eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Social selectivity and social motivation in voles

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Annaliese K Beery
   2. Sarah A Lopez
   3. Katrina L Blandino
   4. Nicole S Lee
   5. Natalie S Bourdon

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper introduces a new method to measure motivation to engage with familiar or unfamiliar individuals in prairie voles, a widely used animal model system for studying social relationships. The authors show that female prairie voles will work harder to access both familiar pair-bonded males or familiar females. In contrast, male prairie voles will work to access both pair-bonded females as well as unfamiliar females. These results cast a new light on decades of work based partner-preference tests that assess pair bonds that do not assess the role of motivation.

     (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. The anterior cingulate cortex and its role in controlling contextual fear memory to predatory threats

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Miguel Antonio Xavier de Lima
   2. Marcus Vinicius C Baldo
   3. Fernando A Oliveira
   4. Newton Sabino Canteras

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The manuscript used a naturalistic task where mice were fear conditioned to a context using a live predator (cat) and a variety of behavioural measures including freezing, risk assessment, and exploration. The identification of anterior cingulate cortex and its input and outputs in contextual fear acquisition and expression to predator threat is an important contribution to our understanding of neural mechanism related to fear processing. The paper will be of interest to researchers interested in using naturalistic threats in the lab, and to a more broad audience interested in learning and the related fear circuits.

     (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. High-resolution mapping of the period landscape reveals polymorphism in cell cycle frequency tuning

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Zhengda Li
   2. Shiyuan Wang
   3. Meng Sun
   4. Minjun Jin
   5. Daniel Khain
   6. Qiong Yang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper uses microfluidics and Xenopus extracts to investigate the effects of mitotic feedbacks on the cell cycle period. It is shown that the inhibition of G2 regulatory positive feedback loops does not reduce the tunability of the cell cycle oscillations, while interference with PP2A phosphatase can completely block of the cell cycle. The experiments are well-conducted and the results should be of interest to researchers interested in the cell cycle, specifically in the regulation of mitosis.

     (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. ZHX2 promotes HIF1α oncogenic signaling in triple-negative breast cancer

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Wentong Fang
   2. Chengheng Liao
   3. Rachel Shi
   4. Jeremy M Simon
   5. Travis S Ptacek
   6. Giada Zurlo
   7. Youqiong Ye
   8. Leng Han
   9. Cheng Fan
   10. Lei Bao
   11. Christopher Llynard Ortiz
   12. Hong-Rui Lin
   13. Ujjawal Manocha
   14. Weibo Luo
   15. Yan Peng
   16. William Y Kim
   17. Lee-Wei Yang
   18. Qing Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study identifies ZHX2 as an oncogenic factor in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), which interferes with hypoxia-related regulators and accounts for cancer aggressiveness and poor prognosis. The authors show that ZHX2 interacts with HIF1α and increases the expression of its downstream targets and identify ZHX2 residues critical for regulating its activity. This work provides a potential novel target in TNBC treatment and would be of interest to cancer biology researchers.

     (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. Temperature evolution following joint loading promotes chondrogenesis by synergistic cues via calcium signaling

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Naser Nasrollahzadeh
   2. Peyman Karami
   3. Jian Wang
   4. Lida Bagheri
   5. Yanheng Guo
   6. Philippe Abdel-Sayed
   7. Lee Laurent-Applegate
   8. Dominique P Pioletti

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is the study to determine the effects of mechanical loading on temperature changes in the joint and how the mechano-thermal transduction may influence chondrocyte behavior. This manuscript will be of interest to the clinicians and researchers who are working on tissue engineering and cartilage regeneration. The study has high clinical relevance. It provides new evidence that the mechanical stimuli plus with the temperature increase could influence the cell chondrogenic response. The data support the conclusions of the manuscript within the current context, although several issues need to be addressed.

