eLife Assessment

The authors provide a convincing summary of ten years of Brain Initiative funding including the historical development, the specific funding mechanisms, and examples of grants funded and work produced. It is particularly valuable at this moment in history, given the cataclysmic changes in the US government structure and function occurring in early 2025.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript provides valuable insights into the heterogeneity of hematopoietic stem cells and age-associated myeloid-biased hematopoiesis. While several aspects of the study are intriguing and merit further investigation, the current results remain incomplete and additional data are necessary to substantiate the conclusions. Some of the methods and data analyses partially support the claims.

eLife Assessment

In this valuable study, Taber et al used a battery of biophysical and structural approaches to characterize the impact of erythrocytosis-related mutations in prolyl hydroxylase domain protein 2 (PHD2). The authors show that PHD2 mutant proteins are destabilized, thus supporting the tenet that dysregulation of PHD2/hypoxia induced factor (HIF) axis underpins erythrocytosis, while providing incomplete evidence that N-terminal ODD prolyl hydroxylation of HIF is indispensable for these phenotypes. Notwithstanding that this study was found to be of broad interest for a variety of fields focusing on oxygen sensing in homeostasis and pathological states, resolving inconsistencies in the biophysical analysis (e.g., NMR, SEC, and BLI/MST) was thought to be warranted to further corroborate the proposed model.

eLife Assessment

Based on several lines of interesting data, the authors conclude that FMRP, though associated with stalled ribosomes, does not determine the position on the mRNAs at which ribosomes stall. Although this conclusion would be valuable if clearly established, the current set of data are incomplete and it is unclear if the methodologies applied in this paper are fully adequate to address this gap.

eLife Assessment

In this study, the authors investigate the role of ZMAT3, a p53 target gene, in tumor suppression and RNA splicing regulation. Using quantitative proteomics, the authors uncover that ZMAT3 knockout leads to upregulation of HKDC1, a gene linked to mitochondrial respiration, and that ZMAT3 suppresses HKDC1 expression by inhibiting c-JUN-mediated transcription. This set of convincing evidence reveals a fundamental mechanism by which ZMAT3 contributes to p53-driven tumor suppression by regulating mitochondrial respiration.

eLife Assessment

In their study, Neiswender et al. provide important insights into how BicD2 variants linked to spinal muscular atrophy alter dynein activity and cargo specificity. While the findings suggest disease-relevant changes in BicD2's binding partners, the evidence connecting these changes to disease mechanisms remains incomplete and would benefit from further experimental validation. The work lays a strong foundation for future research, but could be strengthened by deeper functional analysis of key interactions, such as the BicD2/HOPS complex.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study identifies asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) histones as potential determinants of the initial genomic binding of Rhino, a Drosophila-specific chromatin protein essential for piRNA cluster specification. The authors provide correlative genomic and imaging data to support their model, although functional validation of the proposed mechanism remains incomplete. The authors could revise the manuscript to reflect that they have uncovered a small subset of piRNA clusters dependent on ADMA-histones, which may not be the general rule.

eLife Assessment

This is a useful study in the role of CHI3L1 in Kupffer cells, the macrophages of the liver, showing that CHI3L1 alters glucose regulation in obesity. Specifically, Chi3l1 protects glucose-dependent Kupffer cells during Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) by inhibiting glucose uptake, preventing metabolic stress and death. These data are compelling, yet require further validation.

eLife Assessment

This valuable manuscript provides convincing evidence that BK and CaV1.3 channels can co-localize as ensembles early in the biosynthetic pathway, including in the ER and Golgi. The findings, supported by a range of imaging and proximity assays, offer insights into channel organization in both heterologous and endogenous systems. However, mechanistic questions remain unresolved, particularly regarding the specificity of mRNA co-localization, the dynamics of ensemble trafficking, and the functional significance of pre-assembly at the plasma membrane. While the data broadly support the central claims, certain conclusions would benefit from more restrained interpretation and additional clarification to enhance the manuscript's impact and rigor.

eLife Assessment

This study provides valuable insights into a new toxin-antidote element in C. elegans, the first naturally occurring unlinked toxin-antidote system where endogenous small RNA pathways post-transcriptionally suppress the toxin. The strength of evidence is solid, using a combination of genomic and experimental methods. Enthusiasm, however, is tempered by its reliance on meta-analysis of existing data sets and limited experimental evaluation.

eLife Assessment

This important study uses long-term behavioural observations to understand the factors that influence female-on-female aggression in gorilla social groups. The evidence supporting the claims is convincing, as it includes novel methods of assessing aggression and considers other potential factors. The work will be of interest to broad biologists working on the social interactions of animals.

eLife Assessment

This important work by Malita et al. describes a mechanism by which an intestinal infection causes an increase in daytime sleep through signaling from the gut to the blood-brain barrier. Their findings suggest that cytokines upd3 and upd2 produced by the intestine following infection act on glia of the blood brain barrier to regulate sleep by modulating Allatostatin A signaling. The evidence is compelling and elegantly performed using the ample Drosophila genetic toolbox, making this work appealing for a broad group of neuroscience researchers interested in sleep and gut-brain interactions.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study investigates the selectivity of neuronal responses in the neocortex and thalamus to visual stimuli presented far outside their receptive fields. The study shows convincing evidence for a long-latency surround-induced response in primary visual cortex that is absent in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus and does not depend strongly on the visual characteristics of the surround stimulus. The paper should be of interest to neurophysiologists interested in vision and contextual modulations.

eLife Assessment

This important study addresses how wing morphology and kinematics change across hoverflies of different body sizes. The authors provide convincing evidence that there is no significant correlation between body size and wing kinematics across 28 species and instead argue that non-trivial changes in wing size and shape evolved to support flight across the size range. Overall, this paper illustrates the power and beauty of an integrative approach to animal biomechanics and will be of broad interest to biologists, physicists and engineers.

