Evaluated articles

eLife assessment:

This fundamental study provides compelling evidence that long-range resection is important for recombination between distal, but not proximal, homologous sequences. It is thus proposed that a major role of long resection of a double-strand break mediated by Sgs1 and Exo1 is to activate the DNA damage checkpoint to allow the chromosomal mobility needed for the DNA ends to find a distant homologous sequence with which repair via homologous recombination, adding a new biological meaning to the role of long DNA resection in homologous recombination.

eLife assessment

The mechanisms underlying mirror neurons are a topic of wide interest for all who study the workings of the brain. The authors use an elegant decoding approach to test whether mirror neurons encode action categories in the same framework regardless of whether actions are executed in the dark or observed in the light. This new approach identifies only a small subset of mirror neurons with fully matched coding among a larger set showing partial matches. The thought-provoking study opens up new principled avenues to probe the mechanics of matching action and perception.

eLife assessment

Using C. elegans as a model organism, the study hones in on the role of ether lipid biosynthesis as an effector of metformin--a process previously implicated in extending lifespan in response to diet--, TOR signalling, and mitochondrial interventions. The data in this paper are compelling, and a better understanding of biguanide impact on metabolism is highly important in the field.

eLife assessment

This study presents valuable insights into the circuits that are common for innate and learned threat. The evidence supporting the author's conclusions is solid, but the specificity of the circuit targeting methods requires further histological assessment and clarification. Deeper interpretation of novel mechanistic insights that are gained would benefit the study.

eLife assessment

This valuable study advances our knowledge of the effects of anxiety/depression treatment on metacognition, demonstrating that treatment increases metacognitive confidence alongside improving symptoms. The authors provide convincing evidence for the state-dependency of metacognitive confidence, based on a large longitudinal treatment dataset. However, it is unclear to what extent this effect is truly specific to treatment, as changes in metacognitive confidence in the group receiving online therapy were not statistically different from those in the control group.

eLife assessment

This fundamental study substantially advances our physical understanding of the sharp increase and saturation of the viscosity of non-confluent tissues with increasing cell density. Through the analysis of a simplified model this study provides compelling evidence that polydispersity in cell size and the softness of cells together can lead to this phenomenon. The work will be of general interest to biologists and biophysicists working on development.

eLife assessment

This study presents a valuable finding on the impact of metformin-induced shifts in gut microbial community structure and metabolite levels for drug efficacy in a mouse model of liver injury. The current evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid. This paper will be of broad interest to researchers across multiple disciplines, including the microbiome, liver disease, and pharmacology.

eLife assessment

This manuscript provides fundamental findings on the association between sleep regularity and mortality in the UK Biobank, which is a popular topic in recent sleep and circadian research in population-based studies. The study is based on a large accelerometer study with validated follow-up of incident diseases and deaths, and the data quality and large sample size are convincing and strengthen the credibility of the conclusion. This will be of wide interest to researchers in the sleep study field, epidemiologists, practicing clinicians and the general public.

eLife assessment

This study presents valuable findings describing how the midbrain periaqueductal gray matter and basolateral amygdala communicate when a predator threat is detected. Though the periaqueductal gray is usually viewed as a downstream effector, this work contributes to a growing body of literature from this lab showing that the periaqueductal gray produces effects by acting on the basolateral amygdala, the experimental design, data collection and analysis methods provide solid evidence for the main claims. The anatomical and immediately early gene evidence that the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus may serve as a mediator of dorsolateral periaqueductal gray to basolateral amygdala neurotransmission provides and impetus for future functional assessment of this possibility. This study will appeal to a broad audience, including basic scientists interested in neural circuits, basic and clinical researchers interested in fear, and behavioral ecologists interested in foraging.

