Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

The study's results offer a fundamental insight into how ACC1-mediated fatty-acid synthesis affects the survival and pathogenicity of iNKT cells in allergic asthma. The inclusion of mouse models, involving genetic adjustments and reconstitution experiments, along with the disparities found in iNKT cells between allergic asthma patients and control subjects in human studies, adds compelling evidence that substantiates these findings.

eLife assessment

This study is of fundamental importance, addressing the regulation of the carbon concentrating mechanism in cyanobacteria. It is a well-controlled investigation of low affinity regulatory binding of small molecules, processes that are typically difficult to examine. The work provides compelling evidence that the adenylate pool, rather than any single metabolite, regulates a key bicarbonate transporter (SbtA) to provide efficient bicarbonate supply while preventing futile cycling that can result from escape of unfixed CO2.

eLife assessment

This fundamental study identifies the components of the N6-methyladenosine methyltransferase complexes in yeasts, with major differences with the same complexes in mammals and flies. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with rigorous high-throughput sequencing approaches and detailed functional analysis. This work will be of broad interest to colleagues in the RNA modification and meiosis fields.

eLife assessment

This is an important study that addresses the interesting question of whether stimulation of DA input to prefrontal cortex during adolescence can be used to rescue genetic defects on DA regulation of PFC function. The conclusions are convincingly supported by the data together with discussion of some limitations of the approach. This story will of interest to a broad group of neuroscientists interested in regulation of prefrontal cortical function in behavior.

eLife assessment

This important study shows that pharmacologically enhanced catecholamine levels and increased voluntary spatial attention have overlapping as well as dissociable effects on performance on a visuospatial attention task and corresponding EEG markers. The findings provide solid evidence regarding how neuromodulatory arousal and selective spatial attention jointly shape perceptional decision-making.

eLife assessment

This important study expands on current knowledge of allosteric diversity in the human kinome by C-terminal splicing variants using as a paradigm DCLK1. The authors provide convincing evolutionary and some mechanistic evidence how C-terminal isoform specific variants generated by alternative splicing can regulate catalytic activity by means of coupling specific phosphorylation sites to dynamical and conformational changes controlling active site and substrate pocket occupancy, as well as protein-protein interactions. The data will be of interest to researchers in the kinase and signal transduction field.

eLife assessment

This useful study aims to characterize patterns of demographic aging in naked mole rats by quantifying mortality rates in a captive colony, up to approximately the median age of death. The study system is a fascinating case of unusual longevity and physiology in mammals, but because of limited sampling at older ages and missing analyses, the evidence for the main conclusion – that naked mole rats do not experience actuarial senescence – is incomplete for younger animals and inadequate for older animals. The work nevertheless provides data of interest to biodemographers and biomedical researchers interested in naked mole rats as a model for aging.

eLife assessment

This important study combines extensive phenotyping of genome-wide deletion mutants and machine learning-based prediction to generate a large scale resource for understanding the functions of thousands of fission yeast protein-coding genes. This resource is supported by convincing phenotyping data and state-of-the-art bioinformatic analyses and will be of interest to many geneticists.

eLife assessment

This manuscript reports important findings, demonstrating a critical role for a cysteine-containing dimerization interface in the secretion of FGF2 through an unconventional pathway. The authors provide compelling evidence, combining in vitro biochemical assays with structural simulation. The work will be of interest to researchers working on protein trafficking and secretion.

eLife assessment

This work presents an important online platform designed to facilitate the exploration of genes and genetic pathways implicated in human aging. Leveraging a new inference methodology, the tool enables the identification and visualization of key genes and tissues impacted by aging, facilitating scientific discovery. The methods and analyses are convincing and will be broadly used by scientists aiming to mine human aging RNA-seq data.

eLife assessment

This valuable manuscript presents a new approach to transform multi-omics datasets into images and to exploit Deep Learning methods for image analysis of the transformed datasets. As an example, the method is applied to multi-omics datasets on different cancers. While the evidence in this specific case is solid, whether the method is working as advertised in other settings is not yet known.

