eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A quadratic model captures the human V1 response to variations in chromatic direction and contrast

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Michael A Barnett
   2. Geoffrey K Aguirre
   3. David Brainard

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of interest to neuroscientists who study relationships between visual stimuli and their cortical representation, particularly, but not exclusively, those who use functional imaging techniques. The experiments are carefully designed, the dataset is substantial, and a model is presented that describes the data with very few parameters.

     (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

2. The mechanism underlying transient weakness in myotonia congenita

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Jessica H Myers
   2. Kirsten Denman
   3. Chris DuPont
   4. Ahmed A Hawash
   5. Kevin R Novak
   6. Andrew Koesters
   7. Manfred Grabner
   8. Anamika Dayal
   9. Andrew A Voss
   10. Mark M Rich

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Patients with myotonia congenita (or Becker disease) experience episodes of transient muscle weakness but the reasons underlying this phenomenon are unknown. This study provides the most definitive experimental evidence to date for the mechanistic basis of transient weakness in myotonia congenita and also suggests ranolazine may be beneficial for prophylactic management.

     (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. Reviewers #1, #2, and #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Competitive binding of STATs to receptor phospho-Tyr motifs accounts for altered cytokine responses

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Stephan Wilmes
   2. Polly-Anne Jeffrey
   3. Jonathan Martinez-Fabregas
   4. Maximillian Hafer
   5. Paul K Fyfe
   6. Elizabeth Pohler
   7. Silvia Gaggero
   8. Martín López-García
   9. Grant Lythe
   10. Charles Taylor
   11. Thomas Guerrier
   12. David Launay
   13. Suman Mitra
   14. Jacob Piehler
   15. Carmen Molina-París
   16. Ignacio Moraga

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study is a great example of an elaborate combination of experimental and mathematical analyses to examine an intriguing, pleiotropic immunological signaling pathway. While a good number of individual aspects of this signaling pathway have been studied and reported before, the present work pieces together many pieces and succeeds to present a conclusive and comprehensive model of this particular cytokine system. The main conclusions are well supported by the presented data and the manuscript will be of interest and relevance for the study of many other cytokine signaling pathways, being of broad relevance for immunologists and cell biologists.

     (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

4. Synaptic plasticity regulated by phosphorylation of PSD-95 Serine 73 in dorsal CA1 is required for contextual fear extinction

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Magdalena Ziółkowska
   2. Malgorzata Borczyk
   3. Agata Nowacka
   4. Maria Nalberczak-Skóra
   5. Małgorzata Alicja Śliwińska
   6. Magdalena Robacha
   7. Kacper Łukasiewicz
   8. Anna Cały
   9. Edyta Skonieczna
   10. Kamil F. Tomaszewski
   11. Tomasz Wójtowicz
   12. Jakub Włodarczyk
   13. Tytus Bernaś
   14. Ahmad Salamian
   15. Kasia Radwanska

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: This timely study provides important and novel findings with regard to the role of PSD-95 protein in fear extinction formation and helps to advance our understanding of how dendritic changes in the hippocampus regulates fear maintenance. The findings should appeal to those interested in hippocampal function, fear and fear-related conditions, and extinction-based therapies. The major strengths of the paper lie in the use of a wide range of complementary technical approaches, and the significance of addressing specific molecular mediators of fear attenuation. Reasonable alternative explanations were identified for some of the key findings and the conclusions may not perfectly reflect the observations and experimental designs.

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

   Reviewed by eLife

5. APEX-Gold: A genetically-encoded particulate marker for robust 3D electron microscopy

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. James Rae
   2. Charles Ferguson
   3. Nicholas Ariotti
   4. Richard I. Webb
   5. Han-Hao Cheng
   6. James L. Mead
   7. Jamie Riches
   8. Dominic J.B. Hunter
   9. Nick Martel
   10. Joanne Baltos
   11. Arthur Christopoulos
   12. Nicole S. Bryce
   13. Maria Lastra Cagigas
   14. Sachini Fonseka
   15. Edna C. Hardeman
   16. Peter W. Gunning
   17. Yann Gambin
   18. Thomas Hall
   19. Robert G. Parton

