eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Switch-like and persistent memory formation in individual Drosophila larvae

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Amanda Lesar
   2. Javan Tahir
   3. Jason Wolk
   4. Marc Gershow

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors perform a tour-de-force study of classical conditioning in fly larvae. Experiments are original, findings are exciting, and we expect this paper to have a substantial impact. There is potentially an issue in the assay of larvae preference taking an hour of unrewarded presentation of CO2, while the training and extinction happen on much shorter scales, muddying the ability to interpret the results. A mathematical model of the conditioning process is also missing, which also makes interpretation harder.

     (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. Integrin α5β1 nano-presentation regulates collective keratinocyte migration independent of substrate rigidity

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Jacopo Di Russo
   2. Jennifer L Young
   3. Julian WR Wegner
   4. Timmy Steins
   5. Horst Kessler
   6. Joachim P Spatz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of great interest for researchers working in the filed of cell adhesion and cell migration. The authors show for the first time that alpha5beta1 ligand spacing profoundly influences the collective migration behaviour of keratinocytes. They demonstrate that this parameter can outcompete the well-known and studied influence of substrate stiffness.

     (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

3. Contrasting effects of Western vs Mediterranean diets on monocyte inflammatory gene expression and social behavior in a primate model

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Corbin SC Johnson
   2. Carol A Shively
   3. Kristofer T Michalson
   4. Amanda J Lea
   5. Ryne J DeBo
   6. Timothy D Howard
   7. Gregory A Hawkins
   8. Susan E Appt
   9. Yongmei Liu
   10. Charles E McCall
   11. David M Herrington
   12. Edward H Ip
   13. Thomas C Register
   14. Noah Snyder-Mackler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is an interesting study aiming to link the evolutionary effects of dietary mismatch in humans to increased inflammatory responses and risk of chronic diseases. To uncover more insights into the causal links, the study used a non-human primate (macaque) model to show that the dietary switch from a Mediterranean to a modern Western diet leads to the polarisation of monocyte cell populations toward a more pro-inflammatory state, which in addition to increasing the chronic health risk can also impose behavioural changes such as anxiety and social isolation. The results of this study are convincing, interesting, and have fundamental importance in evolutionary biology, immunology and psychology. The extent to which these findings can be extrapolated to human populations remains to be established.

     (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

4. Genetic, cellular, and structural characterization of the membrane potential-dependent cell-penetrating peptide translocation pore

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Evgeniya Trofimenko
   2. Gianvito Grasso
   3. Mathieu Heulot
   4. Nadja Chevalier
   5. Marco A Deriu
   6. Gilles Dubuis
   7. Yoan Arribat
   8. Marc Serulla
   9. Sebastien Michel
   10. Gil Vantomme
   11. Florine Ory
   12. Linh Chi Dam
   13. Julien Puyal
   14. Francesca Amati
   15. Anita Lüthi
   16. Andrea Danani
   17. Christian Widmann

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Although the role of membrane potential in Cell Permeable Peptides (CPP) translocation has been consistently described in artificial systems, this multi scale study, combining cell biology, genetics and in silico approaches, further extends this topic to a live cell context where it shows that internalization stops when the membrane polarization is decreased by the removal of potassium channels. It proposes an original mechanism of CPP translocation based on water pore formation, which should be of interest for biophysicists, cell biologists and for applications such as drug delivery.

     (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, Review Commons

5. Crosstalk between repair pathways elicits double-strand breaks in alkylated DNA and implications for the action of temozolomide

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Robert P Fuchs
   2. Asako Isogawa
   3. Joao A Paulo
   4. Kazumitsu Onizuka
   5. Tatsuro Takahashi
   6. Ravindra Amunugama
   7. Julien P Duxin
   8. Shingo Fujii

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation summary:

     Glioblastomas, like many tumors, consist of a cohort of actively dividing cells and a substantially larger fraction of non-proliferating cells. The standard of care involves the administration of a chemotherapy drug (temozolomide (TMZ)) whose antitumor activity is thought to be dependent on a toxic intermediate produced during DNA replication. In this report, the authors show how this compound is also processed by the interaction of two DNA repair pathways which produce the same intermediate without the requirement for DNA replication. The paper will be of interest to those scientists concerned with the implications of DNA damage and repair for cancer chemotherapy, particularly for tumors as deadly as glioblastoma.

     (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. CA1 pyramidal cell diversity is rooted in the time of neurogenesis

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Davide Cavalieri
   2. Alexandra Angelova
   3. Anas Islah
   4. Catherine Lopez
   5. Marco Bocchio
   6. Yannick Bollmann
   7. Agnès Baude
   8. Rosa Cossart

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study uses the approach of labeling neurons with distinct birthdates so they can be differentiated in experiments performed later in development. The authors then test morphological, functional and circuit inputs/outputs patterns of these neurons by using immunohistochemistry, slice electrophysiology, retrograde labelling, morphological reconstructions and behavioral assays. The manuscript is likely to make a strong impact in the field of developmental neuroscience and a good impact related to more general cellular and molecular neuroscience.

     (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. Naïve individuals promote collective exploration in homing pigeons

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Gabriele Valentini
   2. Theodore P Pavlic
   3. Sara Imari Walker
   4. Stephen C Pratt
   5. Dora Biro
   6. Takao Sasaki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study in the field of collective behavior addresses how naïve and experienced individuals (i.e., homing pigeons) pool information in order to navigate while flying back home. The authors show that the passage of information is largely democratic, meaning information passes both ways, and that, unexpectedly, exploration of the route is initiated both by naïve and experienced birds. The work provides a new perspective on information sharing during collective learning.

     (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. Deletion of Calsyntenin-3, an atypical cadherin, suppresses inhibitory synapses but increases excitatory parallel-fiber synapses in cerebellum

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Zhihui Liu
   2. Man Jiang
   3. Kif Liakath-Ali
   4. Alessandra Sclip
   5. Jaewon Ko
   6. Roger Shen Zhang
   7. Thomas C Südhof

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study reports that calsyntenin-3, a synaptic adhesion molecule, is expressed in cerebellar Purkinje cells and that acute knockout of calsyntenin-3 increases excitatory synapse density and decreases inhibitory synapse density. The manuscript provides compelling evidence that elimination of calsyntenin-3 from cells in the cerebellar cortex alters the E/I balance for Purkinje cells by increasing the strength of excitatory parallel fiber inputs and decreasing the strength of inhibitory inputs. However, it would have been far better to selectively target Purkinje cells, but that was not done. This is the first study showing that a particular synaptic adhesion molecule regulates excitatory and inhibitory synapse in opposite directions.

     (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

9. Homo-oligomerization of the human adenosine A2A receptor is driven by the intrinsically disordered C-terminus

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Khanh Dinh Quoc Nguyen
   2. Michael Vigers
   3. Eric Sefah
   4. Susanna Seppälä
   5. Jennifer Paige Hoover
   6. Nicole Star Schonenbach
   7. Blake Mertz
   8. Michelle Ann O'Malley
   9. Songi Han

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The work will be of interest to anyone interested in signal transduction, and especially those studying GPCRs and membrane receptors. Dimerization and oligomerization of G protein-coupled membrane receptors (GPCRs) are expected to be critical for receptor function. This intriguing study helps understand the usually underestimated role of GPCR soluble domains. The authors discovered that oligomerization of a GPCR can be mediated by multiple weak interactions between soluble domains that are "tunable" by environmental factors, thus possibly modulating the function of this important class of membrane receptor proteins. What remains to be shown is how oligomerization alters receptor function.

     (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 name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Stochastic social behavior coupled to COVID-19 dynamics leads to waves, plateaus, and an endemic state

    This article has 6 authors:

    1. Alexei V Tkachenko
    2. Sergei Maslov
    3. Tong Wang
    4. Ahmed Elbana
    5. George N Wong
    6. Nigel Goldenfeld

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This manuscript will be of interest to epidemiologists and population biologists interested in outbreak dynamics in populations with complex social structures, such as emergent viral infections of humans. The study offers a functional, differential-equation (DE)-based framework for capturing the transition from emergence to endemicity without the huge over-compensation cycles typically predicted by DE models but rarely seen in natural populations. The model framework currently offers insights into the drivers of epidemic dynamics and, after further testing and calibration, may be useful for assessing control strategies for emerging infectious diseases.

      (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