eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A tonic nicotinic brake controls spike timing in striatal spiny projection neurons

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Lior Matityahu
   2. Jeffrey M Malgady
   3. Meital Schirelman
   4. Yvonne Johansson
   5. Jennifer A Wilking
   6. Gilad Silberberg
   7. Joshua A Goldberg
   8. Joshua L Plotkin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Matityahu et al investigate the influence of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor signaling on striatal microcircuit function through a combination of slice electrophysiology, optogenetics, and pharmacology. They find that nicotinic signaling delays spiking of striatal projection neurons in response to excitatory input, likely through the tonic release of acetylcholine by cholinergic interneurons onto local GABAergic interneurons and their influence on striatal projection neurons. Understanding how acetylcholine shapes striatal circuits is important, as this neurotransmitter is implicated in multiple movement disorders as well as other basal ganglia-related diseases.

     (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

2. Rapid odor processing by layer 2 subcircuits in lateral entorhinal cortex

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Sebastian H Bitzenhofer
   2. Elena A Westeinde
   3. Han-Xiong Bear Zhang
   4. Jeffry S Isaacson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Bitzenhofer and colleagues provide unprecedented details of odor response properties of layer 2 cells in LEC. The authors show that firing rates of LEC ensembles conveyed information about odor identify whereas timing of spikes odor intensity and that, on average, fan cells responded earlier than pyramidal neurons, and pyramidal neurons, but not fan cells, changed their peak timing in response to changes in concentrations, providing a basis for temporal coding of odor concentrations. The results provide important information about odor coding in LEC, an understudied area of the brain.

     (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

3. Inter-tissue convergence of gene expression during ageing suggests age-related loss of tissue and cellular identity

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Hamit Izgi
   2. Dingding Han
   3. Ulas Isildak
   4. Shuyun Huang
   5. Ece Kocabiyik
   6. Philipp Khaitovich
   7. Mehmet Somel
   8. Handan Melike Dönertaş

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study describes work measuring transcriptional changes through development and later aging. The authors broadly conclude that the transcriptomes of several tissues diverge during development, but re-converge during aging, a pattern that they term "divergence convergence", or DiCo. The trajectories the authors have identified could provide a powerful lens through which to improve our understanding of the basic biology of aging. This paper will be of interest to the aging community, especially to researchers interested in age-dependent gene expression changes and their consequences.

     (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

4. YAP1 activation by human papillomavirus E7 promotes basal cell identity in squamous epithelia

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Joshua Hatterschide
   2. Paola Castagnino
   3. Hee Won Kim
   4. Steven M Sperry
   5. Kathleen T Montone
   6. Devraj Basu
   7. Elizabeth A White

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The oncogenic virus Human Papillomavirus encodes the E7 protein which is an important contributor to carcinogenesis. Here, the authors show that E7-mediated degradation of the cellular tumor suppressor PTPN14 leads to activation of YAP1 in basal cells of the stratified squamous epithelium. They show that the ability of E7 to extend the lifespan of keratinocytes and facilitate basal cell retention are both activities mediated by the basal-cell specific activation of YAP1 and conclude that this newly discovered function of HPV E7 contributes to its carcinogenic properties. This report will be of great interest for researchers in the HPV and epithelial differentiation fields.

     (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

5. Leading edge maintenance in migrating cells is an emergent property of branched actin network growth

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Rikki M Garner
   2. Julie A Theriot

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper describes analysis and modeling of leading edge fluctuations in migrating cells driven by a branched Arp2/3 lamellipodial network. A stochastic model shows how branching contributes to shape stability, and reproduces the measured spectrum and dynamics of leading edge fluctuations. Analysis of the model as a function of branching angle suggests that the Arp2/3 branching angle might be selected to smooth lamellipodial shape. The authors provide new ideas to a big field of research, including Fourier analysis of leading edge fluctuations, which is a novel approach. The modeling methods and model design seem valid and the paper is well written.

