Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

In this study Wang et. al. mined publicly available RNA-seq data from The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) database spanning multiple tissues to ask the question of how transcriptomes are changed with age and in both sexes. The authors provide solid evidence reporting widespread gene expression changes and alternative splicing events that vary in an age- and sex-dependent manner. An important finding is that many of these changes coincide with the time sex hormones begin to decline; additionally, the rate of aging is faster in males than in females.

eLife Assessment

This useful study informs the transcriptional mechanisms that promote stem cell differentiation and prevent degeneration in the adult eye. Through inducible mouse mutagenesis, the authors uncover a dual role for a transcription factor (Sox9) in stem cell differentiation and prevention of retinal degeneration. The data at hand convincingly support to the main conclusions. The study will be of general interest to the fields of neuronal development and neurodegeneration.

eLife Assessment

This important study confirms the molecular function of putative components of the N-glycan-dependent endoplasmic reticulum protein quality control (ERQC) system in the pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. The study demonstrates an involvement in fitness, virulence, and the secretion and composition of extracellular vesicles, albeit in ways that are not yet fully understood. The evidence provided is convincing, with rigorous, well-controlled assays and the use of complemented strains.

eLife Assessment

This study provides important evidence for the mechanism underlying KCNC1-related developmental and epileptic encephalopathy. The authors have generated and characterized a new knock-in mouse with a pathogenic mutation found in patients to determine the synaptic and circuit mechanisms contributing to KCNC1-associated epilepsy. They provide convincing evidence for reduced excitability of parvalbumin-positive fast-spiking interneurons, but not in neighboring excitatory neurons, and suggest that this may contribute to seizures and premature death in the mice.

eLife Assessment

Understanding how the divisome is assembled in Chlamydia trachomatis, a bacterial pathogen, is crucial since this bacterium has a non-canonical cell wall and lacks the master regulator of cell division, FtsZ. This important study shows that a DNA translocase, FtsK, is an early and essential component of the Chlamydia trachomatis divisome. The evidence presented is convincing, leveraging the elegant use of genetics and fluorescence microscopy. As this role of FtsK is distinct relative to most other bacteria, these findings should be of significant interest to bacterial cell biologists.

eLife Assessment

This study uses steered molecular dynamics simulations to interrogate force transmission in the mechanosensitive NOMPC channel, which plays roles including soft-touch perception, auditory function, and locomotion. The valuable finding that the ankyrin spring transmits force through torsional rather than compression forces may help understand the entire TRP channel family. The evidence is considered to be solid, although full opening of the channel is not seen, and it has been noted that experimental validation of reduced mechanosensitivity through mutagenesis of proposed ankyrin/TRP domain coupling interactions would help substantiate the findings.

eLife Assessment

Maloney et al. offer an important contribution to understanding the potential ecological mechanisms behind individual behavioral variation. By providing compelling theoretical data and convincing experimental data, the study bridges the gap between individual, apparently stochastic behavior with its evolutionary purpose and consequences. The work further provides a testable and generalizable model framework to explore behavioral drift in other behaviors.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study suggests that Naa10, an N-α-acetyltransferase with known mutations that disrupt neurodevelopment, acetylates Btbd3, which has been implicated in neurite outgrowth and obsessive-compulsive disorder, in a manner that regulates F-actin dynamics to facilitate neurite outgrowth. While the study provides promising insights and biochemical, co-immunoprecipitation, and proteomic data that enhance our understanding of protein N-acetylation in neuronal development, the evidence supporting larger claims is incomplete. Nonetheless, the implications of these findings are noteworthy, particularly regarding neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions tied to altered expression of Naa10 or Btbd3.

eLife Assessment

By combining the 'pinging' technique with fMRI-based multivariate pattern analysis, this important study provides compelling evidence for a dual-format representation of attention during the preparatory period. The findings help reconcile the debate between sensory-like and non-sensory accounts of attentional templates and shed light on how the brain flexibly deploys different forms of templates to guide attention. This work will be of broad interest to researchers in psychology, vision science, and cognitive neuroscience.

eLife Assessment

This important study provides compelling insights into the differential impact of intrinsic and synaptic conductances on circuit robustness using computational models of the pyloric network from the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion. The results demonstrate that model networks are more sensitive to perturbations in intrinsic conductances than in synaptic conductances, highlighting the critical role of intrinsic plasticity in stabilizing neuronal networks. These findings underscore the importance of intrinsic plasticity, a crucial yet often overlooked factor in neuronal dynamics. The generality of these conclusions should be tested across diverse networks and functions.

