Neuroscience

A Toolkit for In Vivo Mapping and Modulating Neurotransmission at Single-Cell Resolution

1. Andrea Cuentas-Condori
2. Patricia Chanabá-López
3. Matthew Thomas
4. Likui Feng
5. Aaron Wolfe
6. Peter Agoba
7. Matthew L Schwartz
8. Maximillian Brown
9. Margaret Ebert
10. Erik Jorgensen
11. Cornelia I Bargmann
12. Daniel Colón-Ramos

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents an important toolkit for visualising the endogenous expression of four classes of neurotransmitter vesicular transporters. Using their toolkit, the authors find that there is co-transmission of neurotransmitters in over 10% of neurons tested. Although the evidence presented in the manuscript is solid, one weakness of this study is the failure of the authors to compare and contrast their results with available single-cell sequencing datasets and with well-established synaptic reporter lines (i.e., co-localization experiments). This toolkit will be of great use to multiple labs, and the authors should indicate their plan to disseminate the reagents and the associated information that is part of this kit.

Reviewed by eLife

Where is the melody? Spontaneous attention orchestrates melody formation during polyphonic music listening

1. Martin M Winchester
2. Kevin Reynolds
3. Charbel Nebo
4. Ian Cecil Scott
5. Giovanni M Di Liberto

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable work potentially advances our understanding of melody extraction in polyphonic music listening by identifying spontaneous attentional focus in uninstructed listening contexts. However, the evidence supporting the main conclusions is incomplete. The work will be of interest to psychologists and neuroscientists working on music listening, attention, and perception in ecological settings.

Reviewed by eLife

Functional characterization of neuropeptides that act as ligands for both calcitonin-type and pigment-dispersing factor-type receptors in a deuterostome

1. Xiao Cong
2. Huachen Liu
3. Lihua Liu
4. Nayeli Escudero Castelán
5. Kite GE Jones
6. Michaela Egertová
7. Maurice R Elphick
8. Muyan Chen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study characterises receptors for calcitonin-related peptides from a deuterostomian animal, the echinoderm Apostichopus japonicus, by a combination of heterologous expression, pharmacological experiments, and the quantification of gene-expression levels. The authors provide convincing evidence for a functional calcitonin-related peptide system in the sea cucumber, but further work will be needed to confirm the proposed physiological functions of PDF receptor system in this species. This work should be of interest to scientists studying the signaling pathways, functions, and evolution of neuropeptides, and could be of relevance to improving the culture conditions of this economically key species.

Reviewed by eLife

High-throughput single-cell CRISPRi screens stratify neurodevelopmental functions of schizophrenia-associated genes

1. Umut Yildiz
2. Annique Claringbould
3. Mikael Marttinen
4. Víctor Campos-Fornés
5. Mantha Lamprousi
6. Manu Saraswat
7. Mathias Saver
8. Daria Bunina
9. Michael W. Dorrity
10. Judith Zaugg
11. Kyung-Min Noh

Reviewed by preLights

Molecular and functional dissection using CaMPARI-seq reveals the neuronal organization for dissociating optic flow-dependent behaviors

1. Koji Matsuda
2. Chung-Han Wang
3. Atsushi Toyoda
4. Tomoya Shiraki
5. Koichi Kawakami
6. Fumi Kubo

Reviewed by preLights

How serially homologous neuroblasts produce different temporal cohorts along the Drosophila larval body axis

1. Deeptha Vasudevan
2. Yi-wen Wang
3. Hannah Carr
4. Elise Paniel
5. Sean Corcoran
6. Chris C. Wreden
7. Elaine Kushkowski
8. Conor Lee-Smith
9. Ellie S. Heckscher

Reviewed by Review Commons

PTBP1 depletion in mature astrocytes reveals distinct splicing alterations without neuronal features

1. Min Zhang
2. Naoto Kubota
3. David Nikom
4. Ayden Arient
5. Sika Zheng

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study reports important negative results, showing that genetically removing the RNA-binding protein PTBP1 in astrocytes is insufficient to convert them into neurons, thereby challenging previous claims in the field. It also offers a compelling analysis of PTBP1's role in regulating astrocyte-specific splicing. The evidence is strong, as the experiments are technically sound, carefully controlled, and supported by both imaging and transcriptomic analyses.

Reviewed by eLife

Biophysical network modeling of temporal and stereotyped sequence propagation of neural activity in the premotor nucleus HVC

1. Zeina Bou Diab
2. Marc Chammas
3. Arij Daou

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This computational study examines how neurons in the songbird premotor nucleus HVC might generate the precise, sparse burst sequences that drive adult song. The findings would be useful for understanding how intrinsic conductances and HVC microcircuitry may produce neural sequences, but the work is incomplete because of arbitrary network assumptions, insufficient consideration of biological details such as how silent gaps in song sequences are represented, and failure to incorporate interactions with auditory and brainstem inputs. As a result, the study offers limited advance and only a modest conceptual advance over prior models.

Reviewed by eLife

Eye-specific differences in active zone addition during synaptic competition in the developing visual system

1. Chenghang Zhang
2. Tarlan Vatan
3. Colenso M Speer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is a valuable analysis of STORM data that characterizes the clustering of active zones in retinogeniculate terminals across ages and in the absence of retinal waves. The design makes it possible to relate fixed time point structural data to a known outcome of activity-dependent remodeling. The latest revision has tempered the causal claims made in previous versions. The result provides solid structural support for the hypotheses regarding how activity influences the clustering of these synapses.

Reviewed by eLife

Molecular Architecture and Function Mechanism of Tri-heteromeric GluN1-N2-N3A NMDA Receptors

1. Zengwei Kou
2. Fenyong Yao
3. Tongtong Zhang
4. Nan Song
5. Chun Xie
6. Boshuang Wang
7. Yidi Sun

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work advances our understanding of NMDAR diversity in the brain by providing evidence into the subunit arrangement, architecture, and activation mechanism of GluN1-N2-N3A tri-NMDAR. However, the evidence supporting the conclusions provides incomplete proof for the presence and functional properties of this NMDA receptor subtype. The work will be of broad interest to neuroscientists and biophysicists.

Reviewed by eLife