Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

This valuable work explores how transcription factors regulate transcription through cooperative binding to enhancers. Through experiments and modeling, the authors show convincingly that the cooperativity of transcription factor binding regulates transcriptional bursting and the extent of the amount of time that the target promoter remains in an active state.

eLife assessment

In this important study, Esmaily and colleagues investigate the "confidence matching" between two agents and present a useful exploration of its computational and physiological correlates. Further analyses would be helpful to provide a tighter link between fluctuations of confidence, pupil size, EEG response, and computational variables, to delineate the causal relations between these quantities, which are nevertheless incompletely documented at present.

eLife assessment

This manuscript reports important new results, but it provides incomplete support for its claims. Recent data has shown that schizophrenia-related synaptic alterations induce changes in neural network synchrony, and this manuscript provides the first theoretical understanding of the underlying network mechanisms. Proper support for this result, however, requires a tighter link between the computational model and the experimental data and a more in-depth understanding of the model mechanisms.

eLife assessment

This study provides a potentially useful assessment of the effect of testing contacts of cases in school classes when identified, rather than at the end of quarantine, on both the number of secondary infections and other outcomes including tracing delay and identification of the possible source of infection. The authors find that the intervention likely led to a decrease in tracing delay and an increase in the number of possible sources of infection, though were unable to determine whether secondary transmission decreased, due in part to unmeasured confounding. While the surveillance system described provides a solid dataset appropriate for this analysis, the description of methods, study outcomes, and consideration of potential confounding factors is incomplete.

eLife assessment

This study reveals a novel mechanism of Acetylcholine- Acetylylcholine receptor signaling in regulating gut barrier function in Drosophila, which provides important implications on the pathway played in human diseases, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary DiseaseCOPD. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid.

eLife assessment

The present study provides a valuable new perspective on the optomotor response based on an inversion of the behavior under specific (non-natural) conditions that may help elucidate the principles of this specific behavior. The evidence provided is convincing.

eLife assessment

This elegantly performed and rigorous study generates new and conceptually important insights into the interaction between an essential malaria parasite invasion ligand (and vaccine candidate) called PfRH5, and its erythrocyte surface integral membrane receptor basigin. The authors provide compelling evidence based on rigorous biochemical assays that erythrocyte basigin is predominantly expressed in a complex with one of two distinct erythrocyte membrane proteins called PMCA and MCT1 and that PfRH5 binds to these complexes better than to isolated basigin. Certain invasion-inhibitory antibodies, that do not prevent binding of PfRH5 to isolated basigin, do in contrast prevent binding to the basigin complexes, explaining the mode of action of these previously enigmatic antibodies and providing valuable data towards the improved design of vaccines based on PfRH5.

eLife assessment

Using a novel micropipette-based, minimally invasive approach in combination with theoretical and computational analysis, this important work probes tissue mechanics in the Drosophila embryo. The authors provide compelling evidence for the applicability of their method, which reveals important differences between the mechanical properties on the apical and basal tissue sides. This work should be of broad interest to scientists studying tissue mechanics, membranes, and developmental processes.

eLife assessment

The manuscript describes a set of detailed modeling and experimental studies to disentangle the respective roles of gap junctional electrical vs. metabolic coupling mechanisms in the synchronization of islet activity. This is of interest due to the importance of islet synchronization and generally islet network properties in the regulation of insulin secretion from the pancreas. The significance of the findings was judged to be mostly important and the strength of evidence provided was judged to be mostly solid overall.

eLife assessment

In this study, Sparta et al., generated and employed a battery of fluorescent reporters that allowed them to perform time-resolved monitoring of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) responses to stimuli including glucose, amino acids, and insulin at the single cell resolution. The results of this elegant approach support a model of graded mTORC1 activation in response to the aforementioned stimuli when applied individually or in combination. This model is consistent with continuous adjustment of mTORC1 signaling to changes in cellular environment and opposed to the "on/off" model of mTORC1 function. Considering the pivotal role of mTORC1 in integrating signals such as nutrients, hormones, growth factors, oxygen, and energy status with a plethora of outputs that affect cell fate and organismal physiology, it was thought that this study will be of interests across a variety of biomedical disciplines. Overall, the elegance and robustness of the approach was highly appreciated, though the paper would be strengthened by addressing some technical issues and concerns regarding the positioning of the proposed model of mTORC1 regulation in the field.

