eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 3′HS1 CTCF binding site in human β-globin locus regulates fetal hemoglobin expression

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Pamela Himadewi
   2. Xue Qing David Wang
   3. Fan Feng
   4. Haley Gore
   5. Yushuai Liu
   6. Lei Yu
   7. Ryo Kurita
   8. Yukio Nakamura
   9. Gerd P Pfeifer
   10. Jie Liu
   11. Xiaotian Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors investigate the contribution of a CTCF binding site located 3' of the beta-globin locus to the relative expression of the genes within the cluster. Their results serve to further clarify a longstanding model for how relatively high levels of fetal beta-globin are observed in some individuals harboring a deletion of this region, and contribute to existing models of the function of CTCF binding sites in genome organization.

     (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. A morphological transformation in respiratory syncytial virus leads to enhanced complement deposition

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jessica P Kuppan
   2. Margaret D Mitrovich
   3. Michael D Vahey

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of broad interest to virologists, immunologists, and structural biologists as it provides new insights into how the biophysical properties of viruses shape the development of immune responses. Overall, the data presented support key claims of the paper, and the strengths and limitations of the approach are properly acknowledged. However, the working model and its implications could be clarified and extended.

     (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

7. All-trans retinoic acid induces synaptopodin-dependent metaplasticity in mouse dentate granule cells

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Maximilian Lenz
   2. Amelie Eichler
   3. Pia Kruse
   4. Julia Muellerleile
   5. Thomas Deller
   6. Peter Jedlicka
   7. Andreas Vlachos

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     All-trans retinoic acid (atRA) is a potent regulator of synaptic function known to be critical for certain forms of homeostatic plasticity. Previous work by the Vlachos group established that atRA also modulates synaptic function in human cortex and linked the synaptic effects of atRA to the spine apparatus protein synaptopodin. As a follow up study, the present work investigated the effect of atRA in the hippocampus. The authors found that atRA can play a key role in modulating enduring forms of synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus even when it does not seem to drive overt changes in basal synaptic function, and this "metaplasticity"-related effects also require synaptopodin. Together, these studies establish a critical role of atRA in modulating synaptic transmission and plasticity at multiple regions of 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. Metabolic sensing in AgRP neurons integrates homeostatic state with dopamine signalling in the striatum

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Alex Reichenbach
   2. Rachel E Clarke
   3. Romana Stark
   4. Sarah Haas Lockie
   5. Mathieu Mequinion
   6. Harry Dempsey
   7. Sasha Rawlinson
   8. Felicia Reed
   9. Tara Sepehrizadeh
   10. Michael DeVeer
   11. Astrid C Munder
   12. Juan Nunez-Iglesias
   13. David C Spanswick
   14. Randall Mynatt
   15. Alexxai V Kravitz
   16. Christopher V Dayas
   17. Robyn Brown
   18. Zane B Andrews

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors demonstrate that selective inactivation of carnitine acetyltransferase (Crat) – a key metabolic enzyme – in AgRP neurons attenuates the response of AgRP neurons to peanut butter (PB) chips, the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, and the motivation to work for food when mice are fasted. The strength of this study is the demonstration that metabolic sensing by AgRP neurons is somehow linked to dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, but a weakness is that it is unclear how the lack of Crat in AgRP neurons affects their responsiveness to PB chips or how AgRP neurons regulate dopamine release.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Disturbed retinoid metabolism upon loss of rlbp1a impairs cone function and leads to subretinal lipid deposits and photoreceptor degeneration in the zebrafish retina

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Domino K Schlegel
   2. Srinivasagan Ramkumar
   3. Johannes von Lintig
   4. Stephan CF Neuhauss

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In mammals the cellular retinaldehyde binding protein, CRALBP, is expressed in the pigment epithelium (RPE) and in Müller glial cells (MGCs) in the retina. Zebrafish has two copies of the gene, each expressed in one of the cell types. By knocking out each gene with CRISPR/Cas9, the authors could show that it is the copy expressed in the RPE that is essential for turnover of retinal and for cone function. Thus, the zebrafish gene duplication suggests that the RPE role of CRALBP is the important one also in humans, implying the RPE as target for future gene therapy in humans with mutations in CRALBP.

     (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. Gene age shapes the transcriptional landscape of sexual morphogenesis in mushroom-forming fungi (Agaricomycetes)

    This article has 10 authors:

    1. Zsolt Merényi
    2. Máté Virágh
    3. Emile Gluck-Thaler
    4. Jason C Slot
    5. Brigitta Kiss
    6. Torda Varga
    7. András Geösel
    8. Botond Hegedüs
    9. Balázs Bálint
    10. László G Nagy

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This manuscript provides a deep characterization of transcriptional regulation and conservation across key stages of complex multicellular development during mushroom formation. The authors present evidence for extensive allele-specific expression that includes many developmentally regulated genes that appear to have evolved recently. These findings help underscore how the tuning of gene expression and gains of new genes, the function of which will need to be unraveled in future, are likely the basis for the evolution of complex morphologies in fungi. This work should be of broad interest to evolutionary biologists, and especially to those studying the evolution of gene regulation.

      (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 #4 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

    Reviewed by eLife