Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

This important paper uses elegant models, including genetic knock outs, to demonstrate that FABP4 contributes to lipid accumulation in tumor-associated macrophages, which seems to increase breast cancer migration. While the work is of high interest, the strength of the evidence relating to some of the conclusions is incomplete and the paper would benefit from some refinement. The work will be of interest to those researchers trying to link metabolism, the immune system, and cancer.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript describes an important study of a new lipid-mediated regulation mechanism of adenylyl cyclases. The biochemical evidence provided is convincing and will trigger more research in this mechanism. This manuscript will be of interest to all scientists working on lipid regulation and adenylyl cyclases.

eLife Assessment

This important study reports the transcriptomic and proteomic landscapes of the oviducts at four different preimplantation stages during natural fertilization, pseudopregnancy, and superovulation. The supporting data are convincing. This work will be of interest to reproductive biologists and clinicians practicing reproductive medicine.

eLife Assessment

In this important study, the authors test the model that a type of vascular lesion caused by the inactivation of one gene in the cells that line blood vessels requires the activity of a second gene for the lesions to form. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid.

eLife Assessment

In this important study, the authors used a zebrafish model and scRNAseq analysis to show that a subset of keratinocytes within melanoma microenvironment highly up-regulate Twist and undergo Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT). Surprisingly, when overexpressing Twist in keratinocytes, the resulting alteration in keratinocytes is inhibitory for melanoma invasion in both zebrafish and human cell culture models. The results are supported by overall convincing experimental data that provide new insights into the interactions between melanoma cells and their environment.

eLife Assessment

Building on previous structural studies, this work provides valuable new insights into the architecture of the autophagy initiation complex, comprising ULK1, ATG13, and FIP200. The authors present their findings with solid supporting evidence, making this study a significant contribution to the autophagy field.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript determines how PA28g, a proteasome regulator that is overexpressed in tumors, and C1QBP, a mitochondrial protein for maintaining oxidative phosphorylation that plays a role in tumor progression, interact in tumor cells to promote their growth, migration and invasion. Additional experiments and analyses that supported the theoretical models for the interaction have been performed in response to the reviews. The overall findings and conceptual framework are important and the evidence is solid. A logical extrapolation of this work is to test the C1QBP mutants using functional assays to determine whether the mutations can decrease the protein stability mediated by the interaction with PA28g.

eLife Assessment

This useful study by Gao et al identifies Hspa2 as a heterogeneous transcript in the early embryo and proposes a plausible mechanism showing interactions with Carm1. The authors propose that variability in HSPA2 levels among blastomeres at the 4-cell stage skews their relative contribution to the embryonic lineage. Given only 4 other heterogeneous transcripts/non-coding RNA have been proposed to act similarly at or before the 4-cell stage, this would be a key addition to our understanding of how the first cell fate decision is made. While this is a solid study, further data are needed to fully support the conclusions.

eLife Assessment

This important study investigates the function of a critical regulator of human early cardiac development. The convincing examination of GATA6 function is thorough and well-executed. The study will be of interest to scientists working on how the human heart acquires its identity.

eLife Assessment

This study presents valuable quantitative insights into the prevalence of functionally clustered synaptic inputs on neuronal dendrites. The simple analytical calculations and computer simulations provide solid support for the main arguments. The findings can lead to a more detailed understanding of how dendrites contribute to the computation of neuronal networks.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript reports fundamental discoveries on how necrotic cells contribute to organ regeneration through apoptotic signalling to produce cells with non-lethal apoptotic caspase activity that contribute to the regenerated tissue. These findings will be of broad interest to those who study wound repair and tissue regeneration. The strength of the evidence is solid and has been improved in the revised version.

eLife Assessment

This important study examines the stability and compensatory plasticity in the retinotopic mapping in patients with congenital achromatopsia. It provides convincing evidence for a stable mapping of the visual field in V1, alongside changes of the readout from V1 into V3, which shows revised receptive field location and size. This paper would be of interest to scientists studying the visual system, brain plasticity, and development.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript introduces a new low-cost and accessible method for assembling combinatorially complete microbial consortia using basic laboratory equipment, which is a valuable contribution to the field of microbial ecology and biotechnology. The evidence presented is compelling, demonstrating the method's effectiveness through empirical testing on both synthetic colorants and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains.

eLife Assessment

This study convincingly demonstrates that odors evoke a feeding response in Drosophila, mediated by gustatory receptors and observed as a proboscis extension. The evidence is comprehensive, encompassing behavior, functional imaging and electrophysiology. This important results on the molecular and cellular basis of multimodal integration across olfaction and gustation will be of interest for the study of chemosensation, sensory biology, and animal behavior.

eLife Assessment

This important study tests the development of motor reinforcement learning from toddlerhood to adulthood, using a large online sample. They show that learning improves with age in a task that, like real-life movement, involves a continuous range of response options and probabilistic rewards, and link this shift to reduced movement variability and more efficient feedback-based learning through behavioural modeling. Simplifying the task with discrete actions and deterministic outcomes boosted younger children's performance, suggesting early learning is limited by spatial and probabilistic processing. The evidence is convincing, although future work may investigate more naturalistic movement.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study reports an extensive analysis of the way a humoral immune response to parasitoid wasp is expressed and regulated, building on previous work from the authors on an anti-parasitoid effector lectin. The solid evidence uses two complementary approaches to show which innate immune pathways are involved in the regulation of the anti-parasitoid response. The evidence would be stronger if some analytical and related concerns can be addressed. The work will be of relevance to the community of investigators studying insect immune cells as well as researchers interested in host defense against parasitism.

eLife Assessment

This study presents TopOMetry, an important novel dimensionality reduction method that addresses a signficant challenge in the analysis of single-cell RNA sequencing data. The authors provide convincing evidence of the method's utility across various tasks, including estimating intrinsic dimensionalities and identifying cell types. The work would benefit from more rigorous validation and a reorganization of the text.

eLife Assessment

This important work shows how a simple geophysical setting of gas flow over a narrow channel of water can create a physical environment that leads to the isothermal replication of nucleic acids. The work presents compelling evidence for an isothermal polymerase chain reaction in careful experiments involving evaporation and convective flows, complimented with fluid dynamics simulations. This work will be of interest to scientists working on the origin of life and more broadly, on nucleic acids and diagnostic applications.

eLife Assessment

Treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) infections is challenging because of intrinsic and acquired antibiotic resistance to most antibiotic drug classes. Therefore, by using donor B cells in subjects with cystic fibrosis who undergo intermittent or chronic airway PA infections, the authors aimed to isolate B-cell receptors against PA virulence factors and examined their biological activities. The data are solid and the protective antibodies identified in this study could be useful for protection against PA.

eLife Assessment

This fundamental study highlights potential mechanisms underlying the sex-dependent bias in susceptibility to gut colonization by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The evidence supporting the conclusion is compelling. The work will interest biologists who study intestinal infection and immunity.