eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Placental uptake and metabolism of 25(OH)vitamin D determine its activity within the fetoplacental unit

   This article has 27 authors:

   1. Brogan Ashley
   2. Claire Simner
   3. Antigoni Manousopoulou
   4. Carl Jenkinson
   5. Felicity Hey
   6. Jennifer M Frost
   7. Faisal I Rezwan
   8. Cory H White
   9. Emma M Lofthouse
   10. Emily Hyde
   11. Laura DF Cooke
   12. Sheila Barton
   13. Pamela Mahon
   14. Elizabeth M Curtis
   15. Rebecca J Moon
   16. Sarah R Crozier
   17. Hazel M Inskip
   18. Keith M Godfrey
   19. John W Holloway
   20. Cyrus Cooper
   21. Kerry S Jones
   22. Rohan M Lewis
   23. Martin Hewison
   24. Spiros DD Garbis
   25. Miguel R Branco
   26. Nicholas C Harvey
   27. Jane K Cleal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript uses primary placental units and villous explants to examine the placental metabolism of vitamin D and effects of vitamin D on placental gene expression. The studies demonstrate that the placenta actively transports 25D, such that the fetal levels are dependent on placental function rather than simple diffusion from the maternal circulation. Furthermore, they demonstrate actions of vitamin D on placental gene expression. This paper should be of interest to cell biologists and obstetricians/gynaecologists studying the role of the placenta in fetal growth and development.

     (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. Working memory capacity of crows and monkeys arises from similar neuronal computations

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Lukas Alexander Hahn
   2. Dmitry Balakhonov
   3. Erica Fongaro
   4. Andreas Nieder
   5. Jonas Rose

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this study, Hahn et al. taught crows to perform a working memory task designed to mimic traditional monkey tasks. Using a combination of behavior and electrophysiology, the authors convincingly show that the neural mechanisms that limit working memory capacity in mammals and primates also limit working memory capacity in crows. What makes this finding particularly interesting is that the architecture of the avian brain is dramatically different than the architecture of the primate brain. Thus, two dramatically different architectures give rise to the same behavioral functions and neural computations. Such cross-species comparisons are fundamental to understanding the computational constraints that are placed on cognition and 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 #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Aging is associated with increased brain iron through cortex-derived hepcidin expression

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Tatsuya Sato
   2. Jason Solomon Shapiro
   3. Hsiang-Chun Chang
   4. Richard A Miller
   5. Hossein Ardehali

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Accumulation of redox-active iron in the brain is a significant cause of neurotoxicity in neurodegenerative diseases of old age. Thus, this manuscript could be of interest to neuroscientists, iron biologists, and those studying mechanisms of aging as it provides some new mechanistic insight on the role of age-related increases in hepcidin in brain iron accumulation. The current study demonstrates increased cytosolic and mitochondrial non-heme iron only in the aging brain, increased local hepcidin expression, and decreased levels of FPN1, together supporting a hypothesis that local brain hepcidin sequesters iron in neuronal cells and is associated with aging.

     (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. An epithelial signalling centre in sharks supports homology of tooth morphogenesis in vertebrates

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Alexandre P Thiery
   2. Ariane SI Standing
   3. Rory L Cooper
   4. Gareth J Fraser

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Thiery et al. propose that the development of shark teeth employ a similar embryonic signaling center as the development of mammalian teeth. The implication is that the regulatory logic of tooth development is an ancient, shared feature among vertebrates. The research will be of interest to the developmental as well as evolutionary biology readers.

     (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 kinetic error filtering mechanism for enzyme-free copying of nucleic acid sequences

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Tobias Göppel
   2. Benedikt Obermayer
   3. Irene A. Chen
   4. Ulrich Gerland

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     How was it possible for prebiotic RNA or DNA molecules to reliably self-replicate, in the absence of sophisticated enzymes capable of error correction? This paper proposes a novel mechanism for error correction in templated copying, and is therefore of interest for cell and evolutionary biologists, biophysicists and readers in the field of origin-of-life science. The kinetic error filtering proposed here does not require sophisticated machinery but reduces errors significantly while retaining a reasonable yield rate. Crucial to this mechanism is a cyclically varying environment, such as might exist in hydrothermal vents. The plausibility of the mechanism is supported by thoughtful and rigourous calculations rooted in an experimentally-grounded model.

