Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

This important study reports a detailed quantification of the population dynamics of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in mice. Bacterial burden and founding population sizes across various organs were quantified, revealing pathways of dissemination and reseeding of the gastrointestinal tract from systemic organs. Using various techniques, including genetic distance measurements, the authors present compelling evidence to support their conclusions, thus presenting new knowledge that will be of broad interest to scientists focusing on infectious diseases.

eLife Assessment

Wang et al's study addresses an important critical gap in our understanding of de novo epithelial polarization using MDCK cell doublets surrounded by ECM, providing convincing evidence through imaging and depletion studies on the role of conserved polarity proteins and the centrosome during this process. While the authors propose a clear hierarchical model, there is a need for further exploration of how microtubule organization contributes to this process. Specifically, live cell imaging of microtubules under mutants and their included ECM conditions, along with a more precise temporal mapping of microtubule dynamics in relation to proteins like Gp135, would strengthen the study's conclusions.

eLife Assessment

This study provides important findings that during credit assignment, the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) and hippocampus (HC) encode causal choice representations, while the frontopolar cortex (FPl) mediates HC -lOFC interactions when the causality needs to be maintained over longer distractions. While this research offers compelling evidence and employs sophisticated multivariate pattern analysis, there are some concerns regarding a) task design which may have oversimplified real-world credit assignment complexities, and b) the interpretation of results. This work will be of interest to cognitive and computational neuroscientists who work on value-based decision-making and fronto-hippocampal circuits.

eLife Assessment

Liu and colleagues' study provides important insights into the neural mechanisms of narrative comprehension by identifying three distinct brain states using a hidden Markov model on fMRI data. The work is compelling, as it demonstrates that the dynamics of these brain states, particularly their timely expression, are linked to better comprehension and are specific to spoken language processing. The study's robust findings, validated in a separate dataset, will be of broad interest to researchers exploring the neural basis of speech and language comprehension, as well as those studying the relationship between dynamic brain states and cognition.

eLife Assessment

This work provides important findings characterizing potential synaptic mechanisms supporting the role of midline thalamus-hippocampal projections in fear memory extinction in mice. The methods and approaches used were solid. However, the evidence itself is incomplete, as there are concerns with whether the findings fully support the conclusions drawn.

eLife Assessment

This important study investigates how working memory load influences the Stroop effect from a temporal dynamics perspective. Convincing evidence is provided that the working memory load influences the Stroop effect in the late-stage stimulus-response mapping instead of the early sensory stage. This study will be of interest to both neuroscientists and psychologists who work on cognitive control.

eLife Assessment

This valuable report describes the changing antiviral activity of IFIT1 across mammals and in response to distinct viruses, likely as a result of past arms races. One of the main strengths of the manuscript is the breadth of mammalian IFIT1 orthologs and viruses that were tested. Overall the evidence is solid, but the analysis of positive selection could benefit from more thorough validation with complementary selection tests and also from assessing or more extended discussion of the impact of recombination and/or physical interactions with other IFITs.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study reports on a novel role of PD-1 in early T cell differentiation, showing that PD-1 stimulation impairs Th2 differentiation more effectively than that of Th1, with implications for the treatment of allergies. However, whereas the series of well-designed experiments using OVA-specific CD4 T cells from DO.11.10 mice and the use of an allergy model generated compelling data, the study is still incomplete since it shows gaps in the rationale for the experimental protocols, contradictory data regarding IFN-gamma and IL-4 production, and the lack of in vivo experiments on Th2 differentiation to further support the main hypothesis. Nonetheless, the reported data would be of interest to immunologists working on T cell differentiation and allergy.

eLife Assessment

Gil Ávila et al. evaluated the aperiodic component in the medial prefrontal cortex using resting-state EEG recordings from 149 individuals with chronic pain and 115 healthy participants. The authors present compelling evidence that the aperiodic component of the EEG does not differentiate between those with chronic pain and healthy individuals. The study was well-designed and rigorously conducted, and the clear and conclusive results provide important insights that can guide future research in the field of pain neuroscience.

