Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

This manuscript presents valuable findings on the role of a plant peptide in coordinating developmental and immune responses signaling. The evidence supporting the claims, while mainly descriptive and and somewhat limited due to the main conclusions being drawn from overexpression lines, is mostly solid. The findings are interesting, they align with existing models, and they are of relevance to plant pathologists and developmental biologists.

eLife Assessment

This study provides a valuable structural analysis of the Sedoheptulose-1,7-Bisphosphatase (SBPase) from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The data presented are solid and based on X-ray structures of the CrSBPase in an oxidized and reduced state, the authors identify a disulfide bond in close proximity to the dimer interface. They show that the redox-state of the CrSBPase impacts its oligomeric state and might also influence the activity of the protein.

eLife assessment

This important study combines experiments and fluid mechanics modeling to determine the mechanism of the ultrafast ejection of the polar tube of the Microsporidia parasite and of transport through this tube. The methods and the analysis, based on the variation of the viscosity of the external medium, are compelling and allow for the first time to discriminate among proposed ejection mechanisms. This approach where simple physical principles are used for distinguishing between mechanisms when the precise geometry is inaccessible through imaging is potentially applicable to other systems in microbiology.

eLife assessment

This important study reports the physiological role of ZMYND21 in the regulation of sperm flagellar development and male fertility. The data supporting the conclusion are solid, although the inclusion of more patients and ultrastructural studies would have further strengthened the study. This work will be of interest to clinicians and researchers who work on either sperm biology or ciliopathy due to cilial defects.

eLife assessment

This small-sized clinical trial comparing nebulized dornase-alfa to the best available care in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia is valuable, but in its present form the paper is incomplete.

eLife assessment

This manuscript represents a valuable study showing that microplastics indeed accumulate in both bovine and human ovarian follicular fluid. It also presented data that direct exposure of bovine eggs to polystyrene, a microplastic commonly found in follicular fluid, negatively affects oocyte maturation, probably through the downregulation of key proteins involved in oxidative stress, DNA damage, apoptosis, and oocyte maturation. Despite the solid supporting evidence, inclusion of the demographics and reasons for assisted reproduction of the human subjects used, as well as the details on quality control for proteomic analyses would further strengthen the study. The work will be of interest to reproductive toxicologists, regulatory scientists and reproductive health care professionals.

eLife assessment

This paper presents an important effort to develop an open source software framework for monitoring trends and variations in healthcare over time in England. They demonstrate a compelling example of how this system can track key health care indicators over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper will likely be mainly of interest to stakeholders in England, but could inspire the creation of similar systems in other countries.

eLife assessment

This is an important theoretical study providing insight into how fluctuations in excitability can contribute to gradual changes in the mapping between population activity and stimulus, commonly referred to as representational drift. The authors provide convincing evidence that fluctuations can contribute to drift. Overall, this is a well-presented study that explores the question of how changes in intrinsic excitability can influence distinct memory representations.

eLife assessment

This valuable study investigates the role of mechanosensory feedback during swallowing in adult Drosophila. The authors provide convincing evidence that three mechanotransduction channel genes are required for ingestion rhythms and localize the role of these genes to a specific subpopulation of pharyngeal mechanosensory neurons. However, there is incomplete evidence to support the conclusions that these sensory neurons are necessary for swallowing, respond to stretch during swallowing, and connect to the motor neurons that control swallowing. This work may be of interest to neuroscientists interested in motor control of feeding behavior.

eLife assessment

This study presents an important tool for tracking the connectivity of neurons in mouse and potentially other mammals using a combined approach of barcoded rabies virus libraries and spatial transcriptomics. The data supporting the technique are convincing, the validation against known anatomical knowledge is rigorous, and the authors advance the techniques by combing them in vivo. Overall, this is a very good paper describing a technique for tracking neural circuits.

eLife assessment

In this valuable manuscript Li & Jin record from the substantial nigra and dorsal striatum to identify subpopulations of neurons with activity that reflects different dynamics during action selection, and then use optogenetics in transgenic mice to selectively inhibit or excite D1- and D2- expressing spiny projection neurons in the striatum, demonstrating a causal role for each in action selection in an opposing manner. They provide solid evidence for the argument that their findings cannot be explained by current models and propose a new 'triple control' model instead, with one direct and two indirect pathways, although direct evidence for a second indirect pathway is still lacking. These findings will be of broad interest to neuroscientists across multiple subfields.

eLife assessment

The formation of the place cell map in the hippocampus is foundational to many models and is thought to form a substrate onto which memories can be structured. This paper presents an important new observation to our understanding of place cell formation - namely that task learning changes or interferes with the process of place cell map stabilization. Reviewers found that there was incomplete evidence for this result, however, in this version of the manuscript because of a confound between the duration of experience in an environment and task-specific learning.

eLife assessment

This study presents a valuable and comprehensive mutagenesis map of the AAV2 rep gene, which will undoubtedly capture the interest of scientists working with adeno-associated viruses and those engaged in the field of gene therapy. The thorough characterization of massive rep variants across multiple AAV production systems bolsters the claims made in the study, highlighting its utility in enhancing our understanding of Rep protein function and advancing gene therapy applications. The evidence presented is convincing and establishes a strong foundation that will stimulate and inform future research in the field.

eLife assessment

This study presents valuable findings on the organization of respiratory chain complexes in mitochondria. It provides solid evidence that respiratory supercomplex formation in the fruit fly does not impact respiratory function, suggesting the role of these complexes is structural, rather than catalytic. However, whether the conclusions extend to other species requires further evidence. This manuscript will be of broad interest to the field of mitochondrial bioenergetics.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study presents a well-designed set of experiments demonstrating how a planthopper salivary carbonic anhydrase can promote rice stripe virus infection by modulating callose deposition in the host plant. The authors provide solid data for the proposed protein-protein interactions, including strengthened evidence for the LssaCA-NP-OsTLP complex and clarified dynamics of LssaCA presence in planta. Overall, the work reveals a mechanistic link whereby a vector salivary protein enhances a plant β-1,3-glucanase to suppress callose-based defense, thereby facilitating early viral establishment.

eLife assessment

This article provides important findings on how bacteria use small RNAs to regulate flagellar expression with implications for multiple fields. The data supporting the conclusions are convincing with a large amount of data that include results from phenotypic analyses, genomics approaches as well as in-vitro and in-vivo target identification and validation methods. This study on the varied effects of three sRNAs (UhpU, FliX and MotR) is of broad interest to RNA biochemists and microbiologists.

eLife assessment

This study presents a valuable inventory of immune signatures that are correlated with cancer treatment-related pneumonitis. The data were collected and analysed using validated methodology and can be used as a starting point for further prospective studies. The authors have provided a scRNA-Seq analysis with an HD baseline using publicly available dataset and the evidence for their claims is convincing.

eLife assessment

Focusing mainly on var genes, the investigators performed comprehensive computational analyses of gene expression in malaria parasites isolated from patients and assessed changes that occur as these parasites adapt to in vitro culture conditions. The study provides an improved computational pipeline for monitoring var gene expression, and importantly, the study documents changes in expression of the core genome and thus provides insights into metabolic adaptations that parasites undergo while transitioning to culture conditions. The findings are important for their technical advances that are more rigorous than the current state-of-the-art. The solid data analyses, broadly support the claims with only minor weaknesses, tell us to be cautious when interpreting results obtained only from cultured parasites.

eLife assessment

This study presents a valuable examination into the role Notch-RBP-J signalling in regulating monocyte subset homeostasis. The data were collected and analysed using solid and validated methodology and can be used as a starting point for exploring the mechanisms involved in RBP-J signalling in non-classical monocytes. The data presented strongly confirm the authors conclusions. However, this paper primarily focuses on providing a description, and additional studies are necessary to fully elucidate the mechanisms through which RBP-J deficiency contributes to the specific increase in Ly6Clo monocyte numbers in both the blood and lungs.

eLife assessment

This paper provides a useful set of data examining the role of PTPMT1, a mitochondria-based phosphatase, in mitochondrial fuel selection. The data were collected and analyzed using solid methodology and can be used as a starting point for further studies that build on the findings here.