eLife Assessment

This is an overall valuable set of findings on the role of centrally produced estrogens in the control of behaviors in male and female medaka. The significance of the findings rests on the revealed potential mechanism between brain derived estrogens modulating social behaviors in males as well as females. The results are supported by the analysis of multiple transgenic lines although the evidence is incomplete, and further validation would be necessary to fully validate the conclusions on the role of brain-derived estrogens. Nonetheless, the findings have led to helpful hypotheses on the hormonal control of behaviors in teleosts that can be tested further.

eLife Assessment

This important study combines imaginative experiments to demonstrate the relevance of poroelasticity in the mechanical properties of cells across physiologically relevant time and length scales. Through innovative experiments and a finite element model, the authors present solid evidence that cytosolic flows and pressure gradients can persist in cells with permeable membranes, generating spatially segregated influx and outflux zones. These findings will be of interest to the cell biology and biophysics communities. Nevertheless, a more in depth discussion of why other possible explanations for the long time scales associated to mechanical propagation are less effective could further strengthen their message.

eLife Assessment

This study makes a novel and valuable contribution by adapting step selection functions, traditionally used in animal ecology, to explore human movement and environmental risk exposure in urban slums, offering a promising framework for spatial epidemiology, particularly regarding leptospirosis. The integration of GPS telemetry with environmental data and the stratification by gender and serostatus are notable strengths that enhance the study's relevance for public health applications. The strength of evidence is compelling.

eLife Assessment

Alignment and sequencing errors are a major concern in molecular evolution, and this valuable study represents a welcome improvement for genome-wide scans of positive selection. This new method seems to perform well and is generally convincing, although the evidence could be made more direct and more complete through additional simulations to determine the extent to which alignment errors are being properly captured.

eLife Assessment

In this valuable study, the authors provide a simple yet elegant approach to identifying therapeutic targets that synergize to prevent therapeutic resistance in ovarian cancer using cell lines, data-independent acquisition proteomics, and bioinformatic analysis. The authors convincingly identify several combinations of pharmaceuticals that were able to overcome or prevent therapeutic resistance in culture models of ovarian cancer, a disease with an unmet diagnostic and therapeutic need. However, the extent to which these findings may extend to more complex models of ovarian cancer remains unclear.

eLife Assessment

This is a valuable study that suggests that HPV-human DNA junctions can be identified from cfDNA in women with cervical cancer and that detection of these junctions is indicative of recurrence. The evidence supporting the conclusions is incomplete, in part because the numbers of reads identifying breakpoints in tumor samples or in circulating cell-free serum samples are not provided. More quantitative analysis will be required to confirm that the breakpoints represented in cell-free DNA can be used as a surrogate to monitor the recurrence of cervical cancer cells, and additional patient studies would also be needed to strengthen the study. This work will be of interest to those who study and treat cervical cancer as well as other HPV-related malignancies.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript reports an important finding for understanding the molecular mechanisms of mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, and senescence. It follows a previous report showing that the Werner syndrome protein WRN and its interacting protein WRNIP1 are indispensable for translesion DNA synthesis (TLS) by Y-family DNA polymerases (Pols). The manuscript provides convincing evidence that WRN and WRNIP1 ATPases, in addition to the previously reported role of the WRN 3'>5' exonuclease activity, are essential for promoting the fidelity of replication through DNA lesions by Y-family Pols in human cells.

eLife Assessment

This study presents important findings on increased ground beetle diversity in strip cropping compared with crop monocultures. Solid methods are used to analyze data from multiple sites with heterogeneous systems of mixed crops, allowing broad conclusions, albeit at the expense of lacking taxonomic specificity. The work will be of interest to all those applying plant diversity treatments to improve the diversity of associated animals in agricultural fields.

eLife Assessment

This important study investigates how hummingbird hawkmoths integrate stimuli from across their visual field to guide flight behavior. Cue conflict experiments provide solid evidence for an integration hierarchy within the visual field: hawkmoths prioritize the avoidance of dorsal visual stimuli, potentially to avoid crashing into foliage, while they use ventrolateral optic flow to guide flight control. These findings will be of broad interest to enthusiasts of visual neuroscience and flight behavior.

eLife Assessment

By combining the 'pinging' technique with fMRI-based multivariate pattern analysis, this important study provides convincing evidence for a dual-format of attentional representation during preparatory period. The result reconciles the competing views between the sensory-like versus non-sensory accounts of attentional template and advances our understanding of how the brain flexibly utilizes different versions of template to guide attention. This work will be of interest to researchers in psychology, vision science, and cognitive science.

eLife Assessment

This study aims to clarify the effects of cochlear neural degeneration on auditory processing in listeners with normal audiograms (sometimes referred to as 'hidden hearing loss'). 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, the findings pose compelling evidence that cochlear synaptopathy is associated with a significant part of hearing difficulties in complex environments.

eLife Assessment

This study provides valuable findings on the effects of mating experience on sweet taste perception. The data as presented provide convincing evidence that the dopaminergic signaling-mediated reward system underlies this mating state-dependent behavioral modulation. The work will interest neuroscientists and particularly biologists working on neuromodulation and the effects of internal states on sensory perception.

eLife Assessment

The authors examine the effect of cell-free chromatin particles (cfChPs) derived from human serum or from dying human cells on mouse cells in culture and propose that these cfChPs can serve as vehicles for cell-to-cell active transfer of foreign genetic elements. The work presented in this paper is intriguing and potentially important, but it is incomplete. At this stage, the claim that horizontal gene transfer can occur via cfChPs is not well supported because it is only based on evidence from one type of methodological approach (immunofluorescence and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH)) and is not validated by whole genome sequencing.

