Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

This study proposes a deep learning-based segmentation pipeline of fetal brain MRI, with parcellation based on a newly implemented atlas. This represents an important contribution to the field of developmental neuroscience and pediatric neuroimaging, especially as the pipeline and atlas are publicly available. The evidence for the pipeline robustness and atlas relevance is convincing given the extensive validations provided and the very high-quality ground truth dataset. Although beyond the state of the art, the study would benefit from further comparisons with existing methods and additional evaluations of the framework generalizability according to image quality, subject age or brain abnormalities.

eLife assessment

The authors provide a valuable analysis of what neural circuit mechanisms enable varying the speed of retrieval of sequences, which is needed in situations such as reproducing motor patterns. Their use of heterogeneous plasticity rules to allow external currents to control speed of sequence recall is a novel alternative to other mechanisms proposed in the literature. They perform a convincing characterization of relevant properties of recall via simulations and theory, though a better mapping to biologically plausible mechanisms is left for future work.

eLife assessment

This paper identifies a subset of neurons within adult mouse myenteric ganglia that are not labeled via canonical neural-crest labeling, and argues, based on extensive lineage tracing, imaging and genomic data that these neurons are derived from mesoderm. There is convincing evidence for the existence of an unusual cell type in the gut that expresses neuronal markers, but which is derived from cells expressing markers of the mesoderm rather than the expected neural crest, which is an intriguing and important observation. While the data do not definitively establish the molecular taxonomy of this lineage, there is sufficient evidence to support the provocative and paradigm-shifting hypothesis of the non-ectodermal origin for enteric neurons to warrant further deeper investigation.

eLife assessment

This solid study addresses the unresolved question of why many thousands of small-effect loci contribute more to the heritability of a trait than the large-effect lead variants. The authors explore resource competition within the transcriptional machinery as one possible explanation with a simple theoretical model, concluding that the effects of resource competition would be too small to explain the heritability effects. The topic and approximation of the problem are important and offer an intuitive way to think about polygenic variation, but there are concerns on the derivation of the equations with respect to dropping vs. including certain terms that deal inherently with small numbers.

eLife assessment

This is a useful study of the connection between the ubiquitin ligase protein deltex and the wingless signaling pathway. Two different links are inferred from genetic interactions in vivo between loss-of-function mutations and overexpression. While the genetic data are solid, the precise mechanism underlying either effect remains to be established.

eLife assessment

This study provides an important cell type atlas of the gill of the mussel Gigantidas platifrons using a single nucleus RNA-seq dataset, a resource for the community of scientists studying deep sea physiology and metabolism and intracellular host-symbiont relationships. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing with high-quality single-nucleus RNA sequencing and transplant experiments. This work will be of broad relevance for scientists interested in host-symbiont relationships across ecosystems.

eLife assessment

This study presents a valuable dataset and tool that can aid in arthropathies' assessment, potentially enabling such evaluation to be done outside the lab. There is solid evidence supporting the comparison between the force plate and insole data, which can be strengthened by improvements in cross-validation, but the evidence for distinguishing disease signatures and elimination of walking speed as a factor is inconclusive and would need further analysis. This work will be of interest to physical therapists, clinicians, and researchers in the field of ankle/knee/hip osteoporosis and other lower limb joint diseases.

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.