eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Group II truncated haemoglobin YjbI prevents reactive oxygen species-induced protein aggregation in Bacillus subtilis

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Takeshi Imai
   2. Ryuta Tobe
   3. Koji Honda
   4. Mai Tanaka
   5. Jun Kawamoto
   6. Hisaaki Mihara

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of interest to microbiologists and protein biochemists who study biofilm formation, haem proteins, and cellular responses to extracellular oxidative stress. It proposes a mechanism for biofilm protection from reactive oxygen species (ROIs) through the examination of the Gram positive, Bacillus subtilis. The data support many of the conclusions of the paper and highlight the importance of cell surface-localized protein peroxidase activity for proper biofilm assembly in a model species. Further evidence is needed to fully support the proposed mechanisms.

     (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. Developmental change in prefrontal cortex recruitment supports the emergence of value-guided memory

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Kate Nussenbaum
   2. Catherine A Hartley

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is a follow-up on an impactful behavioral study from the same team, characterizing age-related differences in how individuals use information about environmental regularities to guide memory encoding. This paper will be relevant to those interested in the neurodevelopment of reward learning, episodic memory, and memory-guided decision-making. The combination of a clever task and thorough data analysis make this an impactful paper, but future longitudinal studies will need to determine whether these findings reflect developmental changes or cohort effects.

     (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

3. Mutational sources of trans-regulatory variation affecting gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Fabien Duveau
   2. Petra Vande Zande
   3. Brian PH Metzger
   4. Crisandra J Diaz
   5. Elizabeth A Walker
   6. Stephen Tryban
   7. Mohammad A Siddiq
   8. Bing Yang
   9. Patricia J Wittkopp

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     One key question in evolutionary biology is how traits can be affected by spontaneous mutations. This relationship between traits and mutations influences the rate and direction in which traits evolve. Here, the authors map a set of mutations that affect the expression of a focal gene in yeast, and examine their individual effects and locations in the genome and in the regulatory network. The work is rigorous and the results are well presented. The findings will be of great interest for geneticists and evolutionary biologists interested in the evolution of gene expression and of complex traits. Additional analyses and discussions will strengthen the generalization of the conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. A conditional gene-based association framework integrating isoform-level eQTL data reveals new susceptibility genes for schizophrenia

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Xiangyi Li
   2. Lin Jiang
   3. Chao Xue
   4. Mulin Jun Li
   5. Miaoxin Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript describes an improved approach (MGCA) to identify risk genes for human traits and diseases using data from genome wide association studies. The authors demonstrate the utility of their approach by analyzing data from patients with schizophrenia, and narrow in meaningful biological processes and potential drug repurposing candidates. This approach will facilitate gene prioritization from large genetic datasets for downstream applications such as functional studies.

     (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

5. Learning accurate path integration in ring attractor models of the head direction system

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Pantelis Vafidis
   2. David Owald
   3. Tiziano D'Albis
   4. Richard Kempter

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of interest to neuroscientists studying the navigation system, and in particular those who study the ability of animals to path integrate. This study proposes an elegant synaptic plasticity rule that maintains the connectivity required for path integration by integrating visual and self-motion input arriving at different dendritic locations in a neuron. This idea is applied to the central complex of Drosophila, a well-characterized system. The study is timely and well executed, however the generality of the suggested mechanism needs further discussion.

     (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

6. Environmental selection overturns the decay relationship of soil prokaryotic community over geographic distance across grassland biotas

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Biao Zhang
   2. Kai Xue
   3. Shutong Zhou
   4. Kui Wang
   5. Wenjing Liu
   6. Cong Xu
   7. Lizhen Cui
   8. Linfeng Li
   9. Qinwei Ran
   10. Zongsong Wang
   11. Ronghai Hu
   12. Yanbin Hao
   13. Xiaoyong Cui
   14. Yanfen Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study, which is of interest to students of microbial biogeography, explores the distance-decay relationship for soil prokaryotic communities in alpine and temperate grasslands. Although the experimental scale and conclusions are fairly substantial, there are concerns about the methods, as well as several concerns related to the inferences and presented results.

     (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. Coronary blood vessels from distinct origins converge to equivalent states during mouse and human development

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Ragini Phansalkar
   2. Josephine Krieger
   3. Mingming Zhao
   4. Sai Saroja Kolluru
   5. Robert C Jones
   6. Stephen R Quake
   7. Irving Weissman
   8. Daniel Bernstein
   9. Virginia D Winn
   10. Gaetano D'Amato
   11. Kristy Red-Horse

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study investigates the relationships of endothelial cells that comprise the coronary vessels of the heart in mouse and humans. Starting from the knowledge that two sources of progenitor cells contribute to the coronary vessels, the work shows that adult coronary endothelial cells do not retain expression memory of their source, nor do they respond differently to cardiac injury. Finally, human datasets were generated and compared to mouse to show overall strong similarity between the species in coronary endothelial cell subtypes, suggesting that mouse is a relevant model for translation to human treatments and therapies.

     (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, preLights

8. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.1101/2021.04.21.440670

9. Minimal-invasive enhancement of auditory perception by terahertz wave modulation

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Xiaoxuan Tan
   2. Kaijie Wu
   3. Shuang Liu
   4. Yifang Yuan
   5. Chao Chang
   6. Wei Xiong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The work investigates cochlear physiology by applying terahertz wave modulation to the outer hair cells (OHCs). Improved cochlea sensitivity and a change in potassium membrane current is demonstrated. The work is of clear interest to auditory neuroscientists and has the potential for future clinical interest.

     (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

10. Modelling the neural code in large populations of correlated neurons

    This article has 3 authors:

    1. Sacha Sokoloski
    2. Amir Aschner
    3. Ruben Coen-Cagli

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This paper is of potential interest to neuroscientists interested in neural coding. It presents a novel family of statistical models that is more accurate than simple models that assume independence between neurons. The results provide evidence that the proposed encoding models accurately capture key statistics of realistic neural activity, and that Bayesian decoding based on them can be accurate and efficient. The manuscript would benefit from a more complete comparison with other models.

      (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