eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A stress-activated neuronal ensemble in the supramammillary nucleus encodes anxiety but not memory

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Jinming Zhang
   2. Kexin Yu
   3. Junmin Zhang
   4. Yuan Chang
   5. Xiao Sun
   6. Zhaoqiang Qian
   7. Zongpeng Sun
   8. Zhiqiang Liu
   9. Wei Ren
   10. Jing Han

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript provides a valuable contribution by identifying stress-responsive neurons in the supramammillary nucleus and their ventral subiculum inputs and assessing the regulation of anxiety-related behaviors. The evidence is convincing that the supramammillary nucleus contains stress-responsive neurons, and activation of these neurons increases anxiety-like behaviors. However, evidence that the ventral subiculum input to the supramammillary nucleus encodes and regulates anxiety and that the supramammillary nucleus generates an anxiety engram is incomplete. This work has the potential to offer new insights into how distinct circuits encode different emotional states and will be of interest to those interested in brain systems of aversive emotional and behavioral states.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Tumors mimic the niche to inhibit neighboring stem cell differentiation

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Yang Zhang
   2. Yuejia Wang
   3. Jinqiao Song
   4. Lizhong Yan
   5. Ziguang Wang
   6. Dongze Song
   7. Yudi Zhao
   8. Shaowei Zhao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents results supporting a model that tumorous germline stem cells (GSCs) in the Drosophila ovary mimic the stem cell niche and inhibit the differentiation of neighboring cells. The valuable findings show that GSC tumors often contain non-mutant cells whose differentiation is suppressed by the GSC tumorous cells. However, the evidence showing that the GSC tumors produce BMP ligands to suppress differentiation of non-mutant cells is incomplete. It could be strengthened by the use of sensitive RNA in situ hybridization approaches.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Endogenous Real Time Imaging Reveals Dynamic Chromosomal Mobility During Ligand-Mediated Transcriptional Burst Events

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Susan Wang
   2. Thomas Suter
   3. Amir Gamliel
   4. Yeeun Kim
   5. Sreejith J Nair
   6. Soohwan Oh
   7. Feng Yang
   8. Kenneth A Ohgi
   9. Tobias Wagner
   10. Steven Gan
   11. Michael G Rosenfeld

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript presents significant and important work that advances single-molecule imaging technology of transcription with simultaneous analysis of several parameters. However, currently, the evidence is incomplete and requires further quantitation/description of the technologies used, further controls, and additional analysis of the data by other methods.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Cerebellar climbing fibers impact experience-dependent plasticity in the mouse primary somatosensory cortex

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Abby Silbaugh
   2. Kevin P Koster
   3. Christian Hansel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a fundamental discovery of how cerebellar climbing fibers modulate plastic changes in the somatosensory cortex by identifying both the responsible cortical circuit and the anatomical pathways. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing and well supported by modern neuroscience methodologies. Overall, this work represents a significant contribution that will be of broad interest to neuroscientists, especially those studying the long-distance cerebellar influence on non-motor brain functions.

   Reviewed by eLife

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

   This article has 7 authors:

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

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • 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

6. A natural experiment in Kenya reveals durable immunosuppressive effects of early childhood malaria: a longitudinal cohort study

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Mercy S Safari
   2. Timothy O Makori
   3. Elijah T Gicheru
   4. Maureen W Mburu
   5. Omar Nyawa
   6. Faiz Shee
   7. James Nyagwange
   8. Eunice W Kagucia
   9. Francis Ndungu
   10. Timothy Chege
   11. James O Tuju
   12. Charles J Sande

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study sought to investigate the role that early childhood malaria exposure plays in the development of antibody responses to unrelated pathogens and vaccine-derived antigens in Kenyan children. In this natural experiment, the authors compare antibody levels among children who have been exposed to different levels of malaria transmission by using protein microarray technology. Although the findings are of importance, the evidence remains incomplete, and the analysis would benefit from a more in-depth evaluation of potential confounders. With the appropriate analysis, the findings will be of great interest for global health, immunology, and vaccine development.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A stretching mechanism evokes mechano-electrical transduction in auditory chordotonal neurons

