Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

This important study reveals the molecular basis of mutualism between a vector insect and a bacterium responsible for the most devastating disease in citrus agriculture worldwide. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with solid biochemical and gene expression analyses demonstrating the phenomenon. We believe this work will be of great interest to the fields of vector-borne disease control and host-pathogen interaction.

eLife assessment

In this manuscript, the authors present a wealth of fMRI data at both 3T and 7T to identify a scene-selective region of the intraparietal gyrus ("PIGS") that appears to have some responsivity to characteristics of ego-motion. In a series of experiments, they delineate the anatomical location of PIGS and functionally differentiate it from nearby V6 and OPA. Evidence for these important findings is solid, but further investigations as to the role of this region in processing ego-motion will be needed to confirm this conclusion.

eLife Assessment

This potentially valuable study presents claims of evidence for coordinated membrane potential oscillations in E. coli biofilms that can be linked to a putative K+ channel and that may serve to enhance photo-protection. The finding of waves of membrane potential would be of interest to a wide audience from molecular biology to microbiology and physical biology. Unfortunately, a major issue is that it is unclear whether the dye used can act as a Nernstian membrane potential dye in E. coli. The arguments of the authors, who largely ignore previously published contradictory evidence, are not adequate in that they do not engage with the fact that the dye behaves in their hands differently than in the hands of others. In addition, the lack of proper validation of the experimental method including key control experiments leaves the evidence incomplete.

eLife assessment

This important study advances our understanding of the mechanisms of neuronal large dense-core vesicle (LDCV) secretion, which mediates neuropeptide and neurotrophin release. It describes a negative regulatory process involving the interaction of the Rab3-effector Rabphilin-3A with the SNARE fusion protein SNAP25, which limits LDCV secretion and neurite growth. The evidence in support of the authors' claims is generally convincing, but some conclusions, e.g regarding the role of Rabphilin-3A-controlled neurotrophin signaling in neurite growth, are incompletely supported. This study will be of interest to the fields of cell biology, cellular neuroscience, and neuroendocrinology.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study used functional MRI experiments to identify the involvement of a left parietal area (PF) in reasoning about the physical properties of actions, objects, and events. Solid evidence was shown regarding the commonalities and differences across different types of reasoning tasks, yet the methodological and theoretical interpretations require further scrutiny. The study would be of interest to researchers studying the cognitive and neural mechanisms of reasoning and problem solving.

eLife Assessment

This important study combines the use of Fisher Kernels with Hidden Markov models aiming to improve brain-behaviour prediction. The evidence supporting the authors' conclusions is compelling, comparing brain-behaviour prediction accuracies across a range of different traits, including out of sample assessment. This work is timely and will be of interest to neuroscientists working on functional connectivity for brain-behaviour association.

eLife Assessment

This study provides important insights into postnatal lung development and the mechanisms underlying bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a condition with high morbidity and mortality in newborns. Through the use of neonatal hyperoxia, cell-type-specific inactivation of Tgfbr2, and other injury models, the research focuses on the role of TGF-β signaling in BPD pathogenesis, highlighting impaired myofibroblast proliferation as a key factor. The inactivation of Etc2 in Pdgfra-lineaged cells disrupts myofibroblast cytokinesis, leading to alveolar simplification and reduced cell numbers. The use of transgenic mice and single-cell transcriptomics offers a detailed and high-quality dataset, advancing our understanding of BPD and serving as a invaluable resource for developmental biology and neonatal pulmonary research. The study's comprehensive approach, robust data, and methodological rigor make it a compelling contribution to the field, providing both mechanistic insights and a resource for further research into BPD pathogenesis.

eLife Assessment

In this manuscript, Abd El Hay and colleagues use an innovative behavioral assay and analysis method, together with standard calcium imaging experiments on cultured dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, to evaluate the consequences of global knockout of TRPV1 and TRPM2, and overexpression of TRPV1, on warmth detection. Compelling evidence is provided for a role of TRPM2 channels in warmth avoidance behavior, but it remains unclear whether this involves channel activity in the periphery or in the brain. In contrast, TRPV1 is clearly implicated at the cellular level in warmth detection. These findings are important because there is substantial ongoing discussion regarding the contribution of TRP channels to different aspects of thermo-sensation.

eLife assessment

The authors provide solid evidence that any contribution of oligodendrocyte precursors to the developing cortex from the lateral ganglionic eminence is minimal in scope. The methods used support the conclusions, with some technical concerns that the authors can address with further experimentation. These are considered valuable additions to our understanding of the origins of oligodendrocytes in the forebrain during development.

