eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. TRPV3 channel activity helps cortical neurons stay active during fever

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yiming Shen
   2. Richárd Fiáth
   3. Baskar Mohana Krishnan
   4. István Ulbert
   5. Michelle W Antoine

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a valuable study of the physiological mechanisms promoting network activity during fever in the mouse neocortex. The supporting evidence is solid, and has improved with revision, along with increased clarity of presentation.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The promise and peril of comparing fluorescence lifetime in biology revealed by simulations

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Pingchuan Ma
   2. Peter Chen
   3. Scott Sternson
   4. Yao Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents an important computational framework, FLiSimBA (Fluorescence Lifetime Simulation for Biological Applications), for modeling experimental limitations in Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM). FLiSimBA is readily available in MATLAB and Python, enables users to simulate effects of noise and varying sensor expression levels, and provides practical guidance for both lifetime imaging experiments and biosensor development. The analyses are robust, and the evidence supporting the tool's utility in distinguishing between multiple lifetime signals is compelling, indicating strong potential for multiplexed dynamic imaging. However, users should also consider that the tool's effectiveness depends on the suitability of a two-component discrete exponential model.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Realistic mossy fiber input patterns to unipolar brush cells evoke a continuum of temporal responses comprised of components mediated by different glutamate receptors

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Vincent Huson
   2. Wade G Regehr

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study describes how trains of mossy fiber stimulation control cerebellar unipolar brush cell discharges. The dissection of the contributions of relevant glutamate receptors to these transformations is convincing. Overall, the study broadens our understanding of temporal processing in the cerebellar cortex.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Mistargeted retinal axons induce a synaptically independent subcircuit in the visual thalamus of albino mice

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Sean McCracken
   2. Liam McCoy
   3. Ziyi Hu
   4. Julie A Hodges
   5. Katia Valkova
   6. Philip R Williams
   7. Josh L Morgan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides important observations about the role of Hebbian synapse rewiring (which predicts that correlated activity between neurons begets stronger synapses) on brain connectivity development, by examining a naturally emerging case where Hebbian predictions can be tested because neurons with differing activity undergo development under otherwise similar conditions (albino mouse lateral geniculate nucleus [LGN], where retinal ganglion cells [RGCs] from the contralateral retina form inappropriate projections alongside a majority of ipsilateral RGCs). The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with combined confocal imaging and serial electron microscopy (EM) reconstructions showing complete synaptic isolation of aberrantly projecting RGCs onto LGN thalamocortical projection neurons, and mixed connectivity onto LGN local interneurons. The morphological descriptions of connectivity presented here will be of interest to researchers studying synaptic connectivity and plasticity during development.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus P118 enhances host tolerance to Salmonella infection by promoting microbe-derived indole metabolites

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Baikui Wang
   2. Xianqi Peng
   3. Xiao Zhou
   4. Xiuyan Jin
   5. Abubakar Siddique
   6. Jiayun Yao
   7. Haiqi Zhang
   8. Weifen Li
   9. Yan Li
   10. Min Yue

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The microbiome field is constantly providing insight on various health-related properties elicited by the commensals that inhabit their mammalian hosts. Harnessing the potential of these commensals for knowledge about host-microbe interactions, as well as properties with therapeutic implications, will likely remain a fruitful field for decades to come. In this valuable study, Wang et al use various methods, encompassing classic microbiology, genomics, chemical biology, and immunology, to identify a potent probiotic strain that protects nematode and murine hosts from Salmonella enterica infection. The authors provide compelling evidence identifying gut metabolites that are correlated with protection, and show that a single metabolite can recapitulate the effects of probiotic administration.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Seasonal and comparative evidence of adaptive gene expression in mammalian brain size plasticity

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. William R Thomas
   2. Troy Richter
   3. Erin T O'Neil
   4. Cecilia Baldoni
   5. Angelique Corthals
   6. Dominik von Elverfeldt
   7. John D Nieland
   8. Dina Dechmann
   9. Richard Hunter
   10. Liliana M Davalos

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable findings related to seasonal brain size plasticity in the Eurasian common shrew (Sorex araneus), which is an excellent model system for these studies. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing. The work will be of interest to biologists working on neuroscience, plasticity, and evolution.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Confidence over competence: Real-time integration of social information in human continuous perceptual decision-making

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Felix Schneider
   2. Antonino Calapai
   3. Roger Mundry
   4. Raymundo Báez-Mendoza
   5. Alexander Gail
   6. Igor Kagan
   7. Stefan Treue

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study developed a novel continuous dot-motion decision-making task, in which participants can see another player's responses as well as their own, to measure perceptual performance and confidence judgments in a social context. The study is a valuable contribution to social decision-making primarily by introducing a new task and offering convincing evidence on how participants are impacted by others' decisions during continuous perceptual choices. The manuscript delivers clear evidence that participants judgements are driven by metacognitive confidence over simpler primary uncertainty.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Transcriptional pattern enriched for synaptic signaling is associated with shorter survival of patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Arkajyoti Bhattacharya
   2. Thijs S Stutvoet
   3. Mirela Perla
   4. Stefan Loipfinger
   5. Mathilde Jalving
   6. Anna KL Reyners
   7. Paola D Vermeer
   8. Ronny Drapkin
   9. Marco de Bruyn
   10. Elisabeth GE de Vries
   11. Steven de Jong
   12. Rudolf SN Fehrmann

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study uses consensus-independent component analysis to highlight transcriptional components (TC) in high-grade serous ovarian cancers (HGSOC). The study presents a convincing preliminary finding by identifying a TC linked to synaptic signaling that is associated with shorter overall survival in HGSOC patients, highlighting the potential role of neuronal interactions in the tumour microenvironment. This finding is corroborated by comparing spatially resolved transcriptomics in a small-scale study; a weakness is it being descriptive, non-mechanistic, and requires experimental validation.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Endophilin A1 facilitates organization of the GABAergic postsynaptic machinery to maintain excitation-inhibition balance

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Xue Chen
   2. Deng Pan
   3. Jia-Jia Liu
   4. Yanrui Yang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on the molecular mechanisms that govern GABAergic inhibitory synapse function. The authors propose that Endophilin A1 serves as a novel regulator of GABAergic synapses by acting as a component of the inhibitory postsynaptic density. The findings are convincing and likely to interest a broad audience of scientists focusing on inhibitory synaptic transmission, the excitation-inhibition balance, and its disruption in disorders such as epilepsy.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. DendroTweaks, an interactive approach for unraveling dendritic dynamics

    This article has 3 authors:

    1. Roman Makarov
    2. Spyridon Chavlis
    3. Panayiota Poirazi

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      Computational simulation of neuron function depends on a collection of morphological properties and ion channel biophysics. This manuscript introduces DendroTweaks, a valuable web application and Python library that eases interactive exploration, development, and validation of single-neuron models in an easily installable and well-documented package. The authors provide a convincing demonstration that their software aids with building intuition and rapid prototyping of biophysical models of neurons, which improves the accessibility of dendritic simulation.

    Reviewed by eLife