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 three types of downstream PPN neurons - GABAergic, glutamatergic, and cholinergic neurons - and carefully map connectivity along the rostrocaudal axis of the PPN. Overall, this important study provides convincing data on PPN connectivity with two key input structures that will provide a basis for further understanding PPN function.

eLife Assessment

This useful modeling study shows how spatial representations similar to experiment emerge in a recurrent neural network trained on a navigation task by requiring path integration and decodability, but without relying on grid cells. The network modeling results are solid, although the link to experimental data may benefit from further development.

eLife Assessment

This important work by Diallo et al. substantially advances our understanding of the chemosensory system of a non-hymenopteran eusocial insect by identifying the first olfactory receptor for the trail pheromone in termites. The evidence supporting the conclusions that the receptor PsimOR14 is very narrowly tuned for the pheromone neocembrene is compelling. The work will be of broad interest to entomologists, chemical ecologists, neuroscientists, and molecular biologists.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript reports effects of a single dose of methamphetamine vs placebo on a probabilistic reversal learning task with different levels of noise, in a large group of young healthy volunteers. The paper is well written and the methods are rigorous. The findings are important and have theoretical or practical implications beyond a single a subfield. The strength of the evidence is convincing, with the methods, data, and analyses broadly supporting the claims in the paper, which are sufficiently qualified given the lack of a significant effect of the binary baseline performance variable, and the nonlinear effect of individual differences in baseline performance.

eLife Assessment

Bonnifet et al. present data on the expression and interacting partners of the transposable element L1 in the mammalian brain. The work includes important findings addressing the potential role of L1 in aging and neurodegenerative disease. The reviewers conclude that several aspects of the study are well done. However, the experimental evidence presented supporting the L1 increase with aging is not fully conclusive and this finding remains incomplete in its current form.

eLife Assessment

This fundamental study describes patterns of anatomical connectivity between the cortex and the thalamus using magnetic resonance imaging data in humans and non-human primates. The measures are related to numerous other modalities to develop a robust understanding of the organisation of the system. The authors provide convincing evidence that there is a difference between sensory and association cortices in terms of their connectivity with the thalamus, which may have downstream effects on brain function. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in the organization and dynamics of cortico-thalamic circuits.

eLife Assessment

The manuscript reports fundamental findings supported by convincing data that supports the biological mechanism for optimal nodulation in soybean. The results are of relevance to understanding the signaling pathways (specifically those dependent on RIN4/RPM1-interacting protein 4) underpinning beneficial rhizobia symbiosis, while repressing the immune response.

eLife Assessment

This paper shows that it is possible to optogenetically activate single retinal ganglion cells in vivo in monkeys. This is an important step towards towards causal tests of the role of specific ganglion cell types in visual perception. The paper presents convincing evidence for the promise of the approach but further work will be needed to full explore its limitations and specificity.

eLife Assessment

The study reports an important finding on the role of the global metabolic regulator Crp/cAMP in the formation of antibiotic persister Escherichia coli. The evidence supporting the claims is solid including metabolomic analysis and characterization of many mutant strains.

eLife Assessment

This study introduces a valuable spring-bead model for epithelial cell layers, designed to improve previous cell-resolved approaches and to understand the connection between the biophysics of cell-cell contacts and the tissue mechanics. While the model is not entirely new and does not fully settle open questions such as the role of adhesion in tissue fluidity, it provides solid evidence and stands out as simple and efficient. A more comprehensive comparison with previous cell-revolved approaches and, in particular, with experimental data, would further strengthen the proposed model as a conceptual and practical tool.

eLife Assessment

This important study utilizes the nematode C. elegans and mammalian cell culture to investigate the role of MML-1/Mondo in conserved regulation of metabolism and aging. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing and covers a range of areas including localization, upstream pathways, and conservation. The paper will be of interest to a broad range of biologists studying aging, metabolism, and transcriptional regulation.

eLife Assessment

This Research Advance manuscript further elucidates the roles of SMC5/6 loader proteins and associated factors in the silencing of extrachromosomal circular DNA by the SMC5/6 complex. While the findings are largely in line with expectations, they are useful, representing a meaningful advance beyond the recent study (reference 33), contributing to a growing foundation for further comparative and mechanistic investigations. Solid evidence is presented for a role for SIMC1/SLF2 in the localization of the SMC5/6 complex to plasmid DNA, and the distinct requirements, as compared to the recruitment of SMC5/6 to chromosomal DNA lesions.

eLife Assessment

This study provides an important understanding of the contribution of different striatal subregions, the anterior Dorsal Lateral Striatum (aDLS) and the posterior Ventrolateral Striatum (pVLS), to auditory discrimination learning. The authors have included robust behavior combined with multiple observational and perturbation techniques. The data provided are convincing of the relevance of task-related activity in these two subregions during learning.

eLife Assessment

This valuable paper used a longitudinal cohort of individuals initiating ART to suggest that CD8+ T cells may contribute to the clearance of intact HIV DNA during long-term antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV, which is relevant to our understanding of the mechanisms driving reservoir persistence in people living with HIV. The reviewers concluded that the evidence presented is incomplete to fully support these claims, as the cohort sampling is relatively infrequent, and the association direction could be bi-directional or due to other confounding variables.

eLife Assessment

This paper examines selection on induced epigenetic variation ("Lamarckian evolution") in response to herbivory in Arabidopsis thaliana. The authors find weak evidence for such adaptation, which contrasts with a recently published study that reported extensive heritable variation induced by the environment. The authors convincingly demonstrate that the findings of the previous study were confounded by mix-ups of genetically distinct material, so that standing genetic variation was mistaken for acquired (epigenetic) variation. Given the controversy surrounding the influence of heritable epigenetic variation on phenotypic variation and adaptation, this study is an important, clarifying contribution; it serves as a timely reminder that sequence-based verification of genetic material should be prioritized when either genetic identity or divergence is of importance to the conclusions.

eLife Assessment

Using a combination of connectomics, optogenetics, behavioral analysis, and modeling, this study provides important findings on the role of two populations of inhibitory neurons in the generation of leg grooming movements in Drosophila. The data as presented provide incomplete evidence that the identified neuronal populations contribute to the alternation of flexion and extension by inhibiting specific sets of motor neurons while disinhibiting their counterparts. While the manuscript provides comprehensive details about the 13A/B neuronal populations involved in grooming control, updates on statistics, and explicit mentioning of experimental/modeling caveats would strengthen the study. The work will interest neuroscientists, and particularly those working on motor control.