eLife assessment

The gut microbiota influences many infectious diseases; however, its role Leptospirosis remains unclear. In this fundamental work, Xie et al. use a hamster model to show that Leptospira infection leads to gut pathology, an altered gut microbiota, and increased translocation. A combined use of antibiotics and LPS neutralization prolonged survival, providing a potential new therapeutic approach. This study utilizes compelling methods to provide new insights into this emerging disease, which could be dissected further in future studies aimed at gaining mechanistic insight and assessing the translational relevance of these discoveries.

eLife Assessment

This important manuscript provides an extensive and convincing analysis of the foetal and adult TCR repertoire in the mouse thymus. A potential implication of the work is that the earliest appearing T cells during ontogeny may have properties that are fundamentally distinct from those appearing later in life. The study will be of interest to immunologists concerned with T cell development and TCR repertoires.

eLife assessment

This important work substantially advances our understanding of how resistant leukemia can arise without changes in mutational patterns by displaying epigenetic changes. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with rigorous genomic assays done on primary samples. and state-of-the-art microscopy. The work will be of broad interest to hematologists and cancer biologists.

eLife assessment

This work describes a valuable new technique involving proximity labelling to identify Drosophila proteins modified by GlcNAcylation in subsets of cells in vivo. A solid set of experiments shows that several ribosomal proteins are modified in the fly mushroom body. Consistent with a role for GlcNAcylation of ribosomal proteins in control of memory related translational control, the authors show that perturbation of GlcNAc modification in KCs prevents efficient consolidation of long-term memory.

eLife Assessment

This useful manuscript reports on a new mouse model for LAMA2-MD, a rare but very severe congenital muscular dystrophy. The knockout mice were generated by removing exon3 in the Lama2 gene, which results in a frameshift in exon4 and a premature stop codon. These animals lack any laminin-alpha2 protein and confirm results from previous Lama2 knockout models. Additionally, this study includes weak transcriptomics data that might be a good resource for the field. However, experimental evidence, methods, and data analyses supporting the main claims of the manuscript are incomplete.

eLife assessment

This work addresses the connectivity of giant excitatory neurons in a part of CA1 of the hippocampus. Recordings in rat brain slices provide new evidence that these cells excite bistratified and basket inhibitory neurons, and have weak inhibitory input from basket cells, as well as other findings. This circuitry gives these cells unique potential, making the work valuable, however the strength of the evidence is currently incomplete.

eLife assessment

The authors build upon prior data implicating the secreted peptidoglycan hydrolase SagA produced by Enterococcus faecium in immunotherapy. Leveraging new strains with sagA deletion/complementation constructs, the investigators reveal that sagA is non-essential, with sagA deletion leading to a marked growth defect due to impaired cell division, and sagA being necessary for the immunogenic and anti-tumor effects of E. faecium. In aggregate, the study utilizes compelling methods to provide both fundamental new insights into E. faecium biology and host interactions and a proof-of-concept for identifying the bacterial effectors of immunotherapy response.

eLife assessment

This study presents valuable empirical work and simulations that are relevant for the evolution of genetic load linked to self-incompatibility alleles in two Arabidopsis species. The evidence supporting the findings is solid, although it remains to be seen how generalizable the conclusions are beyond the specific system investigated here, not least because the statistical significance varied between the two species. The work will be of relevance to geneticists interested in the evolution of allelic diversity in similar systems.

eLife assessment

This valuable study, which seeks to identify factors from the glial niche that support and maintain neural stem cells, reports a novel role for ferritin in this process. The authors provide solid evidence that defects in larval brain development in Drosophila, resulting from ferritin knockdown, can be attributed to impaired Fe-S cluster activity and ATP production. The findings of this well-conducted study will be of interest to oncologists and neurobiologists.

eLife Assessment

This important study presents a statistical framework for the analysis of photometry signals and provides an open-source implementation. The evidence supporting the benefits of the presented functional mixed-effect modeling analysis as opposed to 1) summary statistics and 2) other pointwise regression models is convincing with a thorough comparison with other methods and datasets. This work will be of great interest to researchers using not only fiber photometry, but other time-series data such as calcium imaging or electrophysiology data, and wanting to implement trial-by-trial temporal analysis, taking also into account variability within the dataset.

eLife assessment

This study presents an important finding on the spontaneous emergence of structured activity in artificial neural networks endowed with specific connectivity profiles. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing, providing direct comparison between the properties of the model and neural data although investigating more naturalistic inputs to the network would have strengthened the main claims. The work will be of interest to systems and computational neuroscientists studying the hippocampus and memory processes.