eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. ExSTED microscopy reveals contrasting functions of dopamine and somatostatin CSF-c neurons along the lamprey central canal

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Elham Jalalvand
   2. Jonatan Alvelid
   3. Giovanna Coceano
   4. Steven Edwards
   5. Brita Robertson
   6. Sten Grillner
   7. Ilaria Testa

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of broad interest for the neuroscience and imaging community. The authors employ an array of advanced imaging techniques to bridge the understanding of neuronal function in whole organisms to the sub-cellular physiology of specific neuronal types. The microscopical observations, combined with system perturbations strongly support the claims.

     (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

2. The energetic basis for smooth human arm movements

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jeremy D Wong
   2. Tyler Cluff
   3. Arthur D Kuo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of interest to researchers in the fields of biomechanics, movement control, and decision making. It presents a novel mechanistic model of metabolic cost that includes a cost for rate of muscle force production explains metabolic cost better than current models. They next demonstrate how this metabolic model can improve our understanding of movement control by revealing an energetic basis for smooth movements.

     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

3. Early evolution of beetles regulated by the end-Permian deforestation

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Xianye Zhao
   2. Yilun Yu
   3. Matthew E Clapham
   4. Evgeny Yan
   5. Jun Chen
   6. Edmund A Jarzembowski
   7. Xiangdong Zhao
   8. Bo Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The study proposes a new evolutionary-ecological scenario for Late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic beetles, supported by the summary of all available knowledge about early beetle fossils, including analyses of their taxon and morphological diversity and phylogenetic relationships. The effects of xylophagous beetles during the Paleozoic may have played a fundamental role in global biochemical cycles. The results advance our understanding of the evolutionary success of beetles and the many ways in which large environmental changes may affect biodiversity in general.

     (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

4. Instructions and experiential learning have similar impacts on pain and pain-related brain responses but produce dissociations in value-based reversal learning

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Lauren Y Atlas
   2. Troy C Dildine
   3. Esther E Palacios-Barrios
   4. Qingbao Yu
   5. Richard C Reynolds
   6. Lauren A Banker
   7. Shara S Grant
   8. Daniel S Pine

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of potential interest to cognitive neuroscientists seeking to understand commonalities and differences in the neural basis of instructed and experiential reversal learning in the context of human pain. The authors report that learning from instructions versus experience leads to differences in the behavioral ratings of and the neural responses to noxious stimuli. The innovative experimental design and analyses in this study offer new perspectives on using neuro-computational models for understanding how explicitly informed vs experientially acquired information influences learning about cues predicting painful stimuli.

     (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. A single synonymous nucleotide change impacts the male-killing phenotype of prophage WO gene wmk

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jessamyn I Perlmutter
   2. Jane E Meyers
   3. Seth R Bordenstein

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study aims to find the genetic mechanisms underlying sex-ratio distortion through male-killing in Drosophila melanogaster flies infected with the endosymbiont Wolbachia. The endosymbiont carries the prophage WO, which is in the center of interested in this study. The key result of this study is that a synonymous mutation in a prophage gene can explain the differences between sex-ratio distorting and not distorting symbionts.

     (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

6. Highly synergistic combinations of nanobodies that target SARS-CoV-2 and are resistant to escape

   This article has 29 authors:

   1. Fred D Mast
   2. Peter C Fridy
   3. Natalia E Ketaren
   4. Junjie Wang
   5. Erica Y Jacobs
   6. Jean Paul Olivier
   7. Tanmoy Sanyal
   8. Kelly R Molloy
   9. Fabian Schmidt
   10. Magdalena Rutkowska
   11. Yiska Weisblum
   12. Lucille M Rich
   13. Elizabeth R Vanderwall
   14. Nicholas Dambrauskas
   15. Vladimir Vigdorovich
   16. Sarah Keegan
   17. Jacob B Jiler
   18. Milana E Stein
   19. Paul Dominic B Olinares
   20. Louis Herlands
   21. Theodora Hatziioannou
   22. D Noah Sather
   23. Jason S Debley
   24. David Fenyö
   25. Andrej Sali
   26. Paul D Bieniasz
   27. John D Aitchison
   28. Brian T Chait
   29. Michael P Rout

