Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

This important study reports findings on the GnRH pulse generator's role in androgen-exposed mouse models, providing further insights into PCOS pathophysiology and advancing the field of reproductive endocrinology. The experimental data were collected using cutting-edge methodologies and were solid. However, it is noteworthy that the findings, while interesting, are primarily applicable to mouse models, and their translation to human physiology requires cautious interpretation and further validation. This work will be of interest to endocrinologists and reproductive biologists.

eLife assessment

This important study provides novel evidence that navigational experiences can shape perceptual scene representations. The evidence presented is incomplete and would benefit from clearer explanations of the experiment design and careful discussion of alternative interpretations such as contextual associations or familiarity. The work will be of interest to cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists working on perception and navigation.

eLife assessment

This paper makes fundamental contributions to understanding the mechanisms by which the conserved guidance cue UNC-6/Netrin controls the long-range growth and targeting of axons. Using state-of-the-art genetics and in vivo imaging, the authors provide solid support for the finding that UNC-6/Netrin can act via both chemotaxis and haptotaxis, though additional studies would be necessary to make these findings stronger. The paper's insights will be of interest to a variety of cell and developmental biologists and neuroscientists.

eLife assessment

This valuable work analyzes how specialized cells in the auditory cells, known as the octopus cells, can detect coincidences in their inputs at the submillisecond time scale. While previous work indicated that these cells receive no inhibitory inputs, the present study unambiguously demonstrates that these cells receive inhibitory glycinergic inputs. The physiologic impact of these inputs needs to be studied further. It remains incomplete at present but could be improved by addressing caveats related to similar sizes of excitatory postsynaptic potentials and spikes in the octopus neurons.

eLife assessment

This study provides a potentially valuable understanding of the contribution of different striatal subregions, the anterior Dorsal Lateral Striatum (aDLS) and the posterior Ventrolateral Striatum (pVLS), to auditory discrimination learning. The combined methods used to probe this are compelling, yet the data presented are incomplete to support the conclusions. There is insufficient data visualization of learning vs. performance, and missing details about timing of manipulations and microPET imaging.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript reports a detailed model of juvenile rat somatosensory cortex, consisting of 4.2 million morphologically and biophysically detailed neuron models, arranged in space and connected according to diverse experimental data - a valuable tool for the field. The construction of the model is based on a methodology with solid supporting evidence. It should be noted that, by necessity, such a large-scale model development involves many assumptions, interpolations, and decisions that could have compounding downstream effects on further analyses that may be difficult to disambiguate.

eLife assessment

This important study compared the brain development trajectories of humans and macaque monkeys to quantify different evolutionary effects of convergent and divergent neural pathways between the two species. The cross-species evidence is solid, based on brain age prediction models that were carefully developed by using public MRI datasets of both humans and macaque monkeys. The findings will be of interest to neuroscientists, developmental biologists, and evolutionary biologists.

eLife assessment

This important study explores and delineates multivariate mappings between brain structure and functional measures with latent dimensions of psychopathology. This work provides solid evidence for the existence of such mappings and charts the relationship between different neurobiological measures and distinct dimensions of psychopathology. This work will be of broad interest within the neuroscience field.

eLife assessment

This potentially important work presents a tool for performing phylogenetic taxonomic classification of DNA sequences. In terms of methodology, the work is compelling. The authors perform a benchmark experiment against current state-of-the-art tools using real and simulated datasets to demonstrate where the novel tool stands in the context of existing methods. However, the experimentation is still incomplete. It would benefit from a more thorough exploration of existing methods as well as data sets that better represent real-world use cases.

eLife assessment

This important work offers an experimental structural characterization of the Tramtrack-like BTB/POZ domains in insects, revealing that these domains form stable hexameric assemblies. The structural evidence is convincing, and validated by fold prediction and evolutionary pathway analyses. This paper would be of interest to structural and evolutionary biologists.

eLife assessment

In this study, Perez-Lopez and colleagues examine an important function of the chemokine CCL28 in mucosal host defenses against the gut bacterial pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium and lung pathogen Acinetobacter baumanii. They find that CCL28-CCR3 axis regulates neutrophil recruitment and function, and promotes bacterial clearance in one infectious context but exacerbates disease against the other pathogen. Therefore, CCL28 plays a critical role in mucosal immunity and neutrophil biology that differentially affects host defenses against pathogens.

