eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Circadian programming of the ellipsoid body sleep homeostat in Drosophila

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Tomas Andreani
   2. Clark Rosensweig
   3. Shiju Sisobhan
   4. Emmanuel Ogunlana
   5. William Kath
   6. Ravi Allada

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript addresses important questions: what is the relationship between circadian and homeostatic regulation of sleep, and how do the circuits underlying these levels of control interact? The authors have designed a very elegant method to answer these questions in Drosophila: a new sleep-deprivation protocol that allows them to test sleep rebound over the course of the day. Interesting observations are made, such as time-of-day dependence of sleep homeostasis, identification of important neural pathways modulating sleep rebound in a time-dependent manner, and molecular and physiological variations that might drive time-dependent sleep homeostasis. Experiments establishing a link between the circadian clock/neurons and molecular and physiological changes observed in sleep homeostat neurons would help to provide support for the claims made in the title and abstract.

     (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

2. Lytic transglycosylases mitigate periplasmic crowding by degrading soluble cell wall turnover products

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Anna Isabell Weaver
   2. Laura Alvarez
   3. Kelly M Rosch
   4. Asraa Ahmed
   5. Garrett Sean Wang
   6. Michael S van Nieuwenhze
   7. Felipe Cava
   8. Tobias Dörr

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study addresses a major missing element in the understanding of how bacteria grow their cell wall and the role of lytic transglycosylases in this process. It had been previously assumed these enzymes cut glycan strands to make room for the insertion of new glycans. However, results presented in this manuscript demonstrate these enzymes have a very different, yet essential role in degrading uncrosslinked glycan strands in the periplasm. The authors further demonstrate that in the absence of lytic transglycosylases, cells undergo periplasmic stress due a toxic accumulation of these "free strands" in the periplasm. The work will be of interest to those in the bacterial growth and division field.

     (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. Risk factors relate to the variability of health outcomes as well as the mean: A GAMLSS tutorial

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. David Bann
   2. Liam Wright
   3. Tim J Cole

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Using data from the 1970 British Birth Cohort study, the authors demonstrated the utility of Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) to investigate the association of three risk factors (sex, socioeconomic circumstances, and physical inactivity) with body mass index and mental wellbeing. This work provides empirical evidence for why we should consider how risk factors influence the variability and not just the mean of outcomes. From the perspective of developing personalized medicine, it is important to know whether interventions have response heterogeneity as the first step. If such heterogeneity is identified, the next step will be to identify the factors associated with the heterogeneity (or those who will be benefitted from the intervention). Therefore, this study contributes to the first step by investigating the possibility of response heterogeneity.

     (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

4. Type 2 diabetes mellitus accelerates brain aging and cognitive decline: Complementary findings from UK Biobank and meta-analyses

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Botond Antal
   2. Liam P McMahon
   3. Syed Fahad Sultan
   4. Andrew Lithen
   5. Deborah J Wexler
   6. Bradford Dickerson
   7. Eva-Maria Ratai
   8. Lilianne R Mujica-Parodi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The current manuscript will be of interest to researchers working in aging, diabetes, and neurocognition. This work emphasizes the role of diabetes in brain aging and cognitive functions that are considered an hourly need due to the increasing trend in the prevalence of diabetes around the world. This article provides valuable information about specific brain regions altered during aging and diabetes. Further, this article reports how T2DM accelerates the aging-associated decline in cognition and brain function. Extensive analysis of human datasets and comparison with published data from other researchers support the conclusion of this study. However, as mentioned by the authors, certain decisions like diabetic interventions that do not rescue brain damage need further validation.

     (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. Fast bacterial growth reduces antibiotic accumulation and efficacy

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Urszula Łapińska
   2. Margaritis Voliotis
   3. Ka Kiu Lee
   4. Adrian Campey
   5. M Rhia L Stone
   6. Brandon Tuck
   7. Wanida Phetsang
   8. Bing Zhang
   9. Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova
   10. Mark AT Blaskovich
   11. Stefano Pagliara

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript addresses mechanisms by which bacteria are able to survive and evade killing by antibiotics. Using fluorescent versions of antibiotics it studies whether if entry/efflux of the drug itself is a significant contributor to the observed variability of antibiotic activity. This study will be of interest to microbiologists and clinicians for design of better antibiotic therapies.

