- Nov 2024
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
In this manuscript, Kaplan et al. study mesenchymal Meis2 in whisker formation and the links between whisker formation and sensory innervation. These useful findings analyze the impact of the conditional deletion of Meis2 using the Wnt1 driver on whisker development and their interaction with trigeminal nerves. The evidence supporting the conclusions is incomplete lacking mechanistic links to the phenotype described and detailed information on the methods used to analyze single-cell RNA sequencing data. The work will be of interest to developmental and skin biologists.
-
-
www.researchsquare.com www.researchsquare.com
-
eLife assessment
The work introduces a valuable new method for depleting the ribosomal RNA from bacterial single-cell RNA sequencing libraries and shows that this method is applicable to studying the heterogeneity in microbial biofilms. The evidence for a small subpopulation of cells at the bottom of the biofilm which upregulates PdeI expression is solid. However, more investigation into the unresolved functional relationship between PdeI and c-di-GMP levels with the help of other genes co-expressed in the same cluster would have made the conclusions more significant.
Tags
Annotators
URL
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The paper reports the important discovery that the mouse dorsal inferior colliculus, an auditory midbrain area, encodes sound location. The evidence supporting the claims is solid, being supported by both optical and electrophysiological recordings. The observations described should be of interest to auditory researchers studying the neural mechanisms of sound localization and the role of noise correlations in population coding.
-
-
www.researchsquare.com www.researchsquare.com
-
eLife Assessment
This useful study investigates the impact of disrupting the interaction of RAS with the PI3K subunit p110α in macrophage function in vitro and inflammatory responses in vivo. Solid data overall supports a role for RAS-p110α signalling in regulating macrophage activity and so inflammation, however for many of the readouts presented the magnitude of the phenotype is not particularly pronounced. Further analysis would be required to substantiate the claims that RAS-p110α signalling plays a key role in macrophage function. Of note, the molecular mechanisms of how exactly p110α regulates the functions in macrophages have not yet been established.
Tags
Annotators
URL
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study investigates the molecular mechanisms underpinning how the tumor necrosis factor alpha-induced protein (TIPE) regulates aerobic glycolysis to promote tumor growth in melanoma. Convincing data using multiple independent approaches provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms underpinning aerobic glycolysis in melanoma cells. The work will be of interest to biomedical researchers working in cancer and metabolism.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The manuscript reports on an important comparison of a range of approved clinical inhibitors for BTK used for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The authors provide compelling evidence for their claims, using a combination of HDX-MS and NMR spectroscopy. The novelty is that this study also seeks to evaluate resistance mutation bias. The manuscript will be of high interest to scientists working on protein drug interactions.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This useful work provides insight into agonist binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which is the stimulus for channel activation that regulates muscle contraction at the neuromuscular junction. The authors use in silico methods to explore the transient conformational change from a low to high affinity agonist-bound conformation as occurs during channel opening, but for which structural information is lacking owing to its transient nature. The simulations indicating that ligands flip ~180 degrees in the binding site as it transitions from a low to high affinity bound conformation are solid. A limitation is the approximation of binding energies using Poisson-Boltzmann Surface Area and mismatch between calculated and experimental binding energies for two of the four ligands tested. Nonetheless, this work presents an intriguing picture for the nature of a transient conformational change at the agonist binding site correlated with channel opening.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
Zhang et al. present important findings that reveal a new role for TET2 in controlling glucose production in the liver, showing that both fasting and a high-fat diet increase TET2 levels, while its absence reduces glucose production. TET2 works with HNF4α to activate the FBP1 gene upon glucagon stimulation, while metformin disrupts TET2-HNF4α interaction, lowering FBP1 levels and improving glucose homeostasis. While the results are solid, more details about the mechanisms and methods are needed to strengthen the study's conclusions.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
Identifying chromatin interactions with high sensitivity and resolution at the genome-wide scale continues to be technically challenging. This study introduces findings based on the improved MNase-based proximity ligation method, MChIP-C, which enables genome-wide measurement of chromatin interactions at single-nucleosome resolution. The evidence presented in this manuscript is convincing, and the technological advancements will be valuable for the study of 3D genome architecture.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important work advances our understanding of DNA methylation and its consequences for susceptibility to DNA damage. This work presents evidence that DNA methylation can accentuate the genomic damage propagated by DNA damaging agents as well as potentially being an independent source of such damage. The experimental results reported are sound but the evidence presented to support the conclusions drawn is incomplete and other interpretations are possible. The work will be of broad interest to biochemists, cell and genome biologists.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
Ferredoxins are ubiquitous electron transfer proteins that drive essential metabolic processes across all domains of life. This fundamental contribution to the field provides the first description of how specific amino acids, though a series of hydrogen bonds, control the ability of iron-sulfur clusters in ferrodoxins to accept and donate electrons. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling as is the combined use of neutron crystallography with X-ray crystallography and classical spectral/redox studies.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This manuscript describes valuable new material of small, unusually preserved fossils from deep in the Cambrian of China and argues they represent very early bilaterian animals such as annelids or panarthropods. The authors present convincing evidence of the fossilisation of specimens as microbial pseudomorphs, however, the fossils show few details and it is difficult to assess their affinity. The broader claims made about the timing and nature of the Cambrian explosion are inadequately supported by the material, given that bilaterians were already known to exist during that period.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study employed multiple orthogonal techniques and tissue samples to investigate the interaction between the NRL transcription factor and RNA-binding proteins in the retina. The findings are solid to support an interaction between NRL and the DHX9 helicase. However, the evidence for an interaction between the NRL transcription factor and R-loops is less conclusive. The significance of the study could be enhanced by examining the functional role of NRL interactions with R-loops in the developing retina, which would offer new insights into the gene regulatory networks.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study reports an important new scRNAseq atlas of the mouse cranial neural plate during neural induction, patterning, and morphogenesis. The study includes a robust analysis of scRNAseq datasets covering six distinct developmental stages, as well as data describing the global transcriptional response of neural plate cells to a key ventralizing signaling molecule, Sonic Hedgehog. The computational data and validation of gene expression patterns are convincing, making this a helpful resource for investigators studying the early development of the cranial neural plate and cranial mesoderm.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This manuscript focuses on the identification of RNA crosslinks within the HIV RNA genome under different conditions i.e. in infected cells and in virions using a new method called HiCapR. These cross-links reveal long-range interactions that can be used to determine the structural arrangement of the viral RNA, providing useful data that show differences in the genomic organization in different conditions. The data analysis, however, is incomplete and based on extensive computational analysis from a limited number of datasets, which are in need of experimental validation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study represents an important advance in our understanding of how certain inhibitors affect the behavior of voltage gated potassium channels. Robust molecular dynamics simulation and analysis methods lead to a new proposed inhibition mechanism with strength of support being mostly convincing, and incomplete in some aspects. This study has considerable significance for the fields of ion channel physiology and pharmacology and could aid in development of selective inhibitors for protein targets.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This is an important study demonstrating the importance of S100A4+ alveolar macrophages in the earlier stages of tumour development and suggesting a role in angiogenesis. As such this solid study is of interest to cancer biologists focused on early tumour development and those interested in the development of therapeutics that may specifically target early cancers.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This useful study partially succeeds in providing solid evidence in support of the therapeutic potential of the plant-derived compound eugenol for ameliorating symptoms associated with STZ-induced oxidative stress, identifying Nuclear factor E2-related factor (Nrf2) as a mediator of the effects induced by eugenol. Although the study provides interesting data, there remain concerns associated with the STZ model and the rather superficial mechanistic assessment.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This work is important because it elucidates how immune cells migrate across the blood brain barrier. In the revised version of this study, the authors present a convincing framework to visualize, recognize and track the movement of different immune cells across primary human and mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells without the need for fluorescence-based imaging using microfluidic devices. This work will be of interest to the cancer biology, immunology and medical therapeutics fields.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study describes mRNA shortening during cellular stress and interestingly observes that this shortening is dependent on localization in stress granules. Surprisingly, this mRNA shortening does not appear to require the shortening of poly A tails. These are novel, paradigm-shifting findings, using cutting-edge technologies and convincing data, that should be of broad interest to the RNA community and beyond.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study has the potential to shed mechanistic light on how attention mechanisms that influence competition between multiple visual stimuli are modulated by the relative neural similarity of these stimuli. The study provides convincing data that will also be used for future modeling efforts. The study will be of interest to researchers working on the neural basis of visual attention.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study examines how different exercise training intensities affect intestinal barrier function and gut microbiota composition over a 6-week period in mice. The evidence supporting the main claims about exercise-induced intestinal injury and microbiota changes is solid, featuring comprehensive histological analysis, molecular characterization, and metabolomic profiling, though key mechanistic insights and causal relationships remain to be established. The findings have practical implications for understanding exercise-induced gastrointestinal stress, particularly the observation that daily moderate exercise may be more damaging to intestinal integrity than vigorous exercise with rest days. Additional experimental validation would strengthen these conclusions.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study provides a comprehensive assessment of mitochondrial function across age and sex in mice. The strength of evidence supporting this resource is compelling, given the exhaustive number of tissues profiled and in-depth analyses performed.