eLife assessment

The study explored the influence of magnesium on phenotypic antibiotic resistance in two Vibrio model bacteria. This research is fundamental for revealing the phenotypic antibiotic resistance mechanism utilized by the specified model bacteria in elevated levels of magnesium. The study produced solid evidence indicating that in high concentrations of magnesium, the efficacy of selected antibiotics was diminished due to decreased biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids and PE, along with an increase in the biosynthesis of PG.

eLife Assessment

The study identifies the adhesion G-protein-coupled receptor A3 (ADGRA3) as a potential target for activating adaptive thermogenesis in white and brown adipose tissue, providing valuable information for scientists in the field of adipose tissue biology and metabolism. Although the authors have addressed some concerns raised by reviewers, the interpretations remain somewhat limited, and the work is deemed incomplete. The evidence supporting ADGRA3's role in thermogenesis is insufficient, necessitating more rigorous experiments to validate the receptor's relevance in adipose tissue. Additionally, the lack of experiments using primary cultures, despite feedback from multiple reviewers, highlights significant shortcomings.

eLife Assessment

In this potentially important study, the authors conducted atomistic simulations to probe the salt-dependent phase separation of the low-complexity domain of hnRN-PA1 (A1-LCD). The authors have identified both direct and indirect mechanisms of salt modulation, provided explanations for four distinct classes of salt dependence, and proposed a model for predicting protein properties from amino acid composition. There is a range of opinions regarding the strength of evidence, with some considering the evidence as incomplete due to the limitations in the length and statistical errors of the computationally intense atomistic MD simulations.

eLife assessment

This study provides useful in vitro evidence to support a mechanism whereby dyslipidemia could accelerate renal functional decline through the activation of the AT1R/LOX1 complex by oxLDL and AngII. As such, it improves the knowledge regarding the complex interplay between dyslipidemia and renal disease and provides a solid basis for the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies for patients with lipid disorders. The methods, data, and analyses support the presented findings, although the observed variability and need for further in vivo validation require additional research in this key area.

eLife assessment

The authors made an important finding that CD29+/CD56+ progenitor cells isolated from human muscles have the potential to differentiate to tendons in vitro and in vivo. The author's approach to testing the tenogenesis of the CD29+/CD56+ progenitors is solid, and the conclusion is supported by enough evidence with minor flaws. This work will be of interest to the population who need tendon regeneration from their injury.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript reports important findings on the impact of maternal obesity on offspring metabolism. It presents solid evidence that maternal obesity induces genomic methylation alterations in oocytes, which can be partly transmitted to F2 in females, and that melatonin is involved in regulating the hyper-methylation of high fat diet oocytes by increasing the expression of DNMTs via the cAMP/PKA/CREB pathway. This study would be of interest to biologists in the fields of epigenetics and metabolism.

eLife assessment

In an important fMRI study with an elegant experimental design and rigorous cross-decoding analyses, this work shows a solid dissociation between two parietal regions in visually processing actions. Specifically, aIPL is found to be sensitive to the causal effects of observed actions, while SPL is sensitive to the patterns of body motion involved in those actions. Additional analysis and explanation would help to determine the strength of evidence and the mechanistic underpinnings would benefit from closer consideration. Nevertheless, the work will be of broad interest to cognitive neuroscientists, particularly vision and action researchers.

eLife Assessment

The authors have reported an important study in which they use a double-blind design to explore pharmacological manipulations in the context of a behavioral task. While the sample size is small, the use of varied methodology, including electrophysiology, behavior, and pharmacology, makes this manuscript particularly notable. Overall, the findings are solid and motivate future explanations into the relationships between acetylcholine and motivation.

eLife assessment

This work presents important findings regarding the interaction of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) attachment H3 protein with the cellular receptor heparan sulfate and the use of this information to develop antivirals potentially effective against all orthopoxviruses. Using a combination of state-of-the art computational and wet experiments the authors present solid evidence to sustain their claims. These results will interest those working on basic orthopoxviruses biology and antiviral development.