eLife assessment

Large scale cell movements occur during gastrulation in vertebrate embryos but their role in this major morphogenetic transition in formation of the body plan is poorly understood. Using the chick embryo model system, this study makes important advances using elegant methods to show that extension of the primitive streak during gastrulation, occurring through cell proliferation, polarisation and intercalation, and large-scale polonaise cell movements, can be uncoupled. Although the driving mechanism and precise role of these movements remains a mystery, the study provides convincing evidence for the uncoupling through independent approaches, the most creative of which are the effects shown after induction of a supernumerary primitive streak.

eLife Assessment

This important study uncovers a surprising link between two self-cleaving RNAs that belong to the same structural family. The evidence supporting the main conclusions is convincing and based on extensive biochemical and bioinformatic analysis. This research will be of broad interest to RNA molecular biologists and biochemists.

eLife Assessment

This important study presents a transcriptomic analysis of enterochromaffin cells in the intestine. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is solid, although the functional analysis is focused on the Piezo2-expressing subset in the colon. The work will be of interest to biologists working on intestinal mucosal biology.

eLife assessment

This valuable study links the "taste" of botanicals to their application as medicines used by the ancient Greco-Roman society. The authors used phylogenetic linear mixed models in a Bayesian framework to test the relationships between taste qualities, intensities, complexities, and therapeutic use. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, although there is a minor weakness concerning the somewhat inconsistent method of botanical preparation and presentation to the taster panelists; subjective bias and robustness of the participants' responses might have been overlooked. The study may be of broad interest to pharmacologists and scientists working on drug discovery, particularly those interested in natural products.

eLife assessment

This important study revises the evolutionary history of Heliconius butterflies, a well-established model system for understanding speciation in the presence of gene flow between species. Using a convincing statistical phylogenetic approach that relies on the multispecies coalescent, the authors reconstruct the evolution of the lineage, including the timing of speciation events and the history of gene flow. The new phylogeny will be of interest to all researchers working on Heliconius butterflies, and the phylogenetic approach to investigators aiming to understand the history of lineages that have experienced extensive gene flow.

eLife assessment

This important study reports a new mutant mouse line with compromised function of a DNA damage response protein. The evidence supporting the conclusion that the mutants display defective maintenance of meiotic sex chromosome inactivation is solid. This work is of interest to biomedical researchers working on meiosis and meiotic sex chromosome inactivation.

eLife assessment

The manuscript by Kahraman et al. describes the use of a fluorescent dye for purifying and analyzing human islet alpha cells. The study provides solid evidence that the alpha cells can be purified using this method and the cells remained viable and functional after culturing for several days. The significance of the study is access to a new tool that will be useful for islet biologists and researchers studying diabetes mechanisms.

eLife assessment

This important study reports the fungal composition and its interaction with bacteria in the Caesarean section scar diverticulum. The data are solid and supportive of the conclusion. This work will be of interest to researchers and clinicians who work on women's health.

eLife assessment

This important study explores numerous lines of evidence for the surprisingly diverse diets of a group of toothed birds that lived over 100 million years ago. The large amount of data the authors collected forms a solid dataset. The methods might in principle be extensible to other limbed vertebrates, although there are concerns regarding some of the details. The article will be of interest to colleagues studying ecological evolution in birds or dinosaurs more generally, as well as to anyone studying the impact of the mass extinction event 66 million years ago.

eLife Assessment

This useful study provides the first assessment of potentially interactive effects of seasonality and blood source on mosquito fitness, together in one study. During revision, the manuscript has been substantively improved, providing additional solid data to support the robustness of observations. Overall, this interesting study will advance our current understanding of mosquito biology.