eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Neuronal origins of reduced accuracy and biases in economic choices under sequential offers

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Weikang Shi
   2. Sebastien Ballesta
   3. Camillo Padoa-Schioppa

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Padoa-Schioppa and colleagues describe possible neuronal correlates of behavioral biases observed in monkeys making value-based choices when options are presented simultaneously versus sequentially. Building on the lab's previous work detailing functional roles of different neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex, the authors relate different choice biases to different groups of OFC neurons. They propose that these relationships indicate that different biases are likely to arise from specific stages of decision computation. The study results are convincing and represent a significant advance in understanding circuit-level computations underlying decision-making.

     (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

2. Cortical waves mediate the cellular response to electric fields

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Qixin Yang
   2. Yuchuan Miao
   3. Leonard J Campanello
   4. Matt J Hourwitz
   5. Bedri Abubaker-Sharif
   6. Abby L Bull
   7. Peter N Devreotes
   8. John T Fourkas
   9. Wolfgang Losert

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of interest for cell biologists and biophysicists that work on eukaryotic cell motility and the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton. The authors combine a series of clever biological approaches to fuse small Dictyostelium cells together into 'giant cells' that make it much easier to spatially resolve actin wave dynamics with and without electrical stimulation when cultured on smooth or nano-textured surfaces. Sophisticated and methodical computational approaches are used to analyze these images and relate the data to actin polymerization and wave dynamics parameters using optic flow and associated techniques. This study is mostly descriptive, a full mechanistic explanation of the results remains open, but this compelling experimental system opens up possibilities for the field to analyze the molecular subtleties involved in these cytoskeletal reorganizations.

     (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. Auditory mismatch responses are differentially sensitive to changes in muscarinic acetylcholine versus dopamine receptor function

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Lilian Aline Weber
   2. Sara Tomiello
   3. Dario Schöbi
   4. Katharina V Wellstein
   5. Daniel Mueller
   6. Sandra Iglesias
   7. Klaas Enno Stephan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study adds to the considerable, but often conflicting, work on how neurotransmitter systems contribute to auditory processing dysfunction. The paper details a thorough and careful analysis of an important hypothesis from the point of view of schizophrenia research: do muscarinic and dopaminergic receptors contribute to mismatch negativity effects? The answers could be useful for future treatment allocation in psychosis. The analysis was pre-registered and departures from the planned analysis were well-motivated and clearly described.

     (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. Single-molecule analysis of the entire perfringolysin O pore formation pathway

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Conall McGuinness
   2. James C Walsh
   3. Charles Bayly-Jones
   4. Michelle A Dunstone
   5. Michelle P Christie
   6. Craig J Morton
   7. Michael W Parker
   8. Till Böcking

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper presents a single-molecule, multi-color microscopy study of the real-time assembly of perfringolysin O, a member of the membrane attack complex perforin cholesterol-dependent cytolysin superfamily. With the ability to resolve different states of the species in the reaction, simultaneously with membrane leakage, this work informs on key aspects of the mechanism including identifying potential assemblies involved in membrane lysis, and how membrane binding, oligomerization, and pore transitioning depends on concentration and pH. While some additional controls are needed to clarify the interpretation of the results, this study will be of interest to many, including those studying cytolysin mechanisms, but also the broader field of single-molecule studies of membrane binding proteins.

     (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

5. A Notch-dependent transcriptional mechanism controls expression of temporal patterning factors in Drosophila medulla

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Alokananda Ray
   2. Xin Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In Drosophila neural progenitors (neuroblasts), sequentially-expressed transcription factors (known as temporal transcription factors) ensure the generation of various types of neurons and glia as they divide. However, the mechanisms regulating and finetuning the speed of temporal factor transitions has remained unclear and under-investigated. Here the authors concentrate on a specific temporal transition occurring in medulla neuroblasts and demonstrate that lineage-intrinsic Notch signaling facilitates this transition via at least two identified enhancers. This work provides important insights on the signals and mechanisms that promote temporal transitions in neural progenitors, and therefore regulate cellular diversity in 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 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Modeling the spatiotemporal spread of beneficial alleles using ancient genomes

