Evaluated articles

Iron chelation improves ineffective erythropoiesis and iron overload in myelodysplastic syndrome mice

1. Wenbin An
2. Maria Feola
3. Maayan Levy
4. Srinivas Aluri
5. Marc Ruiz-Martinez
6. Ashwin Sridharan
7. Eitan Fibach
8. Xiaofan Zhu
9. Amit Verma
10. Yelena Ginzburg

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents a valuable finding that erythrocyte precursors could re-gain EPO responsiveness after DFP chelation therapy. In addition, the authors investigated iron trafficking in erythroblasts using the MDS mouse model. However, the evidence supporting the claims of the authors is still inadequate. The work will be of interest to medical biologists working on hematology.

Reviewed by eLife

On the computational principles underlying human exploration

1. Lior Fox
2. Ohad Dan
3. Yonatan Loewenstein

The antigenic landscape of human influenza N2 neuraminidases from 2009 until 2017

1. João Paulo Portela Catani
2. Anouk Smet
3. Tine Ysenbaert
4. Marnik Vuylsteke
5. Guy Bottu
6. Janick Mathys
7. Alexander Botzki
8. Guadalupe Cortes-Garcia
9. Tod Strugnell
10. Raul Gomila
11. John Hamberger
12. John Catalan
13. Irina V Ustyugova
14. Timothy Farrell
15. Svetlana Stegalkina
16. Satyajit Ray
17. Lauren LaRue
18. Xavier Saelens
19. Thorsten U Vogel

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents valuable data on the antigenic properties of neuraminidase proteins of human A/H3N2 influenza viruses sampled between 2009 and 2017. The antigenic properties are found to be generally concordant with genetic groups. Compared to a previous version, additional analyses have strengthened the work, with solid evidence supporting the claims of the authors.

Reviewed by eLife

Morphology and ultrastructure of external sense organs of Drosophila larvae

1. Vincent Richter
2. Anna Rist
3. Georg Kislinger
4. Michael Laumann
5. Andreas Schoofs
6. Anton Miroschnikow
7. Michael Pankratz
8. Albert Cardona
9. Andreas S. Thum

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The manuscript from Richter et al. is a very thorough anatomical description of the external sensory organs in Drosophila larvae. It represents a fundamental step forward for sensory physiology, and provides a tool for investigating the relationship between the structure and function of sensory organs. Using improved electron microscopy analysis and digital modelling, the authors provide compelling evidence that form the basis for further molecular and functional studies to decipher the sensory strategies used by larvae to navigate through their environment.

Reviewed by eLife

Transformation of valence signaling in a mouse striatopallidal circuit

1. Donghyung Lee
2. Nathan Lau
3. Lillian Liu
4. Cory M Root

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study by Lee and colleagues examined how neural representations are transformed between the olfactory tubercle (OT) and the ventral pallidum (VP) using single neuron calcium imaging in head-fixed mice trained in classical conditioning. They show that the dimensionality of neural responses is lower in the VP than in the OT and suggest that VP responses represent values in a more abstract form at the single neuron level while OT contains more odor information, potentially enhancing odor contrast. The results are overall convincing and this study provides insights into how odor information is transformed in the olfactory system.

Reviewed by eLife

Theta cycle dynamics of spatial representations in the lateral septum

1. Katarzyna Bzymek
2. Fabian Kloosterman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  In this study, the authors present convincing evidence to demonstrate theta cycle skipping by individual neurons of the lateral septum, which they then relate to population coding of future trajectories encapsulated by theta cycles. This valuable finding furthers our understanding of how the septum conveys navigational information downstream.

Reviewed by eLife

Updating the sulcal landscape of the human lateral parieto-occipital junction provides anatomical, functional, and cognitive insights

1. Ethan H Willbrand
2. Yi-Heng Tsai
3. Thomas Gagnant
4. Kevin S Weiner

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The present work provides new insights into detailed brain morphology. Using state-of-the-art methods, it provides compelling evidence for the relevance of sucal morphology for the precise localization of brain function. The fundamental findings have great relevance for the fields of imaging neuroscience and individualized medicine as ever-improving techniques improve precision to the point where individual brain anatomy is taking centre stage.

Reviewed by eLife

Neurophysiological trajectories in Alzheimer’s disease progression

1. Kiwamu Kudo
2. Kamalini G Ranasinghe
3. Hirofumi Morise
4. Faatimah Syed
5. Kensuke Sekihara
6. Katherine P Rankin
7. Bruce L Miller
8. Joel H Kramer
9. Gil D Rabinovici
10. Keith Vossel
11. Heidi E Kirsch
12. Srikantan S Nagarajan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This work presents important findings for the field of Alzheimer's disease, especially for the electrophysiology subfield, by investigating the temporal evolution of different disease stages typically reported using M/EEG markers of resting-state brain activity. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing and the methodology as well as the descriptions of the processes are of high quality, although a separation of individuals who are biomarker positive versus negative would have strengthened the results and conclusions of the study.

