eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Testosterone pulses paired with a location induce a place preference to the nest of a monogamous mouse under field conditions

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Radmila Petric
   2. Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell
   3. Catherine A Marler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Manipulations of sex hormones in animals in ecologically relevant environments usually involve long-term manipulations using chronic implants or injections of esterified steroids with longer half-lives than the endogenous hormones. This has been done in line with the prevailing idea of the long-lasting effects of steroids mediated by the transcritpional actions of their liganded receptors. The specific novelty of this study lies in the transiency of hormone availability (testosterone's half-life is about 2 hours). This might suggest that the observed effects depend on a mode of action different from the mode of action during chronic sex hormone exposure. It should also be noted that any study in natural settings is significantly more difficult to perform than in the lab. However, as all brain/hormonal functions evolved in natural environments, these studies are absolutely crucial to understand the function of the respective systems.

     (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

2. Inhibitory proteins block substrate access by occupying the active site cleft of Bacillus subtilis intramembrane protease SpoIVFB

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Sandra Olenic
   2. Lim Heo
   3. Michael Feig
   4. Lee Kroos

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     A member of a large class of metalloproteases with representatives in mammals as well as bacteria, its status as a multipass membrane protein has made illuminating the molecular basis of SpoIVFB inhibition challenging. In this study, Olenic and colleagues combine genetics, cross-linking, and co-evolutionary analysis to develop a structural model of interaction between SpoIVFB and its inhibitors SpoIVFA and BofA. Given the conservation and importance of this family of metalloproteases, this work should have broad impact, influencing our understanding of the regulation of this class of proteins across the tree of life.

     (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

3. Contextual control of conditioned pain tolerance and endogenous analgesic systems

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Sydney Trask
   2. Jeffrey S Mogil
   3. Fred J Helmstetter
   4. Cheryl L Stucky
   5. Katelyn E Sadler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study covers a series of experiments designed to characterize conditioned pain processing using a novel animal model in which mechanical nociception (von Frey test) is assessed following exposure to contextual cues that have been paired with visceral pain (intraperitoneal acid injection). These experiments address an important topic from a translational perspective, both because learning is an important but understudied contributor to the human pain experience and because there is evidence for sex differences in human pain expression. The results reveal that such cues exert complex, dose- and sex-dependent effects on pain processing that will be of broad interest to researchers across fields of associative learning, neuroscience, and pain research.

     (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 names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Antigen experience relaxes the organisational structure of the T cell receptor repertoire

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Michal Mark
   2. Shlomit Reich-Zeliger
   3. Erez Greenstein
   4. Dan Reshef
   5. Asaf Madi
   6. Benny Chain
   7. Nir Friedman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study will be of interest for the fields of T cell immunology and computational biology. It represents a careful descriptive study of the T cell repertoires of young and old mice, quantifying the relationships between naive, regulatory, effector and memory subsets. It represents a first step and would benefit from additional analyses and interpretations.

     (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

5. Emergent properties of a mitotic Kif18b-MCAK-EB network

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Toni McHugh
   2. Julie P.I. Welburn

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors investigate the mechanisms underlying the regulation of microtubule dynamics and length regulation in cells. Understanding how microtubule-binding proteins synergize to affect microtubule behavior is important, and resolving the seemingly contradictory effects of Kif18a on microtubules in mitotic cells vs. in vitro microtubule assays is a worthy endeavor. A major conclusion is that on dynamic microtubules, combining EB3, MCAK, and Kif18b increases microtubule catastrophe compared to other single or double protein combinations. This is in principle a new and interesting finding, but additional evidence would help to more strongly support this conclusion.

     (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

6. Cold protection allows local cryotherapy in a clinical-relevant model of traumatic optic neuropathy

   This article has 32 authors:

   1. Yikui Zhang
   2. Mengyun Li
   3. Bo Yu
   4. Shengjian Lu
   5. Lujie Zhang
   6. Senmiao Zhu
   7. Zhonghao Yu
   8. Tian Xia
   9. Haoliang Huang
   10. WenHao Jiang
   11. Si Zhang
   12. Lanfang Sun
   13. Qian Ye
   14. Jiaying Sun
   15. Hui Zhu
   16. Pingping Huang
   17. Huifeng Hong
   18. Shuaishuai Yu
   19. Wenjie Li
   20. Danni Ai
   21. Jingfan Fan
   22. Wentao Li
   23. Hong Song
   24. Lei Xu
   25. Xiwen Chen
   26. Tongke Chen
   27. Meng Zhou
   28. Jingxing Ou
   29. Jian Yang
   30. Wei Li
   31. Yang Hu
   32. Wencan Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The manuscript by Zhang et al. describes the combined use of a new surgical procedure and therapeutic hypothermia to deliver local therapy to the optic nerve in large mammals. In addition, the work describes a novel computer program that can optimize surgical approaches to access the optic nerve endonasally by using anatomical parameters obtained by tomography scan. The study represents a significant step forward in the use of therapeutic hypothermia in the treatment of ocular conditions and is of interest to neurobiologists studying therapeutic interventions for acute trauma to the optic nerves or to other regions of the central nervous system.

     (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. Microtubule rescue at midzone edges promotes overlap stability and prevents spindle collapse during anaphase B

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Manuel Lera-Ramirez
   2. François J Nédélec
   3. Phong T Tran

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study carefully quantifies microtubule dynamics during anaphase in the fission yeast S. pombe. The high quality data revealed two new observations: that microtubule rescue occurs preferentially at the edge of the midzone and that microtubule growth speed decreases when the nuclear membrane wraps around the spindle midzone in late anaphase. This sheds new light on the interplay between the nuclear membrane and the midspindle in closed mitosis, and the study will be of interest to cell biologists studying spindle dynamics and mitosis.

     (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 ASAPbio crowd review, eLife

8. Pericyte-mediated constriction of renal capillaries evokes no-reflow and kidney injury following ischaemia

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Felipe Freitas
   2. David Attwell

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper extends our understanding of blood flow regulation in the ischemic kidney and adds to a growing body of literature on the role played by pericyte contraction in the aftermath of ischemia/reperfusion (much of it based on the CNS microvasculature), and the potential of capillary pericytes as therapeutic targets in mitigating ischemia/reperfusion injury. This is an important study which should be of interest to a wide variety of investigators in vascular and renal 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 #1 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A crowd of BashTheBug volunteers reproducibly and accurately measure the minimum inhibitory concentrations of 13 antitubercular drugs from photographs of 96-well broth microdilution plates

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Philip W Fowler
   2. Carla Wright
   3. Helen Spiers
   4. Tingting Zhu
   5. Elisabeth ML Baeten
   6. Sarah W Hoosdally
   7. Ana L Gibertoni Cruz
   8. Aysha Roohi
   9. Samaneh Kouchaki
   10. Timothy M Walker
   11. Timothy EA Peto
   12. Grant Miller
   13. Chris Lintott
   14. David Clifton
   15. Derrick W Crook
   16. A Sarah Walker
   17. The Zooniverse Volunteer Community
   18. The CRyPTIC Consortium

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors evaluate a novel crowd-sourcing method to interpret minimum inhibitory concentrations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. To provide valuable test results without the need for available expert mycobacteriologists, the authors demonstrate that when presented appropriately, 11-17 interpretations by lay interpreters can provide reproducible results for most tuberculosis drugs. This analysis demonstrates that among those samples that can be reliably interpreted by automated detection software, lay interpretation provides a potential alternative means to provide a timely confirmatory read. The work will be of interest to bacteriologists and those with an interest in antimicrobial resistance.

     (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

10. Dopamine D2Rs coordinate cue-evoked changes in striatal acetylcholine levels

    This article has 6 authors:

    1. Kelly M Martyniuk
    2. Arturo Torres-Herraez
    3. Daniel C Lowes
    4. Marcelo Rubinstein
    5. Marie A Labouesse
    6. Christoph Kellendonk

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      The study addressed interactions between two key striatal transmitters, dopamine and acetylcholine during an appetitive behavioral task. Helping to reconcile conflicting evidence in the literature, the data show that changes in both transmitters are correlated and that decreases in acetylcholine with reward and reward cues is only partially a consequence of elevated dopamine release acting at D2 dopamine receptors on striatal cholinergic interneurons. The behavioral significance of this correlation remains to be fully clarified. This manuscript will be of interest to those interested in the neural correlates of appetitive behavior and dopamine and striatal function.

      (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