     (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. Drosophila nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits and their native interactions with insecticidal peptide toxins

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Dagmara Korona
   2. Benedict Dirnberger
   3. Carlo NG Giachello
   4. Rayner ML Queiroz
   5. Rebeka Popovic
   6. Karin H Müller
   7. David-Paul Minde
   8. Michael J Deery
   9. Glynnis Johnson
   10. Lucy C Firth
   11. Fergus G Earley
   12. Steven Russell
   13. Kathryn S Lilley

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of interest to molecular neurobiologists studying Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) or other membrane bound receptors. The paper highlights several different and complementary techniques relevant for studying membrane proteins in native conditions, which are relevant and useful to a wide audience.

     (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. Structural basis for the absence of low-energy chlorophylls in a photosystem I trimer from Gloeobacter violaceus

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Koji Kato
   2. Tasuku Hamaguchi
   3. Ryo Nagao
   4. Keisuke Kawakami
   5. Yoshifumi Ueno
   6. Takehiro Suzuki
   7. Hiroko Uchida
   8. Akio Murakami
   9. Yoshiki Nakajima
   10. Makio Yokono
   11. Seiji Akimoto
   12. Naoshi Dohmae
   13. Koji Yonekura
   14. Jian-Ren Shen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work reports the structure of the photosystem I of Gloeobacter, a cyanobacterium that does not contain low energy absorbing chlorophylls, the so-called red forms. By comparing this structure to those of other cyanobacteria that contain red forms, the authors aim to identify the chlorophylls responsible for low-energy absorption in PSI. Their second aim is to understand the role of the red forms. The topic is interesting, the structural data are very good, but the conclusions regarding the role of the red forms are not supported by 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 #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Perceptual coupling and decoupling of the default mode network during mind-wandering and reading

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Meichao Zhang
   2. Boris C Bernhardt
   3. Xiuyi Wang
   4. Dominika Varga
   5. Katya Krieger-Redwood
   6. Jessica Royer
   7. Raúl Rodríguez-Cruces
   8. Reinder Vos de Wael
   9. Daniel S Margulies
   10. Jonathan Smallwood
   11. Elizabeth Jefferies

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of broad interest to those interested in the relationship between mind wandering and reading, at the behavioral and neural levels, including when both processes occur at the same time. As such, this manuscript has important implications for clarifying how the experience of mind wandering while reading may occur. The results partially support the proposed theoretical framework that mind wandering during reading disrupts processing of visual input, however, not all of the authors' claims appear to be supported by the experimental design and 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 #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Charting brain growth and aging at high spatial precision

   This article has 32 authors:

   1. Saige Rutherford
   2. Charlotte Fraza
   3. Richard Dinga
   4. Seyed Mostafa Kia
   5. Thomas Wolfers
   6. Mariam Zabihi
   7. Pierre Berthet
   8. Amanda Worker
   9. Serena Verdi
   10. Derek Andrews
   11. Laura KM Han
   12. Johanna MM Bayer
   13. Paola Dazzan
   14. Phillip McGuire
   15. Roel T Mocking
   16. Aart Schene
   17. Chandra Sripada
   18. Ivy F Tso
   19. Elizabeth R Duval
   20. Soo-Eun Chang
   21. Brenda WJH Penninx
   22. Mary M Heitzeg
   23. S Alexandra Burt
   24. Luke W Hyde
   25. David Amaral
   26. Christine Wu Nordahl
   27. Ole A Andreasssen
   28. Lars T Westlye
   29. Roland Zahn
   30. Henricus G Ruhe
   31. Christian Beckmann
   32. Andre F Marquand

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of broad interest to the neuroimaging community. It establishes a detailed reference model of human brain development and lifespan trajectories based on a very large data set, across many cortical and subcortical brain regions. The model not only explains substantial variability on test data, it also successfully uncovers individual differences on a database of psychiatric patients that, in addition to group-level analyses, may be critical for diagnosis, thereby demonstrating high clinical potential. It presents a clear overview of the data resource, including detailed evaluation metrics, and makes code, models and documentation directly available to the community.

     (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 name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. How the insect central complex could coordinate multimodal navigation

    This article has 3 authors:

    1. Xuelong Sun
    2. Shigang Yue
    3. Michael Mangan

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This paper builds on a previously published computational model of the insect central complex developed to generate a biologically plausible neural circuit for producing visually guided navigation behavior to show how the same model can be used to produce navigation behavior in response to multimodal sensory information. In particular, the authors show that olfactory navigation as well as wind-guided navigation can be seamlessly integrated with visual behaviors. The work is significant, valuable and of broad interest to circuit and computational neuroscientists.

      (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