Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

This valuable paper uses representative samples of micro-census data from Botswana to describe migration rates over four points in time, from 1981 to 2011. The authors use compelling descriptive data to present migration characteristics where roughly 10% of the population moved in the past year - with equal numbers of men and women, and with migration between districts more common than within districts. Preliminary data indicated migration patterns could have supported HIV diffusion, this can be a starting point for more in-depth analyses. The work will be of interest to those studying human movement and its impact on diseases.

eLife assessment

The authors have established a model for studying p38g/d signaling, which is an important accomplishment given that previous models have been compromised by changes in the TPL2/ERK pathway. Compelling evidence is presented to support the conclusions.

eLife assessment

This manuscript provides important findings and would be of interest to specialists and researchers dealing with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Based on the compelling evidence, the authors present significant results on the role of B cells in immune cell activation in PCOS. However, there are some remarks regarding the statistics and data presentation.

eLife assessment

This important study gives novel insight into the folding diversity of the cerebellum compared to the cerebrum among 56 mammalian species. Based on impressive data, the analyses performed for anatomical descriptions and phylogenetic comparisons are solid, although some issues need to be addressed regarding the choice of statistical models, and the sample size versus the number of explanatory variables. This study will be of interest to neuroscientists, evolutionary and developmental biologists, and physicists interested in biomechanics, as these observations provide a basis for models of brain folding mechanisms.

eLife assessment

This study presents valuable findings that relate the pH pattern along the root surface of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana to the auxin response and gravitropic (changes in growth orientation) response. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, based on the observation of dynamic responses at a second-to-minute time scale and the systematic correlation between the observed changes in the longitudinal surface pH profile and changes in growth rate. The work will be of interest to a wide range of plant biologists working on plant development and responses to the environment.

eLife assessment

This paper studies color vision in anemonefish. The central conclusion of the paper is that anemonefish use signals from their UV cones to discriminate colors that would not otherwise be distinguishable; this differs from other fish in which UV cones extend the range of wavelengths of sensitivity but do not add a dimension to color vision. The work fits into a rich history of studies investigating how color vision fits into an animal's ecological niche. At the same time, the manuscript needs to more clearly establish and convey the degree to which each conclusion is supported by the data and where the limits of certainty lie.

eLife assessment

This manuscript presents a valuable new microfluidic tool that will allow researchers from different fields to rapidly quantify the chemotactic response of microbes to chemical gradients that have different strengths. Using planktonic bacteria, this paper convincingly shows that a multiplexed microfluidic device produces similar results to previously described microfluidic devices that generate only one gradient at a time. By performing on-chip dilutions, this device allows data for six different gradient strengths to be generated simultaneously, potentially reducing both experimental effort and biological variability.

eLife assessment:

This manuscript uses an innovative combination of spatial profiling with single-cell transcriptomics to define expression profiles of stromal components in proximal tumor regions compared to those in distal regions in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Based on this, the authors claim that the presence of a proximal fibroblast population predicts worse outcomes for PDAC patients than the presence of a distal fibroblast population. While the work provides valuable insight into how different types of tumor stromal fibroblasts may affect PDAC outcomes, the work is currently incomplete and will benefit from more extended use of fibroblast and myeloid cell markers and efforts to better define the transcriptomic data generated.

eLife assessment

This study of human perceptual decision-making provides important insights into the sources of suboptimality in human inference. The authors provide solid evidence by combining psychophysics in an audiovisual causal inference task with detailed modeling of the observed behavior. Additional control analyses should be carried out to validate the identifiability of distinct suboptimalities using the authors' modeling framework, and the generalizability of their findings in other conditions should be tested or discussed more explicitly.

eLife assessment:

This important study convincingly shows that the endopeptidases ECS1 and ECS2 repress the formation of polyspermy-derived triparental offspring and haploid induction by promoting double fertilization. While the underlying mechanisms remain to be further elucidated, the data presented in this study represent a valuable foundation for understanding the regulation of offspring genome size. This study will be of particular interest to the large community of scientists who are interested in plant reproduction and breeding.

eLife assessment

This development of a highly concentrated and potentially clinically valuable antibody formulation for MS-Hu6, a first-in-class FSH-blocking humanized antibody is of potential translational importance in the management of osteoporosis, obesity, and Alzheimer's disease. The meticulous methodology is thorough and compelling in its range of techniques examining the stability and physiochemical properties of the formulated MS-Hu6.