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Summary: The manuscript by Rae et al. reports a new protocol for labeling genetically-tagged proteins of interest with heavy atom particles for visualization by electron microscopy. The optimized protocol builds on the use of the enzyme APEX2, fused to the target protein of interest. The contrast enhancement may be useful in diverse 3D EM techniques. Also, reviewers were enthusiastic about the prospects for quantitative studies, even for low-levels of endogenous expression. Semi-quantitative studies may be enabled because the new method appears to improve the proportionality of the signal such that the number of APEX2 tags in a sample correlates with the number of heavy atom particles. The apparent simplicity of the protocol raises the potential for it to become a standard in the field of EM labeling.

     Reviewer #1, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 opted to reveal their name to the authors in the decision letter after review.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Prolonging the integrated stress response enhances CNS remyelination in an inflammatory environment

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yanan Chen
   2. Rejani B Kunjamma
   3. Molly Weiner
   4. Jonah R Chan
   5. Brian Popko

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is an elegantly conducted study showing integrated stress response (ISR) contributes to protection of oligodendrocytes in the remyelination process in the setting of an inflammatory environment. The authors use both genetic (GADD43KO) and pharmacological approaches (Sephin1) to study ISR in demyelination animal models. The data are convincing and have important clinical implications for multiple sclerosis and other diseases. The reviewers agree that revisions are needed for the sake of presentation, clarity, rationale, and interpretation of datasets.

     (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. Keratinocyte PIEZO1 modulates cutaneous mechanosensation

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Alexander R Mikesell
   2. Olena Isaeva
   3. Francie Moehring
   4. Katelyn E Sadler
   5. Anthony D Menzel
   6. Cheryl L Stucky

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript is of broad interest to readers in the field of somatosensation. The identification that a common type of skin cell responds to mechanical force using a specific molecular receptor called Piezo1 is an important contribution to our understanding of mechanotransduction. A combination of conditional gene knockout with physiological and behavioral assays provides intriguing evidence that communication between skin and nerves is important for normal touch sensation, a conclusion that if further supported by additional data could become a fundamental discovery.

     (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

8. Neuronal regulated ire-1-dependent mRNA decay controls germline differentiation in Caenorhabditis elegans

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Mor Levi-Ferber
   2. Rewayd Shalash
   3. Adrien Le-Thomas
   4. Yehuda Salzberg
   5. Maor Shurgi
   6. Jennifer IC Benichou
   7. Avi Ashkenazi
   8. Sivan Henis-Korenblit

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors of this manuscript previously showed that ER stress, and in particular the ER stress sensor Ire1, regulates transdifferentiation in C. elegans, leading to the ectopic differentiation of germline cells. In this follow-up manuscript, the authors present several lines of evidence supporting the idea that Ire1 modules these effects through degrading a novel mRNA substrate flp6. The authors identify the neurons and neuromodulators that affect accumulation of abnormal germline cells. The reviewers agreed that the discovery that flp6 is a regulated Ire-1-dependent decay target in C. elegans, and the demonstration of a non-cell-autonomous effect of Ire1 activity, are novel and likely to be of interest to a broad readership. However, more evidence is required to support some of the main conclusions.

     (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. Precise base editing for the in vivo study of developmental signaling and human pathologies in zebrafish

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Marion Rosello
   2. Juliette Vougny
   3. François Czarny
   4. Marina C Mione
   5. Jean-Paul Concordet
   6. Shahad Albadri
   7. Filippo Del Bene

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The manuscript by Rosello et al. represents a major advance in implementation of cutting-edge genome editing methodologies in the zebrafish. The study seeks to describe optimized tools for precise base editing in zebrafish and to demonstrate their effective application. Overall, this study demonstrates that cytosine base editing is an efficient and powerful method for introducing precise in vivo edits into the zebrafish genome, and will be of interest to scientists who use zebrafish and other genetic systems to model human development and disease.

     (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

10. Inversion of pheromone preference optimizes foraging in C. elegans

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Martina Dal Bello
    2. Alfonso Pérez-Escudero
    3. Frank C Schroeder
    4. Jeff Gore

    Reviewed by eLife