eLife Assessment

This study presents a valuable finding on the perturbed pyruvate metabolism in models of repetitive traumatic brain injury. The evidence supporting the main claims of the authors is solid, but much of the accompanying analysis and interpretation relies on incomplete evidence. The work will be of interest to those working on the imaging of traumatic brain injury.

eLife Assessment

This is a valuable and rigorous study that addresses the question of what determines the spatial organization of endocytic zones at synapses. The authors use compelling approaches, in both Drosophila and rodent model systems, to define the role of activity and active zone structure on the organization of the peri-active zone. While the findings are primarily negative, they are carefully executed and contribute to the field by refining existing models of presynaptic organization.

eLife Assessment

The authors conducted a valuable study that investigates a molecular pathway mediating the transformation of a cell aggregate into a sheet known as the nucleus laminaris, a crucial site for auditory processing. While the study offers a comprehensive view of the sequence of developmental events and suggests possible roles for FGF signaling, the transcription factor Mafb, and the cell surface adhesive molecule Cadherin-23 in this process, the current data were considered incomplete.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript provides valuable information on the neurodynamics of emotional processing while participants were watching movie clips. The methods and results were solid in deciphering the temporal-spatial dynamics of emotional processing. This work will be of interest to affective neuroscientists.

eLife Assessment

This important study looks into the effect of exogenous CoA on the response of TLR4-activated macrophages. Specifically, CoA enhances the LPS response by examining metabolomics, 13C tracing, and assessments of transcription and acetylation. Together, these provide a compelling series of findings that show exogenous CoA is taken up by macrophages, and this facilitates histone acetylation and transcription associated with activation and antimicrobial activity.

eLife Assessment

Karimian et al. present a valuable new model to explain how gamma-band synchrony (30-80 Hz) can support human visual feature binding by selectively grouping image elements, countering recent criticisms that the stimulus dependence of gamma oscillations limits their functional role. Grounded in the theory of weakly coupled oscillators and informed by primate electrophysiology, the model captures behavioural patterns observed in human psychophysics, offering support for the potential role of synchrony-based mechanisms, but incomplete evidence for a specific role of gamma oscillations. This work could be strengthened by more direct evidence for the proposed mechanism, and expanding beyond figure-only model inputs with limited ecological validity.

eLife Assessment

The authors present an important multi-scale computational platform, which aims to automate the workflow for coarse-grained simulations of biomolecules in the framework of the popular MARTINI model. The capability of the platform has been convincingly demonstrated by the application to a large number of proteins as well as macrocycles and polymers. This work will be of interest to both computational biophysicists and chemists.

eLife Assessment

This study provides a fundamental analysis of the EmrE efflux pump, highlighting the role of the C-terminal domain in influencing uncoupled proton leak. The integration of biophysical techniques with molecular dynamics simulations offers solid support for the key findings and adds substantial evidence toward a definitive understanding of EmrE transport mechanism.

eLife Assessment

This fundamental study investigates the role of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in physiology and membrane biology, using a unique model to perform a thorough genetic screen that demonstrates that PUFA synthesis defects cannot be compensated for by mutations in other pathways. These findings are supported by compelling evidence from a high quality genetic screen, functional validation of their hits, and lipid analyses. This study will appeal to researchers in membrane biology, lipid metabolism, and C. elegans genetics.

eLife Assessment

The authors design and implement an elegant strategy to delete genomic sequences encoding the dopamine receptor dop1R2 from specific subsets of mushroom body neurons (ab, a'b' and gamma) and show that while none of these manipulations affect short term appetitive or aversive memory, loss of dop1R2 from ab or a'b' block the ability of flies to display measurable forms of longer forms of memory. These findings are important in confirming and extending prior observations, and well supported by convincing evidence that build on precise techniques for genetic perturbation.

eLife Assessment

This important study presents an alternative platform for nanobody discovery using phage-displayed synthetic libraries. The evidence supporting the platform, which is used to isolate and validate nanobodies targeting Drosophila secreted proteins, is compelling. By making the library openly accessible, this provides an excellent resource to the wider scientific community. The paper presents a detailed protocol for nanobody screening; as this protocol is refined and optimized over time, this will increase the success rate for discovering nanobodies with improved properties using this alternative platform.

eLife Assessment

This study reveals a neural signature of a common behavioural phenomenon: serial dependence, whereby estimates of a visual feature (here motion direction) are attracted towards the recent history of encoded and reported stimuli. The study provides solid evidence that this phenomenon arises primarily during working memory maintenance. The pervasiveness of serial dependencies across modalities and species makes these findings important for researchers interested in perceptual decision-making across subfields.

eLife Assessment

In this valuable study, Nold et al. examined exercise-induced pain modulation in a pharmacological within-subject fMRI study using the opioid-antagonist naloxone and different levels of aerobic exercise intensity and pain. This investigation provides solid evidence to show that the intensity of exercise does not seem to impact the hypoalgesic effect. Moreover, exploratory analysis identified that fitness level and sex may potentially play a role in exercise-induced hypoalgesia, and that further confirmatory studies are required in order to verify these findings.

eLife Assessment

This valuable manuscript investigates the localisation of nutrient receptors in bloodstream stage trypanosomes, with implications for both nutrient uptake and immune evasion. Results after direct fixation of the cells in culture medium provide convincing evidence that the amounts of receptors on the surface of the cell, as opposed to the flagellar pocket, have previously been severely underestimated. Some results were essentially confirmatory, and there are questions regarding the quantitation of ligand binding by transferring receptors.

