eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Gill developmental program in the teleost mandibular arch

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Mathi Thiruppathy
   2. Peter Fabian
   3. J Andrew Gillis
   4. J Gage Crump

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this manuscript, the authors use zebrafish histological staining, lineage tracing, enhancer transgenes, and mutants to find evidence for the gill origin of the vertebrate jaws hypothesis. This study nicely integrates into the literature on the origins of the mandibular jaw including discussion of fossil evidence and work in chondrichthyans and tests the hypotheses that the pseudobranch is derived from the mandibular arch, and that the pseudobranch is a segmental homolog of the gills. This paper will be impactful to the field of developmental biology both because the fate mapping methods used are generally applicable to a range of other lineage questions and because evidence for a gill arch origin of the jaw is an important contribution to vertebrate evolutionary biology.

     (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. Generation and timing of graded responses to morphogen gradients

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Shari Carmon
   2. Felix Jonas
   3. Naama Barkai
   4. Eyal D. Schejter
   5. Ben-Zion Shilo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is an interesting study addressing an overlooked feature of morphogen gradient interpretation. By studying transcriptional activation of early zygotic genes during early Drosophila development the authors' findings suggest that morphogens, which are known to pattern tissues in distinct domain of gene expression, can also induce a graded transcriptional response within these domains.

     (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. On the origin of universal cell shape variability in confluent epithelial monolayers

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Souvik Sadhukhan
   2. Saroj Kumar Nandi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     By theoretically analysing the energy of a confluent epithelial tissue, the authors unveil the reason for nearly universal shape fluctuations that have been reported earlier. With a better justification of some of the underlying approximations used by the authors, the manuscript would be relevant for all people with an interest in tissue structure and 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 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Admixture of evolutionary rates across a butterfly hybrid zone

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Tianzhu Xiong
   2. Xueyan Li
   3. Masaya Yago
   4. James Mallet

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors leverage theory, simulations, and empirical population genomics to evaluate what are the consequences of differences in substitution rates in hybridizing species. This is a largely overlooked phenomenon. This study highlights the issue and demonstrates that two hybridizing species of Papilio have differences in their substitution rates. The work will be of interest to a large group of evolutionary biologists, especially those studying evolution at the whole-genome level.

     (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. ECM-integrin signalling instructs cellular position sensing to pattern the early mouse embryo

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Esther Jeong Yoon Kim
   2. Lydia Sorokin
   3. Takashi Hiiragi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The importance of extracellular matrix (ECM) in multicellular organization has been studied in many different contexts. This study investigates the role of the ECM in the formation of the very first cell types to form in a mammalian embryo. The authors find that it may help stabilize the cell fate of early inside cells and play a role in promoting the epithelial organization of the next cell type to form within the inner cell mass. With appropriate extended experimental analysis, this study could be of interest to the specialist mammalian development 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. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Widespread introgression across a phylogeny of 155 Drosophila genomes

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Anton Suvorov
   2. Bernard Y. Kim
   3. Jeremy Wang
   4. Ellie E. Armstrong
   5. David Peede
   6. Emmanuel R.R. D’Agostino
   7. Donald K. Price
   8. Peter J. Waddell
   9. Michael Lang
   10. Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo
   11. Jean R. David
   12. Dmitri Petrov
   13. Daniel R. Matute
   14. Daniel R. Schrider
   15. Aaron A. Comeault

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors present an impressive view of introgression across the Drosophila clade. There is strong support for signals of introgression along numerous branches of the phylogeny. However, the placement of these introgression events on the phylogeny and their impact on genome-wide patterns of relatedness are less clear.

     (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

7. Nigrostriatal dopamine signals sequence-specific action-outcome prediction errors

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Nick G. Hollon
   2. Elora W. Williams
   3. Christopher D. Howard
   4. Hao Li
   5. Tavish I. Traut
   6. Xin Jin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of interest to neuroscientists conducting reward learning and basal ganglia research. It combines optogenetics and dopamine recordings to demonstrate that dopamine release in the dorsal striatum is smaller following self-stimulation than unpredicted stimulation of dopamine neurons. These results build on similar findings recently shown for the ventral striatum. Further development of the underlying mechanism or the behavioral significance would broaden the scope of the paper.

     (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. Global variation in force-of-infection trends for human Taenia solium taeniasis/cysticercosis

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Matthew A Dixon
   2. Peter Winskill
   3. Wendy E Harrison
   4. Charles Whittaker
   5. Veronika Schmidt
   6. Astrid Carolina Flórez Sánchez
   7. Zulma M Cucunuba
   8. Agnes U Edia-Asuke
   9. Martin Walker
   10. María-Gloria Basáñez

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Basic epidemiological parameters such as the force of infection (rate at which susceptible individuals acquire the infection) remain undetermined for human infection with the neglected food-borne zoonotic cestode Taenia solium, which may cause taeniasis and cysticercosis. Dixon and colleagues address this major gap by fitting simple mathematical models to datasets that describe the prevalence of taeniasis and cysticercosis in several countries. Importantly, they found that infection acquisition rates per year vary widely (up to two orders of magnitude) across endemic settings and provide an approach for mapping the global public health impact of taeniasis and cysticercosis.

     (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. Putting perception into action with inverse optimal control for continuous psychophysics

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Dominik Straub
   2. Constantin A Rothkopf

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The paper presents a Bayesian model framework for estimating individual perceptual uncertainty from continuous tracking data, taking into account motor variability, action cost, and possible misestimation of the generative dynamics. While the contribution is mostly technical, the analyses are well done and clearly explained. The paper provides therefore a didactic resource for students wishing to implement similar models on continuous action 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

10. Isoform-specific mutation in Dystonin-b gene causes late-onset protein aggregate myopathy and cardiomyopathy

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Nozomu Yoshioka
    2. Masayuki Kurose
    3. Masato Yano
    4. Dang Minh Tran
    5. Shujiro Okuda
    6. Yukiko Mori-Ochiai
    7. Masao Horie
    8. Toshihiro Nagai
    9. Ichizo Nishino
    10. Shinsuke Shibata
    11. Hirohide Takebayashi

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      The authors demonstrate that isoform-specific Dystonin-b (Dst-b) mutant mice show significant myopathy in skeletal and cardiac muscle at older ages without the peripheral neuropathy or post-natal lethality that are commonly observed by loss of function of the DST gene. The study provides novel information about the role of the Dst-b isoform in maintaining skeletal and cardiac muscle health. In addition, the study suggests that isoform-specific mutations in Dst-b gene may cause some hereditary skeletal and cardiac myopathies.

      (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