27. Martin Högbom

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      The manuscript will be of interest to a broad audience in structural biology, biochemistry, and enzymology. The work demonstrates the use of a cutting-edge approach in protein crystallography to investigate and visualize the complex mechanism of an enzyme, the paradigm being Mn-dependent ribonucleotide reductase R2b in complex with flavin-bound NrdI at different redox states. The work is timely and has implications for future investigation of complex biochemical processes.

      (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