eLife Assessment

The study is a timely and important contribution to our knowledge of the circuit mechanisms of fear analgesia. The novel cue-induced analgesia paradigm allowed a compelling identification of a brainstem circuit element, i.e., somatostatin-expressing neurons within the ventrolateral periaqueductal grey that project to the rostroventral medulla, in mediating fear analgesia. The vlPAG is a known region of pain modulation, and this study adds key insight to the circuit involved in fear-associated analgesia. This work will be of interest to systems and behavioral neuroscientists, especially those interested in emotional behavior, pain, and/or brainstem function.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study addresses the structural basis of voltage-activation of BK channels using atomistic simulations of several microseconds, to assess conformational changes that underlie both voltage-sensing and gating of the pore. The findings, including movement of specific charged residues, combined with the degree to which these movements are coupled to pore movements, provide a solid basis for understanding voltage-gating mechanisms in this class of channels. This paper will likely be of interest to ion channel biologists and biophysicists focused on voltage-dependent channel gating mechanisms.

eLife Assessment

Sanchez-Vasquez et al establish an innovative approach to induce aneuploidy in preimplantation embryos. This important study extends the author's previous publications evaluating the consequences of aneuploidy in the mammalian embryo. In this work, the authors investigate the developmental potential of aneuploid embryos and characterize changes in gene expression profiles under normoxic and hypoxic culture conditions. Using a solid methodology they identify sensitivity to Hif1alpha loss in aneuploid embryos, and in further convincing experiments they assess how levels of DNA damage and DNA repair are altered under hypoxic and normoxic conditions.

eLife Assessment

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of gene expression and bioinformatics data, offering important insights into the roles of fibroblasts in cardiac development. The large and well-analyzed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) dataset is compelling and a significant contribution to the field, and will be of broad interest to the scientific community.

eLife Assessment

This paper identifies a crucial step in the regulation of tight junction formation by identifying Rho-ROCK activity-dependent activation of the serine protease Matriptase, making Claudins available for tight junction formation. The reviewers were satisfied with the revisions and found the work important and the approach convincing.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study by Wu et al presents data on bacterial cell organization, demonstrating that the two structures that account for bacterial motility - the chemotaxis complex and the flagella - colocalize to the same pole in Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells. The work provides convincing results for the regulation underlying this spatial organization and its functioning.

eLife Assessment

This important study demonstrates that slow fluctuations in serotonin release during wakefulness and non-REM sleep correspond to periods of heightened arousal or enhanced offline information processing. The evidence supporting this claim is convincing, and the methodology is robust and broadly applicable, likely to benefit many researchers in the field. This work will be of significant interest to neuroscientists studying sleep, memory, and neuromodulation.

eLife Assessment

This important study by Lee et al. explores the heterogeneous response of non-growing bacteria to the antimicrobial peptide (AMP) tachyplesin. The authors identify a subpopulation of cells that evade lethal damage by limiting the intracellular accumulation of a fluorescently labeled tachyplesin analog. The study provides compelling evidence that reduced drug accumulation underlies the decreased susceptibility of this subpopulation to the AMP. The molecular basis of this phenotype is well supported by the data.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study reports the development of a novel organoid system for studying the emergence of autorhythmic gut peristaltic contractions through the interaction between interstitial cells of Cajal and smooth muscle cells. The authors further utilized the system to provide convincing evidence for a previously unappreciated potential role for smooth muscle cells in regulating the firing rate of interstitial cells of Cajal. The work will be of interest to those studying development and physiology of the gut.

eLife Assessment

The study presents a comprehensive multi-approach and functional investigation of RBMX2 as a host factor involved in Mycobacterium bovis pathogenesis and its potential role in promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition and lung cancer progression. The findings are valuable since the possible connection between M. bovis and lung cancer and the underlying mechanisms provides a promising direction for future research. The evidence is solid with methods, data, and analyses broadly supporting the claims, albeit with minor weaknesses that, if addressed, will make the evidence stronger. The study remains of great interest to microbiology, oncology, and drug discovery scientists.

eLife Assessment

This work describes an inference technique for extracting information about relative contributions of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic drive onto single neurons in neural networks. The electrophysiological techniques and results are of high quality, and the analytical work is novel and potentially powerful, yet with several untested assumptions underlying the approach. This is nevertheless solid work that will be valuable to neuroscience labs interested in exploring alternative approaches to studies of integrated synaptic connectivity.

eLife Assessment

This important paper describes a comprehensive quantitative phospho-proteomic analysis of the meiotic progression of Xenopus oocytes. Using time-resolved proteomic analyses, the authors provide insights into changes in protein levels and phosphorylation states to an unprecedented depth, quality, and quantitative detail. The key findings are compelling and offer a helpful resource for the scientific community.

eLife Assessment

The authors quantified intentions and knowledge gaps in scientists' use of sex as a biological variable in their work, and used a workshop intervention to show that while willingness was high, pressure points centered on statistical knowledge and perceived additional monetary costs to research. These important findings demonstrate the difficulty in changing understanding - while interventions can improve knowledge and decrease perceived barriers, the impact was small. The evidence was solid, although the sample size was small for the intervention.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript presents important findings on how structural color can be manipulated through a specific single-gene mutation in a motile bacterium. Compelling data provide a promising model to identify genes and molecular mechanisms supporting this widespread optical phenomenon. This work will be of interest to biophysicists and microbiologists working on structural colors and Flavobacterium.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript offers important insights into how polyphosphate (polyP) influences protein phase separation differently from DNA. The authors present compelling evidence that polyP distinguishes among protein conformational ensembles, leading to divergent condensate maturation behaviors that include unfolding and polyproline II formation. In response to reviewer feedback, the authors addressed key concerns by incorporating charge-equivalent DNA controls and extending structural analysis to FruR variants, further reinforcing the polymer-specific effects of polyP. While some discrepancies between protein systems remain unresolved, the study enhances our understanding of how biopolymers influence protein assembly and conformational transitions.

eLife Assessment

This important study analyzes the effect of heat treatment on phage-bacterial interactions and convincingly shows that prior heat exposure alters the bacterial cell envelope, enhancing persistence and bacterial survival when exposed to lytic phages. The study will interest researchers working on antibiotic resistance, tolerance, and phage therapy.

