Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

This manuscript reports important findings regarding the evolution of snake venom proteins. The conclusions are convincing and are based on appropriate and validated methodology in line with the current state-of-the-art. The findings will be of interest to biologists and biochemists interested in the evolution of venoms as well as those generally interested in the evolution of molecular novelties.

eLife assessment

In this potentially important study, Mahbub and colleagues examine how the small GTPase ARL15 regulates ion transport. Using a complementary array of techniques, the authors gathered solid evidence for the binding of ARL15 to CNNM proteins, resulting in a proposal how this may affect the function of the TRPM7 channel. Additional experiments are required to fully substantiate the claims.

eLife assessment

These authors provide compelling evidence that gestational intermittent hypoxia, a component of sleep apnea during pregnancy, increases inflammation in the spinal cords of male mice. Increased inflammation is robustly linked to deficits in respiratory plasticity both biochemically and via functional depletion assays. These data are important given the fact that male infants have worse outcomes in the NICU and are at higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

eLife assessment

Brodbeck et al. offer a timely and important contribution to how neural signals in response to continuous temporal modulations (as seen in speech and language processing) can be modelled effectively using temporal response functions. They offer a convincing new approach that includes a novel application of a boosting algorithm in addition to an accessible and didactically useful toolbox for analysis. With further comparison to existing toolboxes, or a more extensive comparison of boosting and ridge regression via simulation, this work will have a compelling impact on methods in speech and language neuroscience, as well as in cognitive neuroscience more broadly.

eLife assessment:

This important study advances our understanding of host-derived lipid droplets' interaction with intracellular pathogens. The use of amoeba species Dictyostelium discoideum as a host for Legionella pneumophila infection is compelling and goes beyond the current state of the art, but the strength of evidence is incomplete, and the main claims are only partially supported by the data. With the experimental part strengthened, this paper would be of interest to cell biologists and microbiologists working on the interaction of microbes with host cells.

eLife assessment

This useful work describes the establishment and characterization of new cell lines derived from specific tissues of the fruit fly Drosophila. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although the characterization of the cell lines is incomplete and the genomic findings are not presented in a user-friendly manner. These lines could be a useful resource that complements in vivo Drosophila genetics, improving biochemistry and facilitating high-throughput screening.

eLife assessment

This important study examines the association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and close contact among household members, measured using proximity sensors deployed after the first case was identified in the household. The authors provide solid evidence that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within households is not dependent upon close contact, but the study suffers from a number of limitations that are fully acknowledged.

eLife assessment

Regulation of gene expression in many biological systems occurs either through a binary mode where gene expression is either on or off (digital regulation), or through an analog mode leading to a graded modulation of gene expression. In this manuscript, the authors report how these two regulatory modes are integrated into a one-way switch pattern to control the expression of the Arabidopsis floral repressor gene FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). They suggest that an analog regulation in the autonomous pathway precedes a digital regulation conferred by Polycomb silencing before cold exposure, and this temporal switch correlates with the strength of transcription at the FLC locus in different genetic backgrounds.

eLife assessment

This study combines different approaches to unravel the genetic basis of a pigmentation polymorphism in natural populations of a fascinating study system with well-studied ecology. The paper has the potential to be of general interest to biologists curious about the genetic basis of adaptive variation, which is especially relevant to evolutionary biologists and ecologists. The study reports substantial data and makes a strong case for the contribution of a duplication-derived gene acquiring a morph-specific function. Further information is required to implicate valkea in pigmentation morph formation and for diagnosing the duplicated segment as a supergene (associated with low recombination).

eLife assessment

This manuscript describes a valuable method to study the mechanism of action of essential genes and novel putative drug targets. Evidence for the effectiveness of the system, which is based on engineering pre-validated targets for RNA-mediated knockdown into genes of interest, is compelling, and the method should find use as an orthogonal method for generating gene specific knockdowns.