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides important insights into postnatal lung development and the mechanisms underlying bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a condition with high morbidity and mortality in newborns. Through the use of neonatal hyperoxia, cell-type-specific inactivation of Tgfbr2, and other injury models, the research focuses on the role of TGF-β signaling in BPD pathogenesis, highlighting impaired myofibroblast proliferation as a key factor. The inactivation of Etc2 in Pdgfra-lineaged cells disrupts myofibroblast cytokinesis, leading to alveolar simplification and reduced cell numbers. The use of transgenic mice and single-cell transcriptomics offers a detailed and high-quality dataset, advancing our understanding of BPD and serving as a invaluable resource for developmental biology and neonatal pulmonary research. The study's comprehensive approach, robust data, and methodological rigor make it a compelling contribution to the field, providing both mechanistic insights and a resource for further research into BPD pathogenesis.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study reveals that the malaria parasite protein PfHO, although lacking typical heme oxygenase activity, is essential for the survival of Plasmodium falciparum. Structural and localization analyses demonstrated that PfHO plays a critical role in maintaining the apicoplast, specifically in gene expression and biogenesis, suggesting an adaptive function for this protein in parasite biology. While the findings convincingly support the authors' claims, further investigation into apicoplast gene expression and the specific function of PfHO remains a future challenge. The topic and results are important and will be of interest to researchers studying various aspects of malaria, Plasmodium physiology, host-pathogen interactions, and heme metabolism.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors present a critique of current usage of principal component analysis in geometric morphometrics, making a compelling case with benchmark data that standard techniques perform poorly. The work is an important contribution to the field and will hopefully lead to a reassessment of the methodology most scientists in morphometrics currently use. This work challenges a very commonly used analytical approach and is bound to raise some controversy in the community, but the authors' critique is based on a well-founded and well-thought out analysis.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors examined the evolution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in a cohort of 14 subjects with recent HCV infections. By using computational methods, they showed that viral fitness declines as the virus mutates to escape the immune response and can rebound later in infection as HCV accumulates additional mutations. The study contributes to an important aspect of viral evolution. The combination of approaches is highly compelling; however, some aspects of the manuscript are incomplete and would greatly benefit from additional revision, mainly to increase their clarity.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This manuscript offers an exploration of the immune cells in the oyster Crassostrea gigas, by correlating distinct hemocyte morphotypes with specific single-cell transcriptional profiles. The evidence supporting the conclusion is convincing, deriving from the comprehensive dataset that not only captures unicellular diversity but also associates these cells with distinct immune roles, making it an important resource for the broader research community. There are some concerns on the data presentation that leave some questions.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study provides evidence for the role of neutrophil extracellular traps in chronic kidney damage (CKD) induced by chemotherapy and suggests a therapeutic approach to mitigate the kidney pathology caused by the NETs. The study utilizes a sound murine in vivo model of CKD with low-dose administration cisplatin and a genetic model for impairment of NET formation by deletion of the enzyme Pad4. In its current form, the study was seen as incomplete as there is not yet formal demonstration of NET production by neutrophils in the model of CKD used. Additionally, the accuracy and clarity of data presentation could be improved.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study substantially advances our understanding of noncoding somatic mutations by identifying a novel class of mutations that affect 3'UTR polyadenylation signals enriched in tumor suppressor genes in cancer. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with rigorous statistical analyses. The work will be of broad interest to cancer researchers.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This paper presents valuable findings on how autophagosomes are positioned along microtubules for their efficient fusion with lysosomes, providing significant insights into the mechanism. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, with high-quality fluorescence microscopy combined with Drosophila genetics. This work will be of broad interest to cell biologists interested in autophagy and related cell biology fields.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides valuable evidence indicating that SynGap1 regulates the synaptic drive and membrane excitability of parvalbumin- and somatostatin-positive interneurons in the auditory cortex. Since haplo-insufficiency of SynGap1 has been linked to intellectual disabilities without a well-defined underlying cause, the central question of this study is timely. While in their revision the authors successfully addressed questions related to changes in thalamocortical presynaptic excitability, the support for the authors' conclusions is incomplete as concerns around the interpretability of the spontaneous/mini EPSCs, interpretation of results related to excitability, restriction of anatomical analysis of excitatory synapses to the somatic region, and technical problems regarding phase plots remain unresolved.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The work by Han and collaborators describes valuable findings on the role of Akkermansia muciniphila during ETEC infection. If confirmed, these findings will add to a growing list of beneficial properties of this organism. The strength of the evidence used to justify the conclusions in the manuscript is solid, as the analyses broadly support the claims with only minor weaknesses.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife assessment
In this valuable study, the authors analyze droplet size distributions of multiple protein condensates and their fit to a scaling ansatz, highlighting that they exhibit features of first- and second-order phase transitions. The experimental evidence is solid, and it prompts further research into the nature of the link between percolation and phase separation.
-
-
osf.io osf.io
-
eLife Assessment
This important work advances our understanding of how memories interact to facilitate or interfere with one another, also informing our understanding of how humans build knowledge. The study provides compelling evidence that semantic relatedness proactively benefits memory using clean experimental design, rigorous statistics, large N samples, and well-characterized stimuli. The study also demonstrates the boundaries of these proactive benefits, showing that when studied items have weaker semantic relationships, proactive interference may be observed. This research will be of interest to memory researchers as well as cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, and educators more broadly.
Tags
Annotators
URL
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents a valuable finding about the role of Perk (Protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase) and Atf4 (Activating Transcription Factor-4) in the integrated neurodegenerative and regenerative responses following the optic nerve injury. The authors present solid evidence, combining newly generated transcriptomic data with publicly available datasets to strengthen their findings. Despite some limitations in data quality and interpretation, the study is likely to be of interest to researchers studying optic neuropathies and axonal regeneration.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors are interested in the developmental origin of the neurons of the cerebellar nuclei. In this study, they identify a population of neurons with a specific complement of markers that originate in a distinct location from where cerebellar nuclear precursor cells have been thought to originate that show distinct developmental properties. The discovery of a new germinal zone giving rise to a new population of neurons is an exciting finding, and it enriches our understanding of cerebellar development. The important claims, better explained in the current version, are well supported by solid evidence with the authors using a wide range of technical approaches, including transgenic mice that allow them to disentangle the influence of distinct developmental organizers
Tags
Annotators
URL
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
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.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This is a valuable study of the physiological mechanisms promoting network activity during fever in the mouse neocortex. Most of the supporting evidence is solid, however, there is incomplete support for the conclusion that the E/I balance is unchanged with temperature.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study describes a computational tool termed FliSimBA (Fluorescence Lifetime Simulation for Biological Applications), which uses simulations to rigorously assess experimental limitations in fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), including diverse noise factors, hardware effects, and sensor expression levels. The evidence from simulation and experimental measurements supporting the usefulness of FlimSimBA is solid. The authors may improve the application of the tool to a wide range of biological samples by providing the simulation package, currently in MATLB, in other common languages such as Python, and having better descriptions of the fitting algorithm and model assumptions. The work will interest scientists who wish to perform quantitative FLIM imaging for cells and tissues.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
In this manuscript, Wang et al describe the identification, and provide initial mechanistic characterization, of a potent probiotic strain with activity against Salmonella enterica infection. The evidence provided is compelling, with multiple and varied methodologies used to support the claims made by the authors. The findings reported are valuable to the probiotic and enteric infection subfields.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
Huson & Regehr characterize the spiking responses of UBCs to various patterns of synaptic stimulation and dissect the contributions of relevant glutamate receptors to their transformations. This study presents valuable findings describing how trains of mossy fiber stimulation control cerebellar unipolar brush cell discharges. The evidence that UBCs transform signals in diverse ways depending on their complement of AMPA, mGluR1, and mGluR2 receptors is solid.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides important morphological observations related to the potential roles of Hebbian plasticity in establishing brain connectivity, by examining synapses formed by functionally distinct groups of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons in albino mouse dorsolateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN). Here, inappropriately projecting contralateral RGCs undergo developmental rewiring alongside ipsilateral RGCs, such that Hebbian theory would predict them to have separate synaptic targets. The authors provide compelling support for some presence of Hebbian rewiring, using combined confocal imaging and serial electron microscopy (EM) reconstructions to show that contralateral RGCs form completely segregated synaptic inputs onto islands of dLGN thalamocortical neurons, as well as somewhat segregated synaptic input onto local inhibitory interneurons. These findings will be of interest to researchers studying synaptic connectivity and plasticity during development.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study compares ChIP-seq and ChEC-seq2 techniques to investigate RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) binding patterns in yeast, revealing that ChEC-seq2 captures distinct regulatory events associated with active transcription missed by ChIP-seq. The authors use ChEC-seq2 data to build a stochastic model of RNAPII kinetics, providing convincing new insights into transcription regulation and the role of the nuclear pore complex. The paper highlights the importance of careful methodological comparisons in understanding RNAPII dynamics.
-
-
www.researchsquare.com www.researchsquare.com
-
eLife Assessment
This work presents an important method for depleting ribosomal RNA from bacterial single-cell RNA sequencing libraries, enabling the study of cellular heterogeneity within microbial biofilms. The approach convincingly identifies a small subpopulation of cells at the biofilm's base with upregulated PdeI expression, offering invaluable insights into the biology of bacterial biofilms and the formation of persister cells. Further integrated analysis of gene interactions within these datasets could deepen our understanding of biofilm dynamics and resilience.