Reviewed by eLife

Cerebellar nuclei cells produce distinct pathogenic spike signatures in mouse models of ataxia, dystonia, and tremor

1. Meike E van der Heijden
2. Amanda M Brown
3. Dominic J Kizek
4. Roy V Sillitoe

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors' dataset and analysis provide a fundamental new understanding of how cerebellar output contributes to various cerebellar-dependent diseases. The observation that different firing statistics at the level of the cerebellar nuclei directly impart disease-specific phenotypes is quite convincing. The classifier used in the manuscript remains a potential weak-point, showing limited efficacy, particularly for identifying mice with tremor. The concern about classifier accuracy is ameliorated by the fact that the classifier parameters are easily interpretable, and allowed the authors to use these parameters to design stimulation experiments.

Reviewed by eLife

Representational drift as a result of implicit regularization

1. Aviv Ratzon
2. Dori Derdikman
3. Omri Barak

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents a new and important theoretical account of spatial representational drift in the hippocampus. The evidence supporting the claims is convincing, with a clear and accessible explanation of the phenomenon. Overall, this study will likely attract researchers exploring learning and representation in both biological and artificial neural networks.

Reviewed by eLife

An emerging view of neural geometry in motor cortex supports high-performance decoding

1. Sean M Perkins
2. Elom A Amematsro
3. John Cunningham
4. Qi Wang
5. Mark M Churchland

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This paper presents a new method called MINT that is effective at BCI-style decoding tasks. The authors show convincing evidence to support their claims regarding how MINT is a new method that produces excellent decoding performance relative to the state-of-the-art. This work is important and will be of broad interest to neuroscientists and neuroengineers.

Reviewed by eLife

A preclinical model of THC edibles that produces high-dose cannabimimetic responses

1. Anthony English
2. Fleur Uittenbogaard
3. Alexa Torrens
4. Dennis Sarroza
5. Anna Veronica Elizabeth Slaven
6. Daniele Piomelli
7. Michael R Bruchas
8. Nephi Stella
9. Benjamin Bruce Land

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study presents the validation of an oral delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) consumption mouse model utilizing highly palatable e-capsule gelatin. The results convincingly demonstrate that oral consumption produced THC behavioral and physiological effects, as well as measurable brain levels. The utility of the model for chronic consumption remains to be determined. The authors have clearly acknowledged limitations of their model and areas for future study and development. As the field of cannabinoid research moves toward application of routes of administration that mimic human use, these model systems will be pivotal in assessing the effects of cannabinoid-based drugs.

Reviewed by eLife

Novel discoveries and enhanced genomic prediction from modelling genetic risk of cancer age-at-onset

1. Ekaterina S. Maksimova
2. Sven E. Ojavee
3. Kristi Läll
4. Marie C. Sadler
5. Reedik Mägi
6. Zoltan Kutalik
7. Matthew R. Robinson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript is a useful contribution to the field of complex trait genomics. The study does have some real strengths, such as focusing on cancer age-of-onset, developing methods for this unusual trait and using two cohorts. However, the significance of findings is difficult to evaluate without further comparisons and validations, leaving the work in its current form incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Sex chromosome gene expression associated with vocal learning following hormonal manipulation in female zebra finches

1. Matthew H Davenport
2. Ha Na Choe
3. Hiroaki Matsunami
4. Erich D Jarvis

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study is valuable as it provides information about the genes regulated by sex hormone treatment in song nuclei and other brain regions and suggests candidate genes that might induce sexual dimorphism in the zebra finch brain. The analysis presented is thorough and detailed. Whereas the evidence for gene regulation by hormone treatment is well supported, the evidence for an association of those genes with song learning (as written in the title) is incompletely supported as no manipulation of song learning or song analysis was conducted.

Reviewed by eLife

PI3Kα inhibition blocks osteochondroprogenitor specification and the hyper-inflammatory response to prevent heterotopic ossification

1. José Antonio Valer
2. Alexandre Deber
3. Marius Wits
4. Carolina Pimenta-Lopes
5. Marie-José Goumans
6. José Luis Rosa
7. Gonzalo Sánchez-Duffhues
8. Francesc Ventura

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides valuable insights by demonstrating that BYL719 is a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of heterotopic ossification (HO), with inhibition of PI3Ka via BYL719 appearing to be a critical factor. However, the results of the study are incomplete because BYL719 affects multiple intracellular signaling pathways beyond PI3Ka, and it thus remains uncertain whether BYL719 attenuates HO exclusively through suppression of the PI3Ka pathway or through modulation of alternative signaling pathways. A detailed elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of action of BYL719 is essential for a thorough understanding of its effects.

