Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

This study makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of how the lipase regulator ABHD5 may control lipase activity through interactions with lipid droplets and cellular membranes. By combining multiscale molecular dynamics simulations with experimental approaches, the authors provide novel molecular insights into this membrane-protein interaction and present evidence suggesting that the regulatory mechanism depends on protein conformational changes and local membrane remodeling. While much of the evidence supporting the main conclusions is convincing, several aspects of the analysis, interpretation, and discussion remain incomplete. Overall, this work will be of interest to structural and molecular biologists working on lipid metabolism and membrane biophysics.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study highlights the challenge of identifying the role of immune imprinting in influenza immunity. The manuscript provides solid evidence that statistical support for imprinting depends heavily on model choice and can be found in the absence of imprinting due to age-related processes. However, the results are incomplete in that the impact of incorrectly modeling imprinting is not clear. The work will be of interest to researchers who study adaptive immunity in any system where imprinting may be observed.

eLife Assessment

This important study introduces NoSeMaze, a semi-naturalistic platform for continuous, high-dimensional tracking of social and cognitive behaviors in group-housed mice, and uses it to show that individual social rank is stable across changing social contexts. By integrating automated dominance measures, proactive social behaviors, and reinforcement-learning-based profiles, the authors demonstrate a novel framework for examining how stable individual differences shape social structure. The strength of evidence is solid, advancing our understanding that social hierarchy can be viewed as a trait-like dimension of individuality. Yet, the interpretation of dominance in this paradigm and its broader ecological meaning remains somewhat ambiguous. This work will be of broad relevance for behavioral neuroscience and social behavior research.

eLife Assessment

IL21R, being a key cytokine receptor for shaping the T follicular helper and B cell functions, utilizes two STAT family members, STAT1 and STAT3. The authors utilize the IL21R ENU-induced mutant, together with relevant in vitro and in vivo experiments, to dissect the function of STAT1 and STAT3. The approach by itself sounds reasonable, but the main conclusions are incompletely supported by the data presented in this manuscript.

eLife Assessment

This important study explores how the phase of neural oscillations in the alpha band affects visual perception, indicating that perceptual performance varies due to changes in sensory precision rather than decision bias. The evidence is convincing in its experimental design and analytical approach. This work should interest cognitive neuroscientists who study perception and decision-making.

eLife Assessment

This study addresses a key, long-standing question about how visual feature selectivity is organized in mid-level visual cortex, using an ambitious combination of large-scale neural recordings and image synthesis. It provides important insights into the complexity of single-neuron selectivity and suggests a structured organization across cortical depth. While the evidence is generally solid and technically impressive, several key claims would be strengthened by additional controls, particularly regarding the sources of similarity across neurons and the dependence of the results on modeling choices.

eLife Assessment

This important study reports characterisation of hepatocyte molecular pathways affected by a glycyrrhizin derivative in both in vivo and in vitro mouse models of alcohol-associated liver disease. The authors show convincing evidence indicating that IPP delta isomerase 1 (Idi1) is an intermediate in these pharmacological effects, via the binding of the glycyrrhizin derivative to an upstream regulator of Idi1, HSD11B1, although some more quantitative analyses and better organisation of data would strengthen the study. The findings would be of interest to immunologists and pharmacologists interested in liver inflammation and its amelioration.

eLife Assessment

This is a useful study presenting solid data indicating that the bacterial GTPases EngA and ObgE enable single-step reconstitution of functional 50S ribosomal subunits under near-physiological conditions. The study elegantly bridges the gap between the non-physiological aspects of the previous two-step reconstitution method and the extract-dependent iSAT system to enable ribosome assembly under translation-compatible conditions; however, it is limited by reliance on rRNA and proteins extracted from native ribosomes and does not achieve a true bottom-up reconstruction from all synthetic components. The evidence is incomplete in not characterizing the spectrum of reporter polypeptides produced and not comparing their rate and yield of synthesis from reconstituted ribosomes to that obtained with pure native ribosomes; and the impact of the study is limited by not including reporters to examine the fidelity of initiation, elongation or termination achieved with the reconstituted ribosomes.

eLife Assessment

This important study demonstrates that paternal diet influences not only testicular morphology but also placental and fetal development, supporting a role for paternal contributions to offspring health. The authors combine transcriptomic and histological analyses across multiple tissues, and the evidence supporting the central conclusions is convincing. While aspects of the paternal gut phenotype remain largely descriptive, and the paternal and fetoplacental findings are discussed separately, clearer integration of these elements and additional methodological clarification would strengthen interpretation.