Tags
Annotators
URL
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents convincing evidence of the role of an intestine-released neuropeptide, FLP-2, in the oxidative stress response of C. elegans, as well as for the neural circuit pathway that regulates its release in response to sensing reactive oxygen species (i.e., H2O2). These valuable results advance the understanding of gut-brain signaling and the neural circuit basis of behavioral responses to stress.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important manuscript describes a creative approach using dual-component gRNAs to create a new class of molecular proximity sensors for genome editing. The authors demonstrate that this tool can be coupled with several different gene editing effectors, showing convincingly that the tool functions as intended. This study not only introduces a first-of-its kind approach, but through careful measurements also enables future further development of the technology.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study is part of an ongoing effort to clarify the effects of cochlear neural degeneration on auditory processing in listeners with normal audiograms. Here the authors provide important new data demonstrating associations between cochlear neural degeneration, non-invasive assays of auditory processing, and speech perception. Based on a cross-species comparison, these findings pose compelling evidence that cochlear synaptopathy is associated with a significant part of hearing difficulties in complex environments for some listeners with normal hearing thresholds, such as older individuals.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
Although others have proposed that OHC electromotility subserves cochlear amplification by acting as a "fluid pump", and evidence for this has been found using electrical stimulation of excised cochleae, this important study substantially advances our understanding of cochlear homeostasis. This is the first report to test the pumping effect in vivo and consider its implications for cochlear homeostasis and drug delivery. The manuscript provides convincing evidence for OHC-based fluid flow within the cochlea.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents valuable findings related to seasonal brain size plasticity in the Eurasian common shrew (Sorex araneus), which is an excellent model system for these studies. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing. However, the authors should be careful when applying the term adaptive to the gene expression changes they observe; it would be challenging to demonstrate the differential fitness effects of these gene expression changes. The work will be of interest to biologists working on neuroscience, plasticity, and evolution.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study used a novel continuous dot motion decision-making task to measure participants' perception and uncertainty/confidence in a social context. The social element is that participants can see another player's responses as well as their own. The study is a useful contribution to social decision-making primarily by introducing a new task and offering solid evidence on how participants are impacted by others' decisions during continuous perceptual choices. The manuscript could be improved through streamlining, more consistent use of terms such as "dyadic" and clarification about the differences between primary uncertainty and metacognitive confidence.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study uses consensus-independent component analysis to highlight transcriptional components (TC) in high-grade serous ovarian cancers (HGSOC). The study presents a convincing preliminary finding by identifying a TC linked to synaptic signaling that is associated with shorter overall survival in HGSOC patients, highlighting the potential role of neuronal interactions in the tumor microenvironment. This finding is corroborated by comparing spatially resolved transcriptomics in a small-scale study; a weakness is in being descriptive, non-mechanistic, and requiring experimental validation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents a valuable finding on the molecular mechanisms that govern GABAergic inhibitory synapse function. The authors propose that Endophilin A1 serves as a novel regulator of GABAergic synapses by acting as a component of the inhibitory postsynaptic density. Although the study employs a variety of approaches to address this question, the current analysis is incomplete and requires further experiments to substantiate the claims fully. The findings are likely to interest a broad audience of scientists focusing on inhibitory synaptic transmission, the excitation-inhibition balance, and its disruption in disorders such as epilepsy.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
Computational simulation of neuron function depends on a collection of morphological properties and ion channel biophysics. This manuscript introduces DendroTweaks, a useful web application and Python library that, compared to existing modeling tools, eases interactive graphical exploration, development, and validation of single-neuron models. The authors provide a convincing demonstration that their software aids with building intuition and rapid prototyping of biophysical models of neurons, which improves the accessibility of dendritic simulation.
-
-
osf.io osf.io
-
eLife Assessment
This important study addresses the question of how large-scale events such as the COVID-19 pandemic can change peoples' beliefs and their updates. Using a well-validated task, the authors find that belief updating becomes less optimistically biased during COVID-19, compared to prior to it. While they have solid evidence for specific changes of positive learning rates in their RL model and should be commended for more extensive modeling of the task than many previous studies, comprehensive model confusion and recovery analyses could further strengthen their claims by clarifying the specificity of their findings. As with many manipulations outside the experimenters' control, it remains unclear which psychological factor impacted by the pandemic drives the group differences, and sample sizes are by necessity on the smaller side as data cannot readily be acquired.
Tags
Annotators
URL
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The study presents important findings on inositol-requiring enzyme (IRE1α) inhibition on diet-induced obesity (overnutrition) and insulin resistance where IRE1α inhibition enhances thermogenesis and reduces the metabolically active and M1-like macrophages in adipose tissue. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing but can be enhanced with information/data on the validity, specificity, selectivity, and toxicity of the IRE1α inhibitor and supported with more detail on the mechanisms by which adipose tissue macrophages influence adipocyte metabolism. The work will be of interest to cell biologists and biochemists working in metabolism, insulin resistance, and inflammation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides important insights into the question of how interacting brain areas produce behaviour during the execution of a skilled multi-directional reaching task. Using a combination of single neuron and neural population analysis, as well as optogenetic stimulation and computational models, the authors provide solid evidence of an asymmetrical influence between mouse premotor and motor cortex during the execution of a well-practiced behaviour. This asymmetry can only be captured by some but not all population analysis methods, which is a key lesson to the field in and of itself. Analyzing how activity that is shared and private to these areas relates to different aspects of movements, and linking the model predictions to the actual data, would further strengthen this work.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents an important finding that ant nest structure and digging behavior depend on ant age demographics for a ground-dwelling ant species (Camponotus fellah). By asking whether ants employ age-polyethism in excavation, the authors address a long-standing question about how individuals in collectives determine the overall state of the task they must perform, and their results may prove to be a key consideration for interpreting results from other studies in the field of social insect behavior. While the experimental evidence that the age of the ants and the group composition affect the digging of tunnels is solid, some of the analyses and modeling are seem superfluous, as they do not further support the results or contribute to a deeper understanding of the system.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important paper takes a novel approach to the problem of automatically reconstructing long-range axonal projections from stacks of images. The key innovation is to separate the identification of sections of an axon from the statistical rules used to constrain global structure. The authors provide convincing evidence that their method is a significant improvement over existing measures in circumstances where the labelling of axons and dendrites is relatively dense, but the robustness to image noise remains to be tested.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents a valuable finding that altruistic tendency during moral decision-making is context-dependent (present in the gain domain but absent in the loss domain) and its absence in the loss domain can be restored by the neuropeptide oxytocin. However, the evidence supporting this claim is somewhat incomplete and would benefit from better overall framing and clarity on its approaches. Overall, this study will be of interest to social scientists and neuroscientists who work on moral decision-making and oxytocin.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable contribution combines high-resolution histology with magnetic resonance imaging in a novel way to study the organisation of the human amygdala. The main findings convincingly show the axes of microstructural organisation within the amygdala and how they map onto the functional organisation. Overall, the approach taken in this paper showcases the utility of combining multiple modalities at different spatial scales to help understand brain organisation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The focus of this study is the development of a compelling method for analyzing network communication in the brain through an exhaustive computational analysis of virtual lesions. Using human neuroimaging data, the authors identified brain regions that exert the greatest influence over others. These important results revealed the characteristic connectivity profile of such brain regions and provided a network analysis method that will find applicability beyond the datasets used.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study combined whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) and subthalamic (STN) local field potential (LFP) recordings in patients with Parkinson's disease undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery. The paper provides solid evidence that cortical and STN beta oscillations are sensitive to movement context and may play a role in the coordination of movement redirection.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The central claim in this valuable manuscript is that microglia in the PVH sculpt the density of AgRP inputs to the PVH in a spatially restricted manner. The anatomical results are solid but the analysis of how microglia activity affects body weight when lactating dams are fed a high-fat diet is incomplete.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides useful information on the potential role of ERbB4 expression in parvalbumin-positive cells on olfactory behaviour and circuit dynamics in the olfactory bulb. The question is timely and novel, and findings could shed light on the critical role that ErbB4 may play in modulating olfactory bulb cell function and olfactory perception. Although the authors use a comprehensive set of experiments for their analysis, the evidence is incomplete as many of the experiments are underpowered and the model for selective knockout of ErbB4 in olfactory parvalbumin cells is not validated.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The study is important to show the role of MED26 in red cell formation. Linking transcription pausing with erythropoiesis is a key discovery. The data are solid although there are still spaces to improve. The in vivo data are limited by specificity concerns on their Cre model. Having RNA-seq, using more erythroid markers such as band3 and a4-integrin, and orthogonal validation with iPSC-erythropoiesis model will improve the study.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This is a valuable work that convincingly reveals that place cells in the hippocampus that exhibit repeated firing fields incorporate information about non-positional variables in each firing field. They reveal that individual firing fields of a single place cell can exhibit tuning to different head orientations, suggesting hippocampal neurons are flexible in terms of how they incorporate non-positional inputs.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This paper reports the synthesis of covalent inhibitors bearing a unique fragment as a protected covalent warhead for irreversible binding to histidine in carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzymes. These findings are important due to the broad utility of the approach for covalent drug discovery applications and could have long-term impacts on related covalent targeting approaches. The data convincingly support the main conclusions of the paper.
-
-
-
eLife Assessment
This important study by Liu and colleagues uses lineage tracing of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in situ to infer the clonal dynamics of adult hematopoiesis. The authors apply a new mathematical analysis framework enabling a wider range of clonal estimation and the revised study 1) provides evidence of polyclonal adult hematopoiesis, 2) provides insights on clonal dynamics during fetal liver hematopoiesis, and 3) reveals unexpectedly high polyclonality in a mouse model of bone marrow failure (Fanconi anemia), arguing against the prevalent views of clonal attrition in this context. The evidence in this extensively revised and improved study is compelling, with methods, data and analyses more rigorous than the current state-of-the-art, which will be of broad interest not only to stem cell and developmental biologists working on hematopoiesis, but also to researchers working on other systems.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This useful study holds importance within the focused scope of endometriosis treatment, providing initial evidence of a potential new therapeutic target. The strength of the evidence is solid, as the methods, data, and analyses support the authors' conclusions regarding the specific aims. The study provides promising preliminary evidence of KMO implication in endometriosis, but it falls short of establishing a strong rationale for proposing KNS898 as a treatment for endometriosis given the limitations in evidence and mechanistic insights.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study highlights an important discovery: a bacterial pathogen's effector influences plant responses that in turn affect how the leafhopper insect vector for the bacteria is attracted to the plants in a sex-dependent manner. The research is backed by convincing physiological and transcriptome analyses. This study unveils a complex interdependence between the pathogen effector, male leafhoppers, and a plant transcription factor in modulating female attraction to the plant, shedding light on previously unexplored aspects of plant-bacteria-insect interactions.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The toxin mycolactone is produced by Mycobacterium ulcerans which is responsible for the Buruli ulcer lesions. The authors performed a valuable study showing the effects of mycolactone on blood vessel integrity. This convincing data provides new therapeutic targets to accelerate the healing of Buruli ulcer lesions.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The investigators studied the membrane-targeting sequence (MTS) of bactofilin A (BacA) in Caulobacter crescentus to explore its role in membrane binding and polymerization. They used various techniques, including microscopy, liposome binding assays, and simulations, to show that membrane targeting may be crucial for BacA polymerization. While their findings on membrane association are valuable, the absence of direct polymerization assays and lack of proper controls in some experiments make the study incomplete.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents an important finding regarding a significant, understudied question: How does adaptation affect spatial frequency processing in the human visual cortex? Using both psychophysics and neuroimaging the authors conclude that adaptation induces changes in perceived spatial frequency and population receptive field size (pRF) size, depending on the adaptation state. Specifically, adapting to a low spatial frequency increases perceived spatial frequency and results in smaller pRFs, whereas adapting to a high spatial frequency decreases perceived spatial frequency and leads to broader pRFs. These results offer an explanation for previous seemingly conflicting findings regarding the effects of adaptation on size illusions and the evidence is solid; however, including a clear, direct comparison between pRF sizes in the high-adapted and low-adapted conditions would further strengthen the argument.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study investigates how the neural representation of individual finger movements changes during the early period of sequence learning. By combining a new method for extracting features from human magnetoencephalography data and decoding analyses, the authors provide incomplete evidence of an early, swift change in the brain regions correlated with sequence learning, including a set of previously unreported frontal cortical regions. The addition of more control analyses to rule out that head movement artefacts influence the findings, and to further explain the proposal of offline contextualization during short rest periods as the basis for improvement performance would strengthen the manuscript.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents valuable insights into the organization of second-order circuits for gustatory neurons, particularly how they integrate opposing taste inputs and the metabolic states that regulate feeding behavior. An elegant, compelling combination of multiple techniques discovered the target neurons for gustatory integration. However, the functional and behavioral evidence for the function of these neurons is incomplete.
