Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

This valuable study reveals that the structural protein vimentin promotes the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer cells. Utilizing robust and validated methodologies, the data collected provide a solid foundation for further investigation into metastasis models. This work will be of significant interest to researchers in the field of breast cancer.

eLife Assessment

This important study shows that the activity of hypothalamic hypocretin/orexin neurons (HONs) correlates with body movement over multiple behaviors. Compelling evidence, supported by sophisticated, cutting-edge tools and data analyses, highlights a link that appears to be unique to HONs. This work should be of interest to scientists studying peptidergic neurons, movement, energy regulation, and brain-body coordination.

eLife Assessment

This important study measures the functional specialization of distinct subregions within the mouse posterior parietal cortex (PPC) using mesoscopic two-photon calcium imaging during visual discrimination and choice history-dependent tasks. It presents compelling evidence supporting the existence of functional specialized subregions within the PPC. The work will be of interest to system and computational neuroscientists interested in decision-making, working memory, and multisensory integration.

eLife Assessment

This study presents an important finding on the molecular mechanism for transduction of environmentally induced polyphenism. The evidence supporting the claims of the author is solid. This paper would be of interest to those studying aphids wing dimorphism.

eLife Assessment

The authors present a useful agent-based model to study the tensile force generated by myosin mini-filaments in actin systems (bundles and networks); by numerically solving a mechanical model of myosin-II filaments, the authors provide insights into how the geometry of the molecular components and their elastic responses determine the force production. This work is of interest to biophysicists (in particular theoreticians) investigating force generation of motor molecules from a biomechanical engineering and physics perspective. The authors convincingly show that cooperative effects between multiple myosin filaments can enhance the total force generated, but not the efficiency of force generation (force per myosin) if passive cross-linkers are present. This work would benefit from a more extensive discussion of the physiological relevance of the results in view of the existing experimental literature, and how the principles that govern the behavior could be different for different motor proteins.

eLife Assessment

This important study investigates the propensity of the intravacuolar pathogen, Leishmania, to scavenge lipids which it utilizes for its accelerated growth within macrophages. The authors present compelling evidence that supports this hypothesis, although the genetic basis for the parasite's requirement for lipids remains unresolved. The study adds to other work that has implicated pathogen-derived processes in the selective recruitment of vesicles to the pathogen-containing vacuole, based on the content of the cargo.

eLife Assessment

Centromeres are specific sites on chromosomes that are essential for mitosis and genome fidelity. This valuable research advance builds upon previous studies to convincingly show that the centromere-histone core contributes to force transduction through the kinetochore. The centromere mainly strengthens one of the two paths of force transduction, influenced by the centromeric DNA sequence. The mechanism underlying this phenomenon will be an exciting future avenue of research, given that centromeric DNAs are not conserved. This work will be of interest to those studying cell division and chromosome segregation.

eLife Assessment

In this manuscript the authors established a novel three-dimensional culture system for stratified epithelia that allows epithelial cells to undergo epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and subsequent mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) while migrating through a membrane with 3.0-µm micropores, and, thus, provides a valuable tool to study EMT and possibly wound regeneration or metastasis. Furthermore, a set of experiments provides solid data suggesting that TGF beta signaling and actin polymerization promote movement of epithelial cells into the pores, while Piezo1 and Keratin 6 prevent keratinocyte migration and EMT.

eLife Assessment

This work represents an important contribution to our understanding of how membrane energetics influence protein conformation and function in mechano-sensitive channels. Through extensive molecular dynamics simulations and energetic analysis, the study convincingly demonstrates how the channel structure is shaped by a balance of protein and membrane-induced forces, effectively reconciling experimental data from different membrane environments. This work will appeal broadly to researchers and readers with interests in ion channel structure and function, mechanosensation, and membrane biophysics.

eLife Assessment

This useful study uses the MMTV-Neu-YD5 mouse model for HER2-dependent breast cancer to generate transcriptomic and proteomic datasets from extracted primary tumour samples. The data sets generated appear to be solid and will be of interest to the community. However, mechanistic studies to support the conclusion that mitochondrial function is increased in the tumours remain incomplete and would benefit from experiments that would directly interrogate aspects such as cellular heterogeneity, and signalling.

eLife Assessment

This important work substantially advances our understanding of the interaction among gut microbiota, lipid metabolism, and the host in type 2 diabetes. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing. The work will be of interest to medical biologists working on microbiota and diabetes.

eLife Assessment

This valuable work presents an interpretable protein-DNA Energy Associative (IDEA) model for predicting binding sites and affinities of DNA-binding proteins. While the method is convincing, it requires some adaptation for application to different proteins. The IDEA method is available and can be potentially used for predicting genome-wide protein-DNA binding sites.

eLife Assessment

This is an important study reporting that activation of the presynaptic GPR55 receptor suppresses synaptic transmission by modulating GABA release through the reduction of the readily releasable pool without affecting the presynaptic AP waveform and calcium influx. The evidence supporting this claim is compelling and based on an impressive array of techniques including patch-clamp recordings from the axon terminals of cerebellar Purkinje cells and fluorescent imaging of vesicular exocytosis. However, a few technical issues leave some questions open, these include uncertainty regarding the specificity of pharmacological agents and the nature of the endogenous process that would activate this pathway in vivo. In the current form, the evidence indicating that synaptic vesicles become insensitive to VGCC activation in the presence of GPR55 is weak and would need to be supported with additional experimental data.

eLife Assessment

This study provides compelling evidence that SLC7A11 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for trastuzumab-resistant HER2-positive breast cancer. While the findings are well-supported by robust data, the study could have been further strengthened by incorporating additional cell line experiments and providing more detailed clarification on patient sample selection. Nevertheless, this valuable work represents a significant contribution and will be of considerable interest to researchers in the field of breast cancer.

eLife Assessment

The study presents important findings that are highly relevant for research aiming to combine transcriptomics, connectivity studies, and activity profiling in the rodent brain and the revisions improve the study. The evidence overall remains convincing as the authors use appropriate and validated methodology in line with current state-of-the-art.

eLife Assessment

This work presents a valuable approach based on a complex systems theoretical framework to characterize diet-host-microbe interactions and develop targeted bacteriotherapies through a three-phase workflow. Despite the partial support of the description and experimental setup of the 'complex systems theoretical approach,' the collected data are solid and advance our understanding of oxalate bacterial metabolism in microbial communities. This study will interest researchers working on gut microbiomes and the possible modulation of host-microbial interactions.

eLife Assessment

This study presents an important methodological advance to improve the sensitivity of PCR for detecting Trypanosoma cruzi in blood, combining DNA fragmentation, deep sampling, and blood cell pellet analysis. The findings offer solid evidence of enhanced detection sensitivity and shed light on parasite load dynamics during chronic infection in mammalian reservoirs. The evidence is sound for macaques and the method shows promise in expanding detection limits, but there is some variability in the limits of detection and small sample size of human samples. This work will be of interest to parasitologists, epidemiologists, and clinicians using molecular diagnostics to monitor responses to etiological treatments for Chagas disease.

eLife Assessment

This study investigates the influence of genomic information and timing of vaccine strain selection on the accuracy of influenza A/H3N2 forecasting. The authors utilised appropriate statistical methods and have provided convincing evidence, which amounts to an important contribution to the evidence base. Substantial revisions have been made to the manuscript and issues of concern have been clarified, with the necessary study limitations appropriately discussed.

eLife Assessment

This important study substantially expands observations of HERV expression in the clinical settings. The evidence provided by the authors that HERV activity is an underlying etiological factor in ME/CFS and fibromyalgia is compelling and suggests further investigation into mechanisms. This work will be of broad interest to clinicians and researchers alike.

eLife Assessment

This useful study investigates the impact of disrupting the interaction of RAS with the PI3K subunit p110α in macrophage function in vitro and inflammatory responses in vivo. Solid data overall supports a role for RAS-p110α signalling in regulating macrophage activity and so inflammation, however for many of the readouts presented the magnitude of the phenotype is not particularly pronounced. Further analysis would be required to substantiate the claims that RAS-p110α signalling plays a key role in macrophage function. Of note, the molecular mechanisms of how exactly p110α regulates the functions in macrophages have not yet been established.