Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

This study makes important contributions to our understanding of spinal locomotor circuits by manipulating the function of excitatory and inhibitory V2 interneurons and revelaing their role in locomotor control. The data collected and the methods used by the authors are solid and the authors suggest that V2 excitatory and inhibitory neurons have antagonistic functions in intralimb coordination. This work will be of broad interest for neuroscientists studying development and function of motor circuits.

eLife Assessment

This study seeks to determine how synaptic relationships between principal cell types in the olfactory system vary with glomerulus selectivity and is therefore valuable to the field. The methodology is solid, and with the caveat that here was a technical need to group all local interneurons, centrifugal neurons and multiglomerular projection neurons into one category ("multiglomerular neurons"), this work reveals some very interesting potential differences in circuit architecture associated with glomerular tuning breadth.

eLife assessment

This important study combines disparate results from both psychophysics and neural silencing experiments to suggest a new interpretation of how animals and humans represent and interpret recent events in our memory. A key aspect of the model put forward here is the presence of discrete jumps in neural activity within the posterior parietal region of the cortex. The model is distinct from other models, and the authors provide convincing evidence to support it both from existing results as well as from novel experiments.

eLife Assessment

This important study utilizes the nematode C. elegans and mammalian cell culture to investigate the role of MML-1/Mondo in conserved regulation of metabolism and aging. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing and covers a range of areas including localization, upstream pathways, and conservation. The paper will be of interest to a broad range of biologists studying aging, metabolism, and transcriptional regulation.

eLife assessment

This is an important follow-up study to a previous paper in which the authors reconstituted CO2 metabolism (autotrophy) in Escherichia coli. Here, the authors define a set of just three mutations that promote autotrophy, highlighting the malleability of E. coli metabolism. The authors make a convincing case that mutations in pgi are loss-of-function mutations that prevent metabolic efflux from the reductive pentose phosphate autocatalytic cycle, and their data suggest possible roles of mutations in two other genes - crp and rpoB. This research will be particularly interesting to synthetic biologists, systems biologists, and metabolic engineers aiming to develop synthetic autotrophic microorganisms.

eLife assessment

This study presents a valuable deep learning-based model for predicting fracture within the next five years from just a standard distal radius and ulna scan obtained using high-resolution computed tomography images. The evidence supporting the conclusion that the model-predicted fracture prediction score can be used clinically to identify women at risk of fracture more effectively than with the current standard clinical approach is convincing. This work will be of interest to biomechanists and biomedical engineers working on osteoporosis.

eLife assessment

Using state-of-the-art fate-mapping models and genetic and pharmacological targeting approaches, this study provides important findings on the distinct functions exerted by resident and recruited macrophages during cardiac healing after myocardial ischemia. Evidence supporting the conclusions are solid with the use of the FIRE mouse model in combination with fate-mapping to target fetal-derived macrophages. This study will be of interest for the macrophage biologists working in the heart but also in others tissues in the context of inflammation.

eLife assessment

This important paper uses a multifaceted approach to implicate the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline system in the stress-induced transcriptional changes of dorsal and ventral hippocampus. It provides an inventory of dorsal and ventral hippocampal gene expression upregulated by activation of LC-NA system, which can be used as starting point for more functional studies related to the effects of stress-induced physiological and pathological changes. The results convincingly support the conclusions. This paper will be of interest to those interested in stress neurobiology, hippocampal, and/or noradrenaline function.

eLife assessment

This useful study presents data regarding the presence of synaptic proteins in the extracellular vesicle pool present in the blood of Parkinson's patients and non-parkinson neurological outpatients, trying to correlate changes in such levels with the progression of Parkinson's symptoms. The results are semi-quantitative and preliminary, suggesting that these biomarkers could be used in the follow up of a specific group of Parkinson patients. The evidence is incomplete at this point, and more quantitative approaches are required to propose this correlation. The isolation of extracellular vesicles was appropriate as revealed by their sizes, but they are not exclusively from neuronal origin. The presented approach is not ready to be used in the clinical setting.

eLife assessment

This study presents a valuable new behavioral apparatus aimed at differentiating the strategies animals use to orient themselves in an environment. The evidence supporting the claims is solid, with statistical modeling of animal behavior. Overall, this study will attract the interest of researchers exploring spatial learning and memory.