eLife Assessment

The results by Zhu et al provide valuable insights into the representation of border ownership in area V1. They used neuropixel recording to demonstrate the clustering of border ownership, and compared cross-correlation functions between neurons in different layers to demonstrate that they depend on the type of stimulus. The strength of the evidence is solid but can be improved by performing additional analyses and addressing some concerns (as raised in the previous and current review), and accounting for the differences in classical and non-classical receptive field stimulation conditions.

eLife Assessment

This fundamental study provides a critical challenge to a great many studies of the neural correlates of consciousness that were based on post hoc sorting of reported awareness experience. The evidence supporting this criticism is compelling, based on simulations and decoding analysis of EEG data. The results will be of interest not only to psychologists and neuroscientists but also to philosophers who work on addressing mind-body relationships.

eLife Assessment

In this important study, Li et al. identify estrogen receptor 1-expressing neurons (ESR1+) in Barrington's nucleus as key regulators coordinating both bladder contraction and the relaxation of the external urethral sphincter. Using appropriate and validated methodologies aligned with the current state of the art, the data are convincing and of generally high quality.

eLife Assessment

In their important manuscript, Costa et al. establish an in vitro model for dorsal root ganglion (DRG) axonal asymmetry, revealing that central and peripheral axon branches have distinct patterns of microtubule populations that are linked to their differential regenerative capacities. The authors employ creative tissue culture methods to demonstrate how these branches develop uniquely in vitro, offering a potential explanation for long-observed regeneration disparities. The convincing evidence provides a contribution to our understanding of the neuronal cytoskeleton and axonal regeneration.

eLife Assessment

This valuable work proposes a novel, rapid S. aureus entry mechanism via Ca²⁺-dependent lysosomal exocytosis and acid sphingomyelinase release, which influences bacterial sub-cellular fate. However, reliance on chemical inhibitors and the absence of a knockout phenotype weakens the overall impact, making the study incomplete.

eLife Assessment

This important study advances our understanding of genome annotations for chiton genomes. It provides a solid estimation of syntentic relationships for the chromosomes of the four new genomes plus an analysis linking these to other available chiton genomes, and an update for how these relate to molluscan genomes.

eLife Assessment

This study reports important new insights into the roles of a long noncoding RNA, lnc-FANCI-2, in the progression of cervical cancer induced by a type of human papillomavirus. Through a blend of cell biological, biochemical, and genetic analyses of RNA and protein expression, protein-protein interaction, cell signaling, and cell morphology, the authors provide convincing evidence that lnc-FANCI-2 affects cervical cancer outcome by regulating the RAS signaling pathway. These findings will be of interest to scientists in the fields of cervical cancer, long noncoding RNA, and cell signaling.

eLife Assessment

This important revised manuscript presents compelling findings by delineating two molecularly distinct liver cancer subtypes through comprehensive multi-omics integration and constructing a rigorously validated prognostic model. The authors have strengthened the analytical framework and validation across multiple datasets, including single-cell RNA sequencing. The evidence remains robust, with enhanced methodological clarity and expanded validation in both internal and independent cohorts. The revisions have improved the study's rigor and translational relevance.

eLife Assessment

In this potentially important study, the authors employed advanced computational techniques to explore a detailed atomistic description of the mechanism and energetics of substrate translocation in the MelB transporter. The overall approach is solid and reveals the coupling between sodium binding and melibiose transport through a series of conformational transitions, and the results for a mutant are also in qualitative agreement with the experiment, providing further support to the computational analyses. Nevertheless, the level of evidence is considered incomplete since there are concerns regarding the convergence and initial guess of the string calculations, leaving doubts that the computed pathway does not reflect the most energetically favorable mechanism.

eLife Assessment

This article presents a valuable genetic spatio-temporal analysis of malaria-infected individuals from four villages in a highly seasonal transmission setting in The Gambia, covering the period between December 2014 and May 2017. Evidence generated by the study's laboratory and data processing approaches is solid and helps to advance the understanding of malaria in The Gambia, particularly due to its longitudinal design and the inclusion of asymptomatic cases.