eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Analysis of ultrasonic vocalizations from mice using computer vision and machine learning

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Antonio HO Fonseca
   2. Gustavo M Santana
   3. Gabriela M Bosque Ortiz
   4. Sérgio Bampi
   5. Marcelo O Dietrich

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Beneficial impacts of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on muscle structure and function in the zebrafish model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Elisabeth A Kilroy
   2. Amanda C Ignacz
   3. Kaylee L Brann
   4. Claire E Schaffer
   5. Devon Varney
   6. Sarah S Alrowaished
   7. Kodey J Silknitter
   8. Jordan N Miner
   9. Ahmed Almaghasilah
   10. Tashawna L Spellen
   11. Alexandra D Lewis
   12. Karissa Tilbury
   13. Benjamin L King
   14. Joshua B Kelley
   15. Clarissa A Henry

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: The authors seek to tackle the question of exercise and inactivity in Duchenne muscular dystrophy, an important and unsolved issue. They use the zebrafish model system and two paradigms, one an inactivity paradigm (using tricaine) and the other an exercise paradigm using NMES. They find that inactivity worsens the dystrophic phenotype, and that different exercise paradigms impact the dystrophic phenotype differently. Overall this is an important study with exciting data and a potential to impact our understanding of exercise in DMD. However, as described below, all reviewers felt that several critical experimental considerations are necessary to consider in order to substantiate the data claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Short-term exposure to intermittent hypoxia leads to changes in gene expression seen in chronic pulmonary disease

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Gang Wu
   2. Yin Yeng Lee
   3. Evelyn M Gulla
   4. Andrew Potter
   5. Joseph Kitzmiller
   6. Marc D Ruben
   7. Nathan Salomonis
   8. Jeffery A Whitsett
   9. Lauren J Francey
   10. John B Hogenesch
   11. David F Smith

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: Obstructive sleep apnea is an important medical problem, with elevated cardiovascular risk as a common association. Intermittent hypoxic episodes are a good predictor of such risk so a connection is indeed plausible. The authors use single cell genomics to delineate the changes in intermittent hypoxia models, with interesting insights, but what limits enthusiasm is validation of some hypothesis generating findings from single cell data, limiting potential mechanistic insights that are translatable to OSA.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. ASIC1a is required for neuronal activation via low-intensity ultrasound stimulation in mouse brain

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Jormay Lim
   2. Hsiao-Hsin Tai
   3. Wei-Hao Liao
   4. Ya-Cherng Chu
   5. Chen-Ming Hao
   6. Yueh-Chun Huang
   7. Cheng-Han Lee
   8. Shao-Shien Lin
   9. Sherry Hsu
   10. Ya-Chih Chien
   11. Dar-Ming Lai
   12. Wen-Shiang Chen
   13. Chih-Cheng Chen
   14. Jaw-Lin Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: This is an interesting manuscript suggesting that ultrasound stimuli induce movements of the extracellular matrix and the cytoskeleton to cause mechanical activation of ASIC1a in cortical neurons. This is a novel finding.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. A multifaceted analysis reveals two distinct phases of chloroplast biogenesis during de-etiolation in Arabidopsis

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Rosa Pipitone
   2. Simona Eicke
   3. Barbara Pfister
   4. Gaetan Glauser
   5. Denis Falconet
   6. Clarisse Uwizeye
   7. Thibaut Pralon
   8. Samuel C Zeeman
   9. Felix Kessler
   10. Emilie Demarsy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: All three reviewers as well as myself are impressed by the in depth and multi-method analysis of chloroplast and thylakoid membrane development provided in your study, including time courses of 3D imaging combining TEM, SBF-SEM and confocal microscopy, lipidomics and proteomics. However, some analyses need to be improved and/or better explained.

     • There is a concern about the proteomics analysis, as the low number of proteins changing in abundance upon de-etiolation is unexpected. It is not clear how the samples were harvested. Were they harvested in the light and could that have influenced protein abundance? The harvesting procedure needs to be better explained. Or is the proteomics method not sensitive enough? The proteomics should be validated, for example by Western Blots with well-established marker proteins such as phyA and HY5.

     • Please also add loading controls to Fig 6 and the associated supplemental figure.

