eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Cortical layer 6b mediates state-dependent changes in brain activity and effects of orexin on waking and sleep

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Elise J Meijer
   2. Marissa Mueller
   3. Lukas B Krone
   4. Tomoko Yamagata
   5. Anna Hoerder-Suabedissen
   6. Sian Wilcox
   7. Hannah Alfonsa
   8. Atreyi Chakrabarty
   9. Luiz Guidi
   10. Peter L Oliver
   11. Vladyslav V Vyazovskiy
   12. Zoltán Molnár

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study offers a valuable contribution to our understanding of the role of layer 6b cortical neurons in sleep-wake regulation, providing new insight into how this understudied neural population may regulate cortical arousal via orexin signaling. The evidence supporting these findings is solid, although somewhat constrained by limitations in the specificity of the genetic targeting strategy. Nonetheless, the work introduces new avenues for uncovering how the classical wake-promoting peptide, orexin, exerts its effects on the cortex.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Post-translational modifications of microtubules are crucial for malaria parasite transmission

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Kodzo Atchou
   2. Magali Roques
   3. Ruth Rehmann
   4. Reto Caldelari
   5. Melanie Schmid
   6. Simone Grossi
   7. Bianca Manuela Berger
   8. Torsten Ochsenreiter
   9. Friedrich Frischknecht
   10. Volker Heussler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable insights into microtubule remodeling during liver-stage Plasmodium berghei development, demonstrating that deletion of the alpha-tubulin C-terminal tail impairs parasite growth in mosquitoes and abolishes infection in HeLa cells. The work is technically ambitious, employing advanced microscopy, genetic mutants, and pharmacological approaches. However, key claims are only partially supported due to incomplete evidence linking tubulin modifications to microtubule dynamics and uncertain antibody-based PTM detection.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A novel mechanism for bacterial sporulation based on programmed peptidoglycan degradation

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Carlos A Ramírez Carbó
   2. Oihane Irazoki
   3. Srutha Venkatesan
   4. Lauren JS Chen
   5. Haylie A Morales
   6. Assariel J Garcia Avila
   7. Hoi-Ling Cheung
   8. Felipe Cava
   9. Beiyan Nan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study identifies and partially characterises two proteins optimised for coordinated peptidoglycan degradation during two spore morphogenesis programs in the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, although the description of the data is somewhat overstated. After some editing, the paper will be of interest to those studying peptidoglycan synthesis and reorganisation, which is a central aspect of microbial cell biology.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Arrayed single-gene perturbations identify drivers of human anterior neural tube closure

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Roya E. Huang
   2. Giridhar M. Anand
   3. Heitor C. Megale
   4. Jason Chen
   5. Chudi Abraham-Igwe
   6. Sharad Ramanathan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study is a fundamental advance in the field of developmental biology and transcriptional regulation that demonstrates the use of hPSC-derived organoids to generate reproducible organoids to study the mechanisms that drive neural tube closure. The work is exceptional and solid, providing both technical advances and new knowledge on human development through embryo models.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Resolving synaptic events using subsynaptically targeted GCaMP8 variants

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jiawen Chen
   2. Junhao Lin
   3. Kaikai He
   4. Luyi Wang
   5. Yifu Han
   6. Chengjie Qiu
   7. Dion Dickman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this important study, the authors engineered and characterised novel genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) and an analytical tool (CaFire) capable of reporting and quantifying various sub-synaptic events, including miniature synaptic events, with a speed and sensitivity approaching that of intracellular electrophysiological recordings. While the evidence supporting the improvements in the speed and accuracy of these tools is convincing, including additional information about key imaging parameters, the Bar8f experiments, and CaFire would strengthen the study. This work will be of interest to neurobiologists studying synaptic calcium dynamics in various model systems.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Widespread cortical representations of innate behaviors in the mouse

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Nicholas J Michelson
   2. Pankaj K Gupta
   3. Timothy H Murphy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable work shows that subcortically-generated behaviors, like grooming, can have widespread representations in cortical activity. While the evidence is solid, additional analyses are necessary to strengthen the claims associated with outsized cortical representations of grooming onsets, as well as to address atypical grooming events. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in how subcortically-generated behaviors are represented across the cortex.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. BuzzWatch: Uncovering Multi-scale Temporal Patterns in Mosquito Behavior Through Continuous Long-term Monitoring

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Théo Maire
   2. Zhong Wan
   3. Louis Lambrechts
   4. Felix J.H. Hol

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper reports a useful low-cost platform for studying mosquito behaviors such as flight activity, sugar feeding, and host-seeking responses over the course of several weeks, and demonstrates key applications of this platform. While the authors provide a biological proof of principle, the evidence that supports the validation of the tracking algorithm is incomplete; it lacks biological replicates, independent confirmation of the tracking algorithm, and data on mosquito survival.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Organization of the apical extracellular matrix during tubular organ formation

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. J Luke Woodward
   2. Jeffrey Matthew
   3. Rutuparna Joshi
   4. Vishakha Vishwakarma
   5. Ying Xiao
   6. SeYeon Chung

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper is important in demonstrating a requirement for sulfation in organizing apical ECM (aECM) during tubulogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. The authors identify and characterize the organization of some of the first known components of the non-chitinous aECM in the Drosophila salivary gland tube, and these findings are supported by convincing data. This study would be of interest to developmental and cell biologists.

     [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

9. Evidence of off-target probe binding in the 10x Genomics Xenium v1 Human Breast Gene Expression Panel compromises accuracy of spatial transcriptomic profiling

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Caleb Hallinan
   2. Hyun Joo Ji
   3. Steven L Salzberg
   4. Jean Fan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study identifies and characterizes probe binding errors in a widely used commercial platform for visualizing gene activity in tissue samples, discovering that at least 21 out of 280 genes in a human breast cancer panel are not accurately detected. The authors provide convincing evidence for their findings validated against multiple independent sequencing technologies and reference datasets. Given the broad adoption of this spatial gene detection platform in biomedical research, this work provides an essential quality control resource that will improve data interpretation across numerous studies.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Single-cell transcriptome sequencing for opening the blood-brain barrier through specific mode electroacupuncture stimulation

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Congcong Ma
    2. Zhaoxing Jia
    3. Tianxiang Jiang
    4. Qian Cai
    5. Jinding Yang
    6. Lin Gan
    7. Kecheng Qian
    8. Zixin Pan
    9. Qinyu Ye
    10. Mengyuan Dai
    11. Xianming Lin

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This paper reports a valuable discovery that specific-mode electroacupuncture (EA) transiently opens the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in rats. The evidence is solid but lacks functional validation of BBB permeability changes. The work will be of interest to medical scientists working in the field of electroacupuncture and drug delivery.

    Reviewed by eLife