Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

The study presents valuable findings on early behavioral phenotypes that arise in an ADHD-associated adgrl3.1 mutant zebrafish, using a new behavioral approach with a closed-loop OMR assay. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid; however, the validation of the method and analysis is incomplete and would benefit from more rigorous approaches and validation practices. This work will be of broad interest to developmental biologists and behavioral neuroscientists.

eLife Assessment

This valuable paper reports on a measure of flexible brain state engagement, derived from fMRI, as a predictor of cognitive control. One strength of the study is the use of external datasets for validation and replication. The results are solid, although some may benefit from further explanation.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study aimed to explore whether sensory representations in the cortex reorganize on the same timescale over which behavioral changes first emerge. Convincing evidence is presented to show that reward-dependent plasticity takes place in the mouse barrel cortex within a single recording session as mice learn a whisker detection task. However, the evidence supporting the authors' proposal that this rapid reorganization may involve spontaneous reactivation of neurons that gain stimulus responsiveness during training is incomplete. The work will be of interest to systems neuroscientists studying cortical circuits and learning.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study describes a simple and robust approach for estimating information-limiting noise by splitting neural populations and comparing estimator values. The authors report more accurate and robust results compared to previous methods. The evidence for the robustness of the method is currently incomplete; some concerns regarding bias need to be resolved, and additional tests need to be provided on how the number of trials and neurons affect performance.

eLife Assessment

This work establishes a valuable theoretical finding about how the spike timing dependence of inhibitory plasticity shapes recurrent network connectivity. The combination of theoretical analysis and simulations provides convincing evidence that effective inhibitory connectivity forms a so-called Mexican-hat profile when multiple inhibitory neuron types follow distinct learning rules. These mechanisms are thought to be implicated in the contextual modulation of neuronal responses to stimuli.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study establishes a novel genetic model for chronic, in vivo visualization of protein engulfment in brain macrophages from the naturally short-lived African turquoise killifish. The solid data presented here show that brain phagocytes exhibit transcriptional features resembling mammalian border associated macrophages and monocyte derived macrophages rather than classical microglia and that their engulfment capacity declines with age, providing a resource for future studies on brain immune cells in teleosts. This research will interest a broad audience across developmental biology, genetics, neuroimmunology, aging research, and evolutionary biology.

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

eLife Assessment

This set of studies provides important knowledge for the role of zona incerta neurons in motivation and food-seeking in mice. The evidence supporting the findings is convincing, with the use of multiple approaches and nice behavioral procedures to provide converging lines of evidence. Additional analyses and data from the current studies would further strengthen the evidence. This work will be of interest to those interested in motivation and its brain substrates.

eLife Assessment

This study demonstrates a critical role of the glycolipid membrane protein insertase (MPIase) in the twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway, a protein translocation system that is conserved across all domains of life. The successful reconstitution of the bacterial Tat system in both bacteria-derived and artificial liposomes provides solid experimental evidence that MPIase has a broader role in membrane protein translocation than previously recognized. By revealing the essential function of a nonproteinaceous membrane component in catalyzing a core cellular process, this work offers fundamental insights into the molecular mechanisms of protein translocation.

eLife Assessment

The authors provide convincing evidence that, during early mouse embryogenesis, distal visceral endoderm cells migrate in a coordinated, intermittent start-and-stop manner along an axis that correlates with the asymmetric morphology of the ectoplacental cone. This fundamental finding is supported by high-quality live imaging and quantitative image analysis, while computational modelling suggests that the observed intermittent behavior may be explained by the movement of a cohesive cell group through a viscoelastic tissue, rather than by fluctuations in DVE migration velocity itself.

eLife Assessment

This is an important study establishing the mechanistic principles how NUP98-KDM5A phase separates together with H3K4me3 chromatin in leukemia. Methods are sound and results are convincing, providing a framework to understand gene expression changes in leukemia patients.

eLife Assessment

In this important study, the authors describe the mechanisms by which CDK4/6 overexpression mediates resistance to Osimertinib in EGFR mutant lung cancer models. Their data show that CD4/6 overexpressing cells had increased replicative stress and genomic instability. The evidence is solid, but inclusion of some additional experiments would make this stronger.

eLife Assessment

This study presents a potentially important structure-interaction model describing recognition of polymyxin antibiotics by the human transporter hPepT2 and applies these insights to guide the rational design of potent polymyxin B analogues with reduced nephrotoxicity. The conclusions are supported by compelling evidence, integrating molecular dynamics simulations, transporter mutagenesis, uptake assays, protein expression analyses, antibacterial testing, and mouse nephrotoxicity studies, although some mechanistic interpretations remain limited by altered transporter expression and the absence of direct structural validation.