eLife assessment

The strength of this important study is that it provides compelling evidence in several biological models, including Xenopus embryos, that Wnt3a increases macropinocytosis and that PMA increases this cellular response. This novel link between Wnt, focal adhesions, lysosomes, and macropinocytosis will be very interesting for cell and tumor biologists. In future work, it will be good to identify the underlying mechanism, i.e., the molecular node whereby this interaction occurs.

eLife assessment

This important study uses near full-length HIV-1 sequencing to examine proviral persistence in various tissues derived from three individuals who received antiretroviral therapy until time of death. Intact as well as defective HIV-1 proviruses are found at various anatomical sites including the central nervous system; the results are convincing and relevant for our understanding of latent viral reservoirs, especially in the brain.

eLife assessment

Alpha-synuclein is a synaptic vesicle associated protein that is linked to a number of neurodegenerative disorders. In this manuscript, the authors provide compelling evidence of alpha-synuclein's interaction with E-domain synapsins as the main culprit mediating the suppression of neurotransmitter release and synaptic vesicle recycling by alpha-synuclein. This important work provides molecular mechanisms underlying alpha-synuclein functions.

eLife Assessment

This useful study presents a genetically encoded barcoding system that could advance transcriptomic studies and that has the potential for further applications, such as in high-throughput population-scale behavioral measurements. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid and highlights both the usefulness and the limitations of the approach.

eLife assessment

The manuscript looks at how dysregulated purine metabolism in mutants for the Aprt gene impacts survival, motor and sleep behavior in the fruit fly. Interestingly, although several deficits arise from dopaminergic neurons, dopamine levels are increased in Aprt mutants. Instead the biochemical change responsible for Aprt mutant neurobehavioural phenotypes appears to be a reduction in levels of adenosine. This valuable study suggests that Drosophila Aprt mutants may serve as a model for understanding Lesch-Nyhan Disease (LND), caused by mutations in the human HPRT1 gene, and may also potentially serve as a model to screen for drugs for the neurobehavioural deficits observed in LND. The strength of evidence is solid.

eLife assessment

This study makes a valuable contribution to spatial transcriptomics by rigorously benchmarking cell-type deconvolution methods, assessing their performance across diverse datasets with a focus on biologically relevant, previously unconsidered aspects. The authors demonstrate the strengths of RCTD, cell2location, and SpatialDWLS for their performance, while also revealing the limitations of many methods when compared to simpler baselines. By implementing a full Nextflow pipeline, Docker containers, and a rigorous assessment of the simulator, this work offers robust insights that elevate the standards for future evaluations and provides a resource for those seeking to improve or develop new deconvolution methods. The thorough comparison and analysis of methods, coupled with a strong emphasis on reproducibility, provide solid support for the findings.

eLife assessment

This study presents a convincing analysis of the effects of covariates, such as age, sex, socio-economic status, or biomarker levels, on the predictive accuracy of polygenic scores for body mass index; The work is further supported by important approaches for improving prediction accuracy by accounting for such covariates across a variety of association studies. The authors did a commendable job addressing reviewer suggestions and comments. The work will be of interest to colleagues using and developing methods for phenotypic prediction based on polygenic scores.

eLife assessment

In this important study, the authors describe a novel function for RAPSYN in bcr-abl fusion associated leukemia, presenting convincing evidence that RAPSYN stabilizes the oncogenic BCR-ABL fusion protein. Compared to an earlier version of the manuscript, the authors have added data using primary samples that strengthen the conclusions.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript addresses infections of the parasite Taenia solium, which causes neurocysticercosis (NCC). NCC is a common parasitic infection that leads to severe neurological problems. It is a major cause of epilepsy, but little is known about how the infection causes epilepsy. The authors used neuronal recordings, imaging of calcium transients in neurons, and glutamate-sensing fluorescent reporters. A strength of the paper is the use of both rodent and human preparations. The results provide convincing evidence that the larvae secrete glutamate and this depolarizes neurons. Although it is still uncertain exactly how epilepsy is triggered, the results suggest that glutamate release contributes. Therefore, the paper is a fundamental step towards understanding how Taenia solium infection leads to epilepsy.

eLife assessment

This important study reports how swallowtail butterflies pattern structures composed of chitin at the nanometer scale to produce structural colors. The work uses state-of-the-art microscopy techniques to convincingly show that F-actin is utilized in these butterflies in a novel way to produce structure, paving the way for further studies on growth regulation leading to precise ultrastructures and structural colors.