Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

This important study demonstrates that interferon beta stimulation induces WTAP transition from aggregates to liquid droplets, coordinating m6A modification of a subset of mRNAs that encode interferon-stimulated genes and restricting their expression. The evidence presented is solid, supported by microscopy, immunoprecipitations, m6A sequencing, and ChIP, to show that WTAP phosphorylation controls phase transition and its interaction with STAT1 and the methyltransferase complex.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study investigates the role of Complement 3a Receptor 1 (C3aR) in the pathogenesis of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) using mouse models with specific target deletions in various cell types. While the general relevance of C3aR in inflammatory contexts has been established before, the authors provide solid evidence here that C3aR does not contribute significantly to MASLD pathogenesis in their models. The work will be of interest to colleagues studying diseases of the liver and the intersection with inflammation.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study examines the role of IL17-producing Ly6G PMNs as a reservoir for Mycobacterium tuberculosis to evade host killing activated by BCG immunisation. The authors provide solid data reporting that IL17-producing polymorphonuclear neutrophils harbour a significant bacterial load in both wild-type and IFNg-/- mice and that targeting IL17 and Cox2 improved disease outcomes whilst enhancing BCG efficacy. The specific contribution of neutrophil-derived IL-17 to disease pathogenesis remains to be definitively established through direct demonstration of IL-17 production by neutrophils and targeted depletion studies.

eLife Assessment

Using microscopy experiments and theoretical modelling, the authors present convincing evidence of cellular coordination in the gliding filamentous cyanobacterium Fluctiforma draycotensis. The results are fundamental for the understanding of cyanobacterial motility and the underlying molecular and mechanical pathways of cellular coordination.

eLife Assessment

This study focuses on the role of a T-cell-specific receptor, ctla-4, in a new zebrafish model of IBD-like phenotype. Although implicated in IBD diseases, the function of ctla-4 has been hard to study in mice as the KO is lethal. Ctla-4 mutant zebrafish exhibited significant intestinal inflammation and dysbiosis, mirroring the pathology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in mammals, providing a new valuable model to the field of IBD research. This is an key study with convincing evidence, comprehensive transcriptomic analysis, histological examinations, and functional assays all supporting the findings.

eLife Assessment

The authors provide important insights into a system of insect camouflage where a coating of self-made nano-particles (brochosomes) reduces the reflection of UV-light leading to lower predation by spiders. Compelling evidence is provided by micro-UV-Vis spectroscopy, electron microscopy, transcriptome and proteome analysis, histology, in-vivo predation assays and gene knock-downs. The phylogenetic analyses provide evidence that the genes coding for the brochosome proteins are clade-specific and have diversified by gene duplication.

eLife Assessment

This study on mouse Ly49 receptors expressed on natural killer (NK) cells shows that Ly49A, in the presence of the corresponding MHC Class I allele, can lead to NK cell licensing, thereby providing valuable insights into the mechanisms of NK cell modulation by Ly49 receptors. The work may have significant implications for studies of human Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) expressing and other NK cells. Overall, the study was well-developed with convincing evidence.

eLife Assessment

The paper reports valuable findings about the mechanism of regulation of the heat shock response in plants that acts as a brake to prevent hyperactivation of the stress response, which have theoretical or practical implications for a subfield. The study presented by the authors provides solid methods, data, and analysis that broadly support the claims. This report presents helpful information regarding new spliced HSFs forms in Arabidopsis that highlights key information in the understanding of heat stress and plant growth.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study confirms the association between the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-II region and tuberculosis (TB) susceptibility in genetically admixed South African populations, specifically identifying a near-genome-wide significant association in the HLA-DPB1 gene, which originates from KhoeSan ancestry. The evidence supporting the association between the HLA-II region and TB susceptibility is solid, and the work will be of interest to those studying the genetic basis of tuberculosis susceptibility/infection resistance.

eLife Assessment

This paper reports the synthesis of covalent inhibitors bearing a unique fragment as a protected covalent warhead for irreversible binding to histidine in carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzymes. These findings are important due to the broad utility of the approach for covalent drug discovery applications and could have long-term impacts on related covalent targeting approaches. The data convincingly support the main conclusions of the paper.