-
-
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents an important finding on durotaxis in various amoeboid cells that is independent of focal adhesions. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is compelling. The work will be of interest to cell biologists and biophysicists working on rigidity sensing, the cytoskeleton, and cell migration.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This work describes a new software platform for machine-learning-based segmentation of and particle-picking in cryo-electron tomograms. The program and its corresponding online database of trained models will allow experimentalists to conveniently test different models and share their results with others. The paper provides convincing evidence that the software will be valuable to the community.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors report that a secreted ubiquitin ligase of Shigella, called IpaH1.4, mediates the degradation of a host defense factor, RNF213. The data are solid and represent an important contribution to our understanding of cell-autonomous immunity and bacterial pathogenesis, as they provide new mechanistic insight into how the cytosolic bacterial pathogen Shigella flexneri evades IFN-induced host immunity.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife assessment
This fundamental work describes an understudied bird migration pattern using data from an Arctic raptor. With an extensive dataset and comprehensive analyses, the observed pattern is convincing. This study will be of interest to researchers exploring the ecological drivers of bird migration.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
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 study presents an important finding on durotaxis in various amoeboid cells that is independent of focal adhesions. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is compelling. The work will be of interest to cell biologists and biophysicists working on rigidity sensing, the cytoskeleton, and cell migration.
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents an important finding on durotaxis in various amoeboid cells that is independent of focal adhesions. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is compelling. The work will be of interest to cell biologists and biophysicists working on rigidity sensing, the cytoskeleton, and cell migration.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This manuscript reports important findings on the impact of maternal obesity on offspring metabolism. It presents solid evidence that maternal obesity induces genomic methylation alterations in oocytes, which can be partly transmitted to F2 in females, and that melatonin is involved in regulating the hyper-methylation of high fat diet oocytes by increasing the expression of DNMTs via the cAMP/PKA/CREB pathway. This study would be of interest to biologists in the fields of epigenetics and metabolism.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study advances our understanding of how Nipah virus fusion protein F (NiV-F) organizes into nanoclusters on cell and viral membranes using biochemical and super-resolution microscopy methods. The conclusions are supported by solid evidence and the revision has addressed most of the reviewers' concerns. The relationship between clustering and fusion is of high interest and an interesting hypothesis to continue investigating in future studies.
-
-
arxiv.org arxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important work presents a novel approach to infer causal relations in non-stationary time series data. To do so, the authors introduce a novel machine-learning model of Temporal Autoencoders for Causal Inference to identify and measure the direction and strength of time-varying causal interactions. The authors provide solid evidence for their claims through thorough numerical validation and comprehensive exploration of the method on both synthetic and real-world datasets. This is a timely contribution that may have theoretical and practical implications for diverse real-life applications.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study describes the application of machine learning and Markov state models to characterize the binding mechanism of alpha-Synuclein to the small molecule Fasudil. The results suggest that entropic expansion can explain such binding. However, the simulations and analyses in their present form are inadequate.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important manuscript demonstrates that UGGT1 is involved in preventing the premature degradation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) glycoproteins through the re-glucosylation of their N-linked glycans following release from the calnexin/calreticulin lectins. The authors include a wealth of convincing data in support of their findings, although extending these findings to other types of substrates, such as secreted proteins, could further demonstrate the global importance of this mechanism for protein trafficking through the secretory pathway. This work will be of interest to scientists interested in ER protein quality control, proteostasis, and protein trafficking.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This work is an important contribution to understanding the role of FGF signaling in the induction of primitive-like cells in a 2D system of human gastrulation. The authors provide compelling evidence showing that endogenous FGF ligands, acting through FGF receptors localized basolaterally, are determinant in the acquisition of a primitive streak cell fate. These observations will be of broad relevance to the FGF field.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The study provides valuable findings regarding the identification of a new bacteriophage that uses the Pseudomonas aeruginosa exopolysaccharide Psl as a receptor, thus suggesting a novel approach to control biofilms. While much of the data presented is solid, additional work and clarifications are still required to fully support some of the main claims. This manuscript will interest those working on biofilms, specifically in Pseudomonas, on phage physiology and discovery, and on alternatives to controlling bacterial pathogens.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
Abdelmageed et al. demonstrate POLK expression in neurons and report an important observation that POLK exhibits an age-dependent change in subcellular localization, from the nucleus in young tissue to the cytoplasm in old tissue. Despite potentially exciting and novel findings, many of the authors' claims are provided with incomplete support (e.g. lack of validation of the POLK antibody, characterization of the subcellular compartment, etc).
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study by Ganesh and colleagues examined how both the value and salience of sensory information can affect economic decision-making. The results provide insights into how different sources of uncertainty found in the real world, including those related to the perception of objects and those related to values associated with objects, can together influence decision-making behavior in systematic ways. The evidence is solid but overlaps with previous studies and could be improved by clarifying novelty and experimental details and considering additional models.
-
-
www.researchsquare.com www.researchsquare.com
-
eLife Assessment
This important study introduces an approach to discovering antibiotic resistance determinants by leveraging diverse susceptibility profiles among related mycobacterial species, with particular relevance to high-level resistance against natural product-derived antibiotics. The research provides convincing evidence for the role of ADP-ribosylation enzymes in rifamycin resistance among mycobacteria, whilst also demonstrating that antibiotic susceptibility is not correlated with growth rate or intracellular compound concentration. Although some broader claims require additional experimental support, this work lays a significant foundation for understanding the complexity of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in mycobacteria and opens new avenues for future antimicrobial research.
Tags
Annotators
URL
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important manuscript provides insights into the competition between Splicing Factor 1 (SF1) and Quaking (QKI) for binding at the ACUAA branch point sequence in a model intron, regulating exon inclusion. The study employs rigorous transcriptomic, proteomic, and reporter assays, with both mammalian cell culture and yeast models. Nevertheless, while the data are convincing, broadening the analysis to additional exons and narrowing the manuscript's title to better align with the experimental scope would strengthen the work.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents an important finding on the role of telomeres in modulating interleukin-1 signaling and tumor immunity in TNBC. The evidence supporting these findings is solid, presented through comprehensive analyses including TNBC clinical samples, tumor-derived organoids, cancer cells, and xenografts. The work will be of broad interest to cell and medical biologists focusing on TNBC.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents a valuable finding on how the sensorimotor control system deals with redundancy within our body, based on a novel bimanual task. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing, as demonstrated over four different experiments. The work will be of interest to researchers from the motor control community and related fields, and further investigation into the interpretation of the findings could increase the generalisation of the study to a broader audience.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The contributions of ipsilateral cortical pathways to motor control are yet not fully understood. Here, the authors present important insights into their role in locomotion following unilateral spinal cord injury. Their data provide convincing evidence in rats that stimulation of ipsilateral motor cortex improves the injured side's ability to support weight and leads to improved locomotion, a result that may inspire new treatments for spinal or cerebral injuries.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides convincing evidence for functional subpopulations of β-cells responsible for Ca2+ signal initiation and maintenance using novel three-dimensional light sheet microscopy imaging and analysis of pancreatic islets. The findings are important as they help decode the mechanistic underpinnings of islet calcium oscillations and the resulting pulsatile insulin secretion. The work will be of general interest to cell biologists and of particular interest to islet biologists.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The manuscript by Hills, et al. presents data that support multiple conclusions regarding the gene expression patterns of cells, especially chemosensory neurons. The evidence is largely solid, with transcriptomic analysis combined and validated by spatially resolved expression in tissue sections, but is incomplete in other ways with some claims not fully supported. This large-scale single-cell transcriptomics dataset is an important resource, alongside a thorough exploration of the molecular features of the different cell types within the mouse vomeronasal organ, including expression of chemosensory receptors.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study uses fluorescence lifetime imaging and steady-state and time-resolved transition metal ion FRET to characterize conformational transitions in the isolated cyclic nucleotide binding domain of a bacterial CNG channel. The data are compelling and support the authors' conclusions. The results advance the understanding of allosteric mechanisms in CNBD channels and have theoretical and practical implications for other studies of protein allostery. A limitation is that only the cytosolic fragments of the channel were studied.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The paper will be of broad interest to fungal biologists and fungal immunologists seeking to understand the biosynthesis of the fungal cell wall, in particular of ß-1,6-glucan synthesis and the importance of this so far understudied constituent of the cell wall for cell wall integrity and immune response. The study is of fundamental significance and adds structural clarity to the genetic, and biochemical basis of this difficult-to-analyze carbohydrate. It opens the potential for understanding its role in immune recognition and potentially as a drug target. Overall, the data is compelling, properly controlled and analyzed.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable work presents the latest version of CTFFIND, which is the most popular software for determination of the contrast transfer function (CTF) in cryo-electron microscopy. CTFFIND5 estimates and considers acquisition geometry and sample thickness, which leads to improved CTF determination. The paper describes compelling evidence that CTFFIND5 finds better CTF parameters than previous methods, in particular for tilted samples (e.g. for cryo-electron tomography) or where thickness is an issue (e.g. cellular samples, or electron microscopy at low voltages).
