Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment:

This study addresses valuable questions about the neural mechanisms underlying statistical learning of room acoustics, combining robust behavioral measures with non-invasive brain stimulation. The behavioral findings are strong and extend previous work in psychoacoustics, but the TMS results are modest, with methodological limitations and over-interpretation that weaken the mechanistic conclusions. The strength of evidence is therefore incomplete, and a more cautious interpretation of the stimulation findings, alongside strengthened analyses, would improve the manuscript.

eLife Assessment

This important study presents a cross-species and cross-disciplinary analysis of cortical folding. The authors use a combination of physical gel models, computational simulations, and morphometric analysis, extending prior work in human brain development to macaques and ferrets. The findings support the hypothesis that mechanical forces driven by differential growth can account for major aspects of gyrification. The evidence presented is overall strong and convincingly supports the central claims; the findings will be of broad interest in developmental neuroscience.

eLife Assessment

This important study characterises the morphogenesis of cortical folding in the ferret and human cerebral cortex using complementary physical and computational modelling. Notably, these approaches are applied to charting, in the ferret model, known abnormalities of cortical folding in humans. The study finds convincing evidence that variation in cortical thickness and expansion account for deviations in morphology, and supports these findings using cutting-edge approaches from both physical gel models and numerical simulations. The study will be of broad interest to the field of developmental neuroscience.

eLife Assessment

The authors develop an important microfluidic microvascular model called "Vessel-on-Chip", which they use to study Neisseria meningitidis interactions within this in vitro vascular system. Compelling evidence shows that the fabricated channels are lined by endothelial cells, and these can be colonized by N. meningitidis that in turn triggers neutrophil recruitment. This model has advantages over the human skin xenograft mouse model, which requires complex surgical techniques, however, it also carries limitations in that only endothelial cells and supplied specific immune cells in the microfluidics are present, while true vasculature contains a number of other cell types including smooth muscle cells, pericytes, and components of the immune system.

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

eLife Assessment

Yabaji et al. reports a fundamental study highlighting the mechanistic connection for susceptibility to TB infection via the sst1 locus, this was shown to involve increased IFN and Myc production causing the down-regulation of anti-oxidant defence genes and chronic lipidation. Ultimately, lipid peroxidation may underlie infectivity and macrophage dysfunction. Overall, the data presented are compelling, supported by a well designed multi-omics approach and the findings will be of broad interest to researchers investigating the molecular mechanisms of TB infection.

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

eLife Assessment

This useful study shows that stimuli of a certain size elicit theta oscillations in V1 neurons both in spikes and local field potentials, and monkeys performing a dot detection task on these stimuli show theta rhythmicity in their response times. This replicates previous findings showing rhythmic theta activity in V4 and behaviour when stimuli are presented in the receptive field along with a surrounding flanker stimulus. However, there is incomplete evidence that rhythmicity in neural activity is related to the rhythmicity in behavior, and the mechanisms underlying these oscillations remain unclear.

eLife Assessment

This important study provides compelling evidence that fever-like temperatures enhance the export of Plasmodium falciparum transmembrane proteins, including the cytoadherence protein PfEMP1 and the nutrient channel PSAC, to the red blood cell surface, thereby increasing cytoadhesion. Using rigorous and well-controlled experiments, the authors convincingly demonstrate that this effect results from accelerated protein trafficking rather than changes in protein production or parasite development. These findings significantly advance our understanding of parasite virulence mechanisms and offer insights into how febrile episodes may exacerbate malaria severity.

eLife Assessment

This study presents valuable computational findings on the neural basis of learning new motor memories without interfering with previously learned behaviours using recurrent neural networks. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, but it would benefit from stronger and clearer links with experimental findings. This work will be of interest to computational and experimental neuroscientists working in motor learning.

eLife Assessment

This important study introduces the Life Identification Number (LIN) coding system as a powerful and versatile approach for classifying Neisseria gonorrhoeae lineages. The authors show that LIN codes capture both previously defined lineages and their relationships in a way that aligns with the species' phylogenetic structure. The compelling evidence presented, together with its integration into the PubMLST platform, underscores its strong potential to enhance epidemiological surveillance and advance our understanding of gonococcal population biology.

eLife Assessment

This study offers an important contribution to our understanding of the role of layer 6b cortical neurons in sleep-wake regulation, providing new insight into how this understudied neural population may regulate cortical arousal via orexin signaling. The evidence supporting these findings is solid, although somewhat constrained by limitations in the specificity of the genetic targeting strategy. Nonetheless, the work introduces new avenues for uncovering how the classical wake-promoting peptide, orexin, exerts its effects on the cortex.

eLife Assessment

This study provides valuable insights into microtubule remodeling during liver-stage Plasmodium berghei development, demonstrating that deletion of the alpha-tubulin C-terminal tail impairs parasite growth in mosquitoes and abolishes infection in HeLa cells. The work is technically ambitious, employing advanced microscopy, genetic mutants, and pharmacological approaches. However, key claims are only partially supported due to incomplete evidence linking tubulin modifications to microtubule dynamics and uncertain antibody-based PTM detection.

eLife Assessment

This important study identifies and partially characterises two proteins optimised for coordinated peptidoglycan degradation during two spore morphogenesis programs in the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, although the description of the data is somewhat overstated. After some editing, the paper will be of interest to those studying peptidoglycan synthesis and reorganisation, which is a central aspect of microbial cell biology.

eLife Assessment

This landmark study investigates how patterned human gastruloids can provide insights into neural tube closure. Using a screen, they identified positive and negative regulators and defines the epistasis among them using optimization of micro-pattern based gastruloid protocol and CRISPRi. This technical tour de force is exceptional and one of the first studies to reveal new knowledge on human development through embryo models.

eLife Assessment

In this important study, the authors engineered and characterised novel genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) and an analytical tool (CaFire) capable of reporting and quantifying various sub-synaptic events, including miniature synaptic events, with a speed and sensitivity approaching that of intracellular electrophysiological recordings. They present compelling data validating this toolset, which will be of interest to neurobiologists studying synaptic calcium dynamics in various model systems.

eLife Assessment

This valuable work shows that subcortically-generated behaviors, like grooming, can have widespread representations in cortical activity. While the evidence is solid, additional analyses are necessary to strengthen the claims associated with outsized cortical representations of grooming onsets, as well as to address atypical grooming events. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in how subcortically-generated behaviors are represented across the cortex.

eLife Assessment

This paper reports a useful low-cost platform for studying mosquito behaviors such as flight activity, sugar feeding, and host-seeking responses over the course of several weeks, and demonstrates key applications of this platform. While the authors provide a biological proof of principle, the evidence that supports the validation of the tracking algorithm is incomplete; it lacks biological replicates, independent confirmation of the tracking algorithm, and data on mosquito survival.

eLife Assessment

This paper is important in demonstrating a requirement for sulfation in organizing apical extracellular matrix (aECM) during tubulogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. The authors identify and characterize the organization of some of the first known components of the non-chitinous aECM in the Drosophila salivary gland tube, and these findings are supported by convincing data. This study would be of interest to developmental and cell biologists.

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

eLife Assessment

This valuable study identifies and characterizes probe binding errors in a widely used commercial platform for spatial transcriptomics, discovering that at least 21 out of 280 genes in a human breast cancer panel are not accurately detected. The authors provide convincing evidence for their findings through validation against multiple independent sequencing technologies and reference datasets, and they introduce a computational tool to help predict potential off-target probe binding. Given the broad adoption of this platform in biomedical research, this work provides an essential quality control resource that will improve data interpretation across numerous studies.