     (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

6. Clp protease and antisense RNA jointly regulate the global regulator CarD to mediate mycobacterial starvation response

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Xinfeng Li
   2. Fang Chen
   3. Xiaoyu Liu
   4. Jinfeng Xiao
   5. Binda T Andongma
   6. Qing Tang
   7. Xiaojian Cao
   8. Shan-Ho Chou
   9. Michael Y Galperin
   10. Jin He

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     CarD is an RNA polymerase interacting protein that is essential for mycobacterial viability, the levels of which are important for controlling gene expression in mycobacteria during various stress conditions. This study reports two mechanisms that regulate levels of CarD under stress conditions, including starvation. The authors report that CarD levels are tightly regulated and that there was a dramatic decrease in the levels of CarD when cells switched from the nutrient-rich to the starvation condition. They discovered two synergistic mechanisms that led to this dramatic decrease in CarD. The first is SigF-dependent induction of antisense RNA of CarD (AscarD), which inhibits CarD translation and a second mechanism involving Clp protease-mediated degradation of intracellular CarD. The work will be of interest to researchers studying non-coding RNAs, microbial gene expression, physiology and stress response.

     (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

7. Wnt signaling mediates acquisition of blood–brain barrier properties in naïve endothelium derived from human pluripotent stem cells

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Benjamin D Gastfriend
   2. Hideaki Nishihara
   3. Scott G Canfield
   4. Koji L Foreman
   5. Britta Engelhardt
   6. Sean P Palecek
   7. Eric V Shusta

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The manuscript by Gastfriend et al. establishes a novel protocol for the differentiation of blood-brain barrier endothelial cells by activating Wnt/β-catenin signaling in human pluripotent stem cells at a critical stage of naïve endothelial progenitors. The characterization of naïve endothelial progenitors and the novel model has potential impact on basic research approaches as well as on the use of in vitro models in drug development and pharmacology. The strength of the study is the comprehensive analysis of the differentiated blood-brain barrier endothelial cells, whereas weaknesses are present in some experimental setups and data conclusion, requiring additional experimental support.

     (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

8. Sex differences in learning from exploration

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Cathy S Chen
   2. Evan Knep
   3. Autumn Han
   4. R Becket Ebitz
   5. Nicola M Grissom

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Chen et al. trained male and female animals on an explore/exploit (2-armed bandit) task. Despite similar levels of accuracy in these animals, authors report higher levels of exploration in male than in female mice. The patterns of exploration were analyzed in fine-grained detail, with the addition of computational modeling: males are less likely to stop exploring once exploring is initiated, whereas females stop exploring once they learn. The results are of broad interest to those interested is sex differences in learning. Inclusion of more primary behavioral data and further justification of the models and parameters is needed to clarify data presentation and interpretation.

     (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. Urgency forces stimulus-driven action by overcoming cognitive control

   This article has 1 author:

   1. Christian H Poth

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     It has been shown previously that saccades are obligatorily directed to visual stimuli if they are generated under time pressure, indicating that cognitive control is reduced briefly after a stimulus onset. The present study demonstrates this temporary impairment in cognitive control is present for manual responses, can occur when the conflict arises from non-spatial features of stimuli, and therefore is more general than previously thought. The data conclusively support the conclusions of the paper.

     (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. Transferrin receptor 1-mediated iron uptake regulates bone mass in mice via osteoclast mitochondria and cytoskeleton

    This article has 19 authors:

    1. Bhaba K Das
    2. Lei Wang
    3. Toshifumi Fujiwara
    4. Jian Zhou
    5. Nukhet Aykin-Burns
    6. Kimberly J Krager
    7. Renny Lan
    8. Samuel G Mackintosh
    9. Ricky Edmondson
    10. Michael L Jennings
    11. Xiaofang Wang
    12. Jian Q Feng
    13. Tomasa Barrientos
    14. Jyoti Gogoi
    15. Aarthi Kannan
    16. Ling Gao
    17. Weirong Xing
    18. Subburaman Mohan
    19. Haibo Zhao

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      The authors present a very well written manuscript addressing an important unknown in bone homeostasis, aiming to understand the mechanism of iron mediated effects on bone, findings of novel significance that are of interest to basic iron biologists, bone biologists, experts in mitochondrial respiration, and endocrinologists. This is the first study to show that Tfr1 is important for iron uptake in vivo and for proper osteoclast function. Mechanistically, Tfr1-mediated iron uptake is important for mitochondrial function and cytoskeleton organization, which is important for bone resorption. Overall, this study adds important information regarding the role of Tfr1 and iron metabolism in osteoclasts.

      (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