Evaluated articles

eLife assessment

This is a valuable study that utilizes proteomic and genetic approaches to identify the glycoprotein quality control factor malectin as a pro-viral host protein involved in the replication of coronavirus. The evidence supporting this conclusion is solid, although additional insight into the mechanistic basis of malectin-mediated viral replication would further strengthen this study. This work will be of interest to cell biologists studying the molecular mechanisms of glycoprotein quality control and virologists studying the host-pathogen interactions.

eLife assessment

This is a useful paper regarding the roles of brown adipose tissue and skeletal muscle in thermogenesis in mice, with potential significance for the field. The overall approach is innovative but on balance the evidence for the claim is incomplete, as cast immobilization, while innovative, is likely stressful, may impact muscle and BAT directly, and imposes an energetic cost of motion on the animal that is not accounted for. Further experiments are also needed to directly assess the role of adipose-derived BCAAs in thermogenesis.

eLife assessment

This work describes how the toxin-antitoxin (TA) system, which uses the cyclic di-GMP as an antitoxin, controls both the persistence of antibiotics linked to biofilms and the integrity of the bacterial genome. The authors present solid evidence linking cyclic di-GMP and the toxin HipH. The work is valuable because it establishes the relationship between bacterial persistence and biofilm resilience, which lays a strong basis for future research on the formation of bacterial biofilms and antibiotic resistance.

eLife assessment

The authors provide useful data to support the existence of a regulatory pathway starting with SPI1-driven ZFP36L1 expression, that goes on to downregulate HDAC3 expression at the transcript level, leading to PD-L1 upregulation due to implied enhanced acetylation of its promoter region. This is therefore an interesting pathway that adds to our understanding of how PD-L1 expression is controlled in gastric cancer. However, this is likely one of many possible pathways that impact PD-L1 expression, and the data are currently incomplete to support the claims made.

eLife Assessment

This is an important study that connects the polymerase-associated factor 1 complex (Paf1C) with Histone 2B monoubiquitination and the expression of genes key to virulence in Cryptococcus neoformans. The provided information is convincing and has the potential to open several opportunities to further understand the basic biology of this significant human fungal pathogen.

eLife assessment

This important study combines experiment and theory to examine how the intrinsic physiological properties of neurons involved in orchestrating birdsong are related to the temporal structure of song. Intrinsic properties determine how neurons respond to inputs, and in this manuscript, the authors describe rules that connect these intrinsic properties to a learned behaviour, the learned song of an adult songbird. The experimental data are convincing and the computational model builds on a robust and well-validated biophysical framework. Although some key points of the model could be established more strongly, the evidence supporting the idea that song temporal structure is related to intrinsic physiology is solid and this research will be of general interest to researchers in the field and neurophysiologists.

eLife Assessment

Giamundo et al. present fundamental data with new insights into the role of Ezrin, a major membrane-actin linker that assembles signaling complexes, in the spatial regulation of EGF signaling mediators. The use of multiple state-of-the-art microscopy techniques, multiple cell lines and inhibitors, together with in vivo models convincingly supports the majority of their conclusions. The findings are helpful for understanding EGF/mTOR signal transduction and support a critical role for the scaffolding protein Ezrin in the upstream regulation of EGFR/AKT activity, TSC subcellular localization and mTORC1 signaling. These findings contribute substantially to understanding how endo-lysosomal signaling are regulated, alterations which are implicated in many human diseases.

eLife Assessment

This study retrospectively analyzed clinical data to develop a risk prediction model for pulmonary hypertension in high-altitude populations. The evidence is solid, and the findings are useful and hold clinical significance as the model can be used for intuitive and individualized prediction of pulmonary hypertension risk in these populations.

eLife assessment

This study reports a fundamental observation concerning cell death regulation by the anti-apoptotic BCL2 family NOXA. The authors convincingly demonstrate that NOXA is destabilized through the interaction with WSB2, a substrate receptor in CRL5 ubiquitin ligase complex, sensitizing the cells to treatments. These are key findings for cell biologists and cancer researchers as they identified a new target impacting drug responsiveness in cancer therapies.

