- Last 7 days
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This potentially valuable study investigates the interaction of two integral membrane proteins (Cdhr1a and Pcdh15b) and their roles in cone-rod dystrophy. Convincing evidence using loss-of-function mutants demonstrates that both proteins are required for cone maintenance and survival. There is insufficient evidence to support the subcellular localization and the proposed heterodimeric interaction of the two proteins from distinct subcellular compartments. The methodologies are unclear, and the statistical methods and analysis are improperly applied.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
Using multiple techniques previously validated by the authors, this study identified INTS12, a component of the Integrator complex involved in 3' processing of small nuclear RNAs U1 and U2, as a factor promoting HIV-1 latency. The work is valuable, based on a sound strategy for screening targets to activate HIV latency and the deep mechanistic insights it provides on INTS12 repression of transcriptional elongation. While the work is solid, authors must address minor weaknesses, including assessing knockdown efficiency and validating the target by examining the impact on cell viability and latency-reversing activity in combination with LRAs other than AZD5582 & I-BET151.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Editors Assessment:
Due to them being found in the landlocked, isolated habitat of Lake Baikal makes the Baikal Seal (Pusa sibirica) unique among all pinnipeds as the only freshwater seal. This paper presents reference-based assemblies of six newly sequenced Baikal seal individuals, one individual of the ringed seal, as well as the first short-read data of the harbor seal and the Caspian seal . This data aiding the study of the genomic diversity of the Baikal seal and to contribute baseline data to the limited genomic data available for seals. Peer review extended the description of the used tools and parameters in the revised manuscript, and provided some more information on the methods..This newly generated sequencing data hopefully now helps to extend the phylogeny of the Phoca/Pusa group on genome-wide data and can also broaden the view into the genetic structure and diversity of the Baikal seal
This evaluation refers to version 1 of the preprint
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Editors Assessment:
The article presents strategies for accelerating sequence alignment using multithreading and SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) techniques, and introduces a new algorithm called TSTA (Thread and SIMD-Based Trapezoidal Pairwise/Multiple Sequence-Alignment). The Technical Release write-up presenting a detailed description of TSTA's performance in pairwise sequence alignment (PSA) and multiple sequence alignment (MSA), and compares it with various existing alignment algorithms. Demonstrating the performance gains achieved by vectorized SIMD technology and the application of threading. Testing and debugging a few errors, and adding some more background detail, demonstrating it can achieve faster comparison speed. Demonstrating TSTA's efficacy in pairwise sequence alignment and multiple sequence alignment, particularly with long reads, and showcasing considerable speed enhancements compared to existing tools.
This evaluation refers to version 1 of the preprint
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This paper represents a very solid body of work that aims to understand why prostate cancer with CDK12 loss does not respond to HRd-based therapeutics, such as PARP inhibitors. The work is felt to be fundamental given a thorough computational and genomic analysis, the generation of CDK12-adapted cell lines, and potential synthetic vulnerability to CDK13 loss with genetic knockdown or co-inhibition with a CDK12/13 inhibitor. The evidence is compelling given the authors' systematic testing of components of the CDK12/13 pathways in a number of prostate cancer models. Some weaknesses focused on the functional effect of the various mutations found at different CDK12 sites (loss vs. altered), more comprehensive characterization of CDK12 KO lines, and specificity of the CDK12/13 inhibitor and in vivo experimental schema.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study provides important findings in characterizing dopamine neuron heterogeneity in the ventral midbrain. The strength of evidence is strong for a convincing classification, but claims related to the effects of G2019S-LRRK2 expression were considered more preliminary. The creation of an snRNA-seq exploration tool for these datasets should interest groups interested in understanding dopamine neuron subclass dynamics in behavior and diseases.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This article uncovers a new improtant role of STAMBPL1 in promoting angiogenesis in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and elucidates the specific mechanisms by which it activates the GRHL3/HIF1α/VEGFA axis through interaction with FOXO1. The finding that STAMBPL1 mediates GRHL3 transcription through the interaction with FOXO1 is novel. These experimental results corroborate each other, forming a solid foundation of evidence that supports the main findings of the article.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This is a convincing paper that addresses topics important in our understanding of how inflammatory markers are modulated in both obesity and type 2 diabetes and their effects on Wnt signaling mediators in human bone. There are changes in bone at the tissue level in these 2 common metabolic disorders that ultimately lead to compromised bone strength. These data will be critical to our understanding of the pathophysiology of skeletal fragility in obesity and diabetes.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This valuable study examines the effects of side-wall confinement on the chemotaxis of swimming bacteria in a shallow microfluidic channel. The authors present solid experimental evidence, combined with geometric analysis and numerical simulations of simplified models, showing that chemotaxis is enhanced when the distance between the side walls is comparable to the intrinsic radius of circular swimming near open surfaces. This study should be of interest to scientists specializing in bacteria-surface interactions.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Editors Assessment:
The crested gecko (Correlophus ciliatus), is a lizard species endemic to New Caledonia, and a potentially interesting model organism due to its unusual (for a gecko) inability to regenerate amputated tails. With that in mind here is presented a new reference genome for the species, assembled using PacBio Sequel II platform and Dovetail Omni-C libraries. Producing a genome with a total size of 1.65 Gb, 152 scaffolds, a L50 of 6, and N50 of 109 Mb. Peer review making sure more detail was added on data acquisition and processing to enhance reproducibility. In the end producing potentially useful data for studying the genetic mechanisms involved in loss of tail regeneration.
This evaluation refers to version 1 of the preprint
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Editors Assessment:
This paper presents the SMARTER database, a collection of tools and scripts to gather, standardize, and share with the scientific community a comprehensive dataset of genomic data and metadata information on worldwide small ruminant populations. Which has come out of the EU multi-actor (12 country) H2020 project called SMARTER: SMAll RuminanTs breeding for Efficiency and Resilience. This bringing together genotypes for about 12,000 sheep and 6,000 goats, alongside phenotypic and geographic information. The paper providing insight into how the database was put together, presenting the code for the SMARTER—frontend, backend and API, alongside instructions for users. Peer review tested the platform and provided suggestions on improving the metadata. Demonstrating the project provides valuable information on sheep and goat populations around the world, that can be an essential tool for ruminant researchers. Enabling them to generate new insights and offer the possibility to store new genotypes and drive progress in the field.
This evaluation refers to version 1 of the preprint
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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Editors Assessment:
This paper presents NucBalancer, a R-pipeline and Shiny app designed for the optimal selection of barcode sequences for sample multiplexing in sequencing. Providing a user-friendly interface aiming to make this process accessible to both bioinformaticians and experimental researchers, enhancing its utility in adapting libraries prepared for one sequencing platform to be compatible with others. Important now with the introduction of additional sequencing platforms by Element Biosciences (AVITI System) and Ultima Genomics (UG100) increasing the diversity and capability of genomic research tools available. NