eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Reciprocally inhibitory circuits operating with distinct mechanisms are differently robust to perturbation and modulation

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Ekaterina Morozova
   2. Peter Newstein
   3. Eve Marder

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Morozova et al. describe potential mechanisms contributing to the flexibility of burst patterns and dynamic responses to perturbations within an isolated reciprocally inhibitory circuit derived from the stomatogastric ganglion of the crab. The authors use the dynamic clamp approach to study the interactions between pharmacologically isolated, intrinsically silent gastric mill neurons, an approach pioneered by Andrew Sharp in the 1990s. The authors demonstrate that the mechanisms of switching between components of the reciprocally organized half-center network are not fixed and may shift to favor a release or escape mechanism depending on factors such as the synaptic threshold, Ih conductance, and synaptic conductance. This is a fundamentally important study because reciprocally organized networks are ubiquitous and found virtually in every organism. It is assumed that this half-center-type network organization governs rhythmic activity with a wide range of functions.

     (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. Reviewers #1, #2 and #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The pupillary light response as a physiological index of aphantasia, sensory and phenomenological imagery strength

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Lachlan Kay
   2. Rebecca Keogh
   3. Thomas Andrillon
   4. Joel Pearson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is an interesting study of the relation between vividness of visual imagery and the pupillary light response that can result from it. It provides evidence for the absence of imagery in individuals that self-report as aphantasic. The results will likely be of interest to researchers in a range of disciplines such as psychology, neuroscience and philosophy. There were some shared concerns related to demand characteristics and eye movements, and the authors might be able to address these concerns with more data analysis and/or control experiments.

     (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

3. Microevolution of Trypanosoma cruzi reveals hybridization and clonal mechanisms driving rapid genome diversification

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Gabriel Machado Matos
   2. Michael D Lewis
   3. Carlos Talavera-López
   4. Matthew Yeo
   5. Edmundo C Grisard
   6. Louisa A Messenger
   7. Michael A Miles
   8. Björn Andersson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this paper the authors dissect the across-the-genome consequences of sexual recombination in Trypanosoma cruzi. It summarises an extensive piece of work, which includes a 5-year in vitro growing of parasites and relatively rigorous genome analyses. It will be of interest to microbiologists working on microbes with cryptic or parasexual modes of genetic exchange.

     (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

4. Development and characterization of new tools for detecting poly(ADP-ribose) in vitro and in vivo

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Sridevi Challa
   2. Keun W Ryu
   3. Amy L Whitaker
   4. Jonathan C Abshier
   5. Cristel V Camacho
   6. W Lee Kraus

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Challa and Ryu et al. systematically evaluated various combinations of ADP-ribose-binding modules to make sensors detecting poly(ADP-ribose). They developed and tested two indicator designs optimized for analyses in cell culture (dimerization-dependent GFP-based) or intact tissues (split Nano luciferase-based). Overall, with further experimental controls and quantification, this timely set of cell biology probes will be useful to study the biological functions of ADP-ribosylation in cultured cells and whole organisms.

     (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

5. Parent-of-origin effects propagate through networks to shape metabolic traits

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Juan F Macias-Velasco
   2. Celine L St Pierre
   3. Jessica P Wayhart
   4. Li Yin
   5. Larry Spears
   6. Mario A Miranda
   7. Caryn Carson
   8. Katsuhiko Funai
   9. James M Cheverud
   10. Clay F Semenkovich
   11. Heather A Lawson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of interest to scientists studying metabolism and those interested in the evolution of genomic imprinting. The authors show how parent-of-origin effects in crosses between inbred strains of mice can arise from epistasis between imprinted and unimprinted loci. They consider scenarios for the interactions of imprinted and unimprinted genes in adipocytes.

     (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. Inflammatory response in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells triggered by activating SHP2 mutations evokes blood defects

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Maja Solman
   2. Sasja Blokzijl-Franke
   3. Florian Piques
   4. Chuan Yan
   5. Qiqi Yang
   6. Marion Strullu
   7. Sarah M Kamel
   8. Pakize Ak
   9. Jeroen Bakkers
   10. David M Langenau
   11. Hélène Cavé
   12. Jeroen den Hertog

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors of this paper model the D61G mutation in the gene PTPN11 that encodes the protein-tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 in zebrafish, creating a model consistent with the human Noonan syndrome (NS), which is predisposed to a juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) and myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN)-like syndrome. The study nicely provides a new model that can be used as the basis of future studies in the field. Because the mutant variably displays phenotypes along a spectrum from NS to MPN, different researchers can choose to focus on this as they see fit.

     (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

7. Impact of a human gut microbe on Vibrio cholerae host colonization through biofilm enhancement

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Kelsey Barrasso
   2. Denise Chac
   3. Meti D Debela
   4. Catherine Geigel
   5. Anjali Steenhaut
   6. Abigail Rivera Seda
   7. Chelsea N Dunmire
   8. Jason B Harris
   9. Regina C Larocque
   10. Firas S Midani
   11. Firdausi Qadri
   12. Jing Yan
   13. Ana A Weil
   14. Wai-Leung Ng

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this work, the authors study the previously reported positive association between the presence of the gut bacterium Paracoccus aminovorans and Vibrio cholerae during infection. They describe and image dual species-biofilm formed in vitro as well as enhanced V. cholerae gut colonization in the presence of P. aminovorans in a neonatal mouse model. Collectively, the authors conclude that P. aminovorans enhances biofilm formation by Vc, which could explain the increased susceptibility of P. aminovorans-containing humans in cholera endemic areas.

     (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

8. Social-affective features drive human representations of observed actions

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Diana C Dima
   2. Tyler M Tomita
   3. Christopher J Honey
   4. Leyla Isik

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study investigates and characterizes the representations of actions in naturalistic movie stimuli. The combination of the analytical techniques and stimulus domain make the paper likely to be of broad interest to scientists interested in action representation amidst complex sequences. This paper will potentially broaden our understanding of visual action representation and the extraction of such information in natural settings, but clarification of the analyses and aspects of the data are required to strengthen 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 names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Wnt11 acts on dermomyotome cells to guide epaxial myotome morphogenesis

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Ann Kathrin Heilig
   2. Ryohei Nakamura
   3. Atsuko Shimada
   4. Yuka Hashimoto
   5. Yuta Nakamura
   6. Joachim Wittbrodt
   7. Hiroyuki Takeda
   8. Toru Kawanishi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study is of interest to researchers who study cell migration and or muscle development. It builds upon prior analysis of Double Anal fin (Da) mutants by using detailed bioinformatic and time-lapse analysis to explain dorsal somite extension and find evidence that dorsal muscle morphogenesis is actively guided, rather than being passively shaped by physical constraints alone. This work illustrates the dynamic behaviors of dorsal somitic cells, which form elaborate protrusions, delaminate from their parent somite, and bridge the gap between opposing epaxial myotomes. Looking downstream of Da, they show that Wnt signaling is central to dorsal extension of the epaxial myotome in medaka and propose that similar functions may shape the dorsal musculature across vertebrates.

     (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. 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