eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Nanoscopy Reveals Heparan Sulfate Clusters as Docking Sites for SARS-CoV-2 Attachment and Entry

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Sue Han
   2. Xin Wang
   3. Tiansheng Li
   4. Ammar Mohseni
   5. Ivan Kosik
   6. Chung Yu Chan
   7. Alberto Domingo López-Muñoz
   8. Jessica Matthias
   9. Reid Suddaby
   10. Zhixiong Wang
   11. Albert J Jin
   12. Christian A Wurm
   13. Jonathan W Yewdell
   14. Ling-Gang Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a role for heparin sulfate in SARS-CoV-2 entry that runs counter to prevailing data in the field. If the conclusions were firmly supported by the data, the work would be a significant contribution to the field. While the use of diverse cellular models, virological tools, and robust microscopy approaches constitutes a useful data set, the proposed model remains incomplete and requires clarification of entry mechanisms, host factors, and viral variant-specific fusion pathways to substantiate it against established entry models.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Epigenetic Adaptation Drives Monocyte Differentiation into Microglia-Like Cells Upon Engraftment into the Central Nervous System

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Jie Liu
   2. Fengyang Lei
   3. Bin Yan
   4. Tian Cao
   5. Naiwen Cui
   6. Jyoti Sharma
   7. Victor Correa
   8. Lara Roach
   9. Savvas Nicolaou
   10. Kristen Pitts
   11. James Chodosh
   12. Daniel E Maidana
   13. Demetrios Vavvas
   14. Milica A Margeta
   15. Huidan Zhang
   16. David Weitz
   17. Raul Mostoslavsky
   18. Eleftherios I Paschalis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors investigated the epigenetic mechanisms regulating the differentiation of circulating monocytes that infiltrate the CNS and adopt microglia-like characteristics. The work is useful to the field, as the contribution of circulating myeloid cell-derived microglia remains controversial. However, the evidence presented is inadequate as the analyses are based on a very limited set of genes, which does not sufficiently support the authors' central claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Readout and delayed transmission of initial afferent V1 activity in decisions about stimulus contrast

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Kieran S Mohr
   2. Simon P Kelly

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study reports that EEG recordings of the earliest stage of information processing in the human visual cortex can be used to predict subsequent choice responses. The findings provide novel, solid evidence for integrative processing in low-level sensory cortices, though the exact nature of the neural signals measured here requires some clarification. While some conceptual issues need to be addressed, the paper is likely to be of interest to neuroscientists interested in the contribution of early sensory signals to decision-making.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Excitatory cholecystokinin neurons in CA3 area regulate the navigation learning and neuroplasticity

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Fengwen Huang
   2. Abdul Baset
   3. Stephen Temitayo Bello

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study shows that excitatory cholecystokinin (CCK)-expressing neurons in hippocampal area CA3 influence hippocampal-dependent memory using multiple methods to manipulate excitatory CCK-expressing CA3 neurons selectively. The work is valuable because most past studies of CCK-expressing neurons have focused on those neurons that co-express CCK and GABA. Currently, the strength of evidence is incomplete; however, if additional evidence were to be presented that the methods were selective, the evaluation would potentially be higher.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Progressive postnatal hearing development limits early parent-offspring vocal communication in the zebra finch

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Tommi Anttonen
   2. Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard
   3. Coen PH Elemans

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Zebra finches are a prominent model system for vocal learning and auditory system function, yet little is known about the functional development of the auditory system. Here, the authors convincingly show that newly hatched zebra finches lack detectable auditory brainstem responses and that auditory neural signals emerge only days after hatching, challenging influential claims of prenatal acoustic communication in altricial birds. This important work clarifies the developmental timeline for auditory communication and highlights the value of neuroscientific methods for validating and complementing behavioral ecological studies of animal perception.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Acute opioid responses are modulated by dynamic interactions of Oprm1 and Fgf12