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The manuscript by Mast et al. describes an impressive collection of new nanobodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike, which probably provides the most complete coverage of the accessible epitopes of spike to date. The authors thoroughly characterize biophysical and functional properties of the nanobodies and set an example of how to best combine multiple nanobodies to target a pathogen. As the latest in a long series of SARS-CoV-2 nanobody papers, this study stands out for its completeness, although it does not provide a novel mechanism of action or biological insights.

     (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, ScreenIT

7. Mitochondrial genome sequencing of marine leukaemias reveals cancer contagion between clam species in the Seas of Southern Europe

   This article has 20 authors:

   1. Daniel Garcia-Souto
   2. Alicia L Bruzos
   3. Seila Diaz
   4. Sara Rocha
   5. Ana Pequeño-Valtierra
   6. Camila F Roman-Lewis
   7. Juana Alonso
   8. Rosana Rodriguez
   9. Damian Costas
   10. Jorge Rodriguez-Castro
   11. Antonio Villanueva
   12. Luis Silva
   13. Jose Maria Valencia
   14. Giovanni Annona
   15. Andrea Tarallo
   16. Fernando Ricardo
   17. Ana Bratoš Cetinić
   18. David Posada
   19. Juan Jose Pasantes
   20. Jose MC Tubio

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of broad interest to biologists and oncologists who study tumour evolution. The study provides new insights into the propagation of a transmissible cancer in clams. Remarkably, based on the analysis of mitochondrial DNA, the transmissible cancer seems to have jumped species. The findings reported have implications to understand the conditions that allow this cancer to spread across huge regions, threatening certain clam species.

     (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 name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Conformational decoupling in acid-sensing ion channels uncovers mechanism and stoichiometry of PcTx1-mediated inhibition

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Stephanie A Heusser
   2. Christian B Borg
   3. Janne M Colding
   4. Stephan A Pless

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work provides direct evidence that PcTx1, a modulator commonly used to study acid-sensing ion channels, induces a conformational change that persists long after an effect on the channel activity has dissipated. The data support this central claim of the paper and invite future investigation of the precise mechanism. The work is of general interest to those studying ion channel biophysics and pharmacology and is a fine example of the power of combined functional and fluorescence measurements.

     (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

9. A novel live-cell imaging assay reveals regulation of endosome maturation

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Maria Podinovskaia
   2. Cristina Prescianotto-Baschong
   3. Dominik P Buser
   4. Anne Spang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Endosome maturation in animal cells has been challenging to characterize by microscopy because the fluorescence patterns are complex and dynamic. This study uses acute ionophore treatment to generate enlarged early endosomes, whose behavior and maturation can then be readily tracked. The results offer new insights into several phenomena, including the regulation of endosomal acidification during the maturation process.

     (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 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Phylogenomic and mitogenomic data can accelerate inventorying of tropical beetles during the current biodiversity crisis

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Michal Motyka
    2. Dominik Kusy
    3. Matej Bocek
    4. Renata Bilkova
    5. Ladislav Bocak

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This manuscript provides some clear ideas on the use of next-generation sequencing data to rapidly increase biodiversity inventories and set the basis for future research. The principal objective of this study is to demonstrate how biodiversity information for a hyperdiverse tropical group can be rapidly expanded via targeted field research and large-scale sequencing. The authors use a comprehensive sampling for a tribe of beetles with complicated morphological characters, highlight the existence of multiple undescribed taxa. The database of sequences could set a benchmark for the spatiotemporal evaluation of biodiversity, would support evidence-based conservation planning, and would provide a robust framework for systematic, biogeographic, and evolutionary studies.

      (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