eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The interplay between homeostatic synaptic scaling and homeostatic structural plasticity maintains the robust firing rate of neural networks

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Han Lu
   2. Sandra Diaz-Pier
   3. Maximilian Lenz
   4. Andreas Vlachos

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study combines experiments and modelling to advance our understanding of the nonlinear nature of homeostatic structural plasticity and its interaction with synaptic scaling. The methodology and findings are solid, although additional work is needed to better link models with experiments and support some of the conclusions drawn. This study will be of interest to theoretical and experimental neuroscientists working in homeostatic plasticity.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Olfactory detection of viruses shapes brain immunity and behavior in zebrafish

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Aurora Kraus
   2. Benjamin Garcia
   3. Jie Ma
   4. Kristian J. Herrera
   5. Hanna Zwaka
   6. Roy Harpaz
   7. Ryan Y. Wong
   8. Florian Engert
   9. Irene Salinas

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a useful description of transcriptional responses in adult zebrafish olfactory bulb microglia and neurons following exposure to infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus. This solid work advances our understanding of central nervous system responses to viral infection and provides an inventory of gene expression changes in particular cell types that can be used as hypothesis generators for future studies. Experiments to assess behavioral and neural responses to the virus in adults and larvae are inadequate and would benefit from a clearer conceptual framework that connects these avenues of investigation both to published literature and to the authors' single cell RNA sequencing results.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Three-dimensional single-cell transcriptome imaging of thick tissues

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Rongxin Fang
   2. Aaron Halpern
   3. Mohammed Mostafizur Rahman
   4. Zhengkai Huang
   5. Zhiyun Lei
   6. Sebastian J Hell
   7. Catherine Dulac
   8. Xiaowei Zhuang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important technical method paper that details the development and quality assessment of a 3D MERFISH method to enable spatial transcriptomics of thick tissues, representing a major step forward in the technical capacity of the MERFISH. The evidence presented is convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Annihilation of action potentials induces electrical coupling between neurons

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Moritz Schloetter
   2. Georg U Maret
   3. Christoph J Kleineidam

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study enhances our understanding of ephaptic interactions by utilizing earthworm recordings to refine a general model and use it to predict ephaptic influences across various synaptic configurations. The integration of experimental evidence, a robust mathematical framework and computer simulations convincingly demonstrate the effects of action potential propagation and collision properties on nearby membranes. The study will interest both computational neuroscientists and physiologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Barcode-free multiplex plasmid sequencing using Bayesian analysis and nanopore sequencing

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Masaaki Uematsu
   2. Jeremy M Baskin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides an important computational tool for analyzing and deconvoluting a pool of plasmids sequenced without barcoding using nanopore long-read sequencing. The tool, which has been convincingly validated, is readily available to scientists interested in rapid and cost-effective verification of plasmid sequences as well as in scaling up analysis by pooling samples within barcodes.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Cell-type-specific cis-regulatory divergence in gene expression and chromatin accessibility revealed by human-chimpanzee hybrid cells

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Ban Wang
   2. Alexander L Starr
   3. Hunter B Fraser

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study that leverages a human-chimpanzee tetraploid iPSC model to test whether cis-regulatory divergence between species tends to be cell type-specific. The evidence supporting the study's primary conclusions together provide convincing evidence for enrichment of species differences in gene regulation in cell type-specific genes and regulatory elements, motivating future work with larger sample sizes of cell lines. This work will be of broad interest in evolutionary and functional genomics.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Drivers of species knowledge across the tree of life

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Stefano Mammola
   2. Martino Adamo
   3. Dragan Antić
   4. Jacopo Calevo
   5. Tommaso Cancellario
   6. Pedro Cardoso
   7. Dan Chamberlain
   8. Matteo Chialva
   9. Furkan Durucan
   10. Diego Fontaneto
   11. Duarte Goncalves
   12. Alejandro Martínez
   13. Luca Santini
   14. Iñigo Rubio-Lopez
   15. Ronaldo Sousa
   16. David Villegas-Rios
   17. Aida Verdes
   18. Ricardo A Correia

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     With a carefully collected dataset and compelling analyses, this fundamental manuscript demonstrates detailed links between societal and academic interest and natural species across the globe. In doing so, the authors reveal biases that may be diminishing our abilities to care for the species on our planet that may need our care the most. While some parts of this manuscript reflect previously published work, the authors are commended for putting all the puzzle pieces together for the first time. Their work highlights our uneven knowledge of biodiversity and its potential causes.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. A system of feed-forward cerebellar circuits that extend and diversify sensory signaling

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Harsh N Hariani
   2. A Brynn Algstam
   3. Christian T Candler
   4. Isabelle F Witteveen
   5. Jasmeen K Sidhu
   6. Timothy S Balmer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents important findings about synaptic connectivity among subsets of unipolar brush cells (UBCs), a specialized interneuron primarily located in the vestibular lobules of the cerebellar cortex. The evidence supporting the claims are interesting and solid. The work will be of interest to cerebellar neuroscientists as well as those focussed on synaptic properties and mechanisms. Although several compelling pieces of data were presented, some in vivo work remains to be conducted in order to test if the hypothesis and predictions translate into the behaving animal and how it would impact the processing of feedback or feedforward activity that would be required to promote behavior.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Species and habitat specific changes in bird activity in an urban environment during Covid 19 lockdown

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Congnan Sun
   2. Yoel Hassin
   3. Arjan Boonman
   4. Assaf Shwartz
   5. Yossi Yovel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript offers a valuable contribution to studying wildlife responses during and after COVID-19 lockdowns. It convincingly demonstrates that bird species in urban areas respond differently to human activity changes. What sets this study apart from others on avian responses to COVID-19 lockdowns is its use of passive acoustic monitoring. By concurrently measuring anthropogenic noise, a crucial reflection of changes in human activity due to COVID-19 lockdowns, this study reveals rare local-scale variations in bird responses to human activity. Only one study so far has used vocalization recordings to assess the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on a bird species.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. NAD+ prevents septic shock-induced death by non-canonical inflammasome blockade and IL-10 cytokine production in macrophages

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. Jasper Iske
    2. Rachid El Fatimy
    3. Yeqi Nian
    4. Amina Ghouzlani
    5. Siawosh K Eskandari
    6. Hector Rodriguez Cetina Biefer
    7. Anju Vasudevan
    8. Abdallah Elkhal

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      In this valuable contribution, the authors demonstrate that the infusion of NAD+ may prevent death and reduce disease severity from lethal experimental bacterial sepsis, possibly through inflammasome inhibition, without reducing bacterial load. They provide solid evidence for these protective effects of NAD+, though the precise mechanisms involved remain unclear and need further support and elucidation. The core findings may well have clinical implications but, in addition to mechanistic clarifications, contextualised interpretation as metabolic adaptation to sepsis would create wider interest.

    Reviewed by eLife