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Paige M Lemen
   2. Yanning Zuo
   3. Alexander S Hatoum
   4. Price E Dickson
   5. Guy Mittleman
   6. Arpana Agrawal
   7. Benjamin C Reiner
   8. Wade Berrettini
   9. David G Ashbrook
   10. Mustafa Hakan Gunturkun
   11. Xusheng Wang
   12. Megan K Mulligan
   13. Caleb J Browne
   14. Eric J Nestler
   15. Francesca Telese
   16. Robert W Williams
   17. Hao Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study integrates large-scale behavioral, genetic, and molecular analyses in animal models to investigate morphine response. Utilizing high-quality, time-series Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) mapping, the work provides compelling evidential support for novel, time-dependent genetic interactions (epistasis). A fundamental result of this rigorous analysis is the discovery of a novel Oprm1-Fgf12-MAPK signaling pathway, which offers new insights into the mechanisms of opioid sensitivity.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Hugin-AstA circuitry is a novel central energy sensor that directly regulates sweet sensation in Drosophila and mouse

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Wusa Qin
   2. Tingting Song
   3. Zeliang Lai
   4. Daihan Li
   5. Liming Wang
   6. Rui Huang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work characterizes layers of neuropeptidergic modulations that collectively regulate the intake of sugar in a hunger state-dependent manner. Combinations of genetic, physiological, and behavioral approaches present convincing evidence that neurons that release Hugin and Allatostatin A are in an active state in sated flies, leading to suppression of sugar feeding behavior by reducing the sensitivity of sugar-sensitive gustatory neurons that express Gr5a. They also demonstrate that neurons that release Neuromedin U, a vertebrate homolog of Hugin, have common physiological properties as the fly Hugin neurons, revealing a similar function of evolutionarily conserved peptides across animal phyla.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Regulation of sensorimotor serial learning in speech production by motor compensation rather than sensory error

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yuhan Lu
   2. Xiaowei Tang
   3. Zhenyan Xiao
   4. Anqi Xu
   5. Junxi Chen
   6. Xing Tian

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study investigates how people adapt their speech when auditory feedback is altered. The analyses are rigorous and the work makes a valuable contribution by extending methods from limb motor control to speech. However, because the paradigm does not directly measure sensory error, the evidence for the proposed mechanism of sensorimotor learning is incomplete. The findings are best viewed as evidence for how prior motor adjustments influence subsequent behaviour, highlighting the need for future studies to more precisely separate sensory and motor contributions to adaptation.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A comprehensive mechanosensory connectome reveals a somatotopically organized neural circuit architecture controlling stimulus-aimed grooming of the Drosophila head

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Steven A Calle-Schuler
   2. Alexis E Santana-Cruz
   3. Lucia Kmecová
   4. Stefanie Hampel
   5. Andrew M Seeds

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study extends prior work on head bristle mechanosensation by delivering a synaptic-resolution map of second-order partners that preserves somatotopy and highlights a cholinergic pathway linking sensory input to grooming circuits, providing a valuable resource for the field. The reconstructions and quantitative connectivity analyses provide solid support the main anatomical claims, while causal sufficiency for the behavioral sequence remains inferential and could be strengthened by a simple rank-order test relating wiring to the known grooming hierarchy.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Direct contact between iPSC-derived macrophages and hepatocytes drives reciprocal acquisition of Kupffer cell identity and hepatocyte maturation

    This article has 13 authors:

    1. Christopher Zhe Wei Lee
    2. Farah Tasnim
    3. Xiaozhong Huang
    4. Raman Sethi
    5. Yoohyun Song
    6. Tatsuya Kozaki
    7. Sebastiaan De Schepper
    8. Nicholas Ang
    9. Ivy Low
    10. You Yi Hwang
    11. Jinmiao Chen
    12. Hanry Yu
    13. Florent Ginhoux

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This timely and fundamental study introduces a human iPSC-based co-culture system that models Kupffer cell-hepatocyte interactions and aims to recapitulate liver-specific immune-parenchymal dynamics. Direct contact between iMacs and iHeps promotes mutual tissue-specific maturation, with iHeps downregulating fetal genes while iMacs acquire a Kupffer cell-like profile. This convincing in vitro model holds significant promise and is a leap forward; future experimental understanding will enhance its translational impact.

    Reviewed by eLife