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This computational study integrates detailed electrophysiology and mechanical contraction predictions, which are often modeled separately. The findings of this important work are that abnormal ECGs that are associated with higher risk of sudden cardiac death are predicted to have almost no relationship with left ventricular ejection fraction, which is conventionally used as a risk factor for arrhythmia. The conclusions are based on compelling evidence for the need of incorporating additional risk factors for assessing post-myocardial infarction patients.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This work describes a circadian regulation in the expression of HERP, a regulator of endoplasmic reticulum calcium, in primary astrocytic cultures. This work is important because it highlights the potential importance of circadian rhythms in astrocytes, even though making a direct comparison between these rhythms in vitro and in vivo remains challenging. The technical approaches used in this work (RNA-seq, siRNA, Ca2+ imaging) are a solid support for data interpretation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study provides solid support for the participation of the BMP-binding domain of MuSK, a tyrosine kinase mostly known for its role at the neuromuscular junction, in the maintenance and activation of muscle stem cells (SCs). These mononucleated cells, located between the muscle fiber basal lamina and its plasma membrane, are normally quiescent, but following muscle damage, become activated, proliferate, and mediate muscle regeneration. These cells are known to respond to a variety of signaling pathways, but this study makes the case for BMP acting via binding to MuSK in maintaining the quiescent state.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study reveals extensive binding of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 (eIF3) to the 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) of efficiently translated mRNAs in human pluripotent stem cell-derived neuronal progenitor cells. The authors provide solid evidence to support their conclusions, although this study may be enhanced by addressing potential biases of techniques employed to study eIF3:mRNA binding and providing additional mechanistic detail. This work will be of significant interest to researchers exploring post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, including cellular, molecular, and developmental biologists, as well as biochemists.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors use single molecule imaging and in vivo loop-capture genomic approaches to investigate estrogen mediated enhancer-target gene activation in human cancer cells. These potentially important results suggest that ER-alpha can, in a temporal delay, activate a non-target gene TFF3, which is in proximity to the main target gene TFF1, even though the estrogen responsive enhancer does not loop with the TFF3 promoter. To explain these results, the authors invoke a transcriptional condensate model. The reviewers were split on the strength and interpretation of the evidence presented, which is considered incomplete at this stage. We encourage a revision which buttresses the findings with additional control experiments and careful consideration of alternative explanations and mathematical models. Further, the depth of the discussion on existing literature could be improved. This work will be of interest to those studying transcriptional gene regulation and hormone-aggravated cancers.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
In this manuscript, the authors sought to elucidate mechanistic intricacies of inflammatory responses, with emphasis on T cell dysfunction, to S. aureus-induced pneumonia in the context of aging process using Terc deficient mice. Conceptually, the study is very interesting with a set of useful findings. Although some experimental approaches are appropriate, the work as shown in the revised manuscript remains significantly underpowered and the absence of rigorous controls make this study incomplete in support of its claims.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
In this useful study, the authors present convincing evidence linking the enzyme D-alanine-D-alanine ligase (Ddl), crucial for cell wall fortification, to organic acid exposure in Staphylococcus aureus. While it's established that organic acids impede bacterial growth, the researchers reveal a novel coping mechanism where S. aureus maintains elevated levels of D-alanine, the substrate for Ddl, to counteract this inhibition. This discovery illuminates a bacterial strategy for organic acid tolerance, offering new insights for microbiologists and potentially informing future antimicrobial approaches.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors have developed a robust machine learning approach to predict radio sensitivity in patients with NPC based on a defined gene signature. Some key aspects of this signature have been validated in vitro using relevant cell lines which strengthens the conclusions of this important and convincing study. The publication will be of interest to clinicians working on this indication as well as a more broader readership made up of scientists working on radiation biology and those with a bioinformatics/machine learning background.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study represents a potentially useful tool for extracting quantitative data from intravital microscopy directed at in vivo cancer models. In general, this is an area of interest as accessible non-proprietary tools are needed and some evidence of the tool's utility is provided. However, the work in its current form is incomplete as it is heavily reliant on proprietary software to segment, track, and correct the data. In addition, there are significant reservations regarding the methods used to produce statistics in the software, limiting its applicability and the potential advance over other approaches.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The study identifies the adhesion G-protein-coupled receptor A3 (ADGRA3) as a potential target for activating adaptive thermogenesis in white and brown adipose tissue, providing valuable information for scientists in the field of adipose tissue biology and metabolism. Although the authors have addressed some concerns raised by reviewers, the interpretations remain somewhat limited, and the work is deemed incomplete. The evidence supporting ADGRA3's role in thermogenesis is insufficient, necessitating more rigorous experiments to validate the receptor's relevance in adipose tissue. Additionally, the lack of experiments using primary cultures, despite feedback from multiple reviewers, highlights significant shortcomings.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This manuscript reports important data providing evidence that a 42 amino acid region of Rev7 is necessary and sufficient for interaction with the Rad50-Mre11-Xrs2 complex in budding yeast. The authors conclude that Rev7 inhibits the Rad50 ATPase and the Mre11 nuclease with the exception of ssDNA exonuclease activity. The convincing data largely support the conclusions, although the effect of Rev7 on homologous recombination is less well documented and the observed effect on resection is moderate. Specifically, the result that the Rev7 C-terminal truncation lacking the 42 amino acid region still suppresses homologous recombination is unexpected and unexplained.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors established a useful syndetome differentiation protocol from human induced pluripotent stem cells, guided by single-cell transcriptomic analysis. Their findings could significantly impact the field, particularly for patients needing tendon cell therapy. However, the evidence presented is currently incomplete, as the authors did not yet test the applicability of their protocol across multiple human induced pluripotent stem cell lines.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The study describes a link between beta-amyloid monomers, regulation of microglial activity and assembly of neocortex during development. It brings valuable findings that have theoretical and practical implications in the field of neuronal migration, neuronal ectopia and type II lissencephaly. Unfortunately, the evidence is incomplete and the manuscript would benefit from additional experiments to clarify the relationship between Ric8a and APP and bolster the findings.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study describes the function of Laminin y1-dependent basement membranes in development of the olfactory placode, including morphogenesis of the placode, boundary formation, and olfactory axonal pathfinding. The study uses elegant live imaging approaches and extensive quantitative analyses, combined with detailed mutant analyses to provide a compelling description of the role of Laminin in olfactory placode development. In addition to the contributions this study makes to understanding olfactory placode development, it will also be of broader interest to individuals studying extracellular matrix regulation of tissue morphogenesis, and neural development including neuronal pathfinding.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study suggests that the composition of the extracellular matrix in a mouse model of liver fibrosis changes depending on the cause of liver fibrosis. The data could be used as a foundation for future antifibrotic therapies. The strength of evidence is solid with respect to the use of animal models and proteomic analysis. The study provides a helpful inventory of proteins up or down-regulated, but functional analyses are limited and translational data are lacking.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides valuable insights into the evolutionary histories and cellular infection responses of two Salmonella Dublin genotypes. While the evidence is compelling, a more phylogenetically diverse bacterial collection would enhance the findings. This research is relevant to scientists studying Salmonella and gastroenteritis-related pathogens.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
Following up on their previous work, the authors investigated whether cell-to-cell transmission of HIV-1 activates the CARD8 inflammasome in macrophages. This is important given that inflammasome activation in myeloid cells triggers proinflammatory cytokine release. The data are solid and support the idea that CARD8 is activated by the viral protease and promotes inflammation. However, time-course analyses in primary T cells and macrophages and further information on the specific inflammasome involved would further increase the significance of the study.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study investigates prey capture by archer fish, showing that even though the visuomotor behavior unfolds very rapidly (within 40-70 ms), it is not hardwired; it can adapt to different simulated physics and different prey shapes. Although there was agreement that the model system, experimental design, and main hypothesis are certainly interesting, opinions were divided on whether the evidence supporting the central claims is incomplete. A more rigorous definition and assessment of "reflex speed", more detailed evidence of stimulus control, and a more detailed analysis of individual subjects could potentially increase confidence in the main conclusions.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides evidence that cerebellar projections to the thalamus are required for learning and execution of motor skills in the accelerating rotarod task. This important study adds to a growing body of literature on the interactions between the cerebellum, motor cortex, and basal ganglia during motor learning. The data presentation is generally sound, especially the main observations, with some limitations in describing the statistical methods and a lack of support for two segregated cerebello-thalamic pathways, which is incomplete in supporting the overall claim.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study advances our understanding of the way neurons in the auditory cortex of mice respond to unpredictable sounds. Through the use of state-of-the-art recording methods, compelling evidence is provided that responses to local and global violations in sound sequences are prediction errors and not simply the consequence of stimulus-specific adaptation. Although the cell-type-specific results are intriguing, further work is needed to establish their reliability.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study partially fills the gap in the knowledge of olfaction at the level of the Anterior Olfactory Nucleus (AON) and Piriform Cortex with functional magnetic resonance imaging, electrophysiology, and modeling. The methods used are convincing. Some of the findings confirm ongoing hypotheses, such as the behavioral importance of AON for odor source discrimination. Other results shed light on the dynamics of the connection between the olfactory system and the rest of the brain.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important collection of over 800 new cell type-specific driver lines will be an invaluable resource for researchers studying associative learning in Drosophila. Thoroughly characterized and well documented, this collection will permit researchers to selectively target neurons that deliver information to, or receive it from, the memory center of the fly brain called the Mushroom Body. Given the wealth of new drivers and the genetic access they provide to over 300 cell types, this compelling work will be of interest not only to researchers studying the mechanisms of associative learning but more generally to those dissecting sensorimotor circuits in the fly nervous system.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study compiles a wide range of results on the connectivity, stimulus selectivity, and potential role of the claustrum in sensory behavior. While most of the connectivity results confirm earlier studies, this valuable work provides incomplete evidence that the claustrum responds to multimodal stimuli and that local connectivity is reduced across cells that have similar long-range connectivity. The conclusions drawn from the behavioral results are weakened by the animals' poor performance on the designed task. This study has the potential to be of interest to neuroscientists.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study investigates the relationship between neuronal dynamics in the thalamus and brain state modulation. The claims that a specific channel is a critical player in the regulation of brain-states and ethanol-resistance in mice are supported by convincing evidence. The work will be of interest to systems neuroscientists interested in brain dynamics and behavioural states.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study investigates how AD(H)D affects attention using neural and physiological measures in a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. Solid evidence is provided that individuals diagnosed with AD(H)D differ from control participants in both the encoding of the target sound and the encoding of acoustic interference. The VR paradigm here can potentially bridge lab experiments and real-life experiments. However, the reviewers identified a few potential technical issues that will need to be verified and discussed.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study describes a new analysis strategy to compare active neurons during behavioral tasks across the brain. This is significant because analysing how different brain areas are active during behavior requires better methods. The evidence provided in support of the method is solid. Although useful now, the work may increase its significance following appropriate revisions.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
