Evaluated articles

Evaluation Summary:

This paper is of broad interest to researchers studying chromosome structure. Using a powerful reconstitution system, the authors dissect the function of the chromosome organising complex, condensin II. Several findings, if supported by some additional analyses, are surprising and thus have the potential to fuel further mechanistic studies of condensin function.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This study describes the correlations between different membrane properties and the size of the soma of spinal alpha-motoneurons (MNs) using data from 40 experimental in vivo studies. The authors have distilled decades of research on motoneuron properties into a set of mathematical relationships that can guide both experimentalists and modelers interested in developing realistic models of populations of motoneurons. The key result is a complete table of the empirical relationships between the anatomical and physiological properties of MNs. Overall, the dataset approach is interesting, although a detailed analysis of the variability within and between datasets is urgently needed. In addition, a simpler framing of the paper could make the main message easier to grasp.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

Kang et al. studied the role of cystathionine beta-synthase , an enzyme involved in homocysteine catabolism, in the senescent state imposed by oncogenic Akt. They find that this enzyme facilitates the acquisition of features of senescence, and is frequently silenced in tumors, whereas re-expressing it reduces cell proliferation. This manuscript is potentially of interest to cancer biologists, particularly those studying oncogene-induced senescence and mechanisms of senescence escape in cancers.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This work seeks to resolve questions surrounding "unexplained variability in functional recovery" after experimental spinal cord injury in mice using virus-based retrograde tracing from cervical, thoracic and lumbar spinal cord injection sites, tissue clearing and cutting-edge imaging, to develop a supraspinal connectome or map of neurons in the brain that project to the spinal cord. They apply their methods to understand the differences in the connections between the brain and the cervical or lumbar spinal cord and to compare the connectome from intact mice to those of mice with mild, moderate and severe spinal cord injuries. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in tissue clearing, viral labelling, and its applications to spinal cord injury.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This paper very nicely tackles a methodological problem in aligning different types of datasets (EM and light microscopy) to image embryonic nervous system development in the nematode C.elegans. The paper is important not just from a methodological standpoint, but also provides novel insights into nervous system development that will be of general interest to the reader. The latter deserves more attention in the manuscript.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This paper will be of great interest to the field of developmental neuroscience and social communication. The authors identified prenatal sensorimotor vocal precursors by detecting rhythmic orofacial movements related to vocalizations. These findings will provide new insights into the development of vocal behavior in primates. The data acquired by a highly quantitative approach support the major claims of the paper.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

The manuscript has the potential to transform the field of sensory transduction and gene regulation in the Vibrio genus by uncovering a previously undescribed enhancer binding protein and its role in the regulation of quorum sensing and physiology in the Vibrio - squid symbiosis. However, in its present form, several experiments are required to support the claims of the manuscript.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

Guimaraes et al address the origin of the macrophage increase in sensory ganglia after peripheral nerve injury. The authors show that there is no major influx by blood-derived monocytes into ganglia after injury and that resident macrophages proliferate, which is dependent on CX3CR1 signaling. Overall the work is clear and sound and should be of interest to immunologists and neurobiologists.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

The mechanisms that control cholesterol movement from the plasma membrane (PM) to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) remain poorly understood. Here, Ogasawara and Ueda propose an intriguing mechanism whereby ABCA1, a membrane protein, moves cholesterol from the inner to the outer leaflet of the PM to keep the cholesterol away from intracellular Aster proteins that move cholesterol to the ER. When cholesterol builds up beyond a threshold, it accumulates on the inner leaflet and is transported to ER by Asters. If strengthened by the analysis of the endogenous ABCA1 and more physiological cholesterol manipulation, this work will be of significant interest to scientists studying lipid metabolism and transport.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

Eckstein and colleagues take a within-participant approach to answer two critical questions in the field of human reinforcement learning: to what extent do estimated computational model parameters generalize across different tasks and can their meaning be interpreted in the same way in different task contexts? The authors find that inferred parameters show moderate to little generalizability across tasks, and that their interpretation strongly depends on task context. Support for these claims could be further strengthened through additional simulations and by providing greater methodological detail.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This manuscript will be of interest to cell and developmental biologists and neuroscientists. It addresses the question of how the number of connecting neurons in a circuit is matched whilst maintaining topography. It shows that non-autonomous control of neuronal number involves a relay mechanism through two distinct glial cell types, enabling the specification of distinct neuronal classes.

