Evaluated articles

The Toxoplasma monocarboxylate transporters are involved in the metabolism within the apicoplast and are linked to parasite survival

1. Hui Dong
2. Jiong Yang
3. Kai He
4. Wen-Bin Zheng
5. De-Hua Lai
6. Jing Liu
7. Hui-Yong Ding
8. Rui-Bin Wu
9. Kevin M Brown
10. Geoff Hide
11. Zhao-Rong Lun
12. Xing-Quan Zhu
13. Shaojun Long

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study identifies two new transporters in the apicoplast, a non-photosynthetic organelle of apicomplexan parasites. While this is important work, it only partially reveals how essential these transporters are, as it does not address the metabolic function of the transporters for the parasite. Although the evidence is still incomplete, the results should be of interest to parasitologists and eukaryotic cell biologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Epistasis facilitates functional evolution in an ancient transcription factor

1. Brian PH Metzger
2. Yeonwoo Park
3. Tyler N Starr
4. Joseph W Thornton

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study includes fundamental findings on protein evolution, namely that changes in function are largely attributable to pairwise rather than higher-order interactions, and that epistasis potentiates rather than constrains evolutionary paths. Compelling evidence supporting the conclusions is provided by applying a new model to a previously generated experimental dataset on deep mutational scanning of the DNA-binding domain (DBD) of steroid hormone receptor. The implications of this work are of considerable interest to protein biochemistry, evolutionary biology, and numerous other fields.

Reviewed by eLife

Delayed postglacial colonization of Betula in Iceland and the circum North Atlantic

1. David J Harning
2. Samuel Sacco
3. Kesara Anamthawat-Jónsson
4. Nicolò Ardenghi
5. Thor Thordarson
6. Jonathan H Raberg
7. Julio Sepúlveda
8. Áslaug Geirsdóttir
9. Beth Shapiro
10. Gifford H Miller

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable work on the paleovegetation history of Iceland has implications for the field of paleoecology, and the deglaciation history of Iceland and additional localities in Northern America and Europe via woody shrub colonization. The study uses a sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding approach to study this historic process. The strength of evidence is solid, with the methods (analysis of sedimentary DNA) and data analyses broadly supporting the claims.

Reviewed by eLife

Ryanodine receptor 2 inhibition reduces dispersion of cardiac repolarization, improves contractile function, and prevents sudden arrhythmic death in failing hearts

1. Pooja Joshi
2. Shanea Estes
3. Deeptankar DeMazumder
4. Bjorn C Knollmann
5. Swati Dey

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study examined the use of dantrolene, a Ryanodine Receptor stabilizer, in slowing pathological progression of pressure-overload heart failure in a guinea pig model and reducing arrhythmias. Convincing data were collected and analyzed using validated methodology and can be used as a starting point for future studies of dantrolene in Ca2+ handling in ROS production and further deterioration of cardiac function in chronic heart failure.

Reviewed by eLife

Recursive self-embedded vocal motifs in wild orangutans

1. Adriano R Lameira
2. Madeleine E Hardus
3. Andrea Ravignani
4. Teresa Raimondi
5. Marco Gamba

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The paper represents a novel application of recursion theory to the long call vocalisations of orangutans to demonstrate repetitive, rhythmic sub-structuring. The authors use detailed acoustic analyses to show compelling evidence for self-embedded and nested isochronic motifs. These fundamental results have the potential to significantly advance current approaches used to compare nonhuman communication systems with human language.

Reviewed by eLife

DYRK1A interacts with the tuberous sclerosis complex and promotes mTORC1 activity

1. Pinhua Wang
2. Sunayana Sarkar
3. Menghuan Zhang
4. Tingting Xiao
5. Fenhua Kong
6. Zhe Zhang
7. Deepa Balasubramanian
8. Nandan Jayaram
9. Sayantan Datta
10. Ruyu He
11. Ping Wu
12. Peng Chao
13. Ying Zhang
14. Michael Washburn
15. Laurence A Florens
16. Sonal Nagarkar-Jaiswal
17. Manish Jaiswal
18. Man Mohan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This fundamental study identifies the kinase DYRK1A as a novel component of the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) protein complex, which is central to cellular growth and cell size. The findings presented here have broad implications for how cell size and growth is regulated. The methodology and analysis are convincing and support the findings.

