Neuroscience

Complex environmental cycles reveal evolution of circadian activity waveform and thermosensitive timeless splicing

1. Pragya Niraj Sharma
2. Vasu Sheeba

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study examines how mismatched light and temperature cycles shape Drosophila locomotor timing and temperature-dependent timeless splicing, and leverages long-term early/late selection lines to probe evolutionary plasticity. The strength of evidence is incomplete at present, mainly because startle/masking under step cues could confound the behavioural readouts, and tim's involvement remains correlative. The authors should address masking in the behaviour analyses and provide causal support for tim's role.

Reviewed by eLife

Skull Bone Marrow Drainage and Its Associations with Inflammation, Sleep Quality, and Cognitive Performance

1. Ying Zhou
2. Haidi Jin
3. Xiao Zhu
4. Yifei Li
5. Ziyu Zhou
6. Xin Huang
7. Huihong Ke
8. Mengmeng Fang
9. Jianzhong Sun
10. Min Lou

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is a well-executed intrathecal MRI tracer study that provides valuable early in vivo evidence for CSF drainage into human skull bone marrow and explores clinically relevant associations using robust imaging methodology and regional analyses. However, the evidence supporting the interpretation of early (4 h) tracer signal as impaired clearance is incomplete, and appears difficult to reconcile with established CSF tracer kinetics. They also note that the reported links to sleep and cognitive performance are weakened by reliance on subjective, retrospective questionnaires rather than objective physiological measurements.

Reviewed by eLife

Domain-adaptive matching bridges synthetic and in vivo neural dynamics for neural circuit connectivity inference

1. Kaiwen Sheng
2. Shanghang Zhang
3. Shenjian Zhang
4. Yutao He
5. Maxime Beau
6. Peng Qu
7. Xiaofei Liu
8. Youhui Zhang
9. Lei Ma
10. Kai Du

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This article reports an algorithm for inferring the presence of synaptic connection between neurons based on naturally occurring spiking activity of a neuronal network. One key improvement is to combine self-supervised and synthetic approaches to learn to focus on features that generalize to the conditions of the observed network. This valuable contribution is currently supported by incomplete evidence.

Reviewed by eLife

The mRNA export factor UAP56 is required for dendrite and synapse pruning via actin regulation in Drosophila

1. Samuel Matthew Frommeyer
2. Ulrike Gigengack
3. Sandra Rode
4. Matthew Davies
5. Neele Wolterhoff
6. Sebastian Rumpf

Reviewed by Review Commons

AutoMorphoTrack: A modular framework for quantitative analysis of organelle morphology, motility, and interactions at single-cell resolution

1. Armin Bayati
2. Jackson G Schumacher
3. Xiqun Chen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work describes a useful computational tool for automated morphometry of dynamic organelles from microscope images. However, the supporting evidence and novelty of the manuscript as presented are incomplete and could be improved. The work will be of interest to microscopists and bioimage analysts who are non-experts but wish to improve quantitative analysis of cellular structures.

Reviewed by eLife

Decoding state specific connectivity during speech production and perception

1. Yasamin Esmaeili
2. Amirhossein Khalilian-Gourtani
3. Orrin Devinsky
4. Werner K Doyle
5. Patricia Dugan
6. Daniel Friedman
7. Adeen Flinker

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work represents a valuable finding of how single-trial functional connectivity may be used to infer different cognitive states involved in speech perception and production. Although the data and analyses are overall convincing, the theoretical advance and novelty of the finding are less clear. With a clearer idea of the functional significance of the connectivity data, the paper would be of interest to those interested in brain networks and communication.

Reviewed by eLife

E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Highwire/Phr1 Phase Separation Mediates Endocytic Control of JNK Signaling in Drosophila Neurons

1. Srikanth Pippadpally
2. Anjali Bisht
3. Saumitra Dey Choudhury
4. Manish Kumar Dwivedi
5. Zeeshan Mushtaq
6. Suneel Reddy-Alla
7. Vimlesh Kumar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides valuable findings on how the activity of the E3 ubiquitin ligase Highwire (Hiw/Phr1) is regulated and its impact on synaptic growth. The authors propose that impaired endocytosis leads to condensation of Hiw, resulting in increased synaptic growth. They also integrate such a mechanism within the known JNK (c-JUN N-terminal Kinase) and BMP (Bone Morphogenetic Protein) signalling pathways involved in synapse regulation. While the work raises an interesting mechanistic framework, several aspects of the experimental design and methodology are incomplete, and key conclusions, particularly those regarding the liquid-liquid phase separation of the E3 ubiquitin ligase, are not fully supported by the presented data.

Reviewed by eLife