eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Automated genome mining predicts structural diversity and taxonomic distribution of peptide metallophores across bacteria

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Zachary L. Reitz
   2. Bita Pourmohsenin
   3. Melanie Susman
   4. Emil Thomsen
   5. Daniel Roth
   6. Alison Butler
   7. Nadine Ziemert
   8. Marnix H. Medema

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important and compelling study establishes a robust computational and experimental framework for the large-scale identification of metallophore biosynthetic clusters. The work advances beyond current standards, providing theoretical and practical value across microbiology, bioinformatics, and evolutionary biology.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Region-specific mechanosensation controls Drosophila postural control behaviour

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. William Roseby
   2. Jonathan A.C. Menzies
   3. Victoria A. Lipscomb
   4. Claudio R. Alonso

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study by Roseby and colleagues shows that region-specific mechanosensation - especially anterior-dorsal inputs - controls larval self-righting, and links this to Hox gene function in sensory neurons. The work is important for understanding how body plan cues shape sensorimotor behaviour, and the experimental toolkit will be useful to others. The strength of evidence is solid with respect to the assays developed and the involvement of the anterior region; it is incomplete with respect to dorso-ventral involvement in that region and the role of Hox genes in the process. These findings will be of broad interest to researchers studying neural circuits, developmental genetics, and the evolution of behaviour.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A stochastic RNA editing process targets a select number of sites in individual Drosophila glutamatergic motoneurons

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Andrés B. Crane
   2. Michiko O. Inouye
   3. Suresh K. Jetti
   4. J. Troy Littleton

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study uses single-neuron Patch-seq RNA sequencing to investigate the fundamental process by which RNA editing can produce protein diversity and regulate function in various cellular contexts. The computational analyses of the data collected are convincing, and from an analytical standpoint, this paper is a notable advance in seeking to provide a biological context for massive amounts of data in the field. The study would be of interest to biologists looking at the effects of RNA editing in the diversification of cellular behaviour.

   Reviewed by eLife

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

   This article has 5 authors:

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

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • 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

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

   This article has 12 authors:

   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

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • 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

6. Asymmetric neural entrainment at resonance frequencies underlies unilateral spatial neglect

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yuka O Okazaki
   2. Noriaki Hattori
   3. Teiji Kawano
   4. Megumi Hatakenaka
   5. Ichiro Miyai
   6. Keiichi Kitajo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study uses EEG and computational modeling to investigate hemispheric oscillatory asymmetries in unilateral spatial neglect. The work benefits from rare patient data and a careful multimethod approach. However, the evidence is incomplete because key assumptions about alpha‑band entrainment and methodological confounds such as lesion variability and eye‑movement artifacts remain insufficiently addressed.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Megabouts: a flexible pipeline for zebrafish locomotion analysis

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Adrien Jouary
   2. Pedro TM Silva
   3. Alexandre Laborde
   4. J Miguel Mata
   5. João C Marques
   6. Elena MD Collins
   7. Randall T Peterson
   8. Christian K Machens
   9. Michael B Orger

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study introduces Megabouts, a transformer-based classifier for larval zebrafish movement bouts. This useful tool is thoughtfully implemented and has clear potential to unify analyses across labs. However, the evidence supporting its robustness is incomplete. How the method generalizes across datasets, how sensitive it is to noise, and the specific sources of misclassification are unclear. The method would also be strengthened by providing options for users to fine-tune the clusters under different experimental conditions, which would further enhance reliability and flexibility.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Herbivorous insects independently evolved salivary effectors to regulate plant immunity by destabilizing the malectin-LRR RLP NtRLP4

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Xin Wang
   2. Jia-Bao Lu
   3. Yi-Zhe Wang
   4. Xu-Hong Zhou
   5. Jian-Ping Chen
   6. Chuan-Xi Zhang
   7. Jun-Min Li
   8. Hai-Jian Huang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides an important contribution by showing that whiteflies and planthoppers use salivary effectors to suppress plant immunity through the receptor-like protein RLP4, suggesting convergent evolution in these insect lineages. The topic is of clear interest for understanding plant-insect interactions and offers ideas that could stimulate further research in the field. However, the strength of evidence is incomplete, as some aspects of the data and experimental design limit the extent to which the main claims are fully supported.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Inhibitory columnar feedback neurons are required for motion processing in Drosophila

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Miriam Henning
   2. Madhura Ketkar
   3. Teresa Lüffe
   4. Daryl M. Gohl
   5. Thomas R. Clandinin
   6. Marion Silies

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important article reports on the role of specific interneurons in the motion processing circuitry of the fruit fly, and marshals convincing evidence from neural recording, genetic manipulation, and behavioral analysis. A significant result ties the activity of C2/C3 neurons to the temporal resolution of the motion vision system. It remains unclear whether disrupting this pathway affects the dynamics of vision more generally.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Dissecting surveying behavior of reactive microglia under chronic neurodegeneration

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Sunitha Subhramanian
    2. Olga Bocharova
    3. Natallia Makarava
    4. Tarek Safadi
    5. Ilia V. Baskakov

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      The manuscript presents important findings that advance our understanding of how microglia adapt their surveillance strategies during chronic neurodegeneration. The evidence presented is convincing, with appropriate and validated methodology broadly supporting the claims given by the authors.

    Reviewed by eLife