eLife assessment

This study offers important insights into the transcriptional regulatory networks driving female gametocyte maturation in rodent malaria parasites. The work is based on solid methodology and shows how two female-specific transcription factors, AP2-FG and PFG (aka Fd2), co-operate to up-regulate the expression of genes required for development after fertilization occurs in the mosquito midgut. This study will be of interest to scientists working on sexual differentiation and gene regulation in Plasmodium and other apicomplexan parasites.

eLife assessment

This fundamental study provides evidence that de novo beige adipogenesis from Pdgfra+ adipocyte progenitor cells is blocked during early aging in subcutaneous fat. The depth of the data at early ages is compelling, with rigorous cell tracing methodology employed. The study will aid in identifying new approaches to switch dormant adipocytes into an active thermogenic phenotype, and should be of interest to cell biologists at large.

eLife assessment

This study presents a potentially valuable discovery which indicates that activation of the P2RX7 pathway by the small molecule HEI3090 can reduce lung fibrosis after its establishment by inflammatory damage. If confirmed, the study could clarify the role of specific immune networks in the establishment and progression of lung fibrosis. The presented data and analyses showing the efficacy of HEI3090 small molecule acting via the P2RX7 pathway in reducing lung fibrosis are solid. The studies also show that genetic deletion of P2RX7 itself can reduce the extent of fibrosis. P2RX7 can thus have distinct effects in various phases of the development of lung fibrosis. There is a need for additional definitive studies that specifically identify the discrete phases of when inflammasome activation via P2RX7 signaling can worsen fibrosis versus when the same signaling can be beneficial. It also needs to be established whether distinct immune cell populations mediate the detrimental and beneficial effects of P2RX7 activation in lung fibrosis.

eLife assessment

The work by O'Reilly and Delis is important to extend the synergy ideas using methods from signal processing and information theory to cluster muscles and task parameters, thereby advancing our understanding of the modular architecture of motor control. The method is innovative, and the findings are compelling from theoretical and practical perspectives. The work will be of broad interest to motor control and neural engineering researchers.

eLife assessment

The authors report that an interaction between the sodium-activated potassium channel Slack and Nav1.6 sensitizes Slack to inhibition by quinidine. This is an important finding because it contributes to our understanding of how the antiseizure drug quinidine affects epilepsy syndromes arising from mutations in the Slack-encoding gene KCNT1. The results are largely compelling and the work will likely spark interest in further examining the proposed channel-channel interaction in neuronal cell membranes.

eLife assessment

This study presents a valuable finding on developing a state-of-the-art generative model of brain electrophysiological signals to explain temporal decoding matrices widely used in cognitive neuroscience. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing. The results will be strengthened by providing more clear mappings between neurobiological mechanisms and signal generators in the model. The work will be of interest to cognitive neuroscientists using electrophysiological recordings.

eLife assessment

This valuable study combines chronic widefield calcium imaging of dorsal cortex activity at the mesoscale level with electrical recording of single neurons in specific cortical and subcortical locations. This work provides compelling evidence for recording neuronal activity at multiple temporal and spatial scales by combination of optical and electrophysiological methods. This work will be of broad interest to system neuroscientists studying neural circuits.

eLife assessment

This study addresses an important, understudied question using approaches that link molecular, circuit, and behavioral changes. The findings that Netrin-1 and UNC5c can guide dopaminergic innervation from the nucleus accumbens to the cortex during adolescence are solid. The data showing that the onset of Unc5 expression is sexually dimorphic in mice, and that in Siberian hamsters environmental effects on development are also sexually dimorphic are also solid. Reviewers identified significant gaps in evidence for specificity of Netrin-1 expression, which, if filled, would strengthen the evidence for some of the claims. Future work would also benefit from Unc5C knockdown to corroborate the results and investigation of the cause-effect relationship. This paper will be of interest to those interested in neural development, sex differences, and/or dopamine function.

eLife assessment

This is a valuable paper demonstrating the validity of a novel task that could advance the field of reinforcement learning to better incorporate threat processing in approach-avoidance-conflict. A compelling methodology includes the use of online samples and computational modelling, psychometrics, discovery/replication and pre-registration. This work provides a foundation for future work, which is required to establish this task as relevant to psychopathology and treatment.