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Atitheb Chaiyasitdhi
   2. Manuela Nowotny
   3. Marcel Van der Heijden
   4. Benjamin Warren

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study uses a sophisticated array of techniques to investigate the mechanisms through which the chordotonal receptors in the locust ear (Müller's organ) sense auditory signals. Ultrastructural reconstruction of the sensory organ provides convincing evidence of the organization of the scolopidial structure that wraps the sensory neuron cilium. However, the recordings of sound-evoked motion and electrophysiological activity from the chordotonal sensory neurons provide incomplete evidence for the proposed axial stretch model of mechanotransduction.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Suppression of interferon signaling via small molecule modulation of TFAM

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Dionisia P Sideris
   2. Hsuan Lee
   3. Lyndsay Olson
   4. Kalyan Nallaparaju
   5. Keiichiro Okuyama
   6. Jeff Ciavarri
   7. Robert Lafyatis
   8. Mads B Larsen
   9. Bo Lin
   10. Irene Alfaras
   11. Jason R Kennerdell
   12. Toren Finkel
   13. Yuan Liu
   14. Bill B Chen
   15. Lin Lyu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Using high-throughput small-molecule screening, this study discloses novel modulators of the mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM), a key regulator of mitochondrial function. Reviewers viewed the targeting of TFAM as innovative and the study's conclusions as potentially important (especially the effects on inflammation). However, the lack of evidence for a direct effect of the compounds on TFAM activity weakens the paper's key conclusion and renders the study incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. The Crunchometer: A Low-Cost, Open-Source Acoustic Analysis of Feeding Microstructure

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Elvi Gil-Lievana
   2. Benjamin Arroyo
   3. Jesús Pérez-Ortega
   4. Axl Lopez
   5. Luis Alfredo Rodriguez Blanco
   6. Xarenny Diaz
   7. Gustavo Hernandez
   8. Alam Coss
   9. Emily Alway
   10. Naama Reicher
   11. Enrique Hernández Lemus
   12. Maya Kaelberer
   13. Diego V Bohórquez
   14. Ranier Gutierrez

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable manuscript presents an open-source and low-cost acoustic system for quantifying biting and chewing in mice. The approach is carefully validated against human observers, demonstrating strong methodological reliability and enabling high-resolution analysis of feeding microstructure. The tool has broad relevance for studies of appetite circuits and pharmacological interventions. A significant contribution is the identification of previously unrecognized "meal-related" neurons in the lateral hypothalamus, providing novel biological insight into food consumption. While the support for the methodological advances is compelling and robust, some circuit-level conclusions are preliminary or incomplete, relying on small pilot samples and manual classification, and should be interpreted with caution. This paper will be of interest to those interested in ingestive behavior and/or hypothalamus.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Cataloguing the postnatal small intestinal transcriptome during the first postnatal month

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Luiz Fernando Silva Oliveira
    2. Radhika S Khetani
    3. Yu-Syuan Wu
    4. Venkata Siva Dasuri
    5. Amanda W Harrington
    6. Oluwabunmi Olaloye
    7. Jeffrey Goldsmith
    8. David T Breault
    9. Liza Konnikova
    10. Shannan J Ho Sui
    11. Amy E O’Connell

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study presents a useful inventory of genes that are up- and down-regulated in the mouse small intestine (duodenum and ileum) during the first postnatal month; the data were collected and analyzed using solid and validated methodology and can be used as a starting point for additional validation of specific markers and for follow-up functional studies. Some aspects of the study were incomplete, with claims being only partially supported by the data, and it is suggested that additional validation be performed. The authors attempted to correlate gene expression changes with periods of high and low NEC susceptibility, but these correlations are speculative and not supported by functional follow-up studies. Discussion of gene expression changes with NEC susceptibility would be more appropriate to include in the Discussion section and to be tempered in the results section.

    Reviewed by eLife