Neuroscience

A Connectome of the Male Drosophila Ventral Nerve Cord

1. Shin-ya Takemura
2. Kenneth J Hayworth
3. Gary B Huang
4. Michal Januszewski
5. Zhiyuan Lu
6. Elizabeth C Marin
7. Stephan Preibisch
8. C Shan Xu
9. John Bogovic
10. Andrew S Champion
11. Han SJ Cheong
12. Marta Costa
13. Katharina Eichler
14. William Katz
15. Christopher Knecht
16. Feng Li
17. Billy J Morris
18. Christopher Ordish
19. Patricia K Rivlin
20. Philipp Schlegel
21. Kazunori Shinomiya
22. Tomke Stürner
23. Ting Zhao
24. Griffin Badalamente
25. Dennis Bailey
26. Paul Brooks
27. Brandon S Canino
28. Jody Clements
29. Michael Cook
30. Octave Duclos
31. Christopher R Dunne
32. Kelli Fairbanks
33. Siqi Fang
34. Samantha Finley-May
35. Audrey Francis
36. Reed George
37. Marina Gkantia
38. Kyle Harrington
39. Gary Patrick Hopkins
40. Joseph Hsu
41. Philip M Hubbard
42. Alexandre Javier
43. Dagmar Kainmueller
44. Wyatt Korff
45. Julie Kovalyak
46. Dominik Krzemiński
47. Shirley A Lauchie
48. Alanna Lohff
49. Charli Maldonado
50. Emily A Manley
51. Caroline Mooney
52. Erika Neace
53. Matthew Nichols
54. Omotara Ogundeyi
55. Nneoma Okeoma
56. Tyler Paterson
57. Elliott Phillips
58. Emily M Phillips
59. Caitlin Ribeiro
60. Sean M Ryan
61. Jon Thomson Rymer
62. Anne K Scott
63. Ashley L Scott
64. David Shepherd
65. Aya Shinomiya
66. Claire Smith
67. Natalie Smith
68. Alia Suleiman
69. Satoko Takemura
70. Iris Talebi
71. Imaan FM Tamimi
72. Eric T Trautman
73. Lowell Umayam
74. John J Walsh
75. Tansy Yang
76. Gerald M Rubin
77. Louis K Scheffer
78. Jan Funke
79. Stephan Saalfeld
80. Harald F Hess
81. Stephen M Plaza
82. Gwyneth M Card
83. Gregory SXE Jefferis
84. Stuart Berg

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This landmark paper introduces the generation and analysis of a connectome resource of the entire ventral nerve cord of a fruit fly which is one of the top model organisms to investigate how a nervous system forms and functions. The work introduces new and improved approaches - from tissue preparation to automated reconstruction - to generate a detailed connectome from a complex adult ventral nerve cord. This extensive new dataset provides cell type and lineage annotations, putative neurotransmitter expression information, and the potential to link to genetic driver lines, with compelling evidence to support the claims made.

Reviewed by eLife

An atlas of brain-bone sympathetic neural circuits in mice

1. Vitaly Ryu
2. Anisa Azatovna Gumerova
3. Ronit Witztum
4. Funda Korkmaz
5. Liam Cullen
6. Hasni Kannangara
7. Ofer Moldavski
8. Orly Barak
9. Daria Lizneva
10. Ki A Goosens
11. Sarah Stanley
12. Se-Min Kim
13. Tony Yuen
14. Mone Zaidi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This fundamental work advances our understanding of the central coding and control mechanisms regulating sympathetic nervous system efferent signals to bone. The evidence supporting the conclusion is mostly convincing, although the inclusion of higher resolution images for certain data and further discussions would strengthen the study. This paper holds potential interest for skeletal biologists and neuroscientists who study the brain-bone sympathetic neural circuits.

Reviewed by eLife

White matter structural bases for phase accuracy during tapping synchronization

1. Pamela Garcia-Saldivar
2. Cynthia de León
3. Felipe A Mendez Salcido
4. Luis Concha
5. Hugo Merchant

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper is valuable in that it provides a critical missing link between measures of structural connectivity and rhythmic tapping abilities, pointing to some interesting possibilities for how tapping synchronization is carried out. The methodology and findings are solid, and of interest to those studying the neural mechanisms of timing.