This manuscript was co-submitted with: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.21.481306v1

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

In this elegant genetic study, Bailon-Zambrano and colleagues draw on classical genetic concepts to address the clinically pertinent question of how genetic variants in the same gene can yield wildly different phenotypes in different individuals. From their case study they conclude that a major contributor is variation in paralog expression. The question addressed is of great interest to evolutionary and developmental biologists in general and to those studying the evolution of developmental mechanisms in particular.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript.The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

Beginning with transcriptome data, Rhodes et al. identify a new family of peptides with signalling function called CTNIP in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. They use an elegant biochemical capture approach to pinpoint the SERK-dependent LRR receptor kinase HSL3 as the only receptor for these peptides. They provide convincing genetic and biochemical evidence that HSL3 binds CTNIP and that CTNIP perception triggers HSL3-dependent cytoplasmic calcium influx, ROS production and transcriptional changes. Furthermore, they provide initial evidence that the CTNIP-HSL3 module may participate in regulating root growth.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

Wang and colleagues report that the expression of Piezo1 (an ion channel and mechanical sensor) is upregulated on dendritic cells (DC) under conditions of inflammation/high environmental stiffness resulting in DC activation, maturation, and skewing in DC functional polarity and metabolism. They show that Piezo1 knockout results in faster tumor progression and accumulation of more regulatory T cells, and that Smad3 and STAT4 are involved in DC-mediated differentiation of Th1 and Treg. Overall this represents a mechanistic advance in our understanding of DC biology as it relates to cancer and other human pathologies.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This is a useful study employing a well-established one-pawed reaching/grasping paradigm for fine-motor skill learning to assess if learning is associated with cortical structural changes as assessed by longitudinal MRI measurements in mice. The authors report a non-linear time course of MRI signal changes representing a decrease in grey matter and an increase in white matter volumes in the cerebral cortex and other regions. The authors ascribe these changes to increased myelination, a conclusion that is supported by quantitative immunolabelling for the myelin protein MBP. These results represent an interesting addition to the literature around myelination changes associated with learning/activity (adaptive myelination). Additional histological analysis of changes in myelination would bolster support for the authors' conclusions.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

Cuticles are specialized extracellular matrices that cover the bodies of ecdysozoans, which make up 85% of all animals. How cuticles are formed is very poorly understood, in particular in light of the fact that cuticles are shed and regrown as animals grow. The authors present a comprehensively and carefully curated resource of the components of the pharyngeal cuticle of C. elegans and provide a spatio-temporal framework to understand cuticle assembly. In doing so, the authors propose a function for a large class of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). The significance of this work is high because our understanding of both cuticle formation and of IDPs is poor.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This manuscript reports a striking finding, which should be of interest to cell biologists and biophysicists. The authors use an innovative approach to recruit clathrin to mitochondrial membranes and observe the budding and fission of clathrin-coated vesicles. The study leads to a much clearer view of how the clathrin lattice functions in endocytosis.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

The authors investigated the structure of phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate (PRPP) synthase (PRPPS) from Escherichia coli, a highly conserved enzyme from bacteria to mammals that catalyzes the synthesis of a key common compound for several metabolic pathways. Combining structural data with mutagenesis and activity assays, they demonstrate that the enzyme is regulated differently by allosteric effectors when assembled into one filament form or the other. The strength of the manuscript is the high-quality cryo-EM data, which allows the reconstruction of two different filament forms bound to different ligands.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This paper uses an impressively rich dataset (obtained and curated by the authors) to compare the structural brain connectomes of many animals spanning 6 taxonomic orders. The approach is innovative and relies on graph theoretical measures to describe the connectivity, which means it can be done without the need to spatially/functionally match the brains. The authors find that there is more variability between than within order. They attribute this effect to changes in local connectivity features, whereas global patterns are preserved. The approach can potentially be a useful way to study phylogeny and brain evolution.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This paper presents an exciting new automated package to investigate the hippocampal organization in new ways. As such, this package will be equally interesting for the fundamental basic and clinical neurosciences.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)