Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

In this important work, the authors develop a theory for the co-evolutionary dynamics of bacteria and phages, where the major evolutionary pressure comes from CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity in bacteria. Through extensive stochastic numerical simulations and analytical calculations, the paper presents a compelling analysis of the emergent properties of immune interactions, in the regime of a single proto-spacer and a single spacer. Some of the trends highlighted by the model are recovered from experimental data. The main results concern how diversity in both phage and bacteria population are linked and are shaped by immunity, and should be of broad interest in immunology.

eLife assessment

This is a valuable paper that relates the function of Ephrin-B1 to diastolic dysfunction via its actions on maturation of cardiomyocytes. The mechanisms of diastolic heart failure remain poorly understood, and this work contributes to advancing our understanding. The hypothesis is novel and the manuscript is fairly extensive and well-illustrated. The data, methods and analyses are presented to the community in a solid manner. The work represents an interesting insight into potential mechanisms of diastolic dysfunction and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

eLife assessment

This manuscript is of interest to neuroimaging scientists and neurophysiologists studying the glymphatic system. Using a multi-modal approach including magnetic resonance and histological methods, this work provides substantial data interrogating the effect of removing of aquaporin-4 (AQP4) from the mouse brain parenchyma on the structural morphology and interstitial fluid dynamics stagnation. In particular, the authors provide evidence that deletion of AQP4 in mice results in increased interstitial volume, likely due to increased resistance to parenchymal CSF efflux.

eLife assessment

This valuable study describes the effects of endocrine therapy in a large series of Chinese patients treated with mastectomy (both efficacy and side effects). Whilst there are some caveats regarding the methodology (retrospective, small numbers of events, and some potential methodological bias in data collection) this is a solid piece of work and with further, ideally prospective data collection, has the potential to improve the management of patients with DCIS.

eLife assessment

In this valuable study, authors convincingly show that epistasis between mutations plays an important role in the evolution of broadly neutralizing influenza antibodies. Although the data are convincing, several parts of the manuscript require more accurate description.

eLife assessment

The study provides a fundamental framework for linking human genome variation to targetable mechanisms of disease. The authors provide compelling evidence that a strong candidate locus associates with body weight in humans acts through adipocyte MTIF3. Thus, the generalized approaches taken in this study have the potential to inform genetic association studies in general and lay a foundation for future functional genomics studies.

eLife assessment

How the pathogens Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus compete and co-occur within opportunistic infections is a topic of broad significance, but the major drivers of these interactions remain unclear. Here the authors defined parameters that predict the coexistence of these microbes using their absolute growth in certain nutritional conditions, leading to questions about how other nutrients lead to the dominance of one or the other during infections. Within a confined context, this valuable study provides solid support for a novel framework in which to evaluate this clinically important species interaction.

eLife assessment

The authors provide novel evidence for a connection between fibroblast activation and eutherian stromal decidualization. This important work substantially advances our understanding of decidua biology and its contribution to pregnancy. The authors are using solid evidence to support the findings. The methodology includes in vivo mouse and human stroma cells is broadly supports the claims with only minor weaknesses.

eLife assessment

Authors provide valuable evidence identifying a lncRNA transcribed specifically in the pDC subtype from the +32Kb promoter region which is also the region for the enhancer for Irf8 specifically in the cDC1 subtype. With convincing methodology, they provide in-depth analysis about the possible role of lncIrf8, and its promoter region and cross-talk with Irf8 promoter to identify that it is not the lncIRF8 itself but its promoter region that is crucial for pDC and cDC1 differentiation conferring feedback inhibition of Irf8 transcription. The work will be of interest to immunologists working on immune cell development.

eLife assessment

Slusarczyk et al demonstrate that red pulp macrophages (RPM), specialized splenic cells that clear senescent red blood cells through erythrophagocytosis, show diminished function in aging mice. This impairment leads to retention of hemolytic red blood cells and formation of extracellular aggregates which further exacerbate RPM demise. Iron restriction alleviates most of these symptoms in aging RPMs. They propose RPM collapse as an early indicator of aging that could be reversed through iron limitation.