eLife Assessment

The presented soft tissue data of pterosaur tail vanes represent a valuable contribution to ongoing research efforts to decipher the flight abilities of pterosaurs in the fields of paleontology, comparative biomechanics, and bioinspired design. The new methods are compelling and give new detail on tail morphology that has the potential to resolve how pterosaurs were able to control and maintain tail stiffness to furnish flight control.

eLife Assessment

This important study presents results for the theory of odor coding in hyperbolic spaces by revealing spiral trajectories in the dynamics of odors during natural, ethologically relevant processes such as ripening. In the current manuscript, the strength of the evidence is solid and would be strengthened by answering several technical points raised by reviewers.

eLife Assessment

This study presents numerical results on a potentially useful framework for understanding the dynamics of subthreshold waves in a network of electrical synapses modeled on the connectome data of the C elegans nematode. However, the strength of the evidence presented in favor of interference effects being a major component in subthreshold wave dynamics is inadequate.

eLife Assessment

This important study uses the Jurkat T cell model to study the role of Formin-like 1 β phosphorylation at S1086 on actin dynamics and exosome release at the immunological synapse. The evidence supporting these findings is compelling within the framework of the Jurkat model. As the Jurkat model is known to have a bias toward formin-mediated actin filament formation at the expense of Arp2/3-mediated branched F-actin foci observed in primary T cells, it will be beneficial in the future to confirm major findings in primary T cells.

eLife Assessment

The study from Frank and colleagues reports potentially important cryo-EM observations of mouse glutamatergic synapses isolated from adult mammalian brains. The authors used a combination of mouse genetics to generate PSD95-GFP labeling in vivo, a rapid synaptosome isolation and cryo-protectant strategy, and cryogenic correlated light-electron microscopy (cryoCLEM) to record tomograms of synapses, which together provide convincing support for their conclusions. Controversially, the authors report that forebrain glutamatergic synapses do not contain postsynaptic "densities" (PSD), a defining feature of synapse structure identified in chemically-fixed and resin-embedded brain samples. The work questions a long-standing concept in neurobiology and is primarily of interest to specialists in synaptic structure and function.

eLife Assessment

Research on push-pull systems often focuses on controlled environments, limiting our understanding of their effectiveness under real-world conditions. This important study has validated how push-pull systems work in natural settings. However, the manuscript remains incomplete, since the findings have only been partially supported, as acknowledged by the authors.

eLife Assessment

This is an important piece of work that sheds light on our understanding of early lung development. There is solid evidence that there is a key new role for Svep1, which may be acting via FGF9. A more precise understanding of the interactions between Svep1 and FGF9, with a possibility of other ECM factors, would add value.

eLife Assessment

The study presents a very well-illustrated specimens of the artiopodan Cindarella eucalla from the Chengjiang Biota, using computer tomography (CT) scanning to illustrate multiple specimens with preserved appendages, a rarity in artiopodans. The description of these fossils is important for expanding our understanding of this taxon and its relatives. The imaging and morphological description are followed by a discussion of how this morphology relates to other Cambrian arthropods and its potential ecological function. The evidence provided in this section about resulting function and ecology is presently incomplete and the conclusions are put forward too strongly. This assessment could be improved if the work is revised with more careful wording and additional data.

eLife Assessment

This important work advances our understanding of trained immunity, especially in the context of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) administration and host-pathogen interactions. The evidence supporting the conclusions are convincing, based on a combination of state-of-the-art omics techniques such as bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing with the use of JAK/STAT signaling inhibitors. The work will be of broad interest to immunologists and infection biologists.

eLife Assessment

The paper presents a new pipeline for functional validation of genes known to underlie fragile bone disorders, using CRISPR-mediated knockouts and a number of phenotypic assessments in zebrafish. The solid data demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the approach, which presents a valuable tool for rapid functional validation of candidate gene(s) associated with heritable bone diseases identified from genetic studies.