eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Towards a unified molecular mechanism for ligand-dependent activation of NR4A-RXR heterodimers

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Xiaoyu Yu
   2. Yuanjun He
   3. Theodore M Kamenecka
   4. Douglas J Kojetin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigated whether the nuclear receptor Nur77 is regulated by a non-canonical mechanism of ligand-induced disruption of its interaction with RXRg, similar to the family member Nurr1. The overall evidence is compelling. This manuscript will be of interest to scientists focusing on mechanisms of transcriptional regulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Aging-associated Increase of GATA4 levels in Articular Cartilage is Linked to Impaired Regenerative Capacity of Chondrocytes and Osteoarthritis

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Meagan J Makarczyk
   2. Yiqian Zhang
   3. Alyssa Aguglia
   4. Olivia Bartholomew
   5. Sophie Hines
   6. Kate Li
   7. Suyash Sinkar
   8. Silvia Liu
   9. Craig Duvall
   10. Hang Lin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents an important finding on the role of GATA4 in aging- and OA-associated cartilage pathology. The conclusions are well supported by compelling in vitro and in vivo evidence. This work will be of broad interest to both cell biologists and orthopedic/skeletal health clinicians.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Functional analysis across model systems implicates ribosomal proteins in growth and proliferation defects associated with hypoplastic left heart syndrome

   This article has 21 authors:

   1. Tanja Nielsen
   2. Anaïs Kervadec
   3. Jeanne L Theis
   4. Maria A Missinato
   5. James Marchant
   6. Michaela Romero
   7. Katya Marchetti
   8. Aashna Lamba
   9. Xin-Xin I Zeng
   10. Marie Berenguer
   11. Stanley M Walls
   12. Analyne Schroeder
   13. Katja Birker
   14. Greg Duester
   15. Paul Grossfeld
   16. Timothy J Nelson
   17. Timothy M Olson
   18. Karen Ocorr
   19. Rolf Bodmer
   20. Georg Vogler
   21. Alexandre R Colas

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study applies an innovative multi-model strategy to implicate the ribosomal protein (RP) encoding genes as candidates causing Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. The evidence from the screen in stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and whole genome sequencing of human patients, followed by functional analyses of RP genes in fly and fish models, is convincing and supports the authors' claims. This work and methodology applied would be of broad interest to medical biologists working on congenital heart diseases.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Somatic hypermutation patterns in immunoglobulin variable regions are established independently of the local transcriptional landscape

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Ursula E Schoeberl
   2. Johanna Fitz
   3. Kimon Froussios
   4. Renan Valieris
   5. Iordanis Ourailidis
   6. Marina Makharova
   7. Bernd Bauer
   8. Tobias Neumann
   9. Eva-Maria Wiedemann
   10. Monika Steininger
   11. Adriana Cantoran Garcia
   12. Marialaura Mastrovito
   13. Hugo Mouquet
   14. Israel Tojal Da Silva
   15. Rushad Pavri

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study clarifies that stalled RNA pol II is not sufficient for AID targeting, which is important to the field. The authors provide solid experimental evidence that RNA poll II stalling is not the driving mechanism for AID targeting, and even though the results are generally "negative", they are highly relevant to our current understanding of SHM. The authors propose premature transcription termination as a possible mechanism to determine V gene mutability, but the study does not experimentally address such possibilities. This paper makes investigators rethink the model with which AID finds single-strand DNA in the genome.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Structural mechanism of strand exchange by the RAD51 filament

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Luay Joudeh
   2. Robert E Appleby
   3. Joseph D Maman
   4. Luca Pellegrini

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This landmark study describes the structure of the human RAD51 filament with a recombination intermediate called the displacement loop (D-loop). Using cryogenic structural, biochemical, and single-molecule analyses, the authors provide compelling evidence on how the RAD51 filament promotes strand exchange between single-stranded and double-stranded DNAs. The findings are highly relevant to the fields of homologous recombination, DNA repair, and genome stability.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Prenatal light exposure affects number sense and the mental number line in young domestic chicks

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Rosa Rugani
   2. Matteo Macchinizzi
   3. Yujia Zhang
   4. Lucia Regolin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental study demonstrates how a left-right bias in the relationship between numerical magnitude and space depends on brain lateralization. The evidence is compelling and will be of interest to researchers studying numerical cognition, brain lateralization, and cognitive brain development more broadly.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Virtual Brain Inference (VBI), a flexible and integrative toolkit for efficient probabilistic inference on whole-brain models

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Abolfazl Ziaeemehr
   2. Marmaduke Woodman
   3. Lia Domide
   4. Spase Petkoski
   5. Viktor Jirsa
   6. Meysam Hashemi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper presents a valuable software package, named "Virtual Brain Inference" (VBI), that enables faster and more efficient inference of parameters in dynamical system models of whole-brain activity, grounded in artificial network networks for Bayesian statistical inference. The authors have provided convincing evidence, across several case studies, for the utility and validity of the methods using simulated data from several commonly used models, but more thorough benchmarking could be used to demonstrate the practical utility of the toolkit. This work will be of interest to computational neuroscientists interested in modelling large-scale brain dynamics.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Population-level morphological analysis of paired CO2- and odor-sensing olfactory neurons in D. melanogaster via volume electron microscopy

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jonathan Choy
   2. Shadi Charara
   3. Kalyani Cauwenberghs
   4. Quintyn McKaughan
   5. Keun-Young Kim
   6. Mark H Ellisman
   7. Chih-Ying Su

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study reveals surprising morphological diversity of Drosophila sensory neurons. Using serial block-face electron microscopy, the authors created detailed 3D reconstructions of large neuronal populations, convincingly finding significant structural variation both within and across distinct classes. These results form the basis for testable hypotheses on how neuronal arborization is optimized for particular sensory functions. This research will be highly relevant to biologists in the fields of physiology, insect chemosensation, and neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Cerebellar Purkinje cell stripe patterns reveal a differential vulnerability and resistance to cell loss during normal aging in mice

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Sarah G Donofrio
   2. Cheryl Brandenburg
   3. Amanda M Brown
   4. Tao Lin
   5. Hsiang-Chih Lu
   6. Roy V Sillitoe

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents findings on the patterned loss of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum during aging. The compelling data nicely support the conclusions of this study. This work advances understanding of mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration with aging and provides the basis for development of treatments for age-related neurological disorders.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Locus coeruleus modulation of prefrontal dynamics during attentional switching in mice

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Marco Nigro
    2. Lucas Silva Tortorelli
    3. Machhindra Garad
    4. Natalie E Zlebnik
    5. Hongdian Yang

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study presents a valuable finding on how the locus coeruleus modulates the involvement of medial prefrontal cortex in set shifting using calcium imaging in mice. The evidence supporting the claims was viewed as solid in revealing the dynamics and potential mechanisms supporting extradimensional shifts. The work is of broad interest to those studying flexible cognition.

    Reviewed by eLife