eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Remote immune processes revealed by immune-derived circulating cell-free DNA

   This article has 22 authors:

   1. Ilana Fox-Fisher
   2. Sheina Piyanzin
   3. Bracha Lea Ochana
   4. Agnes Klochendler
   5. Judith Magenheim
   6. Ayelet Peretz
   7. Netanel Loyfer
   8. Joshua Moss
   9. Daniel Cohen
   10. Yaron Drori
   11. Nehemya Friedman
   12. Michal Mandelboim
   13. Marc E Rothenberg
   14. Julie M Caldwell
   15. Mark Rochman
   16. Arash Jamshidi
   17. Gordon Cann
   18. David Lavi
   19. Tommy Kaplan
   20. Benjamin Glaser
   21. Ruth Shemer
   22. Yuval Dor

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript introduces a novel method for the monitoring of immune dynamics from blood, based on a measurement of the burden of cell-free DNA derived from seven key immune cell types in blood. The authors demonstrate the possibility to quantify the specific amounts of cell-free DNA by assaying cell-type specific CpG methylation marks via a targeted DNA sequencing assay. Assays of specific immune cell counts in blood are commonplace in modern diagnostic medicine. Rather than counting cells, the assay reported in this manuscript measures the burden of DNA released by dying immune cells, and this new assay may provide information about the immune system beyond what is possible with mere cell counting. The authors test their assay in three different settings (vaccination, inflammation and cancer), and provide significant support for the utility of their assay for immune monitoring in health and 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. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Suppression weakens unwanted memories via a sustained reduction of neural reactivation

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Ann-Kristin Meyer
   2. Roland G Benoit

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The goal of this study was to test whether multiple attempts at suppressing the retrieval of an (emotional) memory is associated with degradation of the representation of information in the brain about such memories. A combination of sophisticated computational modelling in fMRI reveals that neural representations of previously suppressed memories are sustainably weakened during memory retrieval attempts. This manuscript is of interest for neuroscientists in the field of motivated forgetting and memory control.

     (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. Correlative all-optical quantification of mass density and mechanics of subcellular compartments with fluorescence specificity

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Raimund Schlüßler
   2. Kyoohyun Kim
   3. Martin Nötzel
   4. Anna Taubenberger
   5. Shada Abuhattum
   6. Timon Beck
   7. Paul Müller
   8. Shovamaye Maharana
   9. Gheorghe Cojoc
   10. Salvatore Girardo
   11. Andreas Hermann
   12. Simon Alberti
   13. Jochen Guck

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this interesting study, the authors combined Brillouin microscopy with Optical Diffraction Tomography and epi-fluorescence imaging to investigate physical properties of biological materials including nucleoplasm, cytoplasm, phase-separated organelles, and adipocytes. The results are largely convincing and offer interesting insights into the material properties of these subcellular structures.

     (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. Presynaptic stochasticity improves energy efficiency and helps alleviate the stability-plasticity dilemma

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Simon Schug
   2. Frederik Benzing
   3. Angelika Steger

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In large nervous systems such as mammalian cortex excitatory synapses are stochastic and the probability of release of neurotransmitter can be modulated by plasticity and neural activity. This paper presents a simple biologically plausible mechanism that regulates the probability of release during learning. Using network simulations the authors show that this can result in more energy efficient processing of learned stimuli by enhancing the reliability of important connections, with lower expected rates of transmission at less important synapses.

     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. Adaptation and compensation in a bacterial gene regulatory network evolving under antibiotic selection

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Vishwa Patel
   2. Nishad Matange

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper investigates the evolutionary path of Escherichia coli resistance to the antibiotic trimethoprim. The authors show that adaptive mutations that accumulate early are often not in the drug target itself, but rather mutations that lead to transcriptional up-regulation of the drug target. Higher-level resistance can then evolve due to the addition of mutations in the drug target; however, at lower drug concentrations, cells are more likely to accumulate mutations that reverse the fitness defect associated with the initially acquired mutations. Overall, this study shows that regulatory mutations can play a major role in the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacterial populations, and that the evolutionary path is influenced by the level of drug exposure.