eLife assessment

This study presents valuable findings from a study of identical twin pairs discordant and concordant for smoking to assess whether smoking has a direct effect on DNA methylation. The results are a valuable contribution as the study confirms the reported association between smoking and epigenetic profile is indeed due to the direct effects of constituents of tobacco smoke. The study design and methods applied by the authors are solid and provide a starting point for larger studies with rigorous laboratory approaches, as well as for assessing clinical impact. The work will be of broad interest to addiction researchers, genetic epidemiologists, and environmental scientists.

eLife assessment

This is an interesting and potentially significant study that adds important new information to our understanding of the mechanisms of lung epithelial repair after tissue injury. The authors have delineated a novel and non redundant role for the hippo pathway and the down stream regulators Yap/Taz in regulating repair of lung injury. These studies will inform future investigations into the mechanisms of repair of lung injury

eLife assessment

This study presents important results on the predicted impact of cancer screening disruptions in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic based on consultation with public health stakeholders. The evidence presented is solid, as simulations were based on several previously validated breast, cervical, and bowel cancer screening decision models, though the scenarios were based on hypothetical disruptions that do not always match experienced disruptions. The work will be of interest to local policy-makers, public health specialists, and cancer epidemiologists.

eLife assessment

This work shows that higher socioeconomic status is associated with a higher risk of obesity, which should inform China's obesity public health programs and policies, and also be of interest to other countries and communities. The evidence supporting the conclusions is strong, but the data analysis is incomplete and would benefit from more rigorous approaches.

eLife assessment

This is important work that addresses a long-standing (but rarely acknowledged) question: given that multi-peaked tuning curves optimize Fisher information, why do early sensory areas typically have single-peaked tuning curves? This paper shows clearly, and convincingly, that multi-peaked tuning curves are likely to produce catastrophic errors at short times, so if speed is important, multi-peaked tuning curves should be avoided. This work should encourage neuroscientists to take into account the importance of stimulus encoding time in their formulations of models of neural coding.

eLife assessment

Endothelial cells mediate the growth of the vascular system, but they also need to prevent vascular leakage, which involves interactions with neighboring endothelial cells through junctional protein complexes. This important study provides a full mechanistic insight into how Sun1 is achieving its function, which supports the concept that nuclear anchoring is critical for proper mechanosensing and junctional organization. Although the evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid and there are several merits and strengths in this study, a weakness is that some important controls are missing. The work will be of broad interest to cell biologists and vascular biologists.

eLife assessment

This manuscript presents a useful meta-analysis of genes with parent-specific expression from mouse published RNA-seq datasets, focusing on genes with weak allelic bias. A combination of systematic bioinformatic analysis and experimental validation convincingly shows that the number of parentally biased genes has been overestimated and the few novel ones lie at the periphery of known imprinted loci. The work will be of interest to genomicists with an interest in imprinting and its mechanisms.

eLife assessment

This study will be of interest to scientists within the field of hematopoiesis and ribosome biology. The paper provides evidence that haploinsufficiency of the mouse ribosomal protein gene Rps12 results in a number of phenotypes including defects in the production of specific blood cells and loss of hematopoietic stem cell quiescence. This work adds to the growing body of evidence that specific cell populations are particularly sensitive to disruption of mRNA translation machinery.

eLife assessment

This important paper advances our ability to understand feeding behavior in fruit flies and begins to address the challenging question of motivation. With innovative methods based on the detailed monitoring of interactions between foods of different qualities at different hunger states, they present compelling evidence for non-homeostatic feeding not driven by metabolic need.

eLife assessment

This manuscript provides a description of an approach for efficiently integrating diverse libraries into the C. elegans genome and tools that enable researchers to use the method. It is a valuable contribution for researchers carrying out experiments that would benefit from easy generation of such libraries, and the data for the effectiveness of the method is solid. The advantages of this approach in terms of ease and effectiveness relative to others with similar aims will emerge as they are put to more general use in addressing biological problems.