eLife assessment

This study presents an important platform for mapping mutation effects onto higher-level protein structural information, addressing a significant gap in current research. While the work is ambitious and incorporates often-overlooked aspects of higher-order structure, the strength of the evidence supporting some results seems incomplete. The quaternary structure modeling appears to underestimate oligomeric proteins compared to previous studies, and the mutation analysis lacks crucial baseline information. Despite these limitations, the method has potential for broader applications and generalization to additional organisms, warranting further development and refinement.

eLife Assessment

This is an important study that utilized in vivo optical measurements of the cortical metabolic rate of O2 and blood flow, as well as measurements in isolated mitochondria to assess the uncoupling of the oxidative phosphorylation due to hypoxia-ischemia injury of the neonatal brain, and effects of the hypothermia treatment. The combination of state-of-the-art optical measurements, mitochondrial assays, and the use of various control experiments provides convincing evidence for the derived conclusions. This work will be of interest to those in the mitochrondrial metabolomics, brain injury and hypoxia fields.

eLife Assessment

This work presents an important mouse model for a liver-specific depletion of the Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) protein, where the liver retains 30% of functional full-length SMN protein. The authors provide a profile of phenotypic changes in liver-specific SMN depleted mice with convincing evidence supporting their claims.

eLife Assessment

This fundamental work substantially advances our understanding of the molecular basis by which early symmetry breaking events connect to the following cell fate specifications in preimplantation mammalian embryos. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with advanced image based assays and microinjection based functional tests. The work will be of broad interest to cell and developmental biologists.

eLife Assessment

This fundamental study advances our understanding of the role that energy metabolism, specifically anaerobic glycolysis, plays during retinal development. Convincing in vitro genetic and pharmacological evidence demonstrates that glycolytic flux controls retinal progenitor cell proliferation rates and the timing of photoreceptor maturation. Interesting evidence suggests potential downstream roles for intracellular pH and Wnt/β-catenin signaling; however, more direct evidence is needed to show they are the key mechanisms through which glycolytic flux regulates retinogenesis in vivo. This work is expected to stimulate broad interest and possible future studies investigating the link between metabolism and development in other tissue systems.

[Editors’ note: Primary data for this manuscript are not available due to a corrupted hard drive that occurred during the course of peer review. However, preprocessed data are available.]

eLife Assessment

This valuable study investigates how inter-organ communication between the tracheal stem cells and the fat body plays a key role in the directed migration of tracheal stem cells in Drosophila pupae. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing. The work would be of broad interest to researchers in the fields of developmental biology and cancer biology.

eLife Assessment

This important study identifies a new class of small molecules that activate the integrated stress response (ISR) via the kinase HRI. Convincing evidence, including the image analysis pipeline, indicates that two of these compounds promote mitochondrial elongation and protect against mitochondrial fragmentation caused by chemical stress conditions or by genetic alterations. These findings open an avenue for new strategies for mitochondrial dysfunction targeting linked to ISR alterations.

eLife assessment

This important study explores the impact of pH changes and cancer mutations on nucleosome interactions and higher-order chromatin structures. The evidence supporting the main conclusions is solid, based on rigorous computational methods, including pKa prediction, electrostatic force calculation, and molecular dynamics simulations. The findings provide insights into how protonation states and cancer-associated mutations affect nucleosome electrostatics and chromatin organization, making this work of broad interest to chromatin biologists, cancer researchers, and computational biophysicists.

eLife Assessment

This study presents valuable findings on the relative cerebral blood volume of non-human primates that move us closer to uncovering the functional and architectonic principles that govern the interplay between neuronal and vascular networks. The evidence of areal variations and of vessel counting and laminar analysis is solid. The lack of a direct comparison of their approach against better-established MRI-based methods for measuring hemodynamics and vascular structure somewhat weakens the evidence provided in the current paper version, but the current work is an significant step forward. The work will be of interest to NHP imaging scientists.

eLife Assessment

This work presents important findings of a modulatory effect of yohimbine, an alpha2-adrenergic antagonist that raises noradrenaline levels, on the reconsolidation of emotionally neutral word-picture pairs, depending on the hippocampal and cortical reactivation during retrieval. The evidence supporting the main conclusions is convincing, with an elegant design combining fMRI and psychopharmacology. The work will be of broad interest to researchers working on memory.