eLife assessment

This study presents valuable structures of a pentameric ligand-gated ion channel from a thermophilic worm that is a homologue of the well-known mammalian nicotinic receptors. Although the function of the worm receptor is unknown, the authors convincingly identify interesting features for this class of receptors including a steroid detergent that is bound in the canonical neurotransmitter site and that induces conformational changes of the extracellular domains. These observations will be of broad interest to the ligand-gated ion channel community, although it is difficult at this moment to relate these observations to channel function as the channel's activating ligand remains unknown.

eLife assessment

This research provides convincing evidence that standard behavioral modeling and EEG-derived signatures of the decision process may not agree on mechanisms underlying changes in decision strategy. The authors make a strong case for the importance of informing behavioral modeling with putative neural signatures of the corresponding decision processes. The assumptions of this neurally-informed modeling approach should be further explored and clarified to highlight not only its benefits but also potential caveats.

eLife assessment

Models of cerebellar function and the coding of inputs in the cerebellum often assume that random stimuli are a reasonable stand-in for real stimuli. However, the important contribution of this paper is that conclusions about optimality and sparseness in these models do not generalize to potentially more realistic sets of stimuli, for example, those drawn from a low-dimensional manifold. While the mathematical modelling and analysis in the paper are convincing, one important limitation of the paper is that the neural dynamics and circuit architecture are not very specific to the cerebellum, and lack important biological detail.

eLife assessment

This manuscript by Combe et al. presents the role of cholinergic modulation in the spike rate adaptation in pyramidal place cells. Using combined electrophysiology, pharmacological, and multi-compartment computational modeling, the authors identify the downstream pathway (e.g. activation of TRPM4 channel) that shapes the firing pattern under the triangular-shaped ramps. The study demonstrates solid evidence, and the findings are important for bridging pyramidal neurons' molecular/channel properties to behavior-level implications (place field firing).

eLife assessment

This important work studies the spontaneous contractions (SC) of the Hydra body wall and presents a mathematical model of nutrient transport to hypothesize the role of SC on maintaining the microbiota. The solid evidence presented yields insights on the functional implications of the SC and the increased nutrient update obtained from mixing the local fluid environment through body wall contractions. The main result represents an important observation about the role of hydrodynamics on organism behavior and its relation to diffusive chemical transport processes.

eLife assessment

The manuscript by Brunetti et al. represents an important contribution where SARS-CoV-2 infection of T-helper cells is implicated and found to be mediated by CD4. The work progressed through a computationally driven hypothesis, by analyzing the interaction partners of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein (as initially modelled through similar SARS-CoV-1), followed by experimental validations, and further computational and experimental insights on the mechanism of binding. The study identifies the interaction between spike RBD domain and N Terminal domain of CD4 molecule as the specific viral attachment strategy. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, the results look significant and the data is clear and enough for understanding the manuscript. It also provides a potential usefulness of their approach in future work in understanding how viruses mediate infection of T cells. The work will be of interest to medical biologists working on SARS-CoV-2.

eLife assessment

This fundamental work advances our understanding of the effects of metformin on bone healing in hyperglycemic conditions. The evidence supporting the conclusion is convincing, using three different types of bone fracture models in type-2 diabetes (T2D) mice. This paper is of potential interest to skeletal biologists, orthopaedic surgeons, and endocrinologists who study the effects of metformin on fracture healing.

eLife assessment

In their current study, Detraux D and colleagues provide some evidence suggesting a role for heme biosynthesis on FGF-ERK and TGF beta signalling and exit from naïve pluripotency, and in controlling the 2-cell-like cell state. The observations provided by the authors are interesting and potentially relevant in the field of pluripotent cell state transitions.

eLife assessment

Dhekne et al report a novel pathway for activation of the multi-domain LRRK2 protein kinase by Rab12 GTPase. LRRK2, which is mutated in Parkinson's Disease phosphorylates a subset of Rab proteins involved in intracellular trafficking, and Parkinson's disease-linked mutations increase this phosphorylation. This work adds an important new layer of understanding of this highly complex pathway by revealing that LRRK2's binding to Rab12 enhances its ability to phosphorylate Rab10. This conclusion is supported by compelling evidence from a wide array of rigorous approaches.