     (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

6. METTL18-mediated histidine methylation of RPL3 modulates translation elongation for proteostasis maintenance

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Eriko Matsuura-Suzuki
   2. Tadahiro Shimazu
   3. Mari Takahashi
   4. Kaoru Kotoshiba
   5. Takehiro Suzuki
   6. Kazuhiro Kashiwagi
   7. Yoshihiro Sohtome
   8. Mai Akakabe
   9. Mikiko Sodeoka
   10. Naoshi Dohmae
   11. Takuhiro Ito
   12. Yoichi Shinkai
   13. Shintaro Iwasaki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work examines how METTLL18-mediated RPL3 histidine methylation on 245 position regulates translation elongation and protects cells from cellular aggregation of Tyr-rich proteins. The study hints at the existence of a "ribosome code" and how posttranslational modification of ribosomal proteins could affect translation.

     (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 names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Parallel processing in speech perception with local and global representations of linguistic context

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Christian Brodbeck
   2. Shohini Bhattasali
   3. Aura AL Cruz Heredia
   4. Philip Resnik
   5. Jonathan Z Simon
   6. Ellen Lau

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Brodbeck and colleagues make a strong contribution to the field of neurolinguistics by asking whether speech comprehension uses local (e.g., sublexical) or global (e.g., sentences) contextual probabilities. To tackle this, they recorded participants with magnetoencephalography while they listened to a story. The authors assessed which of three possible speech models best explained brain activity using state-of-the-art analyses and information-theoretic measures. The authors report strong and valuable evidence for both local and global contextual analyses supporting the coexistence of both hierarchical and parallel speech processing in the human 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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

8. A mechanosensing mechanism controls plasma membrane shape homeostasis at the nanoscale

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Xarxa Quiroga
   2. Nikhil Walani
   3. Andrea Disanza
   4. Albert Chavero
   5. Alexandra Mittens
   6. Francesc Tebar
   7. Xavier Trepat
   8. Robert G Parton
   9. María Isabel Geli
   10. Giorgio Scita
   11. Marino Arroyo
   12. Anabel-Lise Le Roux
   13. Pere Roca-Cusachs

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     When a cell undergoes rapid shrinking, excess plasma membrane becomes available. The authors show that excess plasma membrane forms very small bleb-like evaginations that disappear after a few minutes. They show a new role for the I-BAR protein IRSp53 and Arp2/3-dependent actin polymerization which surprisingly leads to the flattening of the bud instead of its growth, as it is the case in filopodial protrusions. This manuscript will be of general interest to cell biologists working on membrane-cortex interactions.

     (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

9. Seizures, behavioral deficits, and adverse drug responses in two new genetic mouse models of HCN1 epileptic encephalopathy

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Andrea Merseburg
   2. Jacquelin Kasemir
   3. Eric W Buss
   4. Felix Leroy
   5. Tobias Bock
   6. Alessandro Porro
   7. Anastasia Barnett
   8. Simon E Tröder
   9. Birgit Engeland
   10. Malte Stockebrand
   11. Anna Moroni
   12. Steven A Siegelbaum
   13. Dirk Isbrandt
   14. Bina Santoro

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is an innovative and important paper with interest to basic and translational neuroscientists that demonstrates the power of experimental models to advance our understanding of human disease. The authors focus on early-life epilepsy, a devastating and common disorder, and specifically on genetic epilepsies generated via pathological sequence variations in the hyperpolarization-activated nonspecific cation (HCN) channel subtype 1. They delineate the epileptic phenotype and demonstrate some of the potential mechanisms leading to the generation of spontaneous seizures in genetically engineered mice.

     (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 names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Structure of mycobacterial CIII2CIV2 respiratory supercomplex bound to the tuberculosis drug candidate telacebec (Q203)

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. David J Yanofsky
    2. Justin M Di Trani
    3. Sylwia Król
    4. Rana Abdelaziz
    5. Stephanie A Bueler
    6. Peter Imming
    7. Peter Brzezinski
    8. John L Rubinstein

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      The manuscript by Yanofsky et al. describes the high-resolution structure of the CIII/CIV super-complex from Mycobacterium smegmatis bound to the anti-tuberculosis drug Q203 which is currently in clinical trials. The authors also provide biochemical data for inhibition of purified CIII/CIV and add important new information regarding the mechanism of Q203. This is an important contribution that will be of broad interest to the field of bioenergetic and tuberculosis, as telacebec represents one of few novel drug classes with potential for treatment of tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections.

      (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