eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Inhibitory columnar feedback neurons are involved in motion processing in Drosophila

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Miriam Henning
   2. Madhura Ketkar
   3. Teresa Lüffe
   4. Daryl M Gohl
   5. Thomas R Clandinin
   6. Marion Silies

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important article reports on the role of specific interneurons in the motion processing circuitry of the fruit fly, and marshals convincing evidence from neural recording, genetic manipulation, and behavioral analysis. A significant result ties the activity of C2/C3 neurons to the temporal resolution of the motion vision system. It remains unclear whether disrupting this pathway affects the dynamics of vision more generally.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Dissecting surveying behavior of reactive microglia under chronic neurodegeneration

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Sunitha Subhramanian
   2. Olga Bocharova
   3. Natallia Makarava
   4. Tarek Safadi
   5. Ilia V Baskakov

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental study provides new evidence of a change in how microglia survey neurons during the chronic phase of neurodegeneration, which researchers studying neuroinflammation and its role in neurodegenerative disease should find interesting. In this research, using time-lapse imaging of acute brain slices from prion-affected mice, the researchers show that, unlike in healthy brains, microglia become reactive, lose their territorial boundaries, and become highly mobile, exhibiting "kiss-and-ride" behavior, migrating into brain tissue and forming reversible, transient body-to-body contact with neurons. The evidence is compelling, with well-executed time-lapse imaging, good quantitative analysis across several disease stages, pharmacological validation of P2Y6 involvement, and the very surprising finding that this mobile behavior persists after microglia are removed from the brain.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A stress-activated neuronal ensemble in the supramammillary nucleus produces anxiety-like behavior in male mice

   This article has 11 authors:

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

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript provides a valuable contribution by identifying a stress-responsive circuit and its regulation of anxiety-related behaviors. The evidence is convincing that the supramammillary nucleus contains stress-responsive neurons that increase anxiety-like behaviors when activated, and that ventral subiculum projections to the supramammillary are also activated by stress and their inhibition alleviates some effects of stress. Evidence that this pathway encodes and is functionally specific to anxiety is, at present, not sufficiently support and will require future studies. This work offers new insights into how distinct circuits are activated by stress and can regulate emotional behaviors and will be of interest to those interested in brain systems of aversive emotional and behavioral states.

   Reviewed by eLife

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

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Yang Zhang
   2. Yuejia Wang
   3. Jinqiao Song
   4. Lizhong Yan
   5. Ziguang Wang
   6. Dongze Song
   7. Haojun Wang
   8. Sining Yang
   9. Liyuan Niu
   10. Chang Sun
   11. Hanning Zhang
   12. Yudi Zhao
   13. 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 due to concerns about the new HCR data.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Suppression of interferon signaling via small-molecule modulation of TFAM

    This article has 15 authors:

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