eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Dendritic delay lines shape the computation of sound location in neurons of the gerbil medial superior olive

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Jared Casarez
   2. Rebecca I. Voglewede
   3. Bradley D. Winters
   4. Ken Ledford
   5. Nace L. Golding

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a fundamental study that clarifies the cellular mechanism of sound localization in the horizontal plane. The analysis of medial superior olivary neurons provides experimental and computational evidence for a new mechanism in which a range of asymmetric dendritic delays permits individual MSO neurons to represent the full range of biologically relevant ITDs. Using elegant 2-photon guided simultaneous recordings from distal dendrites and soma, along with compartmental modeling on anatomically reconstructed neurons, the authors provide compelling evidence that this mechanism contributes to microsecond-level tuning.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Benefit Transfer Loops Turn Cheating into a Scaffold for Microbial Diversity

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jiqi Shao
   2. Yinxiang Li
   3. Shaohua Gu
   4. Xiaoyi Zhang
   5. Shaopeng Wang
   6. Xueming Liu
   7. Zhiyuan Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript provides a valuable perspective on microbial community diversity and how this is shaped by the presence of cheaters. The evidence provided is solid, and the methods used to assess the research question are convincing. However, a major weakness is the general framing (or lack of embedding in recent literature), reducing the usefulness of the paper for a broad audience.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Development of a genetically encoded fluorescent indicator for facilitating deorphanization of GPR52

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Guangyi Lan
   2. Huan Wang
   3. Tongrui Qian
   4. Shu Xie
   5. Cheng Qian
   6. Daniel Ursu
   7. Klaus D. Bornemann
   8. Bastian Hengerer
   9. Yulong Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     GPR52 is an orphan receptor implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders, and this study addresses the lack of real-time monitoring tools by developing GPR52-1.0, a genetically encoded fluorescent sensor built on the GRAB platform. The design of the sensor is elegant, and the validation is thorough. The authors also utilized the sensor to discover that striatal neuron excitation may activate the sensor, providing exciting new biological insights into GPR52 functional mechanisms. The work could be useful to the field if presented in the correct context, but as it stands, the work remains incomplete as it overlooks GPR52's well-documented high constitutive activity (PMID: 32076264, PMID: 26384023), which raises fundamental questions about the sensor's physiological relevance.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Myristoylation licenses disordered viral VP4 protein to anchor to and perforate the membrane through phase separation

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Sichao Huang
   2. Fengzhen Deng
   3. Te Liu
   4. Wenjian Li
   5. Peiying Wang
   6. Jiahuan Song
   7. Jingjing Huang
   8. Shiyu Zhang
   9. Jiaxin Liu
   10. Yan Wang
   11. Manjie Zhang
   12. Bin Sun

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study combines multiscale molecular simulations with supporting biophysical experiments to investigate how the myristoylated VP4 peptide of non-enveloped viruses interacts with host membranes during viral entry. The authors show that myristoylation facilitates VP4 membrane anchoring, condensate formation, and membrane remodeling events linked to early stages of membrane breaching. The work provides a convincing biophysical framework for understanding myristoylation-dependence in membrane-penetrating proteins.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. More than just a passive brick in the wall: the nucleosome facilitates DNA polymerase β activity in linker DNA and its PARP-dependent regulation in the BER pathway choice

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Danil M. Shtanov
   2. Tatyana A. Kurgina
   3. Mikhail M. Kutuzov
   4. Konstantin N. Naumenko
   5. Alexander A. Ukraintsev
   6. Nina A. Moor
   7. Olga I. Lavrik

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study presents evidence that DNA Polymerase β strand displacement synthesis within linker DNA is stimulated by the presence of an adjacent nucleosome core particle. The biochemical analyses of the strand displacement synthesis by the DNA polymerase on a reconstituted nucleosome substrate with a linker DNA provided incomplete evidence to support the authors' conclusion. The results in the paper are of interest to researchers in DNA repair and nucleosome biology.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Optimal tilt-increment for cryo-ET

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Maarten W. Tuijtel
   2. Tomáš Majtner
   3. Beata Turoňová
   4. Martin Beck

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This convincing contribution addresses a question of practical importance: when collecting tilt-series data, what is the optimal angular step size between successive tilt images? The work provides valuable practical insights into cryo-ET data acquisition by demonstrating that balancing two competing demands - sufficient dose per individual tilt image and fine angular sampling - is essential to achieve high-quality tomographic reconstructions. They demonstrate that tilt-series acquired with finer increments (1-3 degrees) yield superior alignment accuracy and improved template-matching performance,

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Hippocampal representations differentiate reactive and anticipatory responses during foraging under threat

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Chelsey C. Damphousse
   2. Olivia L. Calvin
   3. A. David Redish

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates how the hippocampus distinguishes between reactive escape and anticipatory withdrawal during approach-avoidance conflict in rats performing a naturalistic decision-making task. Solid evidence supports the main finding that hippocampal neuronal representations differ during different types of defensive behaviors, although the evidence for some of the claims in the paper could be strengthened. The study will be of interest to researchers studying memory, navigation, and decision-making in the presence of competing rewards and threats.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Human decision-makers terminate evidence accumulation using flexible decision rules

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. I Kalburge
   2. A Dallstream
   3. K Josić
   4. ZP Kilpatrick
   5. L Ding
   6. JI Gold

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work introduces a new paradigm for modeling decision-making under time pressure: rather than having to infer the evidence accumulated by the subjects, experimenters can directly measure it on a trial-by-trial basis. This is an important advance, as it has the potential to address questions that are off limits to the standard paradigm. The methodology and analyses are convincing, especially the ones that manipulate the reward structure. Additional analyses - in particular, a deeper comparison to an ideal observer model - would strengthen and broaden the conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Glutamate receptor composition at Drosophila neuromuscular junctions depends on developmental stage and muscle identity

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Anne Sustar
   2. Chengjie Qiu
   3. Yu Xiong
   4. Dion Dickman
   5. John C. Tuthill

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides important findings on the expression of glutamate receptor (GluR) subunits across developmental stages and muscle types in Drosophila. It shows that adult muscle differs in GluR composition from larval body wall muscles, which have been the focus of most past studies. The study, while convincing, could be strengthened by acknowledging that it relies on heterogeneous methods and the absence of positive signals to infer receptor loss, which limits confidence in some of its claims. The findings illuminate how Drosophila excites muscles in diverse tissue types at different life stages, and are of interest to researchers across neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Male chickadees with better spatial cognition sire more extra-pair young

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Carrie L Branch
    2. Benjamin R Sonnenberg
    3. Joseph F Welklin
    4. Bronwyn G Butcher
    5. Virginia K Heinen
    6. Angela M Pitera
    7. Lauren M Benedict
    8. Eli S Bridge
    9. Irby J Lovette
    10. Michael S Webster
    11. Vladimir V Pravosudov

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important study examines the benefits of spatial cognition in a wild population of mountain chickadees. Using robust genetic analyses and experimental design, the authors show with compelling evidence that females seeking out extra-pair copulations prefer males with strong spatial cognition, and that these males have a reproductive advantage over other males. This work is of broad interest to evolutionary and behavioural biologists.

    Reviewed by eLife