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. Compelling evidence through rigorous experimental and computational validations support new potential applications of this cheap and simple assay.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides a valuable description of subtypes of V1 neurons, including birthdates and connections to motor neurons. V1 neurons are one of the main groups of inhibitory neurons in the spinal cord. The methods of data collection and analysis are convincing. This work will interest developmental biologists and neuroscientists working on spinal circuits.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study investigates the contribution of cytosolic S100A/8 to neutrophil migration to inflamed tissues. The authors provide convincing evidence for how the loss of cytosolic S100A/8 specifically affects the ability of neutrophils to crawl and subsequently adhere under shear stress. This study will be of interest in fields where inflammation is implicated, such as autoimmunity or sepsis.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study reports the existence of specific spike-timing dependent synaptic plasticity processes at two excitatory synapses of the dentate gyrus granule cells. These synapses link the entorhinal cortex and the dentate gyrus but via different circuits. With state-of-the-art patch-clamp electrophysiological analysis, the authors provide convincing information on the molecular mechanisms underlying these 2 forms of synaptic plasticity showing a critical role for astrocytes in both alongside some features distinctive to each pathway. These results will be of interest to neuroscientists as they uncover detailed plasticity mechanisms involving the hippocampus.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study is deemed to be an important work that carefully deconstructs multi-faceted conditioned fear behavior in mice. The well-controlled experiments provide convincing data that will be of interest to other researchers in the field.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable modeling study explores how biophysical properties of different interneuron subtypes in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) enable production of oscillations that facilitate functions such as spike-timing-dependent plasticity. Simulated networks provide solid evidence that highlights the importance of interactions between interneurons for some forms of spike-timing dependent plasticity. This work will likely be of interest to investigators studying interactions among interneurons, rhythms in the amygdala, and mechanisms of plasticity thought to underlie associative learning.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study demonstrated that ablation of astrocytes in the lumbar spinal cord not only reduced neuropathic pain but also caused microglia activation. The findings presented add considerable value to the current understanding of the role of astrocyte elimination in neuropathic pain, offering convincing evidence that supports existing hypotheses and insights into the interactions between astrocytes and microglial cells, likely through IFN-mediated mechanisms
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The study is valuable to the field, introducing a new model to test BM-periosteal stem cell function in vivo. The authors' findings suggested that periosteal stem cells are linked to hematopoietic regeneration. More comparisons with the conventional model and direct examination of periosteal stem cell factors in hematopoietic regeneration are missing. The observations are solid, however, the limitations in their experimental model made the overall impact incomplete; there is potential for improvements to be made in this area.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study aimed to identify how chronic heat exposure affects subsequent behavior and brain function. This work positively expands the field of thermoregulation. The data were collected using a myriad of next-generation approaches, including extensive behavior testing, thermal monitoring, electrophysiology, circuit mapping, and manipulations. As a result the strength of evidence is mostly solid, however a few weaknesses drove the some of the conclusions to be incompletely supported. These largely circle around the question of how unique these effects are to thermal stress (as opposed to other forms of stress), a lack of statistical analyses and rigor in some of the experiments and figures, and the specificity of the POA-pPVT pathway compared to other inputs to the PVT in the control of observed effects.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable manuscript reports a large-scale, data-driven, biophysically detailed model of the non-barrel primary somatosensory cortex and generates numerous predictions that can further our understanding of how the multiscale organization of the cortex shapes neural activity. While the approach is solid, many of the findings are obtained using a much smaller portion of the model, which, together with the broad scope of the work, makes the narrative somewhat confusing and the strength of findings not entirely clear.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides abundant valuable scRNA-Seq data that profiles fibroblasts involved in myocardium and coronary vasculature development. However, the evidence supporting the authors' claims is currently incomplete. The inclusion of additional citations, more in-depth discussions, and further analyses or experiments to validate the scRNA-Seq data would have significantly strengthened the study. Nonetheless, the scRNA-Seq expression data will be a resource that is of value to researchers in the field.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents two main findings regarding HIV-1 genomic integration. The first, based on convincing evidence in primary cell models, is that HIV-1 induces R loop formation, though the viral driver of this process remains undefined. The second, based on model cell systems with limited physiological relevance to HIV-1, is that a portion of HIV-1 genomes integrates in the vicinity of where R loops form. This finding has the potential to offer fundamental insight into HIV-1 integration, but the strength of the presented evidence was viewed as incomplete and needing additional validation by more direct experimental methods in order to understand what the mechanistic relationship between the formation of R loops and HIV-1 integration is.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This useful study presents a biologically realistic, large-scale cortical model of the rat's non-barrel somatosensory cortex, investigating synaptic plasticity of excitatory connections under varying patterns of external activations and characterizing relations between network architecture and plasticity outcomes. While the model demonstrates several interesting phenomena, the results are less explanatory of causal relationships and more observational in nature; hence the evidence supporting the main conclusions remains incomplete.
-
- Oct 2024
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study explores the interplay between gene dosage and gene mutations in the evolution of antibiotic resistance. The authors provide solid evidence to connect proteostasis with gene duplication during experimental evolution in a model system. If the experiments are found to be rigorous and reproducible, then this paper will be of high interest to other researchers studying antibiotic resistance, proteostasis, and bacterial evolution.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable work explores the timely idea that aperiodic activity in human electrophysiology recordings shows changes in response to task events, which may be relevant for performance, and that these changes could be misinterpreted as oscillatory changes. While it is a timely and interesting topic in principle, in the present form, the analytic approach is incomplete. Further, the data offer inadequate support for the conclusions related to theta without demonstrations that the task evokes theta power. Impressions were split, but there was consensus that the Discussion should be tempered and that revisions would improve the manuscript.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study showing that sleep deprivation increases functional synapses while depleting silent synapses supports previous findings that excitatory signaling increases during wakefulness. This manuscript focuses in particular on AMPA/NMDA ratios. An interesting, although speculative, aspect of the manuscript is the inclusion of a model for the accumulation of sleep need that is based upon the MEF2C transcription factor but also links to the sleep-regulating SIK3-HDAC4/5 pathway. The authors have clarified some questions raised in the previous review, but the evidence for major claims was still found to be incomplete, requiring additional experimentation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This useful study sheds light on the species-specific nature of sperm-oocyte interactions by examining sperm binding and penetration of the zona pellucida across various mammalian species. While the evidence remains incomplete, the authors propose that two distinct mechanisms drive mammalian sperm-oocyte recognition and penetration: a specific, zona pellucida (ZP)-mediated mechanism, and a non-specific, oviductal glycoprotein 1 (OVGP1)-mediated mechanism. Upon revision, this study would offer insights to reproductive biologists, potentially improving porcine in vitro fertilization (IVF) - which is particularly susceptible to polyspermy - and enhancing sperm selection processes in human IVF, ultimately leading to better outcomes in assisted reproduction techniques.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This useful study shows how genetic variation is associated with fecundity following a period of reproductive diapause in female Drosophila. The work identifies the olfactory system as central to successful diapause with associated changes in longevity and fecundity. While the methods used are solid, a limitation of the study, as of any other laboratory-based investigation is the challenge of demonstrating how well measures for fitness related to diapause and its recovery correlates with realities encountered during development in the wild.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents a useful investigation of the use of small, de novo-designed protein binding domains (mini-binders) against the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and EGFR, as ligand binding domains on two classes of synthetic receptors, second-generation synNotch (SNIPR) and CAR. The methods and evidence supporting the focused claims are solid. This work will be of interest to synthetic biologists and cell engineers as a starting point to map out the rules for receptor engineering based on mini-binders and ultimately to advance them in biomedical applications.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors developed a method to allow a hypothermic agent, neurotensin, to cross the blood-brain barrier so it could potentially protect the brain from seizures and the adverse effects of seizures. The work is important because it is known that cooling the brain can protect it but developing a therapeutic approach based on that knowledge has not been done. The paper is well presented and the data are convincing.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
Fallah et al carefully dissect projections from substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) and the globus pallidus externa (GPe) – two key basal ganglia nuclei – to the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN), a brainstem nucleus that has a central role in motor control. They consider inputs from these two areas onto 3 types of downstream PPN neurons – GABAergic, glutamatergic, and cholinergic neurons – and carefully map connectivity along the rostrocaudal axis of the PPN. Overall, this valuable study provided convincing data on PPN connectivity with two key input structures that will provide a basis for further understanding PPN function.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This useful manuscript reports on a new mouse model for LAMA2-MD, a rare but very severe congenital muscular dystrophy; the knockout mice were generated by removing exon3 in the Lama2 gene, which results in a frameshift in exon4 and a premature stop codon. These animals lack any laminin-alpha2 protein and confirm results from previous Lama2 knockout models. Additionally, this study includes transcriptomics data that might be a good resource for the field. However, the experimental evidence supporting the main claims of the manuscript is incomplete, citations of previous Lama2 null mice studies are lacking, and both data presentation and interpretation need improvement.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study makes an important contribution by characterizing the role of the exocyst in secretory granule exocytosis in the Drosophila larval salivary gland. The results are solid and lead to the novel interpretation that the exocyst participates not only in exocytosis, but also in earlier steps of secretory granule biogenesis and maturation. However, the authors are urged to provide additional proof that the exocyst subunit knockdowns were effective and to acknowledge the possibility that inactivation of an essential exocytosis component could indirectly affect other parts of the secretory pathway.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
