eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Hematodinium sp. infection does not drive collateral disease contraction in a crustacean host

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Charlotte E Davies
   2. Jessica E Thomas
   3. Sophie H Malkin
   4. Frederico M Batista
   5. Andrew F Rowley
   6. Christopher J Coates

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The present work aims to increase our understanding of marine epizootics caused by the dinoflagelate parasite Hematodinium sp. in crabs. The work includes a large data set of field collected specimens from a wide geographical area. The authors have evaluated presence or absence of this parasite as well as co-infections by several other groups of pathogens and model the main factors that shape crab community structure. The topic of study is very important in the context of current marine pandemics and, therefore, adequate examination of this data set may lead to significant advances in the field. Refinement of the approaches to produce quantitative data is needed in order to reach to more solid conclusions.

     (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

2. Type I and II PRMTs inversely regulate post-transcriptional intron detention through Sm and CHTOP methylation

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Maxim I Maron
   2. Alyssa D Casill
   3. Varun Gupta
   4. Jacob S Roth
   5. Simone Sidoli
   6. Charles C Query
   7. Matthew J Gamble
   8. David Shechter

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript addresses outstanding questions about the molecular mechanisms by which the two types of arginine-methylating enzymes affect the processing and fate of transcripts in mammalian cells. This work makes important inroads into these questions, uncovering an inverse effect of the two types of enzymes on intron retention during post-transcriptional splicing, linking the effects to specific target proteins. With better support of some key claims , the paper will provide a lot of new information about the functional consequences of asymmetric and symmetric demethylation.

     (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

3. Differential use of multiple genetic sex determination systems in divergent ecomorphs of an African crater lake cichlid

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Hannah Munby
   2. Tyler Linderoth
   3. Bettina Fischer
   4. Mingliu Du
   5. Grégoire Vernaz
   6. Alexandra M. Tyers
   7. Benjamin P. Ngatunga
   8. Asilatu Shechonge
   9. Hubert Denise
   10. Shane A. McCarthy
   11. Iliana Bista
   12. Eric A. Miska
   13. M. Emília Santos
   14. Martin J. Genner
   15. George F. Turner
   16. Richard Durbin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of interest to evolutionary biologists and geneticists, particularly those interested in the evolution of sex determination and sexual conflicts. It provides an unprecedented dataset that enables the authors to show convincingly the presence of three different Y-chromosomes segregating within a species, differential presence of the Ys among ecomorphs, and identifies candidate sex determination genes on the different Ys. Examination of the impact of genetic sex on a male fitness proxy in ecological context provides a compelling case study to explain the stable maintenance of multiple genetic sex determination systems in a 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 #1, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Toxoplasma bradyzoites exhibit physiological plasticity of calcium and energy stores controlling motility and egress

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yong Fu
   2. Kevin M Brown
   3. Nathaniel G Jones
   4. Silvia NJ Moreno
   5. L David Sibley

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The cyst-forming stages of Toxoplasma gondii that perpetuate chonic infections in more than a quarter of the world's human population exist in a metabolically quiescent state. This study provides evidence that metabolic quiescence in bradyzoite cysts is associated with a profound dampening of calcium signalling, including uptake and release from internal stores, which is reversed following bradyzoite egress and exposure to exogenous calcium and carbon sources.

     (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

5. Prediction of type 2 diabetes mellitus onset using logistic regression-based scorecards

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Yochai Edlitz
   2. Eran Segal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors have used the UK bio-bank with sophisticated statistical modeling to predict the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus development. Prognosis and early detection of diabetes are key factors in clinical practice and the current data suggest a new machine-learning based algorithm that further advances our ability to prevent diabetes.