eLife Assessment

The authors report that chemogenetic methods targeting the ventral cervical spinal cord can be used to increase phrenic inspiratory motor output and subsequent diaphragm EMG activity and ventilation in rodents. These findings are important because they are a necessary first step towards using chemogenetic methods to drive inspiratory activity in disorders in which motor neurons are compromised, such as spinal injury and degenerative disease. The data are convincing, with rigorous assessments of phrenic inspiratory activity and its ability to drive the diaphragm and subsequent ventilation, as well as assessments of DREADD expression.

eLife Assessment

This study reports a valuable finding for the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC), as the authors demonstrated that the enzyme CPT1A plays an significant role in the response to radiotherapy in CRC patients. However, the reviewers found that the results presented are still incomplete.

eLife assessment

This manuscript provides valuable evidence comparing the performance of mathematical models and opinions from experts engaged in outbreak response in forecasting the spatial spread of an Ebola epidemic. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing though the work might have benefited from the use of more than two models in the ensemble predictions. It will be of interest to disease modellers, infectious disease epidemiologists, policy-makers, and those who need to inform policy-makers during an outbreak.

eLife Assessment

This important paper explores the impact of early life stress (ELS) on adult brain and behavior. The significance of the convincing findings are that they implicate regulation of non-neuronal cells in the development of brain and behavioral dysfunction associated with ELS. With an elegant combination of behavioral models, morphological and functional assessments using immunostaining, electrophysiology, and viral-mediated loss-of-function approaches, the authors report that astrocyte dysfunction plays a role in ELS responses. The work is of interest to a broad behavioral and cellular neuroscience audience.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript provides convincing evidence derived from diverse state-of-the-art approaches to suggest that non-dopaminergic projection neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) make local synapses. These important findings challenge the prevailing wisdom that VTA interneurons exclusively form local synaptic contacts and instead reveal that VTA neurons expressing interneuron markers also form long-range projections to forebrain targets such as the cortex, ventral pallidum, and nucleus accumbens. Given the importance of VTA interneurons to many models of VTA-linked behavioral functions, these findings have significant implications for our understanding of the neural circuits underlying reward, motivation, and addiction.

eLife Assessment

This important study presents genome-wide high-resolution chromatin-based 3D genomic interaction maps for over 50 diverse human cell types and integrates these data with pediatric obesity GWAS. The work provides convincing evidence that multiple pancreatic islet cell types are key effector cell types. The authors also perform variant-to-gene mapping to nominate genes underlying several GWAS hits. Overall, the results will be of interest to both the fields of 3D genome architecture and pediatric obesity.

eLife Assessment

This study presents valuable insights into the involvement of miR-26b in the progression of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). The delivery of microRNA-containing nanoparticles to reduce MASH severity has practical implications as a therapeutic strategy. The authors use two sets of transgenic mouse models, conducted kinase activity profiling of mouse liver samples, and supplemented their findings with additional experiments on human liver and plasma, providing solid support for their findings.

eLife Assessment

This study by Li et al. presents important findings on the metabolism-independent role of nuclear IDH1 in chromatin regulation during erythropoiesis. The authors provide convincing evidence that IDH1 deficiency disrupts H3K79 methylation and nuclear architecture, contributing to dyserythropoiesis. Their findings offer invaluable mechanistic insights with potential therapeutic implications for erythroid disorders and hematologic malignancies.

eLife assessment

This study presents a useful computational data preprocessing methodology for de-biasing/denoising high-throughput genomic signals using optimal transport techniques. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is, however, in parts incomplete, with a partially insufficient experimental setup for validation. The method needs to be be compared with other algorithms, using datasets that demonstrate broad applicability of the algorithm presented. The work could be of interest to scientists in the field of computational genomics.

eLife assessment

This study is potentially valuable, however currently its findings are incomplete, in that the paper's promise to deliver multiscale models that further our understanding of striatal function remains largely unfulfilled. A major weakness is that the findings are not integrated well within the rich landscape of existing striatal network modeling literature. Another major weakness is that the model is explored only in overly simplified scenarios and with limited comparison to data.

eLife assessment

This study provides a valuable examination of the social recognition abilities of a jumping spider, Phippidus regius. Behavioral essays yielded solid evidence that these spiders discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar individuals on the basis of visual cues, but the experimental support for individual recognition and long-term memory is incomplete.