eLife Assessment

This valuable paper describes the regulation of the association of meiotic chromosome axis proteins on chromosome ends with sub-telomeric elements in budding yeast. The genome-wide analyses of binding of chromosome components as well as chromatin regulators, complemented with the mapping of meiotic DNA double-strand breaks on chromosome ends, provided incomplete evidence to support the authors' conclusion. The results in the paper are of interest to researchers in meiotic recombination and the structure of genomes and chromosomes.

eLife Assessment

This important study reveals intriguing connections between chromosome breakage and DNA elimination during programmed genome rearrangement in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila. By developing a novel FISH approach that distinguishes germline and somatic telomeres, the authors provide compelling evidence that chromosome breakage removes germline telomeres along with hundreds of kilobases of germline-limited sequences. By disrupting a single chromosome breakage site, they further showed that DNA elimination was globally affected, which opens up a new direction for mechanistic studies. Thus, this work reveals additional similarity between the programmed DNA elimination in ciliates and nematodes that underlies the transition from germline to somatic telomeres.

eLife Assessment

This important study presents new insights into the post-transcriptional mechanisms that govern cortical development. Through state-of-the-art methodology to track neuronal birth order, the data provide compelling evidence that Imp1 (Igf2bp1/Zbp1) orchestrates radial glia fate transitions and cortical neurogenesis. The findings establish a new framework for understanding how post-transcriptional mechanisms integrate with transcriptional and epigenetic regulatory layers to control cortical temporal patterning.

eLife Assessment

This is a well-executed intrathecal MRI tracer study that provides valuable early in vivo evidence for CSF drainage into human skull bone marrow and explores clinically relevant associations using robust imaging methodology and regional analyses. However, the evidence supporting the interpretation of early (4 h) tracer signal as impaired clearance is incomplete, and appears difficult to reconcile with established CSF tracer kinetics. They also note that the reported links to sleep and cognitive performance are weakened by reliance on subjective, retrospective questionnaires rather than objective physiological measurements.

eLife Assessment

This important work describes systematic computational and experimental approaches to turn a moderately stable α-helical bundle into a very stable fold. The authors advance our understanding of α-helix stabilization providing a convenient framework that has general implications for the protein design field. The main claims have convincing support through a sound methodology, with strong specific conclusions for designing mechanically, thermally, and chemically stable α-helical bundles.

eLife Assessment

This work describes a useful computational tool for automated morphometry of dynamic organelles from microscope images. However, the supporting evidence and novelty of the manuscript as presented are incomplete and could be improved. The work will be of interest to microscopists and bioimage analysts who are non-experts but wish to improve quantitative analysis of cellular structures.

eLife Assessment

This important study examines how mismatched light and temperature cycles shape Drosophila locomotor timing and temperature-dependent timeless splicing, and leverages long-term early/late selection lines to probe evolutionary plasticity. The strength of evidence is incomplete at present, mainly because startle/masking under step cues could confound the behavioural readouts, and tim's involvement remains correlative. The authors should address masking in the behaviour analyses and provide causal support for tim's role.

eLife Assessment

This useful paper describes a software tool, "DrosoMating", which allows automated, high-throughput quantification of 6 common metrics of courtship and mating behaviors in Drosophila melanogaster. The validity of the tool is quite convincingly demonstrated by comparing expert human assessments with those made by DrosoMating. The work, however, does not address how DrosoMating compares with or advances on other existing tools for exactly the same purpose, whether it can be used for studies of other Drosophila species, and/or whether finer aspects of courtship response timing - which depend on proximal female signals to the male - could be extracted with more detailed analyses. Some additional statistical analyses would also help further strengthen the authors' current conclusions.

eLife Assessment

The authors investigate how dominance hierarchy shapes defensive strategies in mice under two naturalistic threats: a transient visual looming stimulus and a sustained live rat. This study provides important insights into how social context and dominance hierarchy modulate innate defensive behaviors across distinct naturalistic threats. The strength of evidence is convincing, with detailed classification and analysis of behaviors.

eLife Assessment

This work represents a valuable finding of how single-trial functional connectivity may be used to infer different cognitive states involved in speech perception and production. Although the data and analyses are overall convincing, the theoretical advance and novelty of the finding are less clear. With a clearer idea of the functional significance of the connectivity data, the paper would be of interest to those interested in brain networks and communication.

eLife Assessment

Muetter et al. provide an important argument that luminescence is a reliable, high-throughput alternative to colony-forming units (CFU) for super-MIC investigations, particularly when the quantity of interest is biomass. By examining 20 antimicrobials spanning 11 classes, the work shows that discrepancies between CFU and luminescence are often biological (filamentation, Viable But Not Culturable). The work provides a compelling view of how these three common measurements (luminescence, optical density, and CFU) relate to one another across a range of drug treatments, although testing on clinical isolates could be of further benefit.