     (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 names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Intracerebral mechanisms explaining the impact of incidental feedback on mood state and risky choice

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Romane Cecchi
   2. Fabien Vinckier
   3. Jiri Hammer
   4. Petr Marusic
   5. Anca Nica
   6. Sylvain Rheims
   7. Agnès Trebuchon
   8. Emmanuel J Barbeau
   9. Marie Denuelle
   10. Louis Maillard
   11. Lorella Minotti
   12. Philippe Kahane
   13. Mathias Pessiglione
   14. Julien Bastin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study uses intracranial EEG to explore links between broad-band gamma oscillations and mood, and their impact on decisions. While the results are potentially interesting, additional details and analyses are necessary to show that results are not driven by confounds. In addition, there is about a major concern that statistics are performed across electrodes instead of across subjects.

     (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. Phox2b mutation mediated by Atoh1 expression impaired respiratory rhythm and ventilatory responses to hypoxia and hypercapnia

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Caroline B Ferreira
   2. Talita M Silva
   3. Phelipe E Silva
   4. Claudio L Castro
   5. Catherine Czeisler
   6. José J Otero
   7. Ana C Takakura
   8. Thiago S Moreira

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study provides a novel mouse model for the study of the central respiratory chemoreceptor circuit and, therefore, of interest for the respiratory physiology community. Nonetheless, in its present form, this work still lacks more physiological, developmental, and anatomical characterizations to place this study in a broader context and gain new insights into the physiology of respiratory chemoreflexes.

     (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

8. Structure and ion-release mechanism of PIB-4-type ATPases

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Christina Grønberg
   2. Qiaoxia Hu
   3. Dhani Ram Mahato
   4. Elena Longhin
   5. Nina Salustros
   6. Annette Duelli
   7. Pin Lyu
   8. Viktoria Bågenholm
   9. Jonas Eriksson
   10. Komal Umashankar Rao
   11. Domhnall Iain Henderson
   12. Gabriele Meloni
   13. Magnus Andersson
   14. Tristan Croll
   15. Gabriela Godaly
   16. Kaituo Wang
   17. Pontus Gourdon

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper presents crystal structures of sCoaT, a heavy metal transporting P-type ATPase. These structures and complementary functional data define the overall fold of this protein and provide insight into several mechanistic features, including a conserved histidine proposed to act as a novel counter-ion during transport. The study will be of interest to biochemists and microbiologists interested in the transport of transition metals, structural biology of membrane proteins and drug development.

     (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. Molecular reconstruction of recurrent evolutionary switching in olfactory receptor specificity

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Lucia L Prieto-Godino
   2. Hayden R Schmidt
   3. Richard Benton

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study investigates evolutionary changes in ligand preference that occur in an olfactory receptor (IR75a) across the Drosophila phylogeny. The authors find that IR75a displays different odor preferences, for acetic acid or butyric acid, across Drosophila species, and link odor preference to particular protein mutations in the receptor. Reconstruction of a putative ancestral IR75a revises the timeline for IR75a evolution, and structural modeling suggests how mutations alter odor preference.

     (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. Chemoreceptor co-expression in Drosophila melanogaster olfactory neurons

    This article has 12 authors:

    1. Darya Task
    2. Chun-Chieh Lin
    3. Alina Vulpe
    4. Ali Afify
    5. Sydney Ballou
    6. Maria Brbic
    7. Philipp Schlegel
    8. Joshua Raji
    9. Gregory SXE Jefferis
    10. Hongjie Li
    11. Karen Menuz
    12. Christopher J Potter

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      A combination of methods. including a new method for tagging genes, demonstrates that the chemosensory co-receptors of Drosophila melanogaster (Orco, IR8a, IR25a, IR76b) are expressed widely and highly overlapping. These findings challenge a long-standing dogma in the field and suggest that different types of receptors, i.e. olfactory and ionotropic receptors, can be co-expressed in the same chemosensory neuron. Moreover, optogenetics and single sensillum recordings provide evidence that IR25a co-receptor might modulate the activity of typical Orco-dependent olfactory sensory neurons.

      (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