     (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

6. Positive feedback regulation of frizzled-7 expression robustly shapes a steep Wnt gradient in Xenopus heart development, together with sFRP1 and heparan sulfate

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Takayoshi Yamamoto
   2. Yuta Kambayashi
   3. Yuta Otsuka
   4. Boni A Afouda
   5. Claudiu Giuraniuc
   6. Tatsuo Michiue
   7. Stefan Hoppler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Regulation of morphogen diffusion that controls tissue patterning is an important issue in developmental biology. The study deals with the mechanisms that establishes the Wnt gradient combining a mathematical model and experiments considering multiple extracellular components such as receptor and diffusible antagonist. The study revealed that the ligand/receptor feedback enables robust and quick formation of the morphogen gradient and that the diffusible antagonist also plays a role in this process. With some strengthening of experimental data and better explanation of the modeling, this study will be a useful contribution to the 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 #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Partial connectomes of labeled dopaminergic circuits reveal non-synaptic communication and axonal remodeling after exposure to cocaine

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Gregg Wildenberg
   2. Anastasia Sorokina
   3. Jessica Koranda
   4. Alexis Monical
   5. Chad Heer
   6. Mark Sheffield
   7. Xiaoxi Zhuang
   8. Daniel McGehee
   9. Bobby Kasthuri

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study investigates the morphological features of dopaminergic (DA) axons in the Nucleus Accumbens using serial electron microscopy (EM) reconstructions of genetically labelled DA axons. The authors report that DA axons (1) show extremely sparse classical synapses, (2) have varicosities with highly diverse vesicle content, and (3) undergo strong remodelling upon exposing mice to cocaine. The volume EM data set on DA axons presented is valuable. The present findings are suggestive of a mode of dopamine signaling that does not involve classical synapses and are potentially important for understanding the biology of DA neurons, whose dysfunctions have consequences on neurological disorders from Parkinson's disease to schizophrenia.

     (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. Differential adhesion regulates neurite placement via a retrograde zippering mechanism

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Titas Sengupta
   2. Noelle L Koonce
   3. Nabor Vázquez-Martínez
   4. Mark W Moyle
   5. Leighton H Duncan
   6. Sarah E Emerson
   7. Xiaofei Han
   8. Lin Shao
   9. Yicong Wu
   10. Anthony Santella
   11. Li Fan
   12. Zhirong Bao
   13. William A Mohler
   14. Hari Shroff
   15. Daniel A Colón-Ramos

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is a very interesting manuscript describing the changes of neurite position in a complex neuropil during development. The experimental system is well chosen because AIB's function within the circuit requires its neurite to be in two different neuropil "neighborhoods". The manuscript includes some technically difficult experiments of imaging neurite outgrowth in C. elegans embryos. The surprising finding here is that neurite position is not solely dependent on its growth cone navigation. In the case of the AIB neuron, the growth cone is anchored after it reaches its destination point and then a segment of the neurite shifts direction towards its final position through a zippering action. They also show that this shift in position is driven by adhesion molecules SYG-1 and SYG-2.

     (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. Chandelier cell anatomy and function reveal a variably distributed but common signal

   This article has 40 authors:

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

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of high interest to a broad audience of neuroscientists, as it provides a major advancement of our understanding of cortical circuits. The quality and quantitative nature of the neuroanatomical reconstructions at synaptic resolution are remarkable. Complementing the reconstructions with computational modeling and activity measurements, the study proposes a likely circuit function for a specific inhibitory cell type during behavior.

     (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. Ribonucleotide reductase, a novel drug target for gonorrhea

    This article has 16 authors:

    1. Jana Narasimhan
    2. Suzanne Letinski
    3. Stephen P Jung
    4. Aleksey Gerasyuto
    5. Jiashi Wang
    6. Michael Arnold
    7. Guangming Chen
    8. Jean Hedrick
    9. Melissa Dumble
    10. Kanchana Ravichandran
    11. Talya Levitz
    12. Chang Cui
    13. Catherine L Drennan
    14. JoAnne Stubbe
    15. Gary Karp
    16. Arthur Branstrom

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This paper is of interest to biochemists and those focused on development of novel antibiotics. The authors present two small molecules that specifically target the essential ribonucleotide reductase of the causative agent of gonorrhea, with biochemical, biophysical, and biological data supporting the efficacy of these molecules both in vitro and in mouse models. Overall, this is a comprehensive study providing some interesting insights to guide the development of new therapies for malaria.

      (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