eLife assessment

This useful study highlights the contribution of the medial temporal lobe (MTL), and the DG/CA3 hippocampal pathway in particular, to neural activity during the working memory delay period. The evidence supporting this is compelling, using diverse state-of-the-art approaches to neural data analysis and relating it to behavioural data. The work will be of significant interest to neuroscientists specialising in the research area of human working memory.

eLife assessment

The authors present valuable findings about the mechanisms inducing IL-10 production by B cells in neonates. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although the manuscript would be strengthened by amendments to the presentation of the data and explanation of some experimental choices.

eLife assessment

Using in-vivo proximity labeling using three different presynaptic proteins the authors have carried out a comprehensive proteome analysis of axonal dopamine release sites, resulting in the identification of many new presynaptic candidate proteins. Genetic deletion of the active zone protein RIM1 but not of the presynaptic calcium sensor synaptotagmin 1 resulted in a loss of enrichment indicative of a disruption of the active zone. Although the functional significance of many of the novel proteins will require future corroboration, the analysis provides a valuable and high-quality dataset as a starting point for future investigations.

eLife assessment

This paper describes a method for robust differentiation of the common marmoset induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into primordial germ cell-like cells and subsequently into spermatogonia-like cells when combined with testis somatic cells. The data suggest that marmosets are very similar to humans and macaques. The paper is nicely done but needs further characterization and a better explanation of the methodology.

eLife assessment

This fundamental work advances our understanding of how bacteria evolve to resist drugs used for cancer treatment and how this could potentially affect drug efficacy and treatment outcome. The data were collected and analyzed using a solid methodology and can be used as a starting point for functional studies of the interaction between microbiome interactions and cancer drug treatment. The findings will be of broad interest to microbiologists and organismal biologists interested in the role of microbiomes in drug responses.

eLife assessment

In this work, Monfared et al. construct a useful three-dimensional phase-field model for cell layers and use this to investigate the link of extrusion events to defects in cellular arrangement. The extension of existing 2D phase field models to three dimensions is an important contribution of this paper. Here the model is used to study the importance of cell-cell and cell-substrate interaction in extrusion from cell monolayers. Their claim that extrusion events can be distinctly linked to defects in nematic and hexatic orders in the monolayer need to be better justified to be fully convincing.

eLife assessment

Junctophilin has been traditionally known as a structural anchor to keep excitation-contraction proteins in place for healthy contractile function of skeletal muscle. Here the authors provide an interesting and important role in skeletal muscle for Junctophilin, where it translocates to the nuclei and influences gene transcription. The authors provide convincing evidence for a novel role of junctophilin beyond its structural role as a regulator of gene expression.

eLife assessment

The enrichment of Tfh17 cells in Tfh cell central memory compartment and the dominance of Tfh17 cell population and the Tfh17 transcriptional signature in circulating Tfh cells at the memory phase are nicely demonstrated, and may well be helpful for understanding the heterogeneity of memory Tfh cells and potentially providing clues for vaccine design. The in vitro differentiation system for mouse Tfh cells also provides a strategy for others to build upon in dissection of Tfh cell development and function.

eLife assessment

This important study addresses the ways in which bacteriophages antagonize or coopt the DNA restriction and/or recombination functions of the bacterial RecBCD helicase-nuclease. The evidence from both biochemistry and structural biology showing convergent evolution is convincing.

eLife assessment

This fundamental work advances our understanding of the cellular and molecular changes of the aged tendon. The evidence supporting the conclusion is convincing, using a DTR-based ScxLin cell depletion model along with state-of-art proteomic and scRNA-seq analyses. This paper is of potential interest to scientists and physicians who study the mechanisms of the tendon aging process.