eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Distal Gene Expression Governed by Lamins and Nesprins via Chromatin Conformation Change

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Haihui Zhang
   2. Zhengyang Lei
   3. Fatemeh Momen-Heravi
   4. Peiwu Qin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable information on the impact of Lamin A/C knockdown on gene expression using RNA-Seq analysis, as well as on telomere dynamics through live cell imaging. However, the conclusions remain inadequately supported by the current data, and several of the major technical concerns raised in the first round have not yet been fully resolved.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The Structural Dynamics of IRE1 and its Interaction with Unfolded Peptides

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Elena Spinetti
   2. G Elif Karagöz
   3. Roberto Covino

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this important study, the authors conducted atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to probe the interactions between IRE and unfolded peptides. The results help reconcile contradicting experimental findings in the literature and offer mechanistic insights into the activation of the unfolded protein response. The level of evidence is considered solid, although the use of enhanced sampling and more quantitative analysis would further strengthen the conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. The influence of heavy metal stress on the evolutionary transition of teosinte to maize

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jonathan Acosta-Bayona
   2. Miguel Vallebueno-Estrada
   3. Jean-Philippe Vielle-Calzada

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study investigates whether heavy metal stress can induce maize-like phenotypic and molecular responses in teosinte and whether these responses overlap with genomic regions implicated in domestication. By combining copper and cadmium treatments with quantitative phenotyping, gene-expression analyses, and expanded assessments of nucleotide diversity across a key chromosome 5 interval, the authors provide an integrated view of how abiotic stress responses intersect with domestication-related traits. The significance of the findings is valuable, as the work offers meaningful insights for the subfield of maize evolution and stress biology by extending heavy-metal response analyses to teosinte and linking them to domestication-associated loci, although the evolutionary implications remain indirect. The strength of evidence is solid, with appropriately designed and quantitatively supported experiments that broadly support the claims, but do not yet establish a causal or historical role for heavy metal stress in domestication.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Assessing plant phenological changes based on drivers of spring phenology

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yong Jiang
   2. Stephen J Mayor
   3. Xiuli Chu
   4. Xiaoqi Ye
   5. Rongzhou Man
   6. Jing Tao
   7. Qing-Lai Dang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study introduces a valuable new metric-phenological lag-to help partition the drivers of observed versus expected shifts in spring phenology under climate warming. The conceptual framework is clearly presented and supported by an extensive dataset, and the revisions have improved the manuscript, though some concerns-particularly regarding uncertainty quantification, spatial analysis, and modeling assumptions-remain only partially addressed. The strength of evidence is generally solid, but further analysis would help to validate the study's conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Calibration and validation strategy for electromechanical cardiac digital twins

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Zhinuo Jenny Wang
   2. Maxx Holmes
   3. Ruben Doste
   4. Julia Camps
   5. Francesca Margara
   6. Mariano Vazquez
   7. Blanca Rodriguez

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a potentially important study that explores the relevant range of parameter values for calibration and validation of cardiac electromechanics in ventricular models. Although much of the work presented is solid, the evidence provided to support the authors' key scientific claims is incomplete, especially as it relates to the emphasis on standardized validation and verification approaches. Notably, the level of model personalization presented in this work falls short of the threshold for what could reasonably be called a "digital twin", even by the relatively relaxed standards that have emerged in computational physiology and related fields in recent years.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. A neuromorphic model of active vision shows how spatiotemporal encoding in lobula neurons can aid pattern recognition in bees

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. HaDi MaBouDi
   2. Mark Roper
   3. Marie-Geneviève Guiraud
   4. Mikko Juusola
   5. Lars Chittka
   6. James AR Marshall

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Inspired by bee's visual behavior, the goal of the manuscript is to develop a model of visual scanning, visual processing and learning to recognize visual patterns. In this model, pre-training with natural images leads to the formation of spatiotemporal receptive fields that can support associative learning. Due to an incomplete test of the necessity and sufficiency of the features included in the model, it cannot be concluded that the model is either the "minimal circuit" or the most biologically plausible circuit of this system. With a more in-depth analysis, the work has the potential of being important and very valuable to both experimental and computational neurobiologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The oocyte zinc transporter Slc39a10/Zip10 is a regulator of zinc sparks during fertilization in mice

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Atsuko Kageyama
   2. Narumi Ogonuki
   3. Takuya Wakai
   4. Takafumi Namiki
   5. Yui Kawata
   6. Manabu Ozawa
   7. Yasuhiro Yamada
   8. Toshiyuki Fukada
   9. Atsuo Ogura
   10. Rafael Fissore
   11. Naomi Kashiwazaki
   12. Junya Ito

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents significant and novel insights into the roles of zinc in mammalian meiosis/fertilization events. These findings are useful to our understanding of these processes. The evidence presented is solid, with experiments being well-designed, carefully described, and interpreted with appropriate rigor. The authors acknowledge the lack of mechanistic insight which represents the main limitation of the study.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Occupancy of the HbYX hydrophobic pocket is sufficient to induce gate opening in the archaeal 20S proteasomes

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Janelle JY Chuah
   2. Madalena R Daugherty
   3. David M Smith

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable manuscript describes cryo-EM structures of archaeal proteasomes that reveal insights into how occupancy of binding pockets on the 20S proteasome regulates proteasome gating. The evidence supporting these claims is convincing, although the extrapolation of these findings to the more complex eukaryotic proteasome may prove challenging. This work will be of high interest to researchers interested in proteasome structure and regulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Dorsoventral-mediated Shh induction is required for axolotl limb regeneration

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Sakiya Yamamoto
   2. Saya Furukawa
   3. Ayaka Ohashi
   4. Mayuko Hamada
   5. Akira Satoh

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental work by Yamamoto and colleagues advances our understanding of how positional information is coordinated between axes during limb outgrowth and patterning. They provide convincing evidence that the dorsal-ventral axis feeds into anterior-posterior signaling, and identify the responsible molecules by combining transplantations with molecular manipulations. This work will be of broad interest to regeneration, tissue engineering, and evolutionary biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Linage priming and cell type proportioning depends on the interplay between stochastic and deterministic factors

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. William M Salvidge
    2. Chris Brimson
    3. Nicole Gruenheit
    4. Li-Yao Huang
    5. Catherine J Pears
    6. Jason B Wolf
    7. Christopher RL Thompson

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This valuable study investigates how stochastic and deterministic factors are integrated during cellular decision-making, particularly in situations where cells differentiate into distinct fates despite being exposed to the same environmental conditions. The authors present convincing evidence that gene expression variability contributes to the robustness of cell fate decisions in D. discoideum, which sheds light into the role of stochasticity during cell differentiation.

    Reviewed by eLife