In this important study, the authors use zebrafish to examine protein absorption in the gut. Using a combination of imaging and single-cell RNA-seq, they characterize a population of lysosome-rich enterocytes that are essential for protein uptake. They find that the microbiome impacts the ability of these cells to uptake protein. The RNA-seq provides a rich dataset for future functional experiments, which makes a convincing case for the importance of these cells.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This fundamental study substantially advances our understanding of how habitat fragmentation and climate change jointly influence bird community thermophilization in a fragmented island system. The authors provide convincing evidence using appropriate and validated methodologies to examine how island area and isolation affect the colonization of warm-adapted species and the extinction of cold-adapted species. While minor clarifications regarding the definition of fragmentation could further enhance the presentation, the study is of high interest to ecologists and conservation biologists, as it provides insight into how ecosystems and communities respond to climate change.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife assessment
This proof-of-concept study focuses on an A->G DNA base editing strategy that converts CAG repeats to CAA repeats in the human HTT gene, which causes Huntington's disease (HD). These studies are conducted in human HEK293 cells engineered with a 51 CAG canonical repeat and in HD knock-in mice harboring 105+ CAG repeats. The findings of this study are valuable for the HD field, applying state-of-the-art techniques. However, the key experiments have yet to be performed in neuronal systems or brains of these mice: actual disease-rectifying effects relevant to patients have yet to observed, leaving the work incomplete.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife assessment
This study presents a useful examination of the prevalence of interactions between amino acids from different periods of Earth's history and coenzymes. While the premise of this work is well founded, the data lend themselves to alternative interpretations, suggesting that the main conclusions might be incompletely supported by the findings. The work would benefit from the inclusion of additional supplementary data and further analysis. This manuscript would be of interest to evolutionary biologists and biophysicists.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife assessment
This is a valuable study of the mechanisms of microtubule organization in pancreatic islet beta cells that enable optimal insulin secretion. Using a combination of live imaging and photo-kinetic assays in an in vitro culture system, the authors provide solid evidence to demonstrate that kinesin-1-mediated microtubule sliding, which has previously been known from neurons and embryos, is essential for establishing the sub-membranous microtubule band in response to glucose levels in beta cells. The inclusion of an animal model or primary cells, as well as data on the physiological relevance of the finding, would have strengthened the study. The work will be of interest to cell biologists studying cytoskeletal dynamics and organelle trafficking and to translational biologists working on diabetes.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
In this valuable paper, the authors created a reporter mouse line in which the Axon Initial Segment (AIS) is intrinsically labeled by an ankyrin-G-GFP fusion protein activated by Cre recombinase, tagging the native Ank3 gene. Using confocal, superresolution, and two-photon microscopy as well as whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo, the authors convincingly document that the subcellular scaffold of the AIS and electrophysiological parameters of labeled cells remain unchanged. They further uncover rapid AIS remodeling following increased network activity in this model system, as well as highly reproducible in vivo labeling of AIS over weeks.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This in several parts valuable study confirms the roles of Dact1 and Dact2, two factors involved in Wnt signaling, during zebrafish gastrulation and demonstrates their genetic interactions with other Wnt components to modulate craniofacial morphologies. Unfortunately, there are several limitations associated with the study, making it challenging to distinguish the primary and secondary effects of each factor, and their roles in craniofacial morphogenesis. The findings of a new potential target of dact1/2-mediated Wnt signaling are potentially of value; however, experimental evidence supporting their functional significance remains incomplete due to inconsistent results and limitations inherent to the overexpression approach.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important work presents a consolidated overview of the NeuroML2 open community standard and provides convincing evidence for its central role within a broader software ecosystem for the development of neuronal models that are open, shareable, reproducible, and interoperable. A major strength of the work is the continued development over more than two decades to establish, maintain, and adapt this standard to meet the evolving needs of the field. This work is of broad interest to the sub-cellular, cellular, computational, and systems neuroscience communities undertaking studies involving theory, modeling, and simulation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This useful study uses an intranasal mouse infection model with Streptococcus suis, a gram-positive bacterial pathogen that causes severe losses in pigs around the world. The manuscript provides insights that the capsular polysaccharide, one of the virulence factors of this pathogen, contributes to tissue dissemination and neurotropism in the host. However, the evidence is currently incomplete, and further experiments and careful interpretation of the current results and methods used are necessary to support the conclusions of the manuscript.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
A regression discontinuity analysis finds essentially no effect of 1 additional year of secondary education on brain structure in adulthood. This is a valuable finding that adds to the literature on the impact of education on brain health. The evidence presented is solid, with strengths including methodological novelty as well as principled study design; the impact is, however, limited as the manipulated variable only relates to a single additional year of education (remaining in education to 15 vs 16 years of age). The interpretation is further missing discussion of the healthy volunteer bias of the UK Biobank sample, amplified in the imaging extension.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This is an important study examining the role of conserved PCH-2 protein at different stages of C. elegans meiosis. The authors use elegant molecular genetic approaches to provide convincing evidence to support their claims. The work will be of interest to scientists studying meiosis, DNA recombination, and chromosome segregation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The manuscript provides important new insights into the mechanisms of statistical learning in early human development, showing that statistical learning in neonates occurs robustly and is not limited to linguistic features but occurs across different domains. The evidence is convincing, although an additional experimental manipulation with conflicting linguistic and non-linguistic information as well as further discussion about the linguistic vs non-linguistic nature of the stimulus materials would have strengthened the manuscript. The findings are highly relevant for researchers working in several domains, including developmental cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, linguistics, and speech pathology.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This paper contains valuable ideas for methodology concerned with the identification of genes associated with disease prognosis in a broad range of cancers. However, there are concerns that the statistical properties of MEMORY are incompletely investigated and described. Further, more precise details about the implementation of the method would increase the replicability of the findings by other researchers.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The study is important - not only for its comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of the developmental trajectory of syncytiotrophoblasts (STBs), but also for its comparative evaluation of primary human placental tissues and two human trophoblast organoid models. The study highlights the utility of these organoid models in advancing research on human STB biology. The conclusions of this work are supported by compelling analyses and experimental evidence.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study uses robust time-dependent microscopy assays to show that during HIV-1 infection, the viral accessory protein Vif causes cell cycle arrest during metaphase and not G2/M as previously thought. The conclusions are convincing in the context of the immortalized cellular models used, and they serve as a starting point to determine whether Vif-dependent regulation of the cell cycle modulates HIV-1 replication and pathogenesis in more physiologically relevant primary cells or in vivo.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important work investigates the mechanism that underlies the switch between feeding and mating behaviors in the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis. Using a variety of approaches, the authors show that this switch is mediated by the neuropeptide, sulfakinin, acting peripherally through the sulfakinin receptor 1 to regulate the expression of antennal odorant receptors. The evidence is solid in support of the hypothesis that sulfakinin signaling mediates changes in the periphery, although additional experimental details would strengthen these claims.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
Shen et al. present a computational account of individual differences in mouse exploration when faced with a novel object in an open field from a previously published study (Akiti et al.) that relates subject-specific intrinsic exploration and caution about potential hazards to the spectrum of behaviors observed in this setting. Overall, this computational study is an important contribution that leverages a very general modeling framework (a Bayes Adaptive Markov Decision Process) to quantify and interrogate distinct drivers of exploratory behavior under potential threat. Given their assumptions, the modeling results are convincing: the authors are able to describe a substantial amount of the behavioral features and idiosyncracies in this dataset, and their model affords a normative interpretation related to inherent risk aversion and predation hazard "flexibility" of individual animals and should be of broad interest to researchers working to understand open-ended exploratory behaviors.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This useful study examines the function of the rnc gene, which encodes the RNase III ribonuclease, as it relates to virulence of Salmonella Enteritidis. The authors demonstrate that the rnc gene is markedly upregulated in strains proposed to exhibit high virulence and that the product of the rnc gene promotes the expression of SodA, which contributes to the survival of Salmonella Enteritidis in the face of oxidative stress. The study also suggests that elevated levels of rnc gene expression assist Salmonella Enteritidis in evading immune responses by diminishing the presence of accumulated double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), although the evidence substantiating this and the above assertions remains incomplete.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors propose that positive biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships found in experiments have been exaggerated because commonly used statistical analyses are flawed. To remedy this, a new type of analysis based on a concept of "partial density monoculture yield" is proposed. However, the presented concept and analysis methods are not reproducibly described, do not appear to be complete, and are inadequate for hypothesis testing. The reviewers found that the authors misinterpret current research in the field and made limited efforts to understand or address the reviewer comments on a previous version of the study.
-
-
-
eLife Assessment
The authors present an important theoretical framework that describes the interplay between liquid-liquid phase separation and protein aggregation within a mean-field model. This work will be of high interest to the biophysics and molecular biology communities, as it will help understand and analyse assembly within biomolecular condensates in cells or in-vitro. Major strengths of this convincing work are the consideration of aggregates with various dimensionality and the possibility for protein gelation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study provides an experimental paradigm and state-of-the-art analysis method for studying the existence of call types and transition differences among Mongolian gerbil families in a naturalistic environment. The analyses are convincing, with a thorough treatment of the acoustic data and a demonstration of the robustness of the observed effect across days. The work will likely be of interest to the auditory neuroscience and neuroethology communities.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study investigates evolutionary aspects around a single amino acid polymorphism, known to be under long-term balancing selection, in an immune peptide of Drosophila melanogaster. Using alleles with different substitutions, the investigators demonstrate that while one allele provides better survival after systemic infections by a bacterial pathogen, the alternative allele endows its carriers with a longer lifespan under certain conditions. The authors suggest that these contrasting fitness effects of the two alleles contribute to balancing their long-term evolutionary fate. While the work is very interesting, the strength of the provided evidence is still incomplete, and the study would benefit from more rigorous approaches.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This manuscript addresses infections of the parasite Taenia solium, which causes neurocysticercosis (NCC). NCC is a common parasitic infection that leads to severe neurological problems. It is a major cause of epilepsy, but little is known about how the infection causes epilepsy. The authors used neuronal recordings, imaging of calcium transients in neurons, and glutamate-sensing fluorescent reporters. A strength of the paper is the use of both rodent and human preparations. The results provide convincing evidence that the larvae secrete glutamate and this depolarizes neurons. Although it is still uncertain exactly how epilepsy is triggered, the results suggest that glutamate release contributes. Therefore, the paper is a fundamental step towards understanding how Taenia solium infection leads to epilepsy.
