eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Temporal pattern and synergy influence activity of ERK signaling pathways during L-LTP induction

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Nadiatou T Miningou Zobon
   2. Joanna Jędrzejewska-Szmek
   3. Kim T Blackwell

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Endothelial cell senescence exacerbates pulmonary hypertension through Notch-mediated juxtacrine signaling

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Risa Ramadhiani
   2. Koji Ikeda
   3. Kazuya Miyagawa
   4. Gusty Rizky Teguh Ryanto
   5. Naoki Tamada
   6. Yoko Suzuki
   7. Ken-ichi Hirata
   8. Noriaki Emoto

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A common 1.6 mb Y-chromosomal inversion predisposes to subsequent deletions and severe spermatogenic failure in humans

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Pille Hallast
   2. Laura Kibena
   3. Margus Punab
   4. Elena Arciero
   5. Siiri Rootsi
   6. Marina Grigorova
   7. Rodrigo Flores
   8. Mark A Jobling
   9. Olev Poolamets
   10. Kristjan Pomm
   11. Paul Korrovits
   12. Kristiina Rull
   13. Yali Xue
   14. Chris Tyler-Smith
   15. Maris Laan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study presents extensive genetic analysis of a relatively large cohort of men with idiopathic infertility, with considerable accompanying andrological phenotypic data. Through careful step-by-step investigations, an inversion variant is identified as a risk factor for subsequent deletion variants that can lead to substantially increased risk of impaired spermatogenesis, on an age-structured basis, relative to non-carriers. This work will be of particular interest to the reproductive genetics field, but also has wide ranging implications for colleagues interested in common disease genetics, meiosis, structural variation, dosage sensitivity, and sex chromosome evolution. As part of the most comprehensive investigation of AZFc micro-deletions and structural variation to date, the authors have identified a novel structural variant of the Y-chromosome that predisposes to spermatogenic failure and provided clear guidelines for genetic counseling.

     (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. Insulin-producing β-cells regenerate ectopically from a mesodermal origin under the perturbation of hemato-endothelial specification

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Ka-Cheuk Liu
   2. Alethia Villasenor
   3. Maria Bertuzzi
   4. Nicole Schmitner
   5. Niki Radros
   6. Linn Rautio
   7. Kenny Mattonet
   8. Ryota L Matsuoka
   9. Sven Reischauer
   10. Didier YR Stainier
   11. Olov Andersson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is an elegant study demonstrating the emergence of mesoderm-derived beta-like cells following beta-cell ablation in an endothelial cell deficient context. These findings will be of interest to scientists in the areas of regeneration and reprogramming, as they reveal a previously unknown degree of germ layer plasticity in the embryo. In the long term the study has potential impact in the diabetes field, as it reveals a novel path for redirecting somatic cells into insulin-producing cells in an in vivo context.

     (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

5. Decoding subjective emotional arousal from EEG during an immersive virtual reality experience

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Simon M Hofmann
   2. Felix Klotzsche
   3. Alberto Mariola
   4. Vadim Nikulin
   5. Arno Villringer
   6. Michael Gaebler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: Hofmann et al. investigate the link between two phenomena, emotional arousal and cortical alpha activity. Although alpha activity is tightly linked to the first reports of electric activity in the brain nearly 100 years ago, a comprehensive characterization of this phenomenon is elusive. One of the reasons is that EEG, the major method to investigate electric activity in the human brain, is susceptible to motion artifacts and, thus, mostly used in laboratory settings. Here, the authors combine EEG with virtual reality (VR) to give experimental participants a roller-coaster ride with high immersion. The ride, literally, leads to large ups and downs in emotional arousal, which is quantified by the subjects during a later rerun. Three different decoding methods were evaluated (Source Power Comodulation, Common Spatial Patterns, and Long Short-Term Memory Recurrent Neural Networks), each of which demonstrated above-chance levels of performance, substantiating a link between lower levels of parietal/occipital alpha and subjective arousal in a quasi-naturalistic setting.

     The reviewers both expressed some enthusiasm for the MS:

     The study is timely and makes an important contribution to our understanding of the relation of emotions and sensory processing

     Of potentially great interest to a broad audience

     The embedding in historic literature is excellent. I like it a lot.

     This work is notable because the roller-coaster simulation is a well-controlled, yet dynamic manipulation of arousal, and in its comparison of multiple decoding approaches (that can model the dynamics of affective responses). Indeed, this is an interesting proof of concept that shows it is possible to decode affective experience from brain activity measured during immersive virtual reality.

     Reviewer #1 opted to reveal their name to the authors in the decision letter after review.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Morphological and genomic shifts in mole-rat ‘queens’ increase fecundity but reduce skeletal integrity

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Rachel A Johnston
   2. Philippe Vullioud
   3. Jack Thorley
   4. Henry Kirveslahti
   5. Leyao Shen
   6. Sayan Mukherjee
   7. Courtney M Karner
   8. Tim Clutton-Brock
   9. Jenny Tung

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript takes a deep dive into the skeletal effects of burrowing and eusocial Damaraland mole rats. By exploring the genetic and skeletal consequences of breeding restricted to a single queen with multiple and closely-timed pregnancies and lactation, this study offers a compelling story that will bolster textbooks on skeletal biology, mammalian evolution, and ethology. The results show the molecular mechanisms driving adaptive plasticity within the unusually expanded lumbar spine and thin limb bones of queens are an adaptive consequence of breeding status.

     (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. Genetic and pharmacological evidence for kinetic competition between alternative poly(A) sites in yeast

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Rachael Emily Turner
   2. Paul F Harrison
   3. Angavai Swaminathan
   4. Calvin A Kraupner-Taylor
   5. Belinda J Goldie
   6. Michael See
   7. Amanda L Peterson
   8. Ralf B Schittenhelm
   9. David R Powell
   10. Darren J Creek
   11. Bernhard Dichtl
   12. Traude H Beilharz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of factors governing polyadenylation site selection in yeast. Overall, the authors reveal that multiple but distinct inputs including polyadenylation machinery integrity, transcription elongation rate, nucleotide availability and chromatin landscape all contribute to controlling cleavage and polyadenylation.

     (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

8. The propofol binding sites of prokaryotic voltage-gated sodium channels

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Elaine Yang
   2. Weiming Bu
   3. Antonio Suma
   4. Vincenzo Carnevale
   5. Kimberly C. Grasty
   6. Patrick Loll
   7. Kellie Woll
   8. Natarajan Bhanu
   9. Benjamin A. Garcia
   10. Roderic G. Eckenhoff
   11. Manuel Covarrubias

   Reviewed by eLife

9. An evolutionary model identifies the main evolutionary biases for the evolution of genome-replication profiles

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Rossana Droghetti
   2. Nicolas Agier
   3. Gilles Fischer
   4. Marco Gherardi
   5. Marco Cosentino Lagomarsino

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: The reviewers appreciate that the manuscript presents a simple but compelling model that explains the dynamics of replication origin birth and death, which enhances our understanding of the selection pressures that have shaped the distribution of replication origins. However, both reviewers had a series of concerns.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The recycling endosome protein Rab25 coordinates collective cell movements in the zebrafish surface epithelium

    This article has 12 authors:

    1. Patrick Morley Willoughby
    2. Molly Allen
    3. Jessica Yu
    4. Roman Korytnikov
    5. Tianhui Chen
    6. Yupeng Liu
    7. Isis So
    8. Haoyu Wan
    9. Neil Macpherson
    10. Jennifer A Mitchell
    11. Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
    12. Ashley EE Bruce

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      Willoughby et al. examine the role of Rab25 in early embryogenesis in zebrafish. They implicate Rab25 activity in abscission and show various defects including delayed epiboly and altered cell behaviors associated with defective acting dynamics. Overall, this is an interesting and well-written paper. However, there are a number of important controls that are missing and some connections such as the implication of membrane recycling that require stronger experimental validation.

      (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