Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

The authors show that a middle carotid artery occlusion (MCAO) hypoxia lesion leads to hyaluronan-mediated chemoattraction to the lesion penumbra of Thbs-4-expressing astrocytes of the sub-ventricular zone (SVZ). These findings are valuable because they shed light on the function of astrocytes from the adult SVZ in pathological states like brain ischemic injury. The results are convincing, as they rely on a comprehensive analysis of experimental data.

eLife assessment

This work presents a valuable data-driven method to extract the "true" synaptic plasticity rule (or learning rule) operating in a neural circuit from empirical measurements of neural activity. The approach aims to train a generative adversarial network (GAN) to match neural activity measurements in terms of statistics, learning them from the data, rather than being pre-determined by the experimenter. The main conclusion is that the extracted learning rules are not unique, but rather degenerate, meaning that multiple plasticity rules can produce the same neural activity. Although the paper presents a thorough investigation using one learning rule as a case study (the Oja rule), the evidence that the results can be inferred beyond the specific numerical experiments presented in the paper is incomplete.

eLife assessment

This work addresses an important biological question: what is the cellular basis of wound healing? Using the Drosophila pupal notum as a model, the paper provides an elegant, thorough, descriptive characterisation of syncytia-driven wound closure using state-of-the-art confocal live imaging of the pupal notum. The authors meticulously characterize the cell-cell fusion events during wound healing, but without any mechanisms to inhibit cell fusion, it is incomplete, since it remains unclear whether cell fusion is required or not for speeding wound healing and/ or increasing the level of actin resources at the leading edge.

eLife assessment

This fundamental work significantly advances our understanding of how FOG1 nuclear localization is regulated during erythropoiesis and megakaryopoiesis, including the role of EPO and MPL/TPO signaling in this process. The authors provide compelling evidence using both K562 and CD34+ cells that heat shock cognate B (HSCB) can promote the proteasomal degradation of TACC3 to regulate the nuclear localization of FOG1, and that this function is independent of its role in iron-sulfur cluster (ISC) biogenesis. Together these data will be of interest to the fields of hematopoiesis and cell biology.

eLife Assessment

This fundamental work advances our understanding of the mechanisms underlying lactation-induced infertility. Compelling evidence supports the notion that prolactin inhibits kisspeptin activity and LH pulsatile release and that loss of this signal results in an early reestablishment of fertility during lactation. This work will be of interest to endocrinologists and reproductive biologists.

eLife assessment

This study reports an important discovery highlighting the essential role of the putative ion channel, TMC7, in acrosome formation during sperm development and thus male fertility. The evidence for the requirement of TMC7 in acrosome biogenesis and sperm function is convincing, although its function as an ion channel remains to be further determined. Overall, this work will be of great interest to developmental biologists and ion channel physiologists alike.

eLife Assessment

The manuscript provides useful findings to explore the heterogeneity of hematopoietic stem cells and age-related myeloid-biased hematopoiesis. The results presented in this study are incomplete and additional data are necessary to bolster the conclusions. Certain aspects of the methods, experimental design, and data analyses remain inadequate and only partially support the central claims.

eLife Assessment

The manuscript represents a valuable conceptual and technical contribution to our understanding of ciliogenesis and intraflagellar transport in vertebrates. Through a series of solid and technically superb live imaging experiments to directly visualize intraflagellar transport in various zebrafish ciliated tissues, the authors unveil the surprising breadth of intraflagellar transport speed among differing organs and link this to cell type-specific differences in cilia length and intraflagellar transport train size. This work will be of broad interest to researchers in numerous fields, including development, cell biology, and imaging.

eLife assessment

This is a useful study that provides solid, yet confirmatory findings about the complex (FtsEX) that controls peptidoglycan remodeling during bacterial cell division. The authors capitalize on the finding that ATP binding stabilizes the FtsEX complex allowing structural characterization for this system. A model is then developed using biochemical approaches to explain ATP regulation. The resulting model would be strengthened were the authors to incorporate their structural findings as well as previously published work.

