Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

This study provides important insights into the crosstalk between ATG2A with components of the early secretory pathway. While the mechanisms governing autophagic membrane expansion remain yet to be fully understood, in this study the authors employ an elegant proximity labelling approach and identify two ER-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC)-localized proteins. Through a series of complementary experiments combining microscopy and biochemistry, the authors identify ARFGAP1 and Rab1A as components of early autophagic membranes, which accumulate at the periphery of pre-autophagosomal structures induced by loss of ATG2. The overall study is well executed and the evidence supporting the claims is convincing.

eLife Assessment

This paper develops a fundamental theory that explains how the brain can hold in working memory not only the identity but also the order of presented stimuli. Previous theories did not explain the ability of people to immediately recall the correct order of the stimulus presentation. The authors present compelling evidence that this can be achieved through synaptic augmentation, an experimentally observed phenomenon with a time scale of tens of seconds.

eLife Assessment

This important study uses data from OpenAlex on more than 50 million journal articles in over 50,000 research journals to examine the dynamics of interdisciplinarity and international collaboration in research journals. The data analytics used to quantify disciplinary and national diversity are convincing, and support the claims that journals have become more diverse in both aspects. The revisions made by the authors have addressed the small number of concerns the reviewers had about the original version.

eLife Assessment

This useful study examines excitation/inhibition (E/I) balance in the CA3-CA1 circuit of the hippocampus. Experimental and computational modeling results are presented, but these results provide incomplete evidence to support the paper's main claims due to shortcomings in the experimental and modeling approaches, as well as concerns about the neurobiological relevance of the results.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study provides evidence that the integration of the nuclear envelope into the endoplasmic reticulum provides a mechanism for mechanical integration across this continuous membrane system. If robustly demonstrated, this work would open up new avenues for studying organelle membrane tension homeostasis. While the evidence is largely convincing and carefully quantified, a key limitation is the absence of data demonstrating that microinjection of cytoskeleton-depolymerizing drugs locally disrupts the target network.

eLife Assessment

This important work shows that corticotrophin-releasing factor is delivered monosynaptically to dorsal striatal cholinergic interneurons from the central amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. CRF increases cholinergic interneuron firing and release of acetylcholine, and this action is attenuated by pre-exposure to ethanol, suggesting a potential role in stress- and alcohol use disorders. This revision addressed prior concerns, presented convincing evidence supporting the conclusions, and set the stage for additional studies.

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, and the results are highly relevant to the field. Further analysis using larger number of animals and other virus strains will help validate the importance of these findings and assess the relevance of the immune parameters associated with 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 study provides valuable insight into stress biology by showing that yeast populations can rapidly evolve a trehalose producing resting state that substantially improves survival and rapid regrowth after freeze-thaw. This finding is consistent with the role of trehalose metabolism as a biophysical adaptation that is broadly relevant to the community working on environmental resilience and dormancy. The evidence is convincing: the authors integrate experimental evolution, cell-level biophysical measurements, and modelling in a mutually reinforcing manner.

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 convincing.

eLife Assessment

This article presents valuable findings on how the timing of cooling affects autumn bud set in European beech saplings. The study leverages extensive experimental data and provides an interesting conceptual framework for the various ways in which warming can affect bud set timing. The statistical analysis is very well considered, while indicating some factors that may temper the authors' claims. The factorial experiments offer solid support.

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.