Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

This fundamental study presents a compelling and comprehensive analysis of the newly defined Lipocone superfamily, offering unprecedented insights into the evolutionary origins of Wnt proteins. The authors provide evidence that this superfamily evolved from membrane proteins. The work is exemplary in its use of sequence analysis and structural modeling and will be of broad interest to researchers studying protein evolution and enzymology.

[Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

eLife Assessment

The authors study how apolipoprotein L1 variants impact inflammation and lipid accumulation in macrophages. The findings will be useful for researchers investigating macrophage metabolism and inflammation. The discovery that the polyamine spermidine in part mediates such effects is interesting, but the supporting evidence for a physiologically relevant role is currently incomplete due to the lack of relevant in vivo studies.

eLife Assessment

This fundamental study shows how past experiences shape perception across short, medium, and long time scales, using a single behavioural paradigm and reanalysed EEG data. It provides convincing evidence for two processes across all scales: an attention-dependent mechanism that speeds responses to expected events, and an attention-independent mechanism where expected events are encoded less precisely, consistent with feedforward dampening. The work offers a unifying account of temporal context effects, though stronger brain-behaviour links, integration with serial dependence attraction and repulsion models, and extension to other timescale definitions would further strengthen the contribution.

eLife Assessment

This important study explores the regulation of collective cell migration and tissue patterning in the zebrafish posterior lateral line primordium by SoxB1 transcription factors. The authors provide evidence that SoxB1 genes interact with Wnt and Fgf signaling pathways to control neuromast deposition and spacing, a process central to sensory organ development. The work offers mechanistic insight into the self-organization of migrating tissues and adds to the understanding of how transcriptional networks integrate with signaling pathways during morphogenesis. However, the strength of the evidence supporting several key conclusions is incomplete due to insufficient validation of mutant and knockdown tools, lack of quantitative analysis, and unclear experimental design details; additional quantification and more rigorous verification of gene knockdown or loss-of-function tools are needed to support the proposed model.

eLife Assessment

This study provides valuable findings regarding potential correlates of protection against the African swine fever virus. The evidence supporting the claims is solid, although analysis using a higher number of animals and other virus strains will be required to further evaluate the relevance of the immune parameters associated to protection. The work will be of broad interest to veterinary immunologists, and particularly those working on African swine fever.

eLife Assessment

Arecchi et al. demonstrate that polarized second-harmonic generation microscopy can be used to probe the ON/OFF states of myosin in both permeabilized and intact muscle, making this key measurement accessible to a greater number of labs. This has the potential to help with the study of disease-causing mutations and our understanding of drug function. The methodology is well defined, and the results are important; however, whilst this is overall a convincing study, there are some limitations to the interpretation of the data.

eLife Assessment

This study reports the important development and characterization of next-generation analogs of the molecule AA263, which was previously identified for its ability to promote adaptive ER proteostasis remodeling. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with rigorous assays used to benchmark the changes in potency and efficacy of the AA263 analogs as well as AA263 targets. The ability of AA263 analogs to restore the loss of function associated with disease-associated proteins prone to misfolding will be of interest to pharmacologists, chemical biologists, and cell biologists, as well as those working on protein misfolding disorders.

eLife Assessment

This important study demonstrates that yeast populations can rapidly evolve freeze-thaw tolerance by converging on a trehalose-rich, quiescence-like state, illuminating a general physiological route to extreme-stress adaptation. The evidence is solid, combining rigorous experimental-evolution design with multi-scale phenotyping, biophysical measurements, whole-genome sequencing, and quantitative modeling that together support the mechanistic conclusions. Questions about the novelty relative to prior growth/stress tolerance links, the precise genetic versus non-genetic drivers of trehalose up-regulation, and the breadth of independently evolved lines. These are areas for clarification, but these do not substantially weaken the overall contribution.

eLife Assessment

This important study presents a well-constructed multiscale simulation framework to investigate ATP-driven DNA translocation by prokaryotic SMC complexes, supporting a segment-capture mechanism. The strength of evidence is convincing, highlighting the necessity of a precise balance between electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonding, as well as the critical role of kleisin asymmetry in ensuring unidirectional movement.

