eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A bidirectional switch in the Shank3 phosphorylation state biases synapses toward up- or downscaling

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Chi-Hong Wu
   2. Vedakumar Tatavarty
   3. Pierre M Jean Beltran
   4. Andrea A Guerrero
   5. Hasmik Keshishian
   6. Karsten Krug
   7. Melanie A MacMullan
   8. Li Li
   9. Steven A Carr
   10. Jeffrey R Cottrell
   11. Gina G Turrigiano

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study is of great interest to a broad group of neuroscientists including those studying plasticity in the nervous system and in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. The current work illustrates the importance of protein phosphorylation in regulating a form of homeostatic plasticity known as synaptic scaling, which has been associated with different neurodevelopmental disorders. In particular, the authors provide compelling evidence that the phosphorylation state of one synaptic scaffolding protein, Shank 3, is a necessary part of a complex signaling pathway mediating synaptic scaling and thus could be therapeutically useful for certain associated disorders.

     (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. The KASH5 protein involved in meiotic chromosomal movements is a novel dynein activating adaptor

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Ritvija Agrawal
   2. John P Gillies
   3. Juliana L Zang
   4. Jingjing Zhang
   5. Sharon R Garrott
   6. Hiroki Shibuya
   7. Jayakrishnan Nandakumar
   8. Morgan E DeSantis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study contributes to our understanding of how a diverse and increasing number of activating adaptors allow the dynein motor protein to move a wide range of intracellular cargoes. Here the authors identify a transmembrane protein called KASH5 as the activating adaptor required for dynein to move meiotic chromosomes, a process that facilitates homolog pairing. Overall, the work is well done and will be of interest to the cell biology, cytoskeletal, and meiosis research communities.

     (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

3. Dynamics of allosteric regulation of the phospholipase C-γ isozymes upon recruitment to membranes

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Edhriz Siraliev-Perez
   2. Jordan TB Stariha
   3. Reece M Hoffmann
   4. Brenda RS Temple
   5. Qisheng Zhang
   6. Nicole Hajicek
   7. Meredith L Jenkins
   8. John E Burke
   9. John Sondek

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work provides insight into how phospholipase C gamma (PLCγ1) becomes activated upon binding to phosphorylated receptor tyrosine kinase, with an analysis of PLC γ1 bound to the soluble kinase domain of FGFR1 (FGFR1K) and/or liposomes containing PIP2. The most interesting finding is that regions of the protein far from the FGFR1K binding site increase in exchange upon binding. This is new information for a large protein that is arguably difficult to study, but it conforms to what has been observed in many other autoinhibited systems with similar SH2 and SH3 domains such as kinases. The results will be of interest to structural biologists and cell biologists with interest in the mechanisms leading to the regulation of phospholipase C activity on membranes.

     (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. Structural differences in adolescent brains can predict alcohol misuse

   This article has 32 authors:

   1. Roshan Prakash Rane
   2. Evert Ferdinand de Man
   3. JiHoon Kim
   4. Kai Görgen
   5. Mira Tschorn
   6. Michael A Rapp
   7. Tobias Banaschewski
   8. Arun LW Bokde
   9. Sylvane Desrivieres
   10. Herta Flor
   11. Antoine Grigis
   12. Hugh Garavan
   13. Penny A Gowland
   14. Rüdiger Brühl
   15. Jean-Luc Martinot
   16. Marie-Laure Paillere Martinot
   17. Eric Artiges
   18. Frauke Nees
   19. Dimitri Papadopoulos Orfanos
   20. Herve Lemaitre
   21. Tomas Paus
   22. Luise Poustka
   23. Juliane Fröhner
   24. Lauren Robinson
   25. Michael N Smolka
   26. Jeanne Winterer
   27. Robert Whelan
   28. Gunter Schumann
   29. Henrik Walter
   30. Andreas Heinz
   31. Kerstin Ritter
   32. IMAGEN consortium

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study uses a large dataset on alcohol misuse in adolescents that have been followed up for several years. MRI data are used to test whether the structure and connectivity of the brains of adolescents can predict their alcohol misuse later in their early twenties. The results show that binge drinking can be predicted out of multiple brain phenotypes with a good accuracy, even after control for many confound variables. This study can be impactful as it suggests a reevaluation of studies of the effect of alcohol on the adolescent brain.

     (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. Glutathione in the nucleus accumbens regulates motivation to exert reward-incentivized effort

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Ioannis Zalachoras
   2. Eva Ramos-Fernández
   3. Fiona Hollis
   4. Laura Trovo
   5. João Rodrigues
   6. Alina Strasser
   7. Olivia Zanoletti
   8. Pascal Steiner
   9. Nicolas Preitner
   10. Lijing Xin
   11. Simone Astori
   12. Carmen Sandi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study uses both humans and rats to demonstrate that the level of glutathione in the nucleus accumbens correlates with effortful behaviors. The authors provide causal evidence for glutathione in rats by manipulating enzymes involved in the synthesis of glutathione. Although how exactly glutathione regulates effort-related behavior remains to be clarified, overall, the study gives convincing evidence for an important role of glutathione in nucleus accumbens in regulating the willingness to invest effort to obtain reward or escape an aversive situation.

     (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

6. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutations in the pliant and light chain-binding regions of the lever arm of human β-cardiac myosin have divergent effects on myosin function

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Makenna M Morck
   2. Debanjan Bhowmik
   3. Divya Pathak
   4. Aminah Dawood
   5. James Spudich
   6. Kathleen M Ruppel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work is of broad interest to readers in the fields of cytoskeletal research, muscle biology and heart disease. By utilizing a combination of quantitative biochemical and biophysical experimental approaches, this work provides critical new insights into the molecular mechanisms of understudied mutations in myosin that cause heart disease. The data are rigorously controlled and analyzed and support the claims of the work.

     (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

7. Endocytic trafficking promotes vacuolar enlargements for fast cell expansion rates in plants

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Kai Dünser
   2. Maria Schöller
   3. Ann-Kathrin Rößling
   4. Christian Löfke
   5. Nannan Xiao
   6. Barbora Pařízková
   7. Stanislav Melnik
   8. Marta Rodriguez-Franco
   9. Eva Stöger
   10. Ondřej Novák
   11. Jürgen Kleine-Vehn

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Plant cells can grow to extraordinarily large volumes; Arabidopsis root cells, for example, can expand beyond 50um long. Vacuole expansion is correlated with cell elongation, presumably to "fill up" the volume of the cell without requiring a tremendous volume of cytoplasm. Here, the authors carefully characterize a new small molecule inhibitor of endocytic trafficking to the vacuole. This new tool will be valuable to researchers studying endocytic trafficking and vacuole biogenesis in plants.

     (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

8. Uncovering natural variation in root system architecture and growth dynamics using a robotics-assisted phenomics platform

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Therese LaRue
   2. Heike Lindner
   3. Ankit Srinivas
   4. Moises Exposito-Alonso
   5. Guillaume Lobet
   6. José R Dinneny

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors present an automated system for phenotyping root system architecture based on bioluminescent roots resulting from a constitutively expressed luciferase transgene (GLO-Root). They have developed a robotics-assisted phenotyping platform and an automated image analysis pipeline for high throughput analysis. An impressive array of 93 luciferase expressing Arabidopsis thaliana accessions provides a major resource for understanding the genetic basis for root system architecture variation in response to a range of environmental conditions. The work will be of interest to plant biologists and all those studying genetic variation in plants.

     (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 names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Fat2 polarizes the WAVE complex in trans to align cell protrusions for collective migration

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Audrey Miller Williams
   2. Seth Donoughe
   3. Edwin Munro
   4. Sally Horne-Badovinac

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of broad interest to scientists who study collective cell migration and cytoskeletal dynamics. The findings of this paper connect proteins involved in planar polarity to the actin protrusive machinery which establishes an axes for polarized collective cell migration. The data presented largely supports the claims of the authors who take advantage of quantitative imaging techniques and Drosophila genetics to establish this connection.

     (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

10. Binary and analog variation of synapses between cortical pyramidal neurons

    This article has 37 authors:

    1. Sven Dorkenwald
    2. Nicholas L Turner
    3. Thomas Macrina
    4. Kisuk Lee
    5. Ran Lu
    6. Jingpeng Wu
    7. Agnes L Bodor
    8. Adam A Bleckert
    9. Derrick Brittain
    10. Nico Kemnitz
    11. William M Silversmith
    12. Dodam Ih
    13. Jonathan Zung
    14. Aleksandar Zlateski
    15. Ignacio Tartavull
    16. Szi-Chieh Yu
    17. Sergiy Popovych
    18. William Wong
    19. Manuel Castro
    20. Chris S Jordan
    21. Alyssa M Wilson
    22. Emmanouil Froudarakis
    23. JoAnn Buchanan
    24. Marc M Takeno
    25. Russel Torres
    26. Gayathri Mahalingam
    27. Forrest Collman
    28. Casey M Schneider-Mizell
    29. Daniel J Bumbarger
    30. Yang Li
    31. Lynne Becker
    32. Shelby Suckow
    33. Jacob Reimer
    34. Andreas S Tolias
    35. Nuno Macarico da Costa
    36. R Clay Reid
    37. H Sebastian Seung

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      Synaptic connections are crucial for determining neural circuit function and for storing adaptive changes in the brain. This study performs a highly detailed quantitative analysis of certain excitatory connections in mouse neocortex, and finds that the physical size of these connections has a bimodal distribution. This is an important finding that has implications for our understanding of synaptic plasticity and neural circuit dynamics.

      (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 names with the authors.)

    Reviewed by eLife