eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Morphogenesis and morphometry of brain folding patterns across species

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Sifan Yin
   2. Chunzi Liu
   3. Gary PT Choi
   4. Yeonsu Jung
   5. Katja Heuer
   6. Roberto Toro
   7. L Mahadevan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents a cross-species and cross-disciplinary analysis of cortical folding. The authors use a combination of physical gel models, computational simulations, and morphometric analysis, extending prior work in human brain development to macaques and ferrets. The findings support the hypothesis that mechanical forces driven by differential growth can account for major aspects of gyrification. The evidence presented is overall strong and convincingly supports the central claims; the findings will be of broad interest in developmental neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Biophysical basis for brain folding and misfolding patterns in ferrets and humans

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Gary PT Choi
   2. Chunzi Liu
   3. Sifan Yin
   4. Gabrielle Séjourné
   5. Richard S Smith
   6. Christopher A Walsh
   7. L Mahadevan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study characterises the morphogenesis of cortical folding in the ferret and human cerebral cortex using complementary physical and computational modelling. Notably, these approaches are applied to charting, in the ferret model, known abnormalities of cortical folding in humans. The study finds convincing evidence that variation in cortical thickness and expansion account for deviations in morphology, and supports these findings using cutting-edge approaches from both physical gel models and numerical simulations. The study will be of broad interest to the field of developmental neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Bacteria detect neutrophils via a system that responds to hypochlorous acid and flow

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Ilona P Foik
   2. Runhang Shu
   3. Serena Abbondante
   4. Summer J Kasallis
   5. Lauren A Urban
   6. Andy P Huang
   7. Leora Duong
   8. Michaela E Marshall
   9. Eric Pearlman
   10. Timothy L Downing
   11. Albert Siryaporn

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important study reporting a new phenotype for a gene cluster that has previously been associated with the responses of the Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa to flow fluid. Expression of the froABCD gene cluster is induced by HOCl in vitro and by activated immune cells, which produce these types of reactive chlorine species. Overall, the evidence presented by the authors is solid; however, the mechanism of fro-induction by HOCl remains unclear, and the evidence in support of the authors' claims is descriptive, which needs to be improved. This study is of interest to infection biologists interested in mechanisms of bacterial pathogenicity.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. An in vitro human vessel model to study Neisseria meningitidis colonization and vascular damages

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Léa Pinon
   2. Melanie Chabaud
   3. Pierre Nivoit
   4. Jerome Wong Ng
   5. Tri-Tho Nguyen
   6. Vanessa Paul
   7. Charlotte Bouquerel
   8. Sylvie Goussard
   9. Pauline Smilovici
   10. Emmanuel Frachon
   11. Dorian Obino
   12. Samy Gobaa
   13. Guilllaume Dumenil

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors develop an important microfluidic microvascular model called "Vessel-on-Chip", which they use to study Neisseria meningitidis interactions within this in vitro vascular system. Compelling evidence shows that the fabricated channels are lined by endothelial cells, and these can be colonized by N. meningitidis that in turn triggers neutrophil recruitment. This model has advantages over the human skin xenograft mouse model, which requires complex surgical techniques, however, it also carries limitations in that only endothelial cells and supplied specific immune cells in the microfluidics are present, while true vasculature contains a number of other cell types including smooth muscle cells, pericytes, and components of the immune system.

     [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

5. Lipid peroxidation and type I interferon coupling fuels pathogenic macrophage activation causing tuberculosis susceptibility

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. Shivraj M Yabaji
   2. Vadim Zhernovkov
   3. Prasanna Babu Araveti
   4. Suruchi Lata
   5. Oleksii S Rukhlenko
   6. Salam Al Abdullatif
   7. Arthur Vanvalkenburg
   8. Yuriy O Alekseyev
   9. Qicheng Ma
   10. Gargi Dayama
   11. Nelson C Lau
   12. W Evan Johnson
   13. William R Bishai
   14. Nicholas A Crossland
   15. Joshua D Campbell
   16. Boris N Kholodenko
   17. Alexander A Gimelbrant
   18. Lester Kobzik
   19. Igor Kramnik

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Yabaji et al. reports a fundamental study highlighting the mechanistic connection for susceptibility to TB infection via the sst1 locus, this was shown to involve increased IFN and Myc production causing the down-regulation of anti-oxidant defence genes and chronic lipidation. Ultimately, lipid peroxidation may underlie infectivity and macrophage dysfunction. Overall, the data presented are compelling, supported by a well designed multi-omics approach and the findings will be of broad interest to researchers investigating the molecular mechanisms of TB infection.

