eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Analysis of dendritic input currents during place field dynamics

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Bence Fogel
   2. Balazs B Ujfalussy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study offers an important advance by extending an intuitive visualization tool that enables assessment of how dendritic and synaptic currents potentially shape neuronal output. The evidence supporting the tool's capabilities is convincing, with well-documented code, algorithmic innovation, and application to hippocampal pyramidal neurons. The work will be of interest to computational and systems neuroscientists seeking accessible methods to examine dendritic computations.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Multi-timescale neural adaptation underlying long-term musculoskeletal reorganization

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Roland Philipp
   2. Yuki Hara
   3. Naohito Ohta
   4. Naoki Uchida
   5. Tomomichi Oya
   6. Tetsuro Funato
   7. Kazuhiko Seki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates how the nervous system adapts to changes in the mechanics of the body, which are altered through a tendon transfer surgery affecting finger extensor and flexor muscles. By measuring task performance, joint kinematics, and muscle activity for several weeks post surgery, the authors provide convincing evidence that monkeys undergo a two-phase adaptation process. First, they adopt a maladaptive strategy to overcome the functional challenges imposed by the surgery, and then revert to a strategy that uses the same patterns of muscle coactivation observed pre-tendon transfer.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Synaptic density and relative connectivity conservation maintain circuit stability across development

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ingo Fritz
   2. Feiyu Wang
   3. Ricardo Chirif
   4. Nikos Malakasis
   5. Julijana Gjorgjieva
   6. André Ferreira Castro

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors have performed a potentially valuable new kind of analysis in connectomics, mapping to an interesting developmental problem of synaptic input to sensory neurons. While the analysis itself is solid, the authors have drawn broader conclusions than are directly supported by the presented data. With more measured claims and greater clarity and explanations for the analysis, the study could potentially become stronger.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. The titin N2A-MARP signalosome constrains muscle longitudinal hypertrophy in response to stretch

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Robbert van der Pijl
   2. Jochen Gohlke
   3. Joshua Strom
   4. Eva Peters
   5. Shengyi Shen
   6. Stefan Conijn
   7. Zaynab Hourani
   8. Stephan Lange
   9. Ju Chen
   10. Paul Langlais
   11. Siegfried Labeit
   12. Henk Granzier
   13. Coen Ottenheijm

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The work by van der Pijl presents important findings on the role of titin-associated muscle ankyrin repeat proteins (MARPs) on hypertrophy via mTOR signalling. The study presents rigourous data using in vivo loss-of-function and pharmacological approaches to investigate effects on hypertrophy. While the evidence supporting the role of MARPs on hypertrophy is solid, there are limitations. For example, the use of Rapamycin only inhibits some aspects of mTORC1 signalling and the study is limited to analysis of the diaphragm and thus it is not clear if the mechanisms are conserved across other muscle types.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. 4-Aminoquinolines block heme iron reactivity and interfere with artemisinin action

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Melissa Rosenthal
   2. Daniel E Goldberg

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important study with direct implications for the rational selection of antimalarial drug combinations. The authors present data demonstrating antagonism between 4-aminoquinoline antimalarials and peroxide drugs under physiologically relevant conditions, including robust effects at the trophozoite stage and for chloroquine at the ring stage. While the conclusions are based on in vitro assays and further work will be needed to fully resolve the underlying mechanism, the findings are convincing and provide a strong rationale for evaluating drug combinations in relevant preclinical models prior to clinical testing.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. vassi – verifiable, automated scoring of social interactions in animal groups

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Paul Nührenberg
   2. Aneesh PH Bose
   3. Alex Jordan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents vassi, a Python package that streamlines the preparation of training data for machine-learning-based classification of social behaviors in animal groups. This package is a valuable resource for researchers with computational expertise, implementing a framework for the detection of directed social interactions within a group and an interactive tool for reviewing and correcting behavior detections. However, the strength of evidence that the method is widely applicable remains incomplete, performance on benchmark dyadic datasets is comparable to existing approaches, and performance scores on collective behavioral datasets are low. While the package can analyze behavior in large groups of animals, it only outputs dyadic interactions within these groups and does not account for behaviors where more than two animals may be interacting.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Abnormal shear stress induces ferroptosis in endothelial cells via KLF6 downregulation

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jingang Cui
   2. Zhiyu Fan
   3. Suoqi Ding
   4. Jiazhen Zhang
   5. Huihong Shen
   6. Syeda Armana Zaidi
   7. Yongsheng Ding

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable findings on the role of KLF6 in in vitro endothelial cells exposed to altered (high or low) shear stress with a customized microfluidic device to investigate mechanisms of atherosclerosis. The finding that altered shear stress results in endothelial cell ferroptosis through reduced expression of KLF6 is compelling and adds a new layer of complexity to the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic plaques. However, more detailed characterization of ferroptosis is needed.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Unbend, correction of local beam-induced sample motion in cryo-EM images using a 3D spline model

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Lingli Kong
   2. Ximena Zottig
   3. Johannes Elferich
   4. Nikolaus Grigorieff

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper describes Unbend - a new method for measuring and correcting motions in cryo-EM images, with a particular emphasis on more challenging in situ samples such as lamellae and whole cells. The method, which fits a B-spline model using cross-correlation-based local patch alignment of micrograph frames, represents an important tool for the cryo-EM community. The authors elegantly use 2D template matching to provide convincing evidence that Unbend outperforms the previously reported method of Unblur by the same authors. Comparison to alternative programs for motion correction shows smaller gains, but with interesting differences between data sets.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A novel 3D visualization method in mice identifies the periportal lamellar complex (PLC) as a key regulator of hepatic ductal and neuronal branching morphogenesis

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Tongtong Xu
   2. Fujun Cao
   3. Ruihan Zhou
   4. Qin Chen
   5. Jian Zhong
   6. Yulin Wang
   7. Chaoxin Xiao
   8. Banglei Yin
   9. Chong Chen
   10. Chengjian Zhao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents an important methodological advance-Liver-CUBIC combined with multicolor metallic nanoparticle perfusion-that enables high-resolution 3D visualization of the liver's complex multi-ductal architecture. The identification of the Periportal Lamellar Complex (PLC) as a novel perivascular structure with distinct cellular composition and low-permeability characteristics is convincing, supported by rigorous imaging data. The observed scaffolding role during fibrosis offers intriguing biological insights, though the functional claims would benefit from direct experimental validation.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Integrated Respirometry and Metabolomics Unveil Circadian Metabolic Dynamics in Drosophila

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Farheen Akhtar
    2. Dania Malik
    3. Arjun Sengupta
    4. Paula Haynes
    5. Jaco Klok
    6. Amita Sehgal
    7. Aalim M Weljie

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study investigates how sleep loss and circadian disruption affect whole-organ metabolism in flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and reports that wild-type flies align metabolism in anticipation of diurnal rhythm, while mutant flies with impaired sleep or circadian function shift to reactive or misaligned metabolism. The integration of chamber-based flow-through respirometry with LC-MS metabolomics is innovative, and the significance of the findings is valuable. However, the strength of evidence needed to support the conclusions is incomplete based on concerns regarding the inappropriate use of constant darkness to disrupt circadian rhythms and the lack of details justifying the methods used to correlate respirometry data with whole-body metabolomics.

    Reviewed by eLife