eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Progressive remote memory decline coincides with parvalbumin interneuron hyperexcitability and enhanced inhibition of cortical engram cells in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Julia J. van Adrichem
   2. Rolinka J. van der Loo
   3. August B. Smit
   4. Michel C. van den Oever
   5. Ronald E. van Kesteren

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study explores changes in remote memory impairment in an amyloid pathology mouse model, demonstrating that progressive deficits coincide with inhibitory interneuron alterations. While the findings shed light on circuit remodeling in this model, the mechanistic links between heightened inhibition and memory loss are currently incomplete. Additional data and deeper analysis may be needed to fully substantiate the authors' interpretations.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Altair-LSFM: A High-Resolution, Easy-to-Build Light-Sheet Microscope for Sub-Cellular Imaging

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. John Haug
   2. Seweryn Gałecki
   3. Kevin M. Dean

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study presents Altair-LSFM, a solid and well-documented implementation of a light-sheet fluorescence microscope (LSFM) designed for accessibility and cost reduction. While the approach offers strengths such as the use of custom-machined baseplates and detailed assembly instructions, its overall impact is limited by the lack of live-cell imaging capabilities and the absence of a clear, quantitative comparison to existing LSFM platforms. As such, although technically competent, the broader utility and uptake of this system by the community may be limited.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Cryo-EM structure revealed a novel F-actin binding motif in a Legionella pneumophila lysine fatty-acyltransferase

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Wenjie W. Zeng
   2. Garrison Komaniecki
   3. Jiaze Liu
   4. Hening Lin
   5. Yuxin Mao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study identifies a novel Legionella effector, Lfat1, which binds F-actin via a coiled-coil domain and structurally resembles the RID toxin, with cryo-EM revealing key interactions mediated by a hydrophobic helical hairpin. While the study is mostly complete and has compelling data, a few minor changes are recommended.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. EPB41L4A-AS1 long noncoding RNA acts in both cis - and trans -acting transcriptional regulation and controls nucleolar biology

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Alan Monziani
   2. Juan Pablo Unfried
   3. Todor Cvetanovic
   4. Igor Ulitsky

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The work provides important insights into how this lncRNA regulates gene expression via complex mechanisms, however, the biological relevance awaits validation in other models. This paper provides extensive and carefully analysed data that is of value in efforts to understand the role of the lncRNA EPB41L4A-AS1 in a human cell line. The data is generally convincing and supported by clever integrative analysis; however, the known extensive artefacts from individual Gapmer oligonucleotides cast some doubt over the interpretation of those experiments where only one targeting and one control Gapmer are used.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Cardiolipin deficiency disrupts electron transport chain to drive steatohepatitis

   This article has 35 authors:

   1. Marisa J. Brothwell
   2. Guoshen Cao
   3. J. Alan Maschek
   4. Annelise M. Poss
   5. Alek D. Peterlin
   6. Liping Wang
   7. Talia B. Baker
   8. Justin L. Shahtout
   9. Piyarat Siripoksup
   10. Quentinn J. Pearce
   11. Jordan M. Johnson
   12. Fabian M. Finger
   13. Alexandre Prola
   14. Sarah A. Pellizzari
   15. Gillian L. Hale
   16. Allison M. Manuel
   17. Shinya Watanabe
   18. Edwin R. Miranda
   19. Kajsa E. Affolter
   20. Trevor S. Tippetts
   21. Linda S. Nikolova
   22. Ran Hee Choi
   23. Stephen T. Decker
   24. Mallikarjun Patil
   25. J. Leon Catrow
   26. William L. Holland
   27. Sara M. Nowinski
   28. Daniel S. Lark
   29. Kelsey H. Fisher-Wellman
   30. Patrice N. Mimche
   31. Kimberley J. Evason
   32. James E. Cox
   33. Scott A. Summers
   34. Zach Gerhart-Hines
   35. Katsuhiko Funai