     [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

6. Stimulus-Dependent Theta Rhythmic Activity in Primate V1 Predicts Visual Detection

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Prasakti Tenri Fanyiwi
   2. Beshoy Agayby
   3. Ricardo Kienitz
   4. Marcus Haag
   5. Jaime Cadena-Valencia
   6. Michael C Schmid

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study shows that stimuli of a certain size elicit theta oscillations in V1 neurons both in spikes and local field potentials, and monkeys performing a dot detection task on these stimuli show theta rhythmicity in their response times. This replicates previous findings showing rhythmic theta activity in V4 and behaviour when stimuli are presented in the receptive field along with a surrounding flanker stimulus. However, there is incomplete evidence that rhythmicity in neural activity is related to the rhythmicity in behavior, and the mechanisms underlying these oscillations remain unclear.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Differential interfacial tension between oncogenic and wild-type populations forms the mechanical basis of tissue-specific oncogenesis in epithelia

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Amrapali Datta
   2. Phanindra Dewan
   3. Aswin Anto
   4. Tanya Chhabra
   5. Tanishq Tejaswi
   6. Sindhu Muthukrishnan
   7. Akshar Rao
   8. Sumantra Sarkar
   9. Medhavi Vishwakarma

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study reports that an oncogenic population in an epithelium can either be repressed or spread, depending on the tissues. This is explained based on the differential interfacial tension hypothesis, and supported by pharmacological perturbations and numerical simulations using the vertex model. The study conveys a key message, but, as it stands, the strength of evidence is incomplete, and a more detailed analysis of the mechanistic origin of the different tensions and better comparison between experiments and simulations would strongly strengthen the message.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Physiological febrile heat stress increases cytoadhesion through increased protein trafficking of Plasmodium falciparum surface proteins into the red blood cell

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. David Jones
   2. Hugo Belda
   3. Malgorzata Broncel
   4. Gwendolin Fuchs
   5. David Anaguano
   6. Stephanie D Nofal
   7. Moritz Treeck

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides compelling evidence that fever-like temperatures enhance the export of Plasmodium falciparum transmembrane proteins, including the cytoadherence protein PfEMP1 and the nutrient channel PSAC, to the red blood cell surface, thereby increasing cytoadhesion. Using rigorous and well-controlled experiments, the authors convincingly demonstrate that this effect results from accelerated protein trafficking rather than changes in protein production or parasite development. These findings significantly advance our understanding of parasite virulence mechanisms and offer insights into how febrile episodes may exacerbate malaria severity.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Neural signatures of motor memories emerge in neural network models

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Joanna C Chang
   2. Claudia Clopath
   3. Juan A Gallego

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable computational findings on the neural basis of learning new motor memories without interfering with previously learned behaviours using recurrent neural networks. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, but it would benefit from stronger and clearer links with experimental findings. This work will be of interest to computational and experimental neuroscientists working in motor learning.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Neisseria gonorrhoeae LIN codes provide a robust, multi-resolution lineage nomenclature

    This article has 6 authors:

    1. Anastasia Unitt
    2. Made A Krisna
    3. Kasia M Parfitt
    4. Keith A Jolley
    5. Martin CJ Maiden
    6. Odile B Harrison

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important study introduces the Life Identification Number (LIN) coding system as a powerful and versatile approach for classifying Neisseria gonorrhoeae lineages. The authors show that LIN codes capture both previously defined lineages and their relationships in a way that aligns with the species' phylogenetic structure. The compelling evidence presented, together with its integration into the PubMLST platform, underscores its strong potential to enhance epidemiological surveillance and advance our understanding of gonococcal population biology.

    Reviewed by eLife