eLife Assessment

This important study offers a powerful empirical test of a highly influential hypothesis in population genetics. It incorporates a large number of animal genomes spanning a broad phylogenetic spectrum and treats them in a rigorous unified pipeline, providing the convincing negative result that effective population size scales neither with the content of transposable elements nor with overall genome size. These observations demonstrate that there is still no simple, global hypothesis that can explain the observed variation in transposable element content and genome size in animals.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript reports valuable findings on the role of the Srs2 protein in turning off the DNA damage signaling response initiated by Mec1 (human ATR) kinase. The data provide convincing evidence that Srs2 interaction with PCNA and ensuing SUMO modification is required for checkpoint downregulation. However, while the model that Srs2 acts at gaps after camptothecin-induced DNA damage is reasonable, direct experimental evidence for this is currently lacking. The work will be of interest to cell biologists studying genome integrity.

eLife Assessment

This study reports a fundamental observation concerning cell death regulation by the anti-apoptotic BCL2 family NOXA. The authors convincingly demonstrate that NOXA is destabilized through the interaction with WSB2, a substrate receptor in CRL5 ubiquitin ligase complex, sensitizing the cells to treatments. These are key findings for cell biologists and cancer researchers as they identified a new target impacting drug responsiveness in cancer therapies.

eLife Assessment

This paper reports on a correlation between diminished cardiolipin content and the severity of steatohepatitis in human subjects. This is supported further by experimental evidence from mice in which the gene encoding a key enzyme in cardiolipin synthesis has been compromised in the liver. The correlations established between lipidology, mitochondrial function, and the induction of respiration and oxidative stress are notable and will be useful to researchers in the field. However, given that the causal relationship between lipid perturbation and the progression of steatohepatitis implied in the title has not been tested experimentally, the evidence supporting the paper's key conclusion is incomplete.

eLife Assessment

This important manuscript investigates the role of olfactory cues in Pieris brassicae larvae, focusing on their interactions with the host plant Brassica oleracea and the parasitoid wasp Cotesia glomerata. The authors' demonstration that impaired olfactory perception reduces caterpillar performance and increases susceptibility to parasitism is convincing. These findings highlight the ecological significance of olfaction in mediating feeding behavior and predator avoidance in herbivorous insects.

eLife Assessment

This is an important study that characterized proteins associated with electrical synapses in zebrafish and mouse retinal neurons using proximity labeling approaches, complemented by biochemical and histological validations. The resulting protein interactome datasets are convincing and reveal novel scaffold proteins at the electrical synapse. Additional quantification and validation would strengthen the work further.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study explores changes in remote memory impairment in an amyloid pathology mouse model, demonstrating that progressive deficits coincide with inhibitory interneuron alterations. While the findings shed light on circuit remodeling in this model, the mechanistic links between heightened inhibition and memory loss are currently incomplete. Additional data and deeper analysis may be needed to fully substantiate the authors' interpretations.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study presents a novel approach to enhance the therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) by genetically modifying their glycogen synthesis pathway, resulting in increased glycogen accumulation and improved cell survival under starvation conditions, particularly in the context of experimental pulmonary fibrosis. The methods and findings are generally solid and could be strengthened by investigating the kinetics of persistence, the immunomodulatory effects, and the underlying improved mechanism of action of MSCs in this pulmonary fibrosis model. If confirmed, this approach could suggest potential methods to improve the therapeutic functionality of MSCs in cell therapy strategies.

eLife Assessment

Valencia et al. combine elegant in vitro biochemical experiments with functional assays in cardiomyocytes to determine which properties of the FHOD3 formin are essential for sarcomere assembly. Using separation-of-function mutants, they show that FHOD3's elongation activity, rather than its nucleation, capping, or bundling activities, is key to its sarcomeric function. This is an important finding and the data presented in the manuscript are convincing; however, the presence of FHOD3 at filament barbed ends in the TIRF elongation assays should probably be verified directly in a future study.

eLife Assessment

This useful study presents Altair-LSFM, a solid and well-documented implementation of a light-sheet fluorescence microscope (LSFM) designed for accessibility and cost reduction. While the approach offers strengths such as the use of custom-machined baseplates and detailed assembly instructions, its overall impact is limited by the lack of live-cell imaging capabilities and the absence of a clear, quantitative comparison to existing LSFM platforms. As such, although technically competent, the broader utility and uptake of this system by the community may be limited.

eLife Assessment

This important study identifies a novel Legionella effector, Lfat1, which binds F-actin via a coiled-coil domain and structurally resembles the RID toxin, with cryo-EM revealing key interactions mediated by a hydrophobic helical hairpin. While the study is mostly complete and has compelling data, a few minor changes are recommended.

eLife Assessment

The work provides important insights into how this lncRNA regulates gene expression via complex mechanisms, however, the biological relevance awaits validation in other models. This paper provides extensive and carefully analysed data that is of value in efforts to understand the role of the lncRNA EPB41L4A-AS1 in a human cell line. The data is generally convincing and supported by clever integrative analysis; however, the known extensive artefacts from individual Gapmer oligonucleotides cast some doubt over the interpretation of those experiments where only one targeting and one control Gapmer are used.

eLife Assessment

In this manuscript, the authors describe a software package for automatic differentiation of action potentials generated by excitatory and inhibitory neurons, acquired using high-density microelectrode arrays. The work is valuable as it offers a tool with the potential to automatically identify these neuron types in vitro. However, it is incomplete due to limited comparison with ground truth data from optogenetically identified interneuron subtypes and with existing spike sorting pipelines available to users.

eLife Assessment

This study provides important information on the ultrastructural organization of layer 1 of the human neocortex. The quantitative assessment of various synaptic parameters, astrocytic coverage and mitochondrial morphology is based on convincing experimental approaches. These data provide new information on the detailed morphology of human neocortical tissue that will be of interest to neuroscientists working on different network functions.