eLife assessment

This important study used single-cell whole-brain imaging of the immediate early gene Fos to identify the brain areas recruited by two anesthetics, ketamine and isoflurane. The utilization of a custom software package to align and analyze brain images for c-Fos positive cells stands out as an impressive component of the approach. The results provide solid evidence that these anesthetics might induce anesthesia via different brain regions and pathways, and raw fos showed shared and distinct activation patterns after ketamine- v. isoflurane-based anesthesia. Though differences could also be due, as the authors note, to differences in dose and route of administration. This paper may be of interest to preclinical and clinical scientists working with anesthetic and dissociative drugs.

eLife assessment

This is valuable study on the mechanistic relationship between two prominent events in post-stimulus EEG: alpha desynchronization and P300 that are known for their slow/relatively late build up. The sample size is substantial. The data are compelling, showing that the P300 can be explained by desynchronization of a non-zero mean alpha oscillations over posterior sites through the baseline-shift model, at least partially. This makes a significant contribution to understanding and interpreting P300 generation (and possibly other ERP components) from concurrent changes in brain oscillations, with links to cognition.

eLife assessment

This important study dissects the role of octopamine in the interplay between internal energy homeostasis, food intake and food-related memories. The solid experimental evidence will shed additional light on previously published work and should be of interest to the growing community of biologists interested in how internal state shapes behavior, including decision making processes, learning and memory.

eLife assessment

This fundamental study advances our understanding of seabird responses to environmental conditions, with implications for movement ecology, flight biomechanics, animal foraging, and bio-energetics. Animal-borne data-loggers are used to generate a compelling high quality dataset on animal movement and environmental conditions. The study will interest ornithologists, comparative bio-mechanists, ocean ecologists and those interested in technological advances in animal sensors.

eLife assessment

This valuable study reports on the structure and function of capsid size-determining external scaffolding protein encoded by a Vibrio phage satellite. The structural work is of high quality and the presented reconstructions are compelling. The paper offers a substantial advance in the field of phage and virus structure and assembly, with implications for understanding the evolution of phage satellites.

eLife assessment

This fundamental work describes an understudied bird migration pattern using data from an Arctic raptor. With an extensive dataset and comprehensive analyses, the observed pattern is convincing. This study will be of interest to researchers exploring the ecological drivers of bird migration.

eLife assessment

This useful manuscript focuses on understanding how an Eklf mutation confers anticancer and longevity advantages in vivo. The data demonstrate that Eklf (K74R) imparts such advantages in a background and age independent manner in both female and male mice, and that the benefits are transferable by bone marrow transplantation. Despite added data since a previous version, the paper unfortunately remains incomplete, as it is still unclear whether Eklf affects resistance to malignant progression/metastasis by modulating Pd1 or Pdl1, or by increasing NK cells. The authors provide evidence that supports in principle both mechanisms, and they do not resolve which mechanism is primarily involved.

eLife Assessment

The authors analyze a comprehensive cohort of human plasma samples to identify an extracellular vesicles protein signature for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The application of liquid biopsies is valuable, and the work addresses a key clinical problem as pancreas cancer is often diagnosed in late stages. The strength of evidence is solid. Altogether, this work supports the potential use of extracellular vesicles in clinical settings, with promising value to scientists and clinicians.

eLife assessment

This important study reports, with convincing evidence, that a long non-coding RNA disrupts the activity of the tumor suppressor p53 to contribute to the growth and therapeutic response of glioblastoma. The work will be relevant to scientists working on non-coding RNAs and brain tumors.

eLife assessment

This represents an important study that demonstrates a high degree of heterogeneity within trailblazer cells in clusters that participate in collective migration. Solid methods highlight this heterogeneity and show that in TNBC cancers, trailblazer cells are defined by vimentin (and not Keratin 14) and are dependent on both TGFbeta and EGFR signaling.

eLife assessment

This important manuscript presents several structures of the Kv1.2 voltage-gated potassium channel, based on state-of-the-art cryoEM techniques and algorithms. The authors present solid evidence for structures of an inactivating mutant of Kv1.2, DTX-bound Kv1.2 and of Kv1.2 in potassium-free solution (with presumably sodium ions bound within the selectivity filter). These structures advance our knowledge of the molecular basis of the slow inactivation process of potassium channels.