Tags
Annotators
URL
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents a valuable new method for probing the DNA and proteins associated with targeted genomic elements in cells. The authors present solid evidence that the method can map DNA-DNA interactions for individual loci and can detect enriched proteins at repetitive DNA loci such as telomeres, but benchmarks of the method's resolution and specificity remain incomplete. The methodological details of this study will be of particular interest and utility to chromatin biologists.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable paper describes the crystal structure of a complex of Sld3-Cdc45-binding domain (CBD) with Cdc45, which is essential for the assembly of an active Cdc45- MCM-GINS (CMG) double hexamers at the replication origin. Although the results shown in the paper are of interest to researchers in DNA replication and genome stability, the biochemical analysis of protein-protein interaction and DNA binding is incomplete, and the paper needs additional data and revised discussion.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The aim of this useful study is to investigate the role of semilunar granule cells on memory engrams in the dentate gyrus. Which cells get recruited during contextual memory processing is a timely and significant question. However, evidence for the study's major conclusions is currently incomplete due to caveats in study design, technical limitations, and missing controls.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study offers a valuable genomic dataset, analyses, and functional studies on gonadal sex determination and development. The work addresses long-standing questions regarding the role of the Drosophila sex determination hierarchy, sex chromosomes, and the interaction between the sex determination hierarchy and sex chromosome composition in gonad development. Although this convincing work has been conducted rigorously, the authors missed some key opportunities in their analysis.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The study presents important findings that reveal SEPHS2 and VPS37C as new potential drug targets for dasatinib and hydroxychloroquine respectively in addition to confirming known targets of these drugs. The evidence provided is solid, however, some of the claims are not fully supported by the data. To enhance the conclusions and readability, the writing clarity, data analysis and justification of experimental design rationale need to be worked on to enhance the study's interest among chemical biologists, biochemists, and scientists in drug discovery.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable paper shows image correlation spectroscopy (ICS) as a new tool to analyze the clustering of proteins involved in DNA damage response (DDR). The solid evidence presented demonstrates that this method is more sensitive than traditional focus counting, although some of the claims require further contextualization. This new method provides an alternative tool to analyze immuno-stained focus for researchers in the fields of DDR and cell biology.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study provides a comprehensive analysis of how substitutions within the catalytic domain of the tyrosine kinase Met affect its sensitivity to inhibition by ATP-competitive, small molecule inhibitors and provides a mechanistic framework for understanding drug resistance. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing, the data sets are comprehensive, and the analyses are rigorous. This work will be of broad interest to biochemists, structural biologists, and medicinal chemists.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study leverages an impressive and comprehensive longitudinal 16S microbiome dataset from baboons to provide insights regarding the use of a microbiome-based clock to predict biological age, with solid evidence for age-associated microbiome features and environmental and social variables that impact microbiome aging. This study of microbiomes as markers of host age will be relevant to a broad range of researchers, especially those interested in alternatives to measuring biological aging.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This is a valuable report of tracheal terminal cells (TTCs) in Drosophila being immune privileged. The authors demonstrated that TTCs lack the expression of membrane-associated peptidoglycan recognition receptor PGRP-LC, which protects these cells from activating immune pathway or JNK-mediated cell death to maintain TTC homeostasis. While genetic experiments using RNAi and overexpression are mostly convincing, the data on the expression of PGRP-LCx and cell death phenotypes following immune activation are currently incomplete. The work will be of interest to researchers in innate immunity across various model systems.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This useful study presents the first detailed and comprehensive description of brain sulcus anatomy of a range of carnivoran species based on a robust manual labeling model allowing species comparisons. Although the database is recognized and the method for reconstructing cortical surfaces is convincing, the evidence supporting the conclusions is incomplete due to the lack of appropriate quantitative measurements and analyses. Considering additional specimens to assess intraspecies variations, as well as exploring the functional correlates of interspecies differences would increase the scope of the study. Setting an instructive foundation for comparative anatomy, this study will be of interest to neuroscientists and neuroimaging researchers interested in that field, as well as in brain morphology and sulcal patterns, their phylogeny, and ontogeny in relation to functional development and behaviour.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important paper by Lechler and colleagues describes the transcriptomic signature and fate of intermediate cells (ICs), a transient and poorly defined embryonic cell type in the skin. The paper convincingly shows through lineage tracing that ICs are granular and not spinous cell precursors, and through ectopic expression in vivo, that cell contractility, a mechanical feature of ICs, lies upstream of differentiation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study shows that eliminating a large portion of the principal neurons in the mammalian olfactory bulb does not affect the initial establishment of the circuit but has an impact on its maintenance. The strength of the paper is that the anatomical changes induced by genetic ablation of neurons are clear-cut. There is solid support for the findings, with a description of the structural and behavioral effects of ablating the majority of M/T neurons.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study presents a valuable finding on a potential signaling pathway responsible for the direct effects of nicotine on intestinal stem cell growth and tumorigenesis. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid. This research will be of interest to medical biologists specializing in intestinal tumors.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study provides an important re-evaluation of modality-specific information processing in the thalamus of trained mice. Using an elegant task design that probes competing tactile and visual stimuli, the authors present compelling evidence that behavioral training reshapes the sensitivity of higher-order thalamic nuclei. Despite the powerful task design and the significance of the main findings, the origin of the cross-modal responses remains an open question and requires future investigation.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This paper addresses an important topic (normative trajectory modelling), seeking to provide a method aiming to accurately reflect the individual deviation of longitudinal/temporal change compared to the normal temporal change characterized based on a pre-trained population normative model. The evidence provided for the new methods is, however, incomplete, with the simulations validating the method needing to be extended.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This article presents valuable findings on the impact of climate change on odonates, integrating phenological and range shifts to broaden our understanding of biodiversity change. The study leverages extensive natural history data, offering a combined analysis of temporal trends in phenology and distribution and their potential drivers. The support for the findings is solid, though additional clarification regarding the methods and alternative sensitivity analyses could make the conclusions stronger.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study poses an important step forward in understanding the brain-network embedding of beta oscillations. The study advances our circuit-level understanding of the pathophysiology associated with dopaminergic alterations in psychiatric or neurological disorders. The study provides compelling evidence that beta oscillations across the neocortex and basal ganglia map onto shared functional and structural networks that show significant positive correlations with dopamine receptors.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study substantially advances our understanding of nocturnal animal navigation and the ways that animals use polarized light. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with elegant behavioural experiments in actively navigating ants. The work will be of interest to biologists working on animal navigation or sensory ecology.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important study presents a statistical framework for the analysis of photometry signals and provides an open-source implementation. The evidence supporting the benefits of the presented functional mixed-effect modeling analysis as opposed to 1) summary statistics and 2) other pointwise regression models is convincing with a thorough comparison with other methods and datasets. This work will be of great interest to researchers using not only fiber photometry, but other time-series data such as calcium imaging or electrophysiology data, and wanting to implement trial-by-trial temporal analysis, taking also into account variability within the dataset.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This valuable study is a companion to a paper introducing a theoretical framework and methodology for identifying Cancer Driving Nucleotides (CDNs). The evidence that recurrent SNVs or CDNs are common in true cancer driver genes is convincing, with more limited evidence that many more undiscovered cancer driver mutations will have CDNs, and that this approach could identify these undiscovered driver genes with about 100,000 samples.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This important paper introduces a theoretical framework and methodology for identifying Cancer Driving Nucleotides (CDNs), primarily based on single nucleotide variant (SNV) frequencies. A variety of solid approaches indicate that a mutation recurring three or more times is more likely to reflect selection rather than being the consequence of a mutation hotspot. The method is rigorously quantitative, though the requirement for larger datasets to fully identify all CDNs remains a noted limitation. The work will be of broad interest to cancer geneticists and evolutionary biologists.
-
-
arxiv.org arxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors proposed an important novel deep-learning framework to estimate posterior distributions of tissue microstructure parameters. The method shows superior performance to conventional Bayesian approaches and there is convincing evidence for generalizing the method to use data from different protocol acquisitions and work with models of varying complexity.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The manuscript reports a valuable finding on dopamine receptor-mediated regulation, the firing of striatal cholinergic interneurons in both healthy and dyskinesia states, identifying that Kv1 channels play a key role in the burst-dependent pause. The study presents solid experimental data, and provides additional mechanistic insights into how burst activity in SCINs leads to a subsequent pause, highlighting the involvement of D1/D5 receptors. This work will be of interest to researchers studying the pathological mechanisms of Parkinson's disease.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
This study introduces a novel method for estimating spatial spectra from irregularly sampled intracranial EEG data, revealing cortical activity across all spatial frequencies, which supports the global and integrated nature of cortical dynamics. The study showcases important technical innovations and rigorous analyses, including tests to rule out potential confounds; however, the lack of comprehensive theoretical justification and assumptions about phase consistency across time points renders the strength of evidence incomplete. The dominance of low spatial frequencies in cortical phase dynamics continues to be of importance, and further elaboration on the interpretation and justification of the results would strengthen the link between evidence and conclusions.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors show MRI relaxation time changes that are claimed to originate from cell membrane potential changes. This would be very important if true because it may provide a mechanism whereby membrane potential changes could be inferred noninvasively. However, the membrane potential manipulations applied here will induce cell swelling, and cell swelling has been previously shown to affect relaxation time. Therefore, the claim that the relaxation time changes observed in this manuscript are due to cell membrane potential changes is inadequately supported.
-
-
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
-
eLife Assessment
The authors have provided a valuable addition to the literature on large-scale electrophysiological experiments across many labs. The evidence that the authors provided was incomplete - while some comparisons with analyses outside of the manuscript's approaches were provided, a more complete manuscript would have compared with alternative standardized analyses. In particular, alternative spike sorting metrics and the alternative of GLM-based analysis of data would have made the interpretation of the results clearer.
-