Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

The authors developed a methodology to graph antigenic surface loops on influenza virus neuraminidases. The hybrid proteins retained the structure of the neuraminidase scaffold and the antigenicity of the grafted loops. This fundamental work should help in developing novel neuraminidase constructs for use in influenza virus vaccines. The paper presents compelling evidence supporting the conclusions arrived at by the authors.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript presents solid experimental data using Fmr1 knockout mice to explore the fundamental role of Fmr1 in sleep regulation. The study supports the hypothesis that scheduled feeding can improve circadian rhythm and behavior in a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome. These findings may offer new insights into neurodevelopmental disorders and their potential treatment strategies.

eLife Assessment

This study presents an important discovery regarding the diversity and evolution of gall-forming microbial effectors. Supported by convincing computational structural predictions and analyses, the research provides insights into the unique mechanisms by which gall-forming microbes exert their pathogenicity in plants. This study also offers guidance that is of value for future studies on pathogen effector function and co-evolution with host plants.

eLife Assessment

This landmark manuscript comprehensively examines the roles of nine structural proteins in herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) assembly and nuclear egress. By integrating cryo-light microscopy and soft X-ray tomography, the study presents an innovative approach to investigating viral assembly within cells. The research is thoroughly executed, yielding exceptional data that explain previously unknown functions expected to bear widespread influence. This work is of broad interest to virologists, cellular biologists, and structural biologists, offering a robust, contextually rich methodology for studying large protein complex assembly within the cellular environment, serving as an excellent starting point for high-resolution techniques.

eLife Assessment

Rennert et al. developed a valuable thermodynamic framework to study the force response of branched actin networks from the crucial and unexplored perspective of energetic cost. They used the fact that the entropy production rate must be positive to derive inequalities that set limits on the maximum force produced by branched actin networks, and speculate that the dissipative cost beyond that required to move the load may be necessary to maintain an adaptive steady state. This work is highly innovative, but remains incomplete until the hypotheses of the model are better justified and the conclusions about the dissipative cost of the system are better established.

eLife Assessment

These useful findings assigned a novel functional implication of histone acylation, crotonylation. Mechanistic insights have been provided in great detail regarding the role of the YEATS2-GCDH axis in modulating epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in head and neck cancer, and overall the strength of evidence is solid.

eLife Assessment

In this important study, the authors advance our understanding of copper uptake by chalkophores and their targeted metalloproteins in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. These convincing data demonstrate that chalkophore-acquired copper is solely incorporated into the Mtb bcc:aa3 copper-iron respiratory oxidase under low copper conditions, and that chalkophore-mediated protection of the respiratory chain is critical to Mtb virulence. These findings may be leveraged for drug discovery and will be of broad interest to those studying bacterial pathogenesis.

eLife Assessment

This study presents important findings that enhance our understanding of immune cell interactions in the context of chronic HIV-1 infection. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing. The authors have employed appropriate and validated methodologies, including detailed data reprocessing and batch correction to account for inter-donor variability. The inclusion of supplementary figures and analyses, such as cell communication inference, further substantiates the robustness of the findings. Overall, this work contributes to our understanding of HIV-1 immune evasion and highlights potential therapeutic targets for reservoir eradication.

eLife Assessment

With a computational analysis of a neuroanatomical network model in C. elegans, this valuable work investigates the synaptic mechanism for memory-dependent klinotaxis, i.e., salt concentration chemotaxis. By incorporating experimental data altering the ASER neuron's basal glutamate release into their model, the authors demonstrate the possibility of a transition between excitatory and inhibitory signaling at the ASER-AIY synapse, depending on environmental and cultivated salt concentrations. These solid findings offer a proposal for how synaptic plasticity plays a role in sensorimotor navigation, and will be of interest to worm biologists and theoretical neuroscientists.

eLife Assessment

This valuable work presents how PRDM16 plays a critical role during colloid plexus development, through regulating BMP signaling. Solid evidence supports the context-dependent gene regulatory mechanisms both in vivo and in vitro. The work will be of broad interest to researchers working on growth factor signaling mechanisms and vertebrate development.

eLife Assessment

This important study addresses the contribution of pericytes to the organization and permeability control of the zebrafish blood-brain barrier (BBB). By analyzing pdgfrb mutant zebrafish that lack brain pericytes, the authors reveal that the resulting cerebrovascular network is abnormally patterned. Remarkably, however, the barrier retains its restrictive permeability during larval and juvenile stages. More pronounced vascular defects become evident in adults, where localized BBB leakage coincides with hemorrhages and aneurysm formation. Based on convincing and beautifully documented imaging data, the authors argue that, unlike what has been reported in rodent systems, pdgfrb-dependent pericytes are not essential for maintaining BBB integrity in the zebrafish brain.

