eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Synaptic location is a determinant of the detrimental effects of α-synuclein pathology to glutamatergic transmission in the basolateral amygdala

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Liqiang Chen
   2. Chetan Nagaraja
   3. Samuel Daniels
   4. Zoe A Fisk
   5. Rachel Dvorak
   6. Lindsay Meyerdirk
   7. Jennifer A Steiner
   8. Martha L Escobar Galvis
   9. Michael X Henderson
   10. Maxime WC Rousseaux
   11. Patrik Brundin
   12. Hong-Yuan Chu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The manuscript by Nagaraja et al. examines the synapse-specificity of alpha-synuclein aggregation and corresponding circuit dysfunction in the amygdala. Using confocal microscopy and slice electrophysiology, along with alpha-synuclein knockout mice and preformed fibrils, the authors demonstrate that cortico-amygdala, but not thalamo-amygdala, inputs are more vulnerable to alpha-synuclein aggregation and corresponding synaptic dysfunction. This has important implications for the etiology of psychiatric deficits that are common in Parkinson's disease.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

2. An auxin-inducible, GAL4-compatible, gene expression system for Drosophila

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Colin D McClure
   2. Amira Hassan
   3. Gabriel N Aughey
   4. Khushbakht Butt
   5. Alicia Estacio-Gómez
   6. Aneisha Duggal
   7. Chee Ying Sia
   8. Annika F Barber
   9. Tony D Southall

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work will be of interest to Drosophila geneticists in its development of a new tool for temporal control of gene induction by the widely-used bipartite Gal4/UAS system. By transferring protein modules from plants that mediate auxin-dependent protein degradation to control the stability of a Gal4-inhibitor (Gal80), the authors successfully demonstrate the ability to control Gal4 activity in flies through the provision of auxin in the food substrate and provide evidence for the sensitivity, specificity and non-toxicity of this tool.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Zebrafish airinemes optimize their shape between ballistic and diffusive search

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Sohyeon Park
   2. Hyunjoong Kim
   3. Yi Wang
   4. Dae Seok Eom
   5. Jun Allard

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper studies statistical aspects of the role of long-range cellular protrusions called airinemes as means of intracellular communication. The authors use published data showing how airinemes approach a target cell and describe these movements with a mathematical model for an unobstructed persistent random walk. The impact of this study will be on the specialised reader interested in modelling and airineme biology.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. A tRNA processing enzyme is a key regulator of the mitochondrial unfolded protein response

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. James P Held
   2. Gaomin Feng
   3. Benjamin R Saunders
   4. Claudia V Pereira
   5. Kristopher Burkewitz
   6. Maulik R Patel

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript reports that tRNA processing enzyme HOE-1 is required for the activation of mitochondrial unfolded protein response in C. elegans. This study extends our understanding of how the mitochondria-nuclear communication is mediated via a tRNA processing enzyme, and can serve as a staring point to elucidate the mechanism by which HOE-1 regulates mitochondrial unfolded protein response.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Live imaging of the co-translational recruitment of XBP1 mRNA to the ER and its processing by diffuse, non-polarized IRE1α

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Silvia Gómez-Puerta
   2. Roberto Ferrero
   3. Tobias Hochstoeger
   4. Ivan Zubiri
   5. Jeffrey Chao
   6. Tomás Aragón
   7. Franka Voigt

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study takes on a lingering question in the study of the endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response (UPR), namely the relationship between the oligomeric state and activity of the UPR transducer IRE1. Applying modern imaging tools to cultured mammalian cells the authors conclude that much of IRE1's effector function (the unconventional 'splicing' of the XBP1 mRNA) is carried out by finely dispersed IRE1 molecules and not by large clusters. Whilst some of the analytical tools used here remain to be fully validated, the study is likely to be of interest to students of the UPR and its timeliness is highlighted by a recent posting on BioRxiv addressing the same question (Belyy et al., 2021 DOI: 10.1101/2021.09.29.462487)

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

     This manuscript was co-submitted with: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.29.462487v1

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Local activation of focal adhesion kinase orchestrates the positioning of presynaptic scaffold proteins and Ca2+ signalling to control glucose-dependent insulin secretion

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Dillon Jevon
   2. Kylie Deng
   3. Nicole Hallahan
   4. Krish Kumar
   5. Jason Tong
   6. Wan Jun Gan
   7. Clara Tran
   8. Marcela Bilek
   9. Peter Thorn

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of interest not only to the field of insulin release and beta cell biology but also of general interest to the community interested in peptide hormone secretion. It shows that the preservation of the tissue context, in particular the local interaction with integrins at the capillary interface, is important in preserving cell function when using cultured cell or organ isolates in vitro.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Thalamocortical axons control the cytoarchitecture of neocortical layers by area-specific supply of VGF

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Haruka Sato
   2. Jun Hatakeyama
   3. Takuji Iwasato
   4. Kimi Araki
   5. Nobuhiko Yamamoto
   6. Kenji Shimamura

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The question addressed in this manuscript is of potential interest for neurodevelopmental biologists studying the role of molecular factors released from thalamocortical axons in the establishment of cortical layers. The work clarifies the contribution of distinct thalamic secretory proteins in cortical development. Overall, although the data are properly controlled and analyzed, there are several aspects of the manuscript that need to be addressed and improved to support the conclusions raised by the authors.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Motor cortex activity across movement speeds is predicted by network-level strategies for generating muscle activity

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Shreya Saxena
   2. Abigail A Russo
   3. John Cunningham
   4. Mark M Churchland

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study investigates the mechanisms by which distributed systems control rhythmic movements of different speeds. The authors train an artificial recurrent neural network to produce the muscle activity patterns that monkeys generate when performing an arm cycling task at different speeds. The dominant patterns in the neural network do not directly reflect muscle activity and these dominant patterns do a better job than muscle activity at capturing key features of neural activity recorded from the monkey motor cortex in the same task. The manuscript is easy to read and the data and modelling are intriguing and well done. Further work should better explain some of the neural network assumptions and how these assumptions relate to the treatment of the empirical data and its interpretation.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. An Archaea-specific c-type cytochrome maturation machinery is crucial for methanogenesis in Methanosarcina acetivorans

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Dinesh Gupta
   2. Katie E Shalvarjian
   3. Dipti D Nayak

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of interest to scientists interested in archaea and the field of bioenergetics. Using a series of elegant experiments the authors show that that archaea have a streamlined and functional cytochrome c biogenesis machinery.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Age-associated changes to neuronal dynamics involve a disruption of excitatory/inhibitory balance in C. elegans

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Gregory S Wirak
    2. Jeremy Florman
    3. Mark J Alkema
    4. Christopher W Connor
    5. Christopher V Gabel

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This study reports ageing associated decline in coordinated whole brain dynamics of the nematode C. elegans. It is interesting to a broad range of scientists studying neuronal circuit dynamics, the processes of ageing and neurodegenerative diseases. The work provides an impressive amount of whole brain imaging experiments and is the first single cell resolution whole brain imaging study in any organism that reports how whole brain dynamics change over the course of ageing.

      (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

    Reviewed by eLife