eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Decoding movie content from neuronal population activity in the human medial temporal lobe

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Franziska Gerken
   2. Alana Darcher
   3. Pedro J Gonçalves
   4. Rachel Rapp
   5. Ismail Elezi
   6. Johannes Niediek
   7. Marcel S Kehl
   8. Thomas P Reber
   9. Stefanie Liebe
   10. Jakob H Macke
   11. Florian Mormann
   12. Laura Leal-Taixé

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study demonstrates that it is possible to decode information about characters and locations from single-unit responses in the human brain to a narrative movie, using a convincing technical approach to capture information in population-level dynamics. The study introduces an exciting dataset of single-unit responses in humans during a naturalistic and dynamic movie stimulus, with recordings from multiple regions within the medial temporal lobe. Using both a traditional firing-rate analysis as well as a population decoding analysis to connect these neural responses to the visual content of the movie, they show that in this dataset, the decoding of semantic scene features (e.g., the person currently on screen), but not scene transitions, is surprisingly driven by classically non-responsive neurons. Based on these findings, the authors argue that dynamic naturalistic semantic information may be processed within the medial temporal lobe at the population level.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Specific GPCRs Elicit Unique Extracellular Vesicle MiRNA Array Signatures: An Exploratory Study

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Xiao Shi
   2. Michelle C Palumbo
   3. Sheila Benware
   4. Jack Wiedrick
   5. Sheila Markwardt
   6. Aaron Janowsky

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable findings by demonstrating that specific GPCR subtypes induce distinct extracellular vesicle miRNA signatures, highlighting a potential novel mechanism for intercellular communication with implications for receptor pharmacology within the field. The data is compelling, however, more evidence is needed to determine whether the distinct extracellular vesicle miRNA signatures result from GPCR-dependent miRNA expression or GPCR-dependent incorporation of miRNAs into extracellular vesicles.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. New idtracker.ai: rethinking multi-animal tracking as a representation learning problem to increase accuracy and reduce tracking times

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jordi Torrents
   2. Tiago Costa
   3. Gonzalo G de Polavieja

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study introduces an advance in multi-animal tracking by reframing identity assignment as a self-supervised contrastive representation learning problem. It eliminates the need for segments of video where all animals are simultaneously visible and individually identifiable, and significantly improves tracking speed, accuracy, and robustness with respect to occlusion. This innovation has implications beyond animal tracking, potentially connecting with advances in behavioral analysis and computer vision. While the strength of support for these advances is solid overall, the presentation could be greatly improved for clarity and broader accessibility; in addition, incorporating more standard metrics in the multi-animal tracking literature would better benchmark the approach against other methods.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. A rapid transfer of virions coated with heparan sulfate from the ECM to cell surface CD151 defines a step in the human papillomavirus infection cascade

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Annika Massenberg
   2. Yahya Homsi
   3. Carl Niklas Schneider
   4. Snježana Mikuličić
   5. Tatjana Döring
   6. Luise Florin
   7. Thorsten Lang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study presents interesting observations on the potential importance of extracellular transport of human papillomaviruses along actin protrusions by retrograde flow. The focus on the events of HPV infection between ECM binding and keratinocyte-specific receptor binding is unique and interesting. However, the evidence supporting the conclusions is incomplete, and additional experimental support is needed. Because conclusions drawn regarding HS interactions are largely based on experiments using a single HS mAb, the specificity of this mAb needs to be described in more detail, either based on the literature or further experimentation.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. The evolution of gene expression in seasonal environments

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Shuichi N Kudo
   2. Yuka Ikezaki
   3. Junko Kusumi
   4. Hideki Hirakawa
   5. Sachiko Isobe
   6. Akiko Satake

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors collected valuable time-course RNA-seq data from four tree species in natural environments and analyzed seasonal patterns of gene expression. The genome assemblies and gene expression data across multiple species and tissues are convincing, but the overarching conclusions are inadequately supported due to weaknesses in the study design, which encompasses three different environments and two distinct time periods. This makes it impossible to disentangle genetic effects - which are critical for evolutionary inferences - from environmental influences on gene expression.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Efficient Generation of Expandable Dorsal Forebrain Neural Rosette Stem Cell Lines

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Signe Emilie Dannulat Frazier
   2. Kristian Honnens de Lichtenberg
   3. Elham Jaberi
   4. Charlotte Bertelsen
   5. Simone Møller Jensen
   6. Andreas Wrona
   7. Nicolaj Strøyer Christophersen
   8. Mie Kristensen
   9. J Carlos Villaescusa

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study provides valuable technical advances to generate and isolate neural rosettes. The technique is robust, as indicated by both reviewers. The evidence is solid, as shown in orthogonal characterization by flow cytometry, morphology, and scRNA-seq. Comparison with the manual-rosette-picking protocol will enhance the validity of the claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Repeated vaccination with homologous influenza hemagglutinin broadens human antibody responses to unmatched flu viruses

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yixiang Deng
   2. Melbourne Tang
   3. Ted M. Ross
   4. Aaron G. Schmidt
   5. Arup K. Chakraborty
   6. Daniel Lingwood

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study provides outlines the mechanism by which repeated vaccination broadens the breadth of antibody responses against epitope unmatched virus strains. The authors' mathematical model is solid and incorporates various parameters that regulate B cell activation and antibody response.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Cryptovaranoides is not a squamate

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Michael W Caldwell
   2. Chase D Brownstein
   3. Dalton L Meyer
   4. Simon G Scarpetta
   5. Michael SY Lee
   6. Tiago R Simões

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Cryptovaranoides, an end-Triassic animal (just over 200 Ma old), was originally described as a possibly anguimorph squamate, i.e., more closely related to snakes and some extant lizards than to other extant lizards, making Squamata much older than previously thought and providing a new calibration date inside it. Following a rebuttal and a defense, this fourth important contribution to the debate makes a meticulous and solid argument that Cryptovaranoides is not a squamate. However, further comparisons to potentially closely related animals would greatly benefit this study, and parts of the text require clarification.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. DIRseq: a method for predicting drug-interacting residues of intrinsically disordered proteins from sequences

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Matthew MacAinsh
   2. Sanbo Qin
   3. Huan-Xiang Zhou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a sequence-based method for predicting drug-interacting residues in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), addressing an important challenge in understanding small-molecule:IDP interactions. The findings have solid support in illustrative examples that underscore the role of aromatic interactions. While predicted binding sites remain coarse, validation was done on a total of 10 IDPs, four of which thoroughly and six others less so. The method builds on previous work from the authors, with necessarily ad hoc modifications, and offers a starting point for further exploration in this emerging field.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The interplay of membrane tension and FtsZ filament condensation on the initiation and progression of cell division in B. subtilis

    This article has 6 authors:

    1. Diego A Ramirez-Diaz
    2. Lei Yin
    3. Daniela Albanesi
    4. Jenny Zheng
    5. Diego de Mendoza
    6. Ethan C Garner

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This fundamental work provides solid evidence that advances our understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying bacterial cell division by examining the role of membrane tension and FtsZ condensation in sequential stages of division. The effect of accDA overexpression on membrane tension was carefully characterized. To further enhance rigor, the authors could consider examining orthogonal perturbations to membrane tension, addressing membrane tension vs. fluidity, and addressing the ability of FtsZ to bend membranes in cells.

    Reviewed by eLife