eLife Assessment

This computational study examines how neurons in the songbird premotor nucleus HVC might generate the precise, sparse burst sequences that drive adult song. The findings would be useful for understanding how intrinsic conductances and HVC microcircuitry may produce neural sequences, but the work is incomplete because of arbitrary network assumptions, insufficient consideration of biological details such as how silent gaps in song sequences are represented, and failure to incorporate interactions with auditory and brainstem inputs. As a result, the study offers limited advance and only a modest conceptual advance over prior models.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study investigates the relationship between pupil dilation and information gain during associative learning, using two different tasks. A key strength of this study is its exploration of pupil dilation beyond the immediate response period, extending analysis to later time windows after feedback, and it provides convincing evidence that pupillary response to information gain may be context-dependent during associative learning. The interpretation remains limited by task heterogeneity and unresolved contextual factors influencing pupil dynamics, but a range of interesting ideas are discussed.

eLife Assessment

This important manuscript proposes a new strategy for the identification of new mechanisms of drug resistance based on SAturated Transposon Analysis in Yeast (SATAY), a powerful transposon sequencing method in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This method allows us to uncover loss- and gain-of-function mutations conferring resistance to 20 different antifungal compounds. The method is convincing, allowing the authors to identify a novel interaction of chitosan with the cell wall mannosylphosphate, and show that the transporter Hol1 concentrates the novel antifungal ATI-2307 within yeast.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript presents a clever and powerful approach to examining differential roles of Nav1.2 and Nav1.6 channels in excitability of neocortical pyramidal neurons, by engineering mice in which a sulfonamide inhibitor of both channels has reduced affinity for one or the other channels. Overall, the results in the manuscript are compelling and give important information about differential roles of Nav1.6 and Nav1.2 channels. Activity-dependent inactivation of NaV1.6 was also found to attenuate seizure-like activity in cells, demonstrating the promise of activity-dependent NaV1.6-specific pharmacotherapy for epilepsy.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study provides a novel framework for leveraging longitudinal field observations to examine the effects of aging on stone tool use behaviour in wild chimpanzees. The methods and results are robust providing solid evidence of the effects of old age on nut cracking behaviour at this field site. Despite the low sample size of five individuals, this study is of broad interest to ethologists, primatologists, archaeologists, and psychologists.

eLife Assessment

The conclusions of this work are based on valuable simulations of a detailed model of striatal dopamine dynamics. Establishing that lower dopamine uptake rate can lead to a "tonic" level of dopamine in the ventral but not dorsal striatum, and that dopamine concentration changes at short delays can be tracked by D1 but not D2 receptor activation, is invaluable and will be of interest to the community, particularly those studying dopamine. The model simulations provide convincing evidence for differences between dorsal and ventral striatum dopamine concentrations, while evidence for differential tracking of dopamine changes by D1 vs D2 receptors is solid.

eLife Assessment

The study reports valuable findings from a very rich EEG-fMRI dataset, including 107 participants, which was collected during nocturnal naps. Using overall solid methods, the authors link activity in memory-related brain regions (e.g., hippocampus, thalamus, and medial prefrontal cortex), and their functional connectivity to the occurrence of canonical sleep rhythms (spindles and slow oscillations) in non-rapid eye movement sleep. This work will be of broad interest to sleep and memory researchers and beyond.

eLife Assessment

This study by Lapao et al. uncovers a novel role for the Rab27A effector SYTL5 in regulating mitochondrial function and mitophagy under hypoxic conditions. Using a range of imaging and functional assays, the authors demonstrate that SYTL5 localizes to mitochondria in a Rab27A-dependent manner and impacts mitochondrial respiration and metabolic reprogramming. While the findings are solid and valuable in the area of cancer biology, further mechanistic clarity and improved imaging would strengthen the conclusions.

eLife Assessment

This study reveals that PRMT1 overexpression drives tumorigenesis of acute megakaryocytic leukemia (AMKL) and that targeting PRMT1 is a viable approach for treating AMKL. After revision, both reviewers found that these findings are important and that the data supporting these findings are convincing. Furthermore, these findings likely have significant implications for the treatment of AMKL with PRMT1 overexpression in the future.