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful paper reports on a correlation between diminished cardiolipin content and the severity of steatohepatitis in human subjects. This is supported further by experimental evidence from mice in which the gene encoding a key enzyme in cardiolipin synthesis has been compromised in the liver. The correlations established between lipidology, mitochondrial function, and the induction of respiration and oxidative stress are notable and will be useful to researchers in the field. However, given that the causal relationship between lipid perturbation and the progression of steatohepatitis implied in the title has not been tested experimentally, the evidence supporting the paper's key conclusion is incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Local Inhibitory Dynamics Underpin Temporal Integration and Functional Segregation between Barrels and Septa in the Mouse Barrel Cortex

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Ali Özgür Argunşah
   2. Tevye Jason Stachniak
   3. Jenq-Wei Yang
   4. Linbi Cai
   5. Alexander van der Bourg
   6. Rahel Kastli
   7. Theofanis Karayannis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Argunşah et al. investigate the mechanisms underlying the differential response dynamics of barrel vs septa domains in shaping the responses to single vs multiple whiskers. Based on the observation of a higher density of SST+ interneurons in the septa, the authors investigate the hypothesis that Elfn1-dependent short-term plasticity shapes these responses. This important study is, however, supported by incomplete evidence; factors restricting the strength of evidence are the limited spatial resolution of the multi-unit activity, as well as the lack of a mechanistic explanation. This provocative and intellectually stimulating hypothesis provides a contribution to work on how different cell types shape cortical representation.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The distinct role of human PIT in attention control

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Siyuan Huang
   2. Lan Wang
   3. Sheng He

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study reports that the human posterior inferotemporal cortex (hPIT) functions as an attentional priority map, integrating both top-down and bottom-up attentional signals rather than serving solely as an object-processing region. The experiments and analyses are well conducted and provide convincing evidence that hPIT bridges dorsal and ventral attention networks and is robustly modulated by attention across diverse visual tasks. The study will be relevant for researchers investigating visual attention, high-level visual cortex, and the neural mechanisms that integrate endogenous and exogenous attentional control.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Homosensory and heterosensory dishabituation engage distinct circuits in Drosophila

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Alexandros Charonitakis
   2. Sofia Pasadaki
   3. Eirini-Maria Georganta
   4. Kyriaki Foka
   5. Ourania Semelidou
   6. Efthimios MC Skoulakis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides important findings on the neural circuits underlying dishabituation of the olfactory avoidance response in Drosophila. The data as presented provide solid evidence that the dishabituation involves distinct pathways from habituation. They show that reward-activated dopaminergic neurons provide input for within-modal dishabituation, while punishment-activated dopaminergic neurons provide input for cross-modal dishabituation. The work will interest neuroscientists, particularly behavioral neuroscientists working on habituation, neural circuits, and the dopaminergic system.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. SpikeMAP: An unsupervised spike sorting pipeline for cortical excitatory and inhibitory neurons in high-density multielectrode arrays with ground-truth validation

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. E. Giraud
   2. M. Lynn
   3. P. Vincent-Lamarre
   4. J-C. Béïque
   5. J-P. Thivierge

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this manuscript, the authors describe a software package for automatic differentiation of action potentials generated by excitatory and inhibitory neurons, acquired using high-density microelectrode arrays. The work is valuable as it offers a tool with the potential to automatically identify these neuron types in vitro. However, it is incomplete due to limited comparison with ground truth data from optogenetically identified interneuron subtypes and with existing spike sorting pipelines available to users.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Behavioural and neurogenetic evidence for emotion primitives in the fruit fly Drosophila: insights from the Open Field Test

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Yi Lueningschroer-Wang
    2. Emilia Derksen
    3. Maria Steigmeier
    4. Christian Wegener

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This useful study reports findings that support the use of the Open Field Test in Drosophila as a model to study "emotion-like states", which are behavioral responses to several stressful or aversive treatments, and resilience upon their subsequent removal. Behavioral data, by employing established stress-causing treatments and genetic manipulations, are solid. While the results and conceptual framework of this work will be of interest to behaviorists regardless of animal models, the novelty of this work over previous studies could have been clearer.

    Reviewed by eLife