eLife Assessment

This useful study employs optogenetics, genetically-encoded dopamine and serotonin sensors, and patch-clamp electrophysiology to investigate modulations of neurotransmitter release between striatal dopamine and serotonin neurons - a topic of interest to neuroscientists studying the basal ganglia. The results suggest that the dopamine and serotonin systems operate largely in parallel, with the activation of serotonin neurons resulting in a small, transient dopamine release. The authors suggest that this interaction occurs via glutamate release in the ventral tegmental area, findings that are closely related to previous work. Some conclusions are incomplete requiring larger samples-sizes and controls.

eLife Assessment

This important work introduces a splitGFP-based labeling tool with an analysis pipeline for the synaptic scaffold protein bruchpilot, with tests in the adult Drosophila mushroom bodies, a learning center in the Drosophila brain. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid. However, additional controls, validation of synapse-specificity, validation of activity-dependence, details on image processing, and additional functional experiments are needed to strengthen the study.

eLife Assessment

This article presents valuable findings on how the timing of cooling affects the timing of autumn bud set in European beech saplings. The study leverages extensive experimental data and provides an interesting conceptual framework of the various ways in which warming can affect bud set timing. The support for the findings is incomplete, though extra justifications of the experimental settings, clarifications of the interpretation of the results, and alternative statistical analyses can make the conclusions more robust.

eLife Assessment

In this manuscript, Park et al. developed a multiplexed CRISPR construct to genetically ablate the GABA transporter GAT3 in the mouse visual cortex, with effects on population-level neuronal activity. This work is important, as it sheds light on how GAT3 controls the processing of visual information. The findings are compelling, leveraging state-of-the-art gene CRISPR/Cas9, in vivo two-photon laser scanning microscopy, and advanced statistical modeling.

eLife Assessment

This study identifies astrocyte-intrinsic mechanisms by which the LRRK2 G2019S, a mutation linked to familial Parkinson's disease, disrupts synaptic integrity in the anterior cingulate cortex. The findings are convincing, as they rely on a comprehensive set of in vivo and in vitro genetic, biochemical, proteomic, and electrophysiological approaches. They are important because of their translational value, being validated in both mouse models and post-mortem human samples.

eLife Assessment

This paper undertakes an important investigation to determine whether movement slowing in microgravity is due to a strategic conservative approach or rather due to an underestimation of the mass of the arm. While the experimental dataset is unique and the coupled experimental and computational analyses comprehensive, the authors present incomplete results to support the claim that movement slowing is due to mass underestimation. Further analysis is needed to rule out alternative explanations.

eLife Assessment

This study offers important insights into the development of infants' responses to music based on the exploration of EEG neural auditory responses and video-based movement analysis. The convincing results revealed that evoked responses emerge between 3 and 12 months of age, but data analysis requires further refinement to fully complement the findings related to movement in response to music. This study will be of significant interest to developmental psychologists and neuroscientists, as well as researchers interested in music processing and in the translation of perception into action.

eLife Assessment

The authors proposed two hypotheses: first, that methamphetamine induces neuroinflammation, and second, that it alters neuronal stem cell differentiation. These are valuable hypotheses, and the authors provided in vivo observations of the methamphetamine response in mice. However, concerns remain regarding the interpretation of the data, and the current evidence is incomplete, requiring substantial experimental validation.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study investigates the neural basis of bidirectional communication between the cortex and hippocampus during learning. The evidence supporting the identification of specific circuits and functional cell types involved is convincing. However, certain aspects of the behavioral analysis and statistical interpretation remain incomplete. Overall, the work will be of interest to neuroscientists studying learning and memory.

eLife Assessment

This study provides compelling evidence that action potential (AP) broadening is not a universal feature of homeostatic plasticity in response to chronic activity deprivation. By leveraging state-of-the-art methods across multiple brain regions and laboratories, the authors demonstrate that AP half-width remains largely stable, challenging previous assumptions in the field. These important findings help resolve longstanding inconsistencies in the literature and significantly advance our understanding of neuronal network homeostasis.

eLife Assessment

The authors investigated the potential role of IgG N-glycosylation in Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS), which may offer significant insights for understanding molecular mechanisms and for the development of therapeutic strategies for this infectious disease. The findings are valuable to the field and the strength of evidence to support the findings is solid.