eLife Assessment

This study provides valuable insights into the organization of second-order circuits of gustatory neurons, particularly in how these circuits integrate opposing taste inputs and are modulated by metabolic state to regulate feeding behavior. Through an elegant combination of complementary techniques, the authors identify the target neurons involved in gustatory integration. The evidence supporting their conclusions is convincing.

eLife Assessment

This theoretical study makes a useful contribution to our understanding of a subtype of type 2 diabetes - ketosis-prone diabetes mellitus (KPD) - with a potential impact on our broader understanding of diabetes and glucose regulation. The article presents an ordinary differential equation-based model for KPD that incorporates a number of distinct timescales - fast, slow, as well as intermediate, incorporating a key hypothesis of reversible beta cell deactivation. The presented evidence is solid and shows that observed clinical disease trajectories may be explained by a simple mathematical model in a particular parameter regime.

eLife Assessment

The findings are important and intriguing, with theoretical or practical implications beyond a single subfield. The computational methods employed are clever and sophisticated and the strength of evidence is convincing. Both the hypotheses and the exploratory nature of additional analyses are clearly stated.

eLife Assessment

Argunşah et al. investigate the mechanisms underlying the differential response dynamics of barrel vs septa domains in shaping the responses to single vs multiple whiskers. Based on the observation of a higher density of SST+ interneurons in the septa, the authors investigate the hypothesis that Elfn1-dependent short-term plasticity shapes these responses. This important study is, however, supported by incomplete evidence; factors restricting the strength of evidence are the limited spatial resolution of the multi-unit activity, as well as the lack of a mechanistic explanation. This provocative and intellectually stimulating hypothesis provides a contribution to work on how different cell types shape cortical representation.

eLife Assessment

This important study reports that the human posterior inferotemporal cortex (hPIT) functions as an attentional priority map, integrating both top-down and bottom-up attentional signals rather than serving solely as an object-processing region. The experiments and analyses are well conducted and provide convincing evidence that hPIT bridges dorsal and ventral attention networks and is robustly modulated by attention across diverse visual tasks. The study will be relevant for researchers investigating visual attention, high-level visual cortex, and the neural mechanisms that integrate endogenous and exogenous attentional control.

eLife Assessment

This study provides important findings on the neural circuits underlying dishabituation of the olfactory avoidance response in Drosophila. The data as presented provide solid evidence that the dishabituation involves distinct pathways from habituation. They show that reward-activated dopaminergic neurons provide input for within-modal dishabituation, while punishment-activated dopaminergic neurons provide input for cross-modal dishabituation. The work will interest neuroscientists, particularly behavioral neuroscientists working on habituation, neural circuits, and the dopaminergic system.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript presents a valuable computational tool for identifying 3-5 gene regulatory network topologies capable of generating oscillatory dynamics. The application of Monte Carlo Tree Search to circuit design is novel and effectively expands the scale at which non-linear behaviours can be explored in silico. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is convincing, and the work will be of interest to the systems and synthetic biology communities. While the evolutionary implications remain unclear, the methodological contribution represents a significant advance in the field.

eLife Assessment

This useful study reports findings that support the use of the Open Field Test in Drosophila as a model to study "emotion-like states", which are behavioral responses to several stressful or aversive treatments, and resilience upon their subsequent removal. Behavioral data, by employing established stress-causing treatments and genetic manipulations, are solid. While the results and conceptual framework of this work will be of interest to behaviorists regardless of animal models, the novelty of this work over previous studies could have been clearer.

eLife Assessment

This important study demonstrates the significance of incorporating biological constraints in training neural networks to develop models that make accurate predictions under novel conditions. By comparing standard sigmoid recurrent neural networks (RNNs) with biologically constrained RNNs, the manuscript offers compelling evidence that biologically grounded inductive biases enhance generalization to perturbed conditions. This manuscript will appeal to a wide audience in systems and computational neuroscience.

eLife Assessment

This useful study attempts to place an ancient maize sample from Bolivia, dated to the end of the Incan empire, in genetic and geographical context. The analyses show that this sample is most closely related to ancient Peruvian maize, but the data are inadequate to determine the direction of dispersal. There are additional deficiencies in the statistical analyses and selection inferences. The topic of the study would appeal to researchers studying maize dispersal and adaptation.

eLife Assessment

This important study provides a novel approach for delineating subcortical-cortical white matter bundles. The authors provide convincing evidence by harnessing state-of-the-art methods and cross-species data. Together, this effort will be of interest to scientists across multiple subfields.

eLife Assessment

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

eLife Assessment

In this valuable study, Roiuk et al combined ribosome profiling and reporter assays to provide compelling evidence that eIF2A does not have a major impact on mRNA translation in HeLa cells. These findings are consistent with several recent publications that disaffirm the previously proposed role of eIF2A in directing protein synthesis under stress. Considering that stress-dependent perturbations in translation play a major role in homeostasis and several pathological states (e.g., cancer and neurological disorders), this work should be of broad interest to researchers studying regulation of gene expression, stress-adaptation, cancer and neurobiology.

eLife Assessment

This important manuscript by Genzoni et al. reports the striking discovery of a regulatory role for trophic eggs in ant caste determination. Prior to this study, trophic eggs were widely assumed to play only a nutritional role in the colony, but this compelling study shows that trophic eggs can suppress queen development, and therefore regulate caste determination in specific social contexts.

eLife Assessment

This study reports useful information on the mechanisms by which a high-fat diet induces arrhythmias in the model organism Drosophila. Specifically, the authors propose that adipokinetic hormone (Akh) secretion is increased with this diet, and through binding of Akh to its receptor on cardiac neurons, arrhythmia is induced. The authors have revised their manuscript but the evidence remains incomplete. Nonetheless, the data presented will be helpful to those who wish to extend the research to a more complex model system, such as the mouse.

eLife Assessment

This study provides fundamental information on how Arg-II participates in cardiac aging. The phenotypic data provide convincing evidence of non-cell-autonomous contributions to aging-related pathologies. Overall, the study highlights the importance of intercellular signaling in maintaining cardiac health during aging.

