eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Atomistic simulations reveal sub- µ s contact dynamics in MUT-16 condensates

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Kumar Gaurav
   2. Lucia Baltz
   3. Diego Javier Páez-Moscoso
   4. René F. Ketting
   5. Lukas S. Stelzl

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable findings on phase-separated condensate formation by the MUT-16 protein, which plays a key role in small RNA biogenesis. A detailed analysis of the interactions governing condensate formation was carried out using coarse-grained and all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, complemented by in vitro phase separation experiments. While many of the results appear solid, a number of technical details are lacking, the computational part appears incomplete and would benefit from additional analyses and clarifications, and the novelty of the study should also be clarified, particularly in comparison with the authors' previous work on MUT-16. Overall, the work will be of interest to biophysicists and molecular biologists studying phase separation and biomolecular condensates.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. A validated antibody toolbox for ALS research

   This article has 34 authors:

   1. Riham Ayoubi
   2. Emma J. MacDougall
   3. Ian McDowell
   4. Michael S. Biddle
   5. Bárbara T. Ferreira
   6. CongYao Zha
   7. Marie-France Dorion
   8. Jay P. Ross
   9. Sara González Bolívar
   10. Vera Ruiz Moleón
   11. Charles Alende
   12. Vincent Francis
   13. Maryam Fotouhi
   14. Mathilde Chaineau
   15. Carol X.-Q. Chen
   16. Valerio E.C. Piscopo
   17. Vincent Soubannier
   18. Tracy Keates
   19. Wen Hwa Lee
   20. Brian D. Marsden
   21. Leonidas Koukouflis
   22. Edvard Wigren
   23. Carolyn A. Marks
   24. Luke M. Healy
   25. Patrick A. Dion
   26. Guy A. Rouleau
   27. Edward A. Fon
   28. Harvinder S. Virk
   29. Susanne Gräslund
   30. Opher Gileadi
   31. Aled M. Edwards
   32. Thomas M. Durcan
   33. Peter S. McPherson
   34. Carl Laflamme

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Overall, this is a manuscript with solid evidence that delivers an important community resource for those performing experimental research in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The authors address the lack of validated tools for the detection and quantification of proteins associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) through an extensive screening of 303 commercially available antibodies to 33 protein targets. The effort invested in generating the knockout lines for validation experiments is a clear strength of the study.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Divergent spatiotemporal integration of whole-field visual motion in medaka and zebrafish larvae

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Yasuko Isoe
   2. Yasmine Fatima Mabene
   3. Marie-Abèle Bind
   4. Florian Engert

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides a quantitative comparison of how zebrafish and medaka larvae process visual motion, revealing clear differences in how they integrate information across space and time. The evidence is convincing, combining a broad set of behavioral assays with response decomposition and mechanistic modeling that together support the central conclusions. Some aspects remain incomplete, particularly the link between the spatial and temporal findings, the extent to which the model accounts for the full range of behavioral results, and the framing of broader evolutionary or social interpretations. Overall, the work offers a careful and informative analysis that should be of broad interest to researchers studying visual processing, sensorimotor computation, and comparative neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Modality-Specific and Amodal Language Processing by Single Neurons

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Yair Lakretz
   2. Naama Friedmann
   3. Jean-Rémi King
   4. Emily Mankin
   5. Anthony Rangel
   6. Ariel Tankus
   7. Stanislas Dehaene
   8. Itzhak Fried

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a large-scale characterization of single-neuron responses during reading and listening, enabling examination of both 'low-level' (orthographic/phonological) and 'higher-level' (syntactic) features, as well as links between single-neuron activity and multi-scale field potentials, making it a valuable resource for bridging micro- and macroscale accounts of language processing. The analyses identify modality-specific and putatively modality-independent responses across distributed brain regions, offering an intriguing framework for understanding how sensory-specific and abstract representations may relate. However, the evidence supporting the central claims is currently incomplete, due to limited population-level quantification, insufficient statistical characterization of how many neurons encode the relevant features, ambiguity in the interpretation of encoding model results, and a lack of rigorous tests of cross-modal generalization and alternative accounts, which together weaken the conclusions about amodal representations and hierarchical processing.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Contrasting walking styles map to discrete neural substrates in the mouse brainstem

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Audrey Worley
   2. Alana Kirby
   3. Sophie Luks
   4. Tamara Samardzic
   5. Brian Ellison
   6. Lauren Broom
   7. Alban Latremoliere
   8. Veronique G VanderHorst

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a valuable survey of movements and locomotor patterns produced by circuits in the medial reticular formation (MRF) of the brainstem. The authors provide solid evidence that activation of GABAergic MRF neurons slowed down walking, activation of glutamatergic neurons induced a specific "shuffle" limb trajectory, and the activation of serotonergic neurons increased locomotor speed without affecting walking signature. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge about the effects of brainstem circuits on specific aspects of locomotor function.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Photo-downregulation of SIRT4 mitigates aging in mice by enhancing H3K9ac via fatty acid metabolism