Reviewed by eLife

Stumpy forms are the predominant transmissible forms of Trypanosoma brucei

1. Jean Marc Tsagmo Ngoune
2. Parul Sharma
3. Aline Crouzols
4. Nathalie Petiot
5. Brice Rotureau

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  For decades it has been accepted that only the growth-arrested "stumpy" form of Trypanosoma brucei can infect the arthropod vector, the Tsetse fly, but this was recently challenged by a demonstration that - under artificial conditions that are known to enhance infectivity - the proliferative "slender" form can also establish Tsetse infections. The infectiousness of the two forms is a fundamental question in trypanosome biology and epidemiology, concerning both infection dynamics and parasite differentiation. The authors of the current study provide compelling evidence that without artificial enhancement, the "stumpy" form is indeed much more infective for Tsetse than the slender form; they suggest that this is probably also true in the wild. Since the authors of this paper did not themselves test the effect of enhancing conditions, the precise reason for the discrepancy in results between the two laboratories has not been demonstrated conclusively.

Reviewed by eLife

Warming and altered precipitation independently and interactively suppress alpine soil microbial growth in a decadal-long experiment

1. Yang Ruan
2. Ning Ling
3. Shengjing Jiang
4. Xin Jing
5. Jin-Sheng He
6. Qirong Shen
7. Zhibiao Nan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study addresses the long-term effect of warming and precipitation on microbial growth, as a proxy for understanding the impact of global warming. The evidence that warming and altered precipitation exhibit antagonistic effects on bacterial growth is compelling and advances our understanding of microbial dynamics affected by environmental factors. This study will interest microbial ecologists, microbiologists, and scientists generally concerned with climate change.

Reviewed by eLife

Post-EMT: Cadherin-11 mediates cancer hijacking fibroblasts

1. Weirong Kang
2. Yibo Fan
3. Yinxiao Du
4. Elina A. Tonkova
5. Yi-Hsin Hsu
6. Kel Vin Tan
7. Stephanie Alexander
8. Bin Sheng Wong
9. Haocheng Yang
10. Jingyuan Luo
11. Kuo Yao
12. Jiayao Yang
13. Xin Hu
14. Tingting Liu
15. Yu Gan
16. Jian Zhang
17. Jean J. Zhao
18. Konstantinos Konstantopoulos
19. Peter Friedl
20. Pek Lan Khong
21. Aiping Lu
22. Mien-Chie Hung
23. Michael B. Brenner
24. Jeffrey E. Segall
25. Zhizhan Gu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper presents a series of experiments investigating the role of cadherin-11 mediated interactions between cancer cells and fibroblasts in metastasis using updated 3D cell co-invasion assays. The primarily descriptive data are a valuable contribution to our understanding of the nature of cross cell-type interactions in metastasis, but are incomplete with respect to the far-reaching conclusions about the central role cadherin-11, especially given the complex nature of the phenotype and the need to better contextualize these observations in a complete picture of metastasis.

Reviewed by eLife

Pleiotropic effects of trisomy and pharmacologic modulation on structural, functional, molecular, and genetic systems in a Down syndrome mouse model

1. Sergi Llambrich
2. Birger Tielemans
3. Ellen Saliën
4. Marta Atzori
5. Kaat Wouters
6. Vicky Van Bulck
7. Mark Platt
8. Laure Vanherp
9. Nuria Gallego Fernandez
10. Laura Grau de la Fuente
11. Harish Poptani
12. Lieve Verlinden
13. Uwe Himmelreich
14. Anca Croitor
15. Catia Attanasio
16. Zsuzsanna Callaerts-Vegh
17. Willy Gsell
18. Neus Martínez-Abadías
19. Greetje Vande Velde

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents valuable findings that examine both how Down syndrome (DS)-related physiological, behavioral, and phenotypic traits track across time, as well as how chronic treatment with green tea extracts 25 enriched in epigallocatechin-3-gallate (GTE-EGCG), administered in drinking water spanning prenatal through 5 months of age, impacts these measures in wild-type and Ts65Dn mice. The strength of the evidence is solid, due to high variability across measures, perhaps in part attributable to a failure to include sex as a factor for measures known to be sexually dimorphic. This study is of interest to scientists interested in Down Syndrome and its treatment, as well as scientists who study disorders that impact multiple organ systems.

Reviewed by eLife