Reviewed by eLife

Optical mapping of ground reaction force dynamics in freely behaving Drosophila melanogaster larvae

1. Jonathan H Booth
2. Andrew T Meek
3. Nils M Kronenberg
4. Stefan R Pulver
5. Malte C Gather

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study reports important findings about new locomotory dynamics of crawling Drosophila larva based on imaging the reaction forces during larval crawling. The evidence with the new high-resolution microscopy method is compelling, as it significantly improves the spatial, temporal, and force resolution compared to previous methods for studying Drosophila larva and could be applied to other crawling organisms. The manuscript explains the new technology, WARP microscopy, and provides analysis of the data to characterize small animal behavior and discover new crawling-associated anatomical features and motor patterns. The work will be of interest to the broad neuroscience community interested in the mechanisms of locomotion in a highly tractable model.

Reviewed by eLife

Intra- and interspecific diversity in a tropical plant clade alter herbivory and ecosystem resilience

1. Ari Grele
2. Tara J Massad
3. Kathryn A Uckele
4. Lee A Dyer
5. Yasmine Antonini
6. Laura Braga
7. Matthew L Forister
8. Lidia Sulca
9. Massuo Kato
10. Humberto G Lopez
11. André R Nascimento
12. Thomas Parchman
13. Wilmer R Simbaña
14. Angela M Smilanich
15. John O Stireman
16. Eric J Tepe
17. Thomas Walla
18. Lora A Richards

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important, large experimental study examines the effects of plant species richness, plant genotypic richness, and soil water availability on herbivory patterns for Piper species in several tropical sites. The authors find solid evidence that water availability, as well as intra- and interspecific plant diversity, influence herbivory and herbivore diversity, but that the effects differ geographically.

Reviewed by eLife

Functional ultrasound imaging of stroke in awake rats

1. Clément Brunner
2. Gabriel Montaldo
3. Alan Urban

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important proof-of-concept study strongly supports the utility of functional ultrasound imaging for evaluating cerebral hemodynamics in rat models of brain injury. Functional ultrasound affords a distinct coverage/spatial/temporal resolution tradeoff when compared to other modalities for studying brain hemodynamics. The solid data presented indicate high fidelity of the recordings, a particular feat given that the rats were awake. On the other hand, single slice imaging and complexity of registration of subsequent imaging sessions limit the usefulness of the approach, particularly for quantitative imaging, and the small sample size will need to be followed up with and verified by future studies. This work will be of interest to researchers working in functional neuroimaging and more precisely with preclinical models of stroke in rodents.

Reviewed by eLife

I-Spin live, an open-source software based on blind-source separation for real-time decoding of motor unit activity in humans

1. Julien Rossato
2. François Hug
3. Kylie Tucker
4. Ciara Gibbs
5. Lilian Lacourpaille
6. Dario Farina
7. Simon Avrillon

Reviewed by eLife

Myomatrix arrays for high-definition muscle recording

1. Bryce Chung
2. Muneeb Zia
3. Kyle A Thomas
4. Jonathan A Michaels
5. Amanda Jacob
6. Andrea Pack
7. Matthew J Williams
8. Kailash Nagapudi
9. Lay Heng Teng
10. Eduardo Arrambide
11. Logan Ouellette
12. Nicole Oey
13. Rhuna Gibbs
14. Philip Anschutz
15. Jiaao Lu
16. Yu Wu
17. Mehrdad Kashefi
18. Tomomichi Oya
19. Rhonda Kersten
20. Alice C Mosberger
21. Sean O'Connell
22. Runming Wang
23. Hugo Marques
24. Ana Rita Mendes
25. Constanze Lenschow
26. Gayathri Kondakath
27. Jeong Jun Kim
28. William Olson
29. Kiara N Quinn
30. Pierce Perkins
31. Graziana Gatto
32. Ayesha Thanawalla
33. Susan Coltman
34. Taegyo Kim
35. Trevor Smith
36. Ben Binder-Markey
37. Martin Zaback
38. Christopher K Thompson
39. Simon Giszter
40. Abigail Person
41. Martyn Goulding
42. Eiman Azim
43. Nitish Thakor
44. Daniel O'Connor
45. Barry Trimmer
46. Susana Q Lima
47. Megan R Carey
48. Chethan Pandarinath
49. Rui M Costa
50. J Andrew Pruszynski
51. Muhannad Bakir
52. Samuel J Sober

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important paper reports major technical advances for in vivo intramuscular electrical recording from multiple motor units in behaving animals. The paper includes compelling demonstrations of the efficacy of this new technique in multiple animal species. This new muscle recording method has the potential to provide new insight into a wide range of questions in motor neuroscience.

Reviewed by eLife

SNAP25 disease mutations change the energy landscape for synaptic exocytosis due to aberrant SNARE interactions

1. Anna Kádková
2. Jacqueline Murach
3. Maiken Østergaard
4. Andrea Malsam
5. Jörg Malsam
6. Fabio Lolicato
7. Walter Nickel
8. Thomas H Söllner
9. Jakob Balslev Sørensen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study documents important findings on three variants in SNAP25 that are associated with developmental and epileptic encephalopathy. The thorough characterization of synaptic release and in vitro vesicle fusion phenotypes provides interesting information about the nature of the SNAP25 variants. The evidence supporting the claims is compelling, and this work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on SNAP25, SNAP25-associated encephalopathy, and synaptic vesicle exocytosis.

Reviewed by eLife

Differential increase of hippocampal subfield volume after socio-affective mental training relates to reductions in diurnal cortisol

1. Sofie Louise Valk
2. Veronika Engert
3. Lara Puhlmann
4. Roman Linz
5. Benoit Caldairou
6. Andrea Bernasconi
7. Neda Bernasconi
8. Boris C Bernhardt
9. Tania Singer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important work examines the potential utility of socio-emotional and socio-cognitive mental training on hippocampal subfield structure and function, and cortisol levels. The authors provide convincing evidence that CA1-3 volume is sensitive to socio-emotional training, with changes related to function plasticity and cortisol levels. Further, the authors provide evidence of change across all subfields and training modules related to stress.

Reviewed by eLife

Trends in self-citation rates in high-impact neurology, neuroscience, and psychiatry journals

1. Matthew Rosenblatt
2. Saloni Mehta
3. Hannah Peterson
4. Javid Dadashkarimi
5. Raimundo Rodriguez
6. Maya L Foster
7. Brendan D Adkinson
8. Qinghao Liang
9. Violet M Kimble
10. Jean Ye
11. Marie C McCusker
12. Michael C Farruggia
13. Max J Rolison
14. Margaret L Westwater
15. Rongtao Jiang
16. Stephanie Noble
17. Dustin Scheinost

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study examines how self-citations in selected neurology, neuroscience, and psychiatry journals differ according to seniority, geography, gender and subfield. The evidence supporting the claims is convincing, and the article is a valuable addition to the literature on self-citations.

Reviewed by eLife

Combined transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography reveals alterations in cortical excitability during pain

1. Nahian Shahmat Chowdhury
2. Alan KI Chiang
3. Samantha K Millard
4. Patrick Skippen
5. Wei-Ju Chang
6. David A Seminowicz
7. Siobhan M Schabrun

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study provides convincing evidence that acute experimental pain induces changes of cortical excitability. Although the modality specificity of the findings is not fully clear, the findings will be of interest to researchers interested in the brain mechanisms of pain.

Reviewed by eLife

Primaquine in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency: an adaptive pharmacometric assessment of ascending dose regimens in healthy volunteers

1. Sasithon Pukrittayakamee
2. Podjanee Jittamala
3. James A Watson
4. Borimas Hanboonkunupakarn
5. Pawanrat Leungsinsiri
6. Kittiyod Poovorawan
7. Kesinee Chotivanich
8. Germana Bancone
9. Cindy S Chu
10. Mallika Imwong
11. Nicholas PJ Day
12. Walter RJ Taylor
13. Nicholas J White

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript addresses an important question, that in countries endemic for P vivax the need to administer a primaquine (PQ) course adequate to prevent relapse in G6PD deficient persons poses a real dilemma. On one hand PQ will cause haemolysis; on the other hand, without PQ the chance of relapse is very high. As a result, out of fear of severe haemolysis, PQ has been under-used. This manuscript is convincing that regimen (1) can be used successfully to deliver within 3 weeks, under hospital conditions, the dose of PQ required to prevent P vivax relapse.

Reviewed by eLife

Discovery and characterization of cross-reactive intrahepatic antibodies in severe alcoholic hepatitis

1. Ali Reza Ahmadi
2. Guang Song
3. Tianshun Gao
4. Jing Ma
5. Xiaomei Han
6. Ming-Wen Hu
7. Andrew M Cameron
8. Russell N Wesson
9. Benjamin Philosophe
10. Shane Ottmann
11. Elizabeth King
12. Ahmet Gurakar
13. Le Qi
14. Brandon Peiffer
15. James Burdick
16. Robert Anders
17. Zhanxiang Zhou
18. Hongkun Lu
19. Dechun Feng
20. Chien-Sheng Chen
21. Jiang Qian
22. Bin Gao
23. Heng Zhu
24. Zhaoli Sun

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study tested the hypothesis that liver-derived but not serum-derived antibodies that are cross-reactive to E.coli and to host proteins can play a role in the hepatic damage found in severe alcoholic hepatitis (SAH). Using a solid methodology that includes state-of-the-art microscopy, proteome arrays, and gene ontology assays, it provides strong evidence that liver-derived IgG and IgA with cytotoxic properties and reactivity to both gut-derived E.coli and autoantigens accumulated in hepatocytes of SAH patients but not of healthy controls. The study would benefit from a broader analysis of gut microbiota proteome and further characterization of B cells infiltrating the liver tissue including their numbers/field and their origin (infiltrating versus resident cells). The work opens new avenues of understanding for the pathogenesis of severe alcoholic hepatitis and is of great interest to researchers and clinicians in the field.

Reviewed by eLife

ARID1A governs the silencing of sex-linked transcription during male meiosis in the mouse

1. Debashish U Menon
2. Prabuddha Chakraborty
3. Noel Murcia
4. Terry Magnuson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents a valuable dataset regarding chromatin remodeling by the BAF complex in the context of meiotic sex chromosome inactivation. Solid data generally support the conclusions, although the partial deletion of the BAF complex in the germline could be considered limiting. This work will be of interest to researchers working on chromatin and reproductive biology.

Reviewed by eLife

FMRP regulates postnatal neuronal migration via MAP1B

1. Salima Messaoudi
2. Ada Allam
3. Julie Stoufflet
4. Theo Paillard
5. Anaïs Le Ven
6. Coralie Fouquet
7. Mohamed Doulazmi
8. Alain Trembleau
9. Isabelle Caille

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study addresses the role of FMRP in the migration of newborn neuroblasts in the postnatal brain. Through extensive and convincing analysis of living imaging videos, the authors showed that neurons with FMRP deletion migrate aberrantly and exhibit defects in nucleokinesis and centrokinesis. The study presents a valuable finding on the mechanism of neuroblast migration in the postnatal brain.

Reviewed by eLife

Reward contingency gates selective cholinergic suppression of amygdala neurons

1. Eyal Y Kimchi
2. Anthony Burgos-Robles
3. Gillian A Matthews
4. Tatenda Chakoma
5. Makenzie Patarino
6. Javier C Weddington
7. Cody Siciliano
8. Wannan Yang
9. Shaun Foutch
10. Renee Simons
11. Ming-fai Fong
12. Miao Jing
13. Yulong Li
14. Daniel B Polley
15. Kay M Tye

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable manuscript examines the role of basal forebrain cholinergic (ACh) projection neurons and their inputs to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and effects on BLA activity during reward seeking. The manuscript provides compelling evidence that ACh may have different effects on network activity in the BLA depending on the state of the network during reward engagement, whereas behavioural data indicating that these ACh neurons/inputs are involved in uncued reward seeking specifically is somewhat less complete. The paper will be of interest to those studying amygdala circuitry, reward processing, and neuromodulation broadly defined.

Reviewed by eLife