eLife Assessment

Seminal plasma is a crucial component of semen that can affect sperm capacitation. However, the role of seminal plasma components, including fatty acids, in sperm function and fertility is poorly understood. In this important study, the authors provide a solid evidence of the testosterone-induced metabolic shift in the epithelial cells of seminal vesicle to support an fatty acid synthesis and also describe the potential effect of oleic acid on sperm motility.

eLife assessment

This manuscript highlights single-stranded DNA exo- and endo-nuclease activities of ExoIII as a potential caveat and an underestimated source of decreased efficiency in its use in biosensor assays. The data present solid evidence for the ssDNA nuclease activity of ExoIII and identifies residues that contribute to it. The findings are useful, but some aspects in the study remain incomplete.

eLife assessment

Spermiogenesis is a complex process allowing the emergence of specific sperm organelle, including the acrosome, a sperm giant vesicle of secretion. This important study reports the key role of Cylicin-1 in acrosome biogenesis and identifies the molecular partners necessary for acrosome anchoring. The compelling demonstration is based on infertile patient samples and two animal models. Overall, this provides results that will be invaluable to the male reproduction community, including scientists and andrologists.

eLife Assessment

This study presents an important application of high-content image-based morphological profiling to quantitatively and systematically characterize induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mixed neural cultures cell type compositions. Exceptional evidence through rigorous experimental and computational validations support new potential applications of this cheap and simple assay.

eLife assessment

This work demonstrates an important regulatory role of the N-terminal disordered tail of small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) proteins, which modulate the function of various proteins in eukaryotic cells. The authors present convincing evidence that the N-terminal tail of SUMO inhibits SUMO's interaction with downstream effector proteins and SUMOylation targets, and that this regulatory mechanism depends on the SUMO paralogue or the phosphorylation of the N-terminal tail. This discovery significantly advances the field by providing a possible explanation of how SUMO paralogues select their effectors and SUMOylation targets.

eLife assessment

This study presents a valuable contribution towards understanding the protein target and mechanism of action of an herbicide, which could be applied to the development of herbicide-based technologies to improve crop yields. Evidence is gathered using a variety of technical approaches that enrich and support the findings, but the methodology and the presentation of the results are incomplete.

eLife assessment

This valuable paper by Yao, Dai, and colleagues describes a viral gene drive against herpes simplex virus 1 in cell culture. The authors provided solid evidence that an engineered gene drive sequence, expressing either spCas9 or Un1Cas12f1 nuclease, could spread efficiently in the population of wild-type viruses and induce fewer drive-resistant mutations than spCas9. Limitations include a mechanistically inaccurate title, several methodologic flaws, and a paucity of descriptions of possible therapeutic applications.

eLife Assessment

In this useful study, Wang and colleagues investigate the potential probiotic effects of Bacillus velezensis in a murine model. They provide convincing evidence that B. velezensis limits the growth of Salmonella typhimurium in lab culture and in mice, together with beneficial effects on the microbiota. The overall presentation of the manuscript has improved and the work will be of interest to infectious disease researchers.

eLife assessment

These valuable findings develop a mouse model with trackable fusion Fshr protein, which will be of use to the field. The animal model helps to elucidate the expression and function of the FSH receptor in extra-gonadal tissues. The strength of the evidence is solid in most parts, although additional validation of the localization data would strengthen the study considerably.

eLife assessment

This study provides an important insight into the mechanisms of cooperation between Hsp70 and its cochaperones during reactivation of aggregated proteins. Based on convincing evidence, the authors demonstrate that the co-chaperone Hsp110 boosts disaggregation activity by enhancing Hsp70 recruitment to protein aggregates. This work is of broad interest to biochemists and cell biologists working in the protein homeostasis field.

eLife assessment

The authors presented a valuable bioinformatics pipeline for screening and identifying inhibitory receptors for potential drug targets. They provided solid evidence showing a sequential reduction in the search space through various screening tools and algorithms and demonstrated that this pipeline can be used to "rediscover" known targets. Further experimental validation on putative and unknown inhibitory receptors will strengthen the evidence reported in this work. This study will be of interest to bioinformaticians and computational biologists working on immune regulation, sequence screening, and target identification of immune checkpoint inhibitors.