     (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. Skeletal dysplasia-causing TRPV4 mutations suppress the hypertrophic differentiation of human iPSC-derived chondrocytes

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Amanda R Dicks
   2. Grigory I Maksaev
   3. Zainab Harissa
   4. Alireza Savadipour
   5. Ruhang Tang
   6. Nancy Steward
   7. Wolfgang Liedtke
   8. Colin G Nichols
   9. Chia-Lung Wu
   10. Farshid Guilak

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     TRPV4 is an ion channel protein and mutations in TRPV4 gene resulted in different types of skeletal defects. In this study, the authors created two types of TRPV4 mutations (mild V620I and lethal T89I mutations) in human iPS cells through CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. They identified key molecules potentially involved in TRPV4 mutation-induced changes in chondrocyte activities and concluded that the inhibition of chondrocyte hypertrophy induced by the mutations may cause the bone diseases.

     (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

7. A novel gene ZNF862 causes hereditary gingival fibromatosis

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Juan Wu
   2. Dongna Chen
   3. Hui Huang
   4. Ning Luo
   5. Huishuang Chen
   6. Junjie Zhao
   7. Yanyan Wang
   8. Tian Zhao
   9. Siyuan Huang
   10. Yang Ren
   11. Teng Zhai
   12. Weibin Sun
   13. Houxuan Li
   14. Wei Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work is of clinical relevance to those interested in the etiology and pathology of hereditary gingival fibromatosis (HGF). The paper discusses two novel findings: identification of a causative role of a missense mutation in the gene encoding the zinc finger protein 862 (ZNF862) that leads to hereditary gingival fibromatosis (HGF), a rare disease characterized by overgrowth of gingivae, in an examined family, and a suggestion of the molecular consequences of that mutation that leads to the disease.

     (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

8. Role of anterior insula cortex in context-induced relapse of nicotine-seeking

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Hussein Ghareh
   2. Isis Alonso-Lozares
   3. Dustin Schetters
   4. Rae J Herman
   5. Tim S Heistek
   6. Yvar Van Mourik
   7. Philip Jean-Richard-dit-Bressel
   8. Gerald Zernig
   9. Huibert D Mansvelder
   10. Taco J De Vries
   11. Nathan J Marchant

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of broad interest to readers in the fields of drug addiction and relapse, reinforcement learning and punishment, and those interested in cortical function, particularly the insular cortex. The authors extend a context and punishment-based relapse model to the widely-used drug nicotine and use a number of complementary approaches to support the conclusion that the insular cortex plays a role in nicotine relapse. The experiments were carefully designed and implemented.

     (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

9. Functional brain reconfiguration during sustained pain

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Jae-Joong Lee
   2. Sungwoo Lee
   3. Dong Hee Lee
   4. Choong-Wan Woo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of great interest to researchers interested in the brain mechanisms of pain. It shows how the connectivity of brain networks associated with sustained pain change over time. These findings are conclusively supported by state-of-the-art fMRI analyses of a tonic pain paradigm in two cohorts of healthy human participants. These insights are important for the understanding of the brain mechanisms of sustained pain which is the hallmark of chronic pain as a major health care problem.

     (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

10. Glypican-1 drives unconventional secretion of fibroblast growth factor 2

    This article has 9 authors:

    1. Carola Sparn
    2. Eleni Dimou
    3. Annalena Meyer
    4. Roberto Saleppico
    5. Sabine Wegehingel
    6. Matthias Gerstner
    7. Severina Klaus
    8. Helge Ewers
    9. Walter Nickel

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      FGF2 moves directly from the cytoplasm through the plasma membrane in a reaction driven by its subsequent high affinity binding to cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans. This study concludes that Glypican-1 is the principal proteoglycan involved, possibly involving a unique tri-sulfated disaccharide binding site in close proximity to the cell surface. While the role of Glypican-1 appears unique to FGF2 rather than part of a generalized direct secretion mechanism, the observations highlight the complexity and significance of proteoglycan variation. The work is well done and generally convincing, but additional support for the authors' conclusion that a specific glycan structure in GPC1 is a specific ligand for FGF2 is required.

      (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