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Rasa A Muktupavela
   2. Martin Petr
   3. Laure Ségurel
   4. Thorfinn Korneliussen
   5. John Novembre
   6. Fernando Racimo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of broad interest for evolutionary biologists who seek to understand the dynamics of strongly advantageous mutations across time and space. It presents an elegant framework for inferring the strength of natural selection and spread of adaptive variants that accounts for spatially and temporal patterns of genetic variation. The authors extend a previously developed statistical inference method, performs some tests of the performance of their method on simulated data and apply the method to two well-known targets of selection. The development of the method is timely given the growing availability of ancient DNA collections, which have the power to largely increase the accuracy of selection inferences and parameter estimates.

     (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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Self-organization of kinetochore-fibers in human mitotic spindles

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. William Conway
   2. Robert Kiewisz
   3. Gunar Fabig
   4. Colm P Kelleher
   5. Hai-Yin Wu
   6. Maya Anjur-Dietrich
   7. Thomas Müller-Reichert
   8. Daniel J Needleman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Conway and colleagues use a combination of experiments and theory to test models for how kinetochore-fibers are born in mammalian spindles. Their work is consistent with a model where kinetochore-fibers primarily nucleate de novo at kinetochores, rather than arise from search-and-capture of microtubules. This work should be of interest to experimentalists and theorists broadly interested in self-organization, and in cell division.

     (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. Three-dimensional structure of kinetochore-fibers in human mitotic spindles

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Robert Kiewisz
   2. Gunar Fabig
   3. William Conway
   4. Daniel Baum
   5. Daniel Needleman
   6. Thomas Müller-Reichert

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Kiewisz and colleagues performed sophisticated reconstructions of kinetochore-fibers within human spindles using electron tomography, and then analyzed the ultrastructure and organization of their microtubules. This work will not only serve as an incredible resource for the field, but has clear implications for models of kinetochore-fiber and spindle self-organization.

     (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. Binary outcomes of enhancer activity underlie stable random monoallelic expression

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Djem U Kissiov
   2. Alexander Ethell
   3. Sean Chen
   4. Natalie K Wolf
   5. Chenyu Zhang
   6. Susanna M Dang
   7. Yeara Jo
   8. Katrine N Madsen
   9. Ishan Paranjpe
   10. Angus Y Lee
   11. Bryan Chim
   12. Stefan A Muljo
   13. David H Raulet

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this manuscript by Kissiov et al. the authors show that enhancers can play an instructive role in controlling stable random monoallelic expression (RME). In order to do so, they initially focus on a limited set of natural killer (NK) receptor genes that are subject to RME, which they investigate using several in vivo genetic models. Furthermore, they also show that RME can be considerably more prevalent than previously thought and that enhancer strength and/or number might influence the extent of RME for different genes. One remaining question may be whether this model may apply to other gene types than hematopoietic-related genes. Overall, this is a highly relevant manuscript with major implications in gene regulation and enhancer biology and, thus, of broad scientific interest.

     (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 #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Crowding-induced phase separation of nuclear transport receptors in FG nucleoporin assemblies

    This article has 3 authors:

    1. Luke K Davis
    2. Ian J Ford
    3. Bart W Hoogenboom

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This theoretical study describes the interaction of a planar brush or film of the resident unstructured components of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) called nucleoporins (FG-nups) and different nuclear transport receptors (NTRs). The authors describe impacts of competitive binding that give rise to enrichment of the NTRs, NTF2 and importin-beta, at different depths of the FG-nup film, which could relate to experimental observations in other studies, as well as evidence that crowding could promote the rate of nuclear transport by modulating FG-NTR binding/unbinding. The conclusions were found to be generally supported by the data, relevant to the field of nuclear transport, and able to make specific predictions that can be experimentally tested in the future, although previous studies in the field and the novelty could be better described.

      (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