eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A unified view of low complexity regions (LCRs) across species

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Byron Lee
   2. Nima Jaberi-Lashkari
   3. Eliezer Calo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper describes a new dotplot-based approach for analyzing Low Complexity Regions (LCRs) in proteins. The work is validated against a single protein, compared to existing methods, and applied to the proteomes of several model systems. The work aims to show links between specific LCRs and biological function and subcellular location, and study conservation in LCRs amongst higher species.

     (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. Selfee, self-supervised features extraction of animal behaviors

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yinjun Jia
   2. Shuaishuai Li
   3. Xuan Guo
   4. Bo Lei
   5. Junqiang Hu
   6. Xiao-Hong Xu
   7. Wei Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Jia et al. present an exciting machine learning framework named "Selfee" for unsupervised and objective analysis of animal behavior that should draw broad interest from researchers studying quantitative animal behavior. However, there are some unresolved issues for establishing credibility of the method that needs 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 #1 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Interplay of surface interaction and magnetic torque in single-cell motion of magnetotactic bacteria in microfluidic confinement

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Agnese Codutti
   2. Mohammad A Charsooghi
   3. Elisa Cerdá-Doñate
   4. Hubert M Taïeb
   5. Tom Robinson
   6. Damien Faivre
   7. Stefan Klumpp

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The manuscript reports results of a combined experimental and numerical investigation of magnetotactic bacteria in strong spatial confinement and under the influence of an external magnetic field. Single cells are trapped in micrometer-sized microfluidic chambers. A variety of trajectories are found, which depend on the chamber size and the strength of the magnetic field. A detailed understanding of swimming in simple controlled confinement is essential to predict the behavior of motile microorganisms in the complex environments of their natural habitat.

     (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. Control of nuclear size by osmotic forces in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Joël Lemière
   2. Paula Real-Calderon
   3. Liam J Holt
   4. Thomas G Fai
   5. Fred Chang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work offers a simple explanation to a fundamental question in cell biology: what dictates the volume of a cell and of its nucleus, focusing on yeast cells. The central message is that all this can be explained by an osmotic equilibrium, using the classical Van't Hoff's Law. The novelty resides in an effort to provide actual numbers experimentally.

     (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. Dopamine neuron morphology and output are differentially controlled by mTORC1 and mTORC2

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Polina Kosillo
   2. Kamran M Ahmed
   3. Erin E Aisenberg
   4. Vasiliki Karalis
   5. Bradley M Roberts
   6. Stephanie J Cragg
   7. Helen S Bateup

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript by Kosillo and colleagues presents a series of carefully carried out experiments evaluating the impact of perturbing the mTORC1 and mTORC2 protein complexes selectively in mouse dopamine neurons. By utilizing dopamine neuron-specific Raptor and Rictor cKO mice, this paper elucidated which of these mTOR complexes are responsible for the regulation of dopamine neuronal functions, revealing the importance of mTORC1/2 signaling for the structure and function of dopamine neurons. This paper provided comprehensive data including structural, physiological, and biochemical alterations by genetic deletion of Raptor/Rictor in dopamine neurons.

     (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

6. Molecular dissection of condensin II-mediated chromosome assembly using in vitro assays

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Makoto M Yoshida
   2. Kazuhisa Kinoshita
   3. Yuuki Aizawa
   4. Shoji Tane
   5. Daisuke Yamashita
   6. Keishi Shintomi
   7. Tatsuya Hirano

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of broad interest to researchers studying chromosome structure. Using a powerful reconstitution system, the authors dissect the function of the chromosome organising complex, condensin II. Several findings, if supported by some additional analyses, are surprising and thus have the potential to fuel further mechanistic studies of condensin 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 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Mathematical relationships between spinal motoneuron properties

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Arnault H Caillet
   2. Andrew TM Phillips
   3. Dario Farina
   4. Luca Modenese

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study describes the correlations between different membrane properties and the size of the soma of spinal alpha-motoneurons (MNs) using data from 40 experimental in vivo studies. The authors have distilled decades of research on motoneuron properties into a set of mathematical relationships that can guide both experimentalists and modelers interested in developing realistic models of populations of motoneurons. The key result is a complete table of the empirical relationships between the anatomical and physiological properties of MNs. Overall, the dataset approach is interesting, although a detailed analysis of the variability within and between datasets is urgently needed. In addition, a simpler framing of the paper could make the main message easier to grasp.

     (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

8. Cystathionine-β-synthase is essential for AKT-induced senescence and suppresses the development of gastric cancers with PI3K/AKT activation

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Haoran Zhu
   2. Keefe T Chan
   3. Xinran Huang
   4. Carmelo Cerra
   5. Shaun Blake
   6. Anna S Trigos
   7. Dovile Anderson
   8. Darren J Creek
   9. David P De Souza
   10. Xi Wang
   11. Caiyun Fu
   12. Metta Jana
   13. Elaine Sanij
   14. Richard B Pearson
   15. Jian Kang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Kang et al. studied the role of cystathionine beta-synthase , an enzyme involved in homocysteine catabolism, in the senescent state imposed by oncogenic Akt. They find that this enzyme facilitates the acquisition of features of senescence, and is frequently silenced in tumors, whereas re-expressing it reduces cell proliferation. This manuscript is potentially of interest to cancer biologists, particularly those studying oncogene-induced senescence and mechanisms of senescence escape in cancers.

     (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. Brain-wide analysis of the supraspinal connectome reveals anatomical correlates to functional recovery after spinal injury

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Zimei Wang
   2. Adam Romanski
   3. Vatsal Mehra
   4. Yunfang Wang
   5. Matthew Brannigan
   6. Benjamin C Campbell
   7. Gregory A Petsko
   8. Pantelis Tsoulfas
   9. Murray G Blackmore

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work seeks to resolve questions surrounding "unexplained variability in functional recovery" after experimental spinal cord injury in mice using virus-based retrograde tracing from cervical, thoracic and lumbar spinal cord injection sites, tissue clearing and cutting-edge imaging, to develop a supraspinal connectome or map of neurons in the brain that project to the spinal cord. They apply their methods to understand the differences in the connections between the brain and the cervical or lumbar spinal cord and to compare the connectome from intact mice to those of mice with mild, moderate and severe spinal cord injuries. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in tissue clearing, viral labelling, and its applications to spinal cord injury.

     (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

10. Cross-modality synthesis of EM time series and live fluorescence imaging

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Anthony Santella
    2. Irina Kolotuev
    3. Caroline Kizilyaprak
    4. Zhirong Bao

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This paper very nicely tackles a methodological problem in aligning different types of datasets (EM and light microscopy) to image embryonic nervous system development in the nematode C.elegans. The paper is important not just from a methodological standpoint, but also provides novel insights into nervous system development that will be of general interest to the reader. The latter deserves more attention in the manuscript.

      (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