     • Please explain better how the volume of dividing chloroplasts was determined.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. A novel role for the lateral habenula in fear learning

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Tomas E. Sachella
   2. Marina R. Ihidoype
   3. Christophe D. Proulx
   4. Diego E. Pafundo
   5. Jorge H. Medina
   6. Pablo Mendez
   7. Joaquin Piriz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: The manuscript examined the role of the lateral habenula (LHb) on contextual and cued fear conditioning with tests occurring at different time points since acquisition. The investigation provided important controls and systematic examination of testing and training conditions in places. The findings are interesting and likely of broad significance. However, the reviewers felt that the investigation lacked focus; that is, a more hypothesis-driven examination of the potential role of the LHb in the differential disruption of contextual and cued fear was viewed as necessary to make a major impact on a broad range of readers. Currently, there is not a clear and strong interpretation of the data, and more studies are necessary to further explore some of the options put forward by the authors.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Fibre-specific laterality of white matter in left and right language dominant people

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Helena Verhelst
   2. Thijs Dhollander
   3. Robin Gerrits
   4. Guy Vingerhoets

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: The paper tackles an important aspect of neuroanatomical and language research concerning the lateralization differences related to functional lateralization of language. No clear cut results are currently available nowadays and methodological limitations of previous approaches are here addressed with a new angle in the tractography analysis. This is certainly of interest, the methodology is sound and the results deserve to be published. However, as you will see all the reviews highlighted that the novelty of this work both in terms of the methodology and results is somewhat limited, in addition to concerns about the nature of the task used. This makes it seem better suited to a more specialized readership.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Distinct aging-vulnerable trajectories of motor circuit functions in oxidation- and temperature-stressed Drosophila

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Atulya Srisudarshan Ram Iyengar
   2. Hongyu Ruan
   3. Chun-Fang Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: Overall, this technically challenging and well executed study provides a nice description of the effects of aging, high activity (induced by higher temperature), and loss of SOD function on the neurophysiology of the GF system in Drosophila. However, most of the effects described have been observed in other systems. The authors have not adequately controlled for genetic background in their observations and have not carefully considered development effects. At this stage, the study does not provide insight into the mechanisms underlying the age-dependent alterations of the examined neurons.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Local projections of layer Vb-to-Va are more effective in lateral than in medial entorhinal cortex

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Shinya Ohara
   2. Stefan Blankvoort
   3. Rajeevkumar R. Nair
   4. Maximiliano J. Nigro
   5. Eirik S. Nilssen
   6. Clifford Kentros
   7. Menno P. Witter

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: The study addresses a fundamentally important question regarding the connectivity of LVb and LVa in the medial and lateral entorhinal cortex. The authors suggest that LVb to LVa connection exists in the LEC but not in the MEC. This finding would have important implications on studies investigating circuits functions between the hippocampus and the EC. All three reviewers found the central question important and the data novel. However, there are several technical issues that limit the robustness of the authors claim.

     1. While the transgenic animal used in these experiments is elegant and novel, it only labels a subpopulation of the neurons. There is a possibility of selective labelling of neurons with distinct connectivity patterns. The authors would need to show that their approach is not leading to false negative results due to the selective visualization of those neurons that project more modestly to the LVa.

     2. The specificity of the injection to the LEC/MEC should be better documented and potential spread to the perirhinal or postrhinal cortex carefully excluded.

     3. The findings are presented as LVb to LVa connection did not exist at all in the MEC, however the data shows that the connection is there but it is significantly less dense than in the LEC. Given the graded finding, if the authors aim to show their central claim regarding the lack of mediation of hippocampo-cortical outputs by this connection in the MEC, this would require the addition of functional studies.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Rescuing Auditory Temporal Processing with a Novel Augmented Acoustic Environment in an Animal Model of Congenital Hearing Loss

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Adam C. Dziorny
    2. Anne E. Luebke
    3. Luisa L. Scott
    4. Joseph P. Walton

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Summary: The reviewer and the editors both recognize that the study suggests a clear improvement of auditory sensitivity, at least to gaps, with early temporal enrichment, and agree on the quality of the work performed. However, the improvements brought by the new paradigm are small and not supported by strong statistics. Overall also this study seems sound but too specialized for a broader readership.

    Reviewed by eLife