eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Oxytocin neurons mediate the effect of social isolation via the VTA circuits

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Stefano Musardo
   2. Alessandro Contestabile
   3. Marit Knoop
   4. Olivier Baud
   5. Camilla Bellone

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study examined the effects of social isolation in adolescent and adult male mice, a topic timely and relevant. The work sheds light on oxytocin as a key regulator that modulates the dopaminergic midbrain imparting long-lasting effects on social interaction. A critical open question is whether these results would apply to female subjects. The findings will merit from more thorough interpretations and controls of social behavior data and synaptic plasticity. This paper will be of interest to those interested in social neuroscience and plasticity in general.

     (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

2. FMRP regulates mRNAs encoding distinct functions in the cell body and dendrites of CA1 pyramidal neurons

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Caryn R Hale
   2. Kirsty Sawicka
   3. Kevin Mora
   4. John J Fak
   5. Jin Joo Kang
   6. Paula Cutrim
   7. Katarzyna Cialowicz
   8. Thomas S Carroll
   9. Robert B Darnell

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors performed transcriptomic analyses from compartment-specific, micro-dissected hippocampal region tissue from transgenic mice. One feature that distinguishes this work from previous studies is the use of conditional knock-in tags (GFP or HA) and tissue specific expression of the Cre recombinase to target a population of pyramidal neurons in the CA1 region. The strengths of the paper are the rich data sets and innovative integration of methods that will provide a valuable technical resource for the field.

     (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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Functional diversification gave rise to allelic specialization in a rice NLR immune receptor pair

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Juan Carlos De la Concepcion
   2. Javier Vega Benjumea
   3. Aleksandra Bialas
   4. Ryohei Terauchi
   5. Sophien Kamoun
   6. Mark J Banfield

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     De la Concepcion and colleagues investigated the mode of co-evolution of plant immune receptor pair that functions as a unit to detect pathogen invasion and turn on immunity. The study shows that an allelic mismatch of a receptor paired from rice can cause autoimmunity in the absence of pathogen effectors, and this can be traced to polymorphisms that arose fairly recently. Overall the study provides insights into the co-evolution of paired receptors and supports that the paired receptors have co-evolved to prevent premature inactivation and enable strong activation in response to matching effectors.

     (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

4. Octopamine drives honeybee thermogenesis

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Sinan Kaya-Zeeb
   2. Lorenz Engelmayer
   3. Mara Straßburger
   4. Jasmin Bayer
   5. Heike Bähre
   6. Roland Seifert
   7. Oliver Scherf-Clavel
   8. Markus Thamm

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study is of broad interest to researchers in the field of entomology and physiology. These findings may shed light on at least one mechanism underlying selective advantages conferred to insect species on evolutionary timescales. Though the chemical signal, its source and recipient tissues underlying thermogenesis are elucidated, hypotheses regarding their downstream effects remain to be substantiated.

     (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. Visualizing cellular and tissue ultrastructure using Ten-fold Robust Expansion Microscopy (TREx)

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Hugo GJ Damstra
   2. Boaz Mohar
   3. Mark Eddison
   4. Anna Akhmanova
   5. Lukas C Kapitein
   6. Paul W Tillberg

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript reports a robust and well-characterized expansion method that achieves 10X expansion with a single expansion step using a simple, easy-to-use protocol. The new protocol leads to an enabling methodology for super-resolution imaging of various sub-cellular structures and organelles and is likely to have a high impact.

     (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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife, preLights

6. DAAM mediates the assembly of long-lived, treadmilling stress fibers in collectively migrating epithelial cells in Drosophila

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Kristin M Sherrard
   2. Maureen Cetera
   3. Sally Horne-Badovinac

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of broad interest to readers who are interested in understanding cell migration and the cytoskeleton. It characterizes new behaviors of actin-based stress fibers in vivo during collective cell migration, and provides important observations that contribute to our fundamental understanding of these structures. The use of high-resolution live imaging in combination with Drosophila genetics and pharmacological inhibitors provides compelling data that supports the major claims of the paper.

     (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

7. The Cl--channel TMEM16A is involved in the generation of cochlear Ca2+ waves and promotes the refinement of auditory brainstem networks in mice

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Alena Maul
   2. Antje Kathrin Huebner
   3. Nicola Strenzke
   4. Tobias Moser
   5. Rudolf Rübsamen
   6. Saša Jovanovic
   7. Christian A Hübner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper addresses the very extremely interesting question of how spontaneous activity in the cochlea prior to hearing onset impacts the development of auditory circuits in the brainstem. The study has many strengths, including the use of complementary in vitro and in vivo recording techniques to characterize both peripheral and central defects resulting from conditional deletion of the gene for the chloride channel TMEM16A. The reviewers identified some concerns over the interpretation of the data and felt that the results could be discussed more in the context of other work, which might require some additional experiments.

     (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

8. Control of neurotransmitter release and presynaptic plasticity by re-orientation of membrane-bound Munc13-1

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Marcial Camacho
   2. Bradley Quade
   3. Thorsten Trimbuch
   4. Junjie Xu
   5. Levent Sari
   6. Josep Rizo
   7. Christian Rosenmund

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study will be of high interest to readers in the field of the molecular mechanisms of synaptic operation. The functional demonstration of two different topological states of Munc13 involved in, Ca2+-independent and Ca2+-dependent, synaptic vesicle priming is a remarkable contribution to further understand key mechanisms of neurotransmitter release and its modulation. A multidisciplinary, solid and careful study supported by simulations of molecular dynamics, in vitro assays of membrane fusion and synaptic electrophysiology of mouse hippocampal neurons.

     (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. Microtubule assembly by tau impairs endocytosis and neurotransmission via dynamin sequestration in Alzheimer’s disease synapse model

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Tetsuya Hori
   2. Kohgaku Eguchi
   3. Han-Ying Wang
   4. Tomohiro Miyasaka
   5. Laurent Guillaud
   6. Zacharie Taoufiq
   7. Satyajit Mahapatra
   8. Hiroshi Yamada
   9. Kohji Takei
   10. Tomoyuki Takahashi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Aggregates of the protein Tau are a key pathological features of Alzheimer's Disease and several other neurodegenerative disorders (Tauopathies). Hori et al. examined the effects of an acute elevation of Tau levels in synapses, employing high-end paired pre-post-synaptic patch-clamp recordings at the Calyx of Held model synapse. The authors generated a technically very rigorous dataset indicating that increased levels of soluble Tau impair pre-synaptic endocytosis and, consequently, neurotransmission by sequestering Dynamin-1 on microtubules, and propose that this process is part of a synaptic manifestation of Tauopathies. The findings are of major relevance for basic neuronal cell biology and translational neuroscience alike. However, several aspects of the proposed molecular mechanism underlying the synaptic effects of elevated Tau levels remain less clear.

     (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

10. Minimal requirements for a neuron to coregulate many properties and the implications for ion channel correlations and robustness

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Jane Yang
    2. Husain Shakil
    3. Stéphanie Ratté
    4. Steven A Prescott

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This paper examines model neuron solution sets - combinations of ionic membrane conductance parameters that allow the model to produce functional output properties - and how the extent and shape of these solutions sets depends on ion channel pleiotropy, i.e., that ion channels can influence multiple outputs simultaneously. The work provides an organizing framework for previous experimental and modeling studies related to degeneracy of solutions, ion channel correlations, and homeostatic regulation, and should therefore be of interest to researchers in this area.

      (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