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Fangqing Deng
   2. Rong Yang
   3. Xu Li
   4. Jinyun Niu
   5. Zibo Gao
   6. Monian Wang
   7. Yang Liu
   8. Lihua Yang
   9. Huifang Liu
   10. Yingchun Yang
   11. Zhaoxiang Yu
   12. Lianbing Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This potentially valuable study investigates the anti-senescence effects of red light exposure, proposing that reduced SIRT4 levels enhance fatty acid metabolism and H3K9ac, thereby attenuating ageing-related phenotypes. The authors use multiple approaches, including cultured cells, animal models, and molecular analyses, to support their conclusions. However, the evidence remains incomplete, as additional controls and stronger mechanistic data are needed to fully support the proposed pathway, particularly how red light exposure reduces SIRT4 levels.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. ARHGEF6-dependent cytoskeletal regulation underlies a conserved program of forebrain interneuron development

   This article has 22 authors:

   1. Carla Liaci
   2. Beatrice Savarese
   3. Elena Ferretti
   4. Jean-Paul Urenda
   5. Junyu Joanna Lu
   6. Giovanni Catapano
   7. Lucia Prandi
   8. Mattia Camera
   9. Rohin Manohar
   10. Simona Rando
   11. Alessandro Umbach
   12. Enis Hidisoglu
   13. Giuseppe Chiantia
   14. Andrea Marcantoni
   15. Maurizio Giustetto
   16. Roberto Oleari
   17. Alyssa Paganoni
   18. Anna Cariboni
   19. Van Truong
   20. Luciano Conti
   21. Giorgia Quadrato
   22. Giorgio R. Merlo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study presents valuable findings regarding the impact of ARHGEF6 deletion, a RhoGTPase regulator linked to X-linked intellectual disability (XLID46), in the development of interneurons. The evidence supporting the observed cellular and developmental phenotypes collected in both mouse and human iPSC models is convincing, although further work would strengthen the mechanistic interpretation and clarify the specificity of the findings. This work offers new insights into ARHGEF6 function and the potential contribution of its dysfunction to neurodevelopmental disorders.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. A miniaturized MR1 metabolite display system with native-like protein features

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Photis Rotsides
   2. Omkar Shinde
   3. Julia N Danon
   4. Nikolaos G Sgourakis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The manuscript by Rotsides et al. reports the design and validation of SMART-MR1, a miniaturized MR1 metabolite-display platform in which the α1/α2 ligand-binding domain is stabilized by a synthetic helical domain in place of the α3 domain and β2-microglobulin. Supported by biochemical, biophysical, and structural approaches, including ITC, NMR, and cryo-EM, the work provides solid evidence that SMART-MR1 retains native-like ligand binding and A-F7 TCR recognition while enabling experimental approaches for ligand screening that are difficult with conventional MR1 constructs. The study is valuable for the MR1 and MAIT-cell fields, particularly as a tool for ligand screening and mechanistic studies of MR1-restricted antigen presentation. There are several suggestions to further strengthen the study's impact, including clearer benchmarking against existing MR1 platforms, broader validation across ligands and TCRs, and functional evidence from MAIT-cell staining or activation assays.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Examining Alzheimer’s Disease modifiable risk factors: Impact of physical activity and diet on neuroanatomy and behaviour in mouse models

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Cindy L García
   2. Chloe Anastassiadis
   3. Mila Urosevic
   4. Megan Park
   5. Daniel Gallino
   6. Gabriel A Devenyi
   7. Stephanie Tullo
   8. Yohan Yee
   9. M Mallar Chakravarty

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study examines the effects of diet and exercise on brain structure and behaviour in the 3xTg mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. They show that combined access to a low-fat diet and exercise improves regional brain volume and behaviour in transgenic and wild-type control mice in a sex-specific manner, with analyses linking functional improvements to glucose homeostasis. Although some claims are well supported, the overall strength of the evidence is incomplete and hampered by a lack of clarity regarding the statistical analyses chosen. The work may be of interest to researchers studying neurodegenerative disease, particularly in preclinical contexts.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Uncovering genetic mechanisms underlying trait variation in switchgrass using explainable artificial intelligence

    This article has 12 authors:

    1. Paulo Izquierdo
    2. Xiaoyu Weng
    3. Thomas E Juenger
    4. Jason Bonnette
    5. Yuko Yoshinaga
    6. Chris Daum
    7. Anna Lipzen
    8. Kerrie Barry
    9. Matthew Blow
    10. Melissa D Lehti-Shiu
    11. David B Lowry
    12. Shin-Han Shiu

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      The study by Izquierdo and colleagues provides important insights into the field of genomic and transcriptomic prediction of traits across multiple environments. The rationale and analyses conducted to integrate the two types of ~omics datasets across two environments are solid. However, some clarification would be appreciated in the presentation of the results, and adding some statistical control to clarify how the predictors were selected, or assessing their importance using the SHAP framework, would further consolidate the findings.

    Reviewed by eLife