Reviewed by eLife

Convergence of inputs from the basal ganglia with layer 5 of motor cortex and cerebellum in mouse motor thalamus

1. Kevin P Koster
2. S Murray Sherman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This investigation marks an important advancement in our understanding of motor thalamus connectivity, illustrating a complex integration of inputs that reshapes previous models. The study utilizes compelling methodologies that expose a dynamic synaptic network, although the evidence of triple-input convergence on individual neurons and for multiple driver type inputs onto motor thalamic neurons remains incomplete. Despite this, the findings provide a persuasive rationale for revisiting our perceptions of the thalamic role in motor control, with a call for further studies to substantiate the breadth of these functional interactions.

Reviewed by eLife

BDNF signaling requires Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 during structural synaptic plasticity

1. Diana Legutko
2. Bożena Kuźniewska
3. Katarzyna Kalita
4. Ryohei Yasuda
5. Leszek Kaczmarek
6. Piotr Michaluk

Reviewed by Review Commons

Specific and comprehensive genetic targeting reveals brain-wide distribution and synaptic input patterns of GABAergic axo-axonic interneurons

1. Ricardo Raudales
2. Gukhan Kim
3. Sean M Kelly
4. Joshua Hatfield
5. Wuqiang Guan
6. Shengli Zhao
7. Anirban Paul
8. Yongjun Qian
9. Bo Li
10. Z Josh Huang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors develop a novel genetic strategy for specific and comprehensive labeling of axo-axonic cells, also referred to as chandelier cells, in the mouse brain. The approach and analysis are rigorous such that the data convincingly support the key conclusions, including the expanded distribution of axo-axonic cells throughout the brain. This study provides important new information about the distribution of a significant neuronal cell type, as well as new tools for future studies. This work will be of broad interest to neuroscientists who work on the anatomical and functional organization of neural circuits.

Reviewed by eLife

Brain age has limited utility as a biomarker for capturing fluid cognition in older individuals

1. Alina Tetereva
2. Narun Pat

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This useful manuscript challenges the utility of current paradigms for estimating brain-age with magnetic resonance imaging measures. It presents solid evidence to support the suggestion that an alternative approach focused on predicting cognition may be more beneficial. This work will be of interest to researchers working on brain-age and related models.

Reviewed by eLife

Rule-based modulation of a sensorimotor transformation across cortical areas

1. Yi-Ting Chang
2. Eric A Finkel
3. Duo Xu
4. Daniel H O'Connor

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important work advances our understanding of how brains flexibly gate actions in different contexts, a topic of great interest to the broader field of systems neuroscience. Recording neural activity from several sensory and motor cortical areas along a sensorimotor pathway, the authors found that preparatory activity in motor cortical areas of the mouse depends on the context in which an action will be carried out, consistent with previous theoretical and experimental work. Furthermore, the authors provide causal evidence that these changes support flexible gating of actions. The carefully carried out experiments were analyzed using state-of-the-art methodology and provide convincing conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Single-cell RNA sequencing of iPSC-derived brain organoids reveals Treponema pallidum infection inhibiting neurodevelopment

1. Qiu-Yan Xu
2. Yong-Jing Wang
3. Yun He
4. Xin-Qi Zheng
5. Man-Li Tong
6. Yu Lin
7. Tian-Ci Yang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is a valuable study that describes the effects of T. pallidum on neural development by applying single-cell RNA sequencing to an iPSC-derived brain organoid model. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although further evidence to understand the differences in infection rates would strengthen the conclusions of the study. In particular, the conclusions would be strengthened by validating infection efficiency as this can impact the interpretation of single-cell sequencing results, and how these metrics affect organoid size as well as comparison with additional infectious agents. Furthermore, additional functional validations of downstream effectors could be insightful.

Reviewed by eLife

Semaphorin7A patterns neural circuitry in the lateral line of the zebrafish

1. Agnik Dasgupta
2. Caleb C Reagor
3. Sang Peter Paik
4. Lauren M Snow
5. Adrian Jacobo
6. AJ Hudspeth

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The valuable findings by Dasgupta et al demonstrate the role of Sema7a in fine tuning the morphology of the microcircuit between afferent axons and sensory hair cells in the lateral line organ. The loss and gain of function evidence provides solid support for a role for Sema7a in this process. Additional work is needed to determine the role for different isoforms in Sema7a-mediated synapse formation and chemoattraction as well as cell type specificity.

Reviewed by eLife