Neuroscience

SAFB regulates hippocampal stem cell fate by targeting Drosha to destabilize Nfib mRNA

1. Pascal Forcella
2. Niklas Ifflander
3. Chiara Rolando
4. Elli-Anna Balta
5. Aikaterini Lampada
6. Claudio Giachino
7. Tanzila Mukhtar
8. Thomas Bock
9. Verdon Taylor

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript addresses a non-canonical function of the Class 2 ribonuclease III Drosha in the regulation of adult neural stem cell fate, important for understanding how these cells generate neurons or oligodendrocytic cells.
  Overall, this manuscript has many strengths. The authors identify 165 proteins, several of them enriched in neural stem cells, and potentially specific for miRNA dependent or independent Drosha macromolecular complexes.
  While the authors provide systematic and convincing evidence on the biochemical interactions among the key players in this cascade, the significance of these interactions for neural stem cell fate determination in vivo remains unclear, as the in vitro cellular systems used to document most of the data reported in the paper may not (fully) represent resident neural stem cells in the adult hippocampus. The in vivo function mediated by Drosha/ Safb1 needs to be substantiated by more evidence and/or complementary approaches.

Reviewed by eLife

Maturation of cortical input to dorsal raphe nucleus increases behavioral persistence in mice

1. Nicolas Gutierrez-Castellanos
2. Dario Sarra
3. Beatriz S Godinho
4. Zachary F Mainen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  In this important study, the authors explore the importance of developmental changes in cortico-DRN innervation in the balance of behavioral control in a foraging task. The authors report somewhat convincing evidence that while juvenile mice and adult mice both perform the task, juveniles exhibit more impulsive behavior due to reduced efficacy of cortico-DRN projections. The authors conclude that the development of cortico-DRN (esp mPFC) projections allows 5HT input to promote perseveration (or exploitation) in the balance of behavioral control. However, reviewers raised issues regarding the strength of the evidence without further experiments.

Reviewed by eLife

Parallel processing of quickly and slowly mobilized reserve vesicles in hippocampal synapses

1. Juan Jose Rodriguez Gotor
2. Kashif Mahfooz
3. Isabel Perez-Otano
4. John F Wesseling

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study addresses the long-standing question as to how different functional pools of synaptic vesicles are organized in presynaptic terminals to mediate different modes of neurotransmitter release. Based on imaging of active synapses with recycling synaptic vesicles labeled by FM-styryl dyes, the authors provide data that are compatible with the hypothesis that two separate reserve pools of vesicles – slowly vs. rapidly mobilizing – feed two distinct releasable pools – reluctantly vs. rapidly releasing. Overall, this study represents a valuable contribution to the field of synapse biology, specifically to presynaptic dynamics and plasticity. The authors' methodological approach of using bulk FM-styryl dye destaining as a readout of precise vesicle arrangements and pools in a population of functionally very diverse synapses has limitations. Consequently, the evidence that directly supports the authors' two-pool-interpretation of their data is incomplete, and alternative interpretations of the data remain possible.

Reviewed by eLife

Iron-sulfur cluster loss in mitochondrial CISD1 mediates PINK1 loss-of-function phenotypes

1. Sara Bitar
2. Timo Baumann
3. Christopher Weber
4. Majd Abusaada
5. Liliana Rojas-Charry
6. Patrick Ziegler
7. Thomas Schettgen
8. Isabella Eva Randerath
9. Vivek Venkataramani
10. Bernhard Michalke
11. Eva-Maria Hanschmann
12. Giuseppe Arena
13. Rejko Krueger
14. Li Zhang
15. Axel Methner

Reviewed by Review Commons

TRESK background potassium channel in MrgprA3 ⁺ pruriceptors regulates acute and chronic itch

1. Júlia Llimós-Aubach
2. Alba Andres-Bilbe
3. Anna Pujol-Coma
4. Irene Pallás
5. Josep Maria de Anta
6. Concepció Soler
7. Núria Comes
8. Gerard Callejo
9. Xavier Gasull

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

A thin-film optogenetic visual prosthesis

1. Eric B Knudsen
2. Kara Zappitelli
3. Jennifer Brown
4. Jonathan Reeder
5. Kevin Sean Smith
6. Marat Rostov
7. Jaebin Choi
8. Amy Rochford
9. Nate Slager
10. Satoru K Miura
11. Kyle Rodgers
12. Ansel Reed
13. Yonatan R Lewis Israeli
14. Seton Shiraga
15. Kyung Jin Seo
16. Corey Wolin
17. Paul Dawson
18. Mohamed Eltaeb
19. Arvind Dasgupta
20. Max Rothman
21. Eugene Yoon
22. Paul Chong
23. Seleipiri Charles
24. Jay M. Stewart
25. Ruwan A Silva
26. Tyson Kim
27. Yifan Kong
28. Alan R Mardinly
29. Max Hodak

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

A new look at the architecture and dynamics of the Hydra nerve net

1. Athina Keramidioti
2. Sandra Schneid
3. Christina Busse
4. Christoph Cramer von Laue
5. Bianca Bertulat
6. Willi Salvenmoser
7. Martin Hess
8. Olga Alexandrova
9. Kristine M Glauber
10. Robert E Steele
11. Bert Hobmayer
12. Thomas W Holstein
13. Charles N David

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This work presents important findings on the cellular and ultrastructural organization of the nervous system in the freshwater polyp Hydra. The authors present outstanding imaging data with convincing evidence to support their claims. The manuscript provides a starting point for further functional in vivo studies. The work will be of interest to developmental biologists and neurobiologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Plasticity of gene expression in the nervous system by exposure to environmental odorants that inhibit HDACs

1. Sachiko Haga-Yamanaka
2. Rogelio Nunez-Flores
3. Christi A Scott
4. Sarah Perry
5. Stephanie Turner Chen
6. Crystal Pontrello
7. Meera G Nair
8. Anandasankar Ray

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This interesting and important work shows that diacety, a volatile organic compound released by yeast in fermenting fruit, can act as a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor and trigger wide changes in gene expression, together with suppression neurotoxicity in a Drosophila model of Huntington's disease. While the effects on gene expression changes and degenerative phenotypes are convincingly shown, further studies are required to determine whether and how olfactory sensory neurons and odorant receptors mediate the effects of diacetyl described by the authors.

Reviewed by eLife

Sequentially activated discrete modules appear as traveling waves in neuronal measurements with limited spatiotemporal sampling

1. Yuval Orsher
2. Ariel Rom
3. Rotem Perel
4. Yoav Lahini
5. Pablo Blinder
6. Mark Shein-Idelson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  In this important work, authors show that brain activity thought to be a travelling wave may just be a series of sequentially activated sources at the neuron spiking level. They support this with convincing results from a turtle cortex preparation and relevant simulations. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in understanding how cortical computations are made.

Reviewed by eLife

The LH receptor regulates hippocampal spatial memory and restores dendritic spine density in ovariectomized APP/PS1 AD mice

1. Megan Mey
2. Sabina Bhatta
3. Sneha Suresh
4. Luis Montero Labrador
5. Helen Piontkivska
6. Gemma Casadesus

Reviewed by Arcadia Science