eLife Assessment

The findings represent an important contribution to understanding whether BMI influences head and neck cancer (HNC) risk after accounting for tobacco use. Within the context of the Mendelian Randomization (MR) field, the strength of evidence appears convincing, supported by rigorous methods and a thorough exploration of multiple genetic models of adiposity using diverse MR approaches. Limitations include the absence of associations in sensitivity models designed to better account for pleiotropy, which prevents evaluation of whether incorporating an instrumental variable for tobacco use would alter the findings. Additionally, the lack of a formal power assessment for detecting associations with the instrumental variables employed limits the interpretability and reach of the results.

eLife Assessment

This study identifies novel approaches to improving transgene expression in the injured mammalian myocardium through a combination of a tissue regeneration enhancer element and engineered AAVs - specifically, a liver-detargeting capsid, AAV.cc84, and an in vivo library screen-selected AAV-IR41. The evidence is convincing, and the AAV vectors are of fundamental value to the field of cardiac gene therapy. Future research exploring how to combine the features of AAV.cc84 and AAV-IR41 could yield an even more promising vector for therapeutic use.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study concerns a model for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, the learned avoidance by C. elegans of the PA14 pathogenic strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A recent study questioned whether transgenerational inheritance in this paradigm lacks robustness. The authors of this study have worked independently of the group that reported the original phenomenon and also independently of the group that challenged the original report. With solid data, this study independently validates findings previously reported by the Murphy group, confirming that the paradigm is reproducible elsewhere. The present study is therefore of broad interest to anyone studying genetics, epigenetics, or learned behavior.

eLife Assessment

This study presents a useful finding showing that the high susceptibility to sepsis of Kit-mutant mice is due to dysbiosis. However, the data provided is incomplete and would benefit from more rigorous approaches. With the mechanism part strengthened, this paper would be of interest to researchers on mast cell biology and mucosal immunology.

eLife Assessment

This study provides important insights into the role of polyUbiquitination in neurodegenerative diseases, elucidating how pUb promotes neurodegeneration by affecting proteasomal function. The findings not only offer a new perspective on the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases but also provide potential targets for developing new therapeutic strategies. The results provide solid evidence to support the conclusions.

eLife Assessment

This important study, which has been improved further upon revision, reveals a critical role of the transcription factor NR2F2 in mouse fetal Leydig cell (FLC) differentiation. With elegantly carried out experiments, the authors provide compelling evidence that NR2F2 helps to initiate the differentiation of certain interstitial cells into FLC until these cells mature into functional secretory cells that produce androgen and insulin-like peptide 3 (INSL3). The particular importance of the work comes from the fact that NR2F2 affects FLCs without altering paracrine signals known to be involved in FLC differentiation. The work will be of interest to colleagues studying reproductive development in mammals including humans or the biological functions of the nuclear receptor family.

eLife Assessment

This important work describes results from a set of simulation and empirical studies of a set-up assessing exploratory behavior in a potentially rewarding environment that contains danger. The core idea is that an instrumental agent can be helped to be both effective and safe, thus avoiding excessive danger, during exploratory behavior, if the influence of an independent Pavlovian fear is flexibly gated based on uncertainty. This work is grounded in previous foundational work on Pavlovian control of instrumental choice, and significantly extends prior work showing that the impact of Pavlovian reward biases can be flexibly gated. The conclusion that safe but effective exploration can be achieved based on a flexibly weighted combination of a Pavlovian and an instrumental agent is convincing.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study reports the first characterization of the CG14545 gene in Drosophila melanogaster, which the authors name "Sakura." Acting during germline stem cell fate and differentiation, Sakura is required for both oogenesis and female fertility, although some mechanistic details require further investigation. This solid study presents a wide-ranging and well-controlled characterization of Sakura, and accordingly the findings and associated reagents described will be of use to scientists interested in oogenesis and early development.

eLife Assessment

This study provides important insights into how cryptic pockets play a role in shaping binding preferences of protein-nucleic acid interactions. By combining biochemical assays and state-of-the-art molecular dynamics simulations, mechanism underlying viral protein 35 (VP35) homologs to bind the backbone of double stranded RNA is presented. The evidence is compelling for molecular determinants that suggest two different dsRNA binding modes for VP35 and also underscores the evolutionary importance of these pockets.

eLife Assessment

This important study offers convincing evidence that intra-Golgi transport slows from cis to trans and varies between cargos even within the same cisternae, supporting a more stable compartment model. Using nocodazole-induced ministacks, the authors show cargo-specific transport kinetics with distinct velocities and residence times. These findings refine the cisternal progression model and prompt further investigation into alternative mechanisms, such as rapid partitioning or rim progression. This study will be of interest to cell biologists studying membrane trafficking, Golgi organization, and protein secretion, as well as researchers investigating the mechanisms of organelle dynamics and the molecular basis of intracellular transport.

eLife Assessment

In this important study, the authors conducted atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to probe the interactions between IRE and unfolded peptides. The results help reconcile contradicting experimental findings in the literature and offer mechanistic insights into the activation of the unfolded protein response. The level of evidence is considered solid, although the use of enhanced sampling and more quantitative analysis would further strengthen the conclusions.

eLife Assessment

This work provides one of the first important attempts to look at Drosophila immune responses against bacterial, viral, and fungal pathogens in a way that combines the roles of four major arms in immunity (Imd signaling, Toll signaling, phagocytosis, and melanization) rather than studying them separately. The findings are convincing, and the tools provided can be used as they are, or built upon, in various contexts.

eLife Assessment

This important study reports an advancement in the diagnosis of Animal African Trypanosomosis (AAT), which adapts a CRISPR-based diagnostic tool (SHERLOCK4AAT) to detect different trypanosome species responsible for AAT. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing and in line with the current state-of-the-art diagnostics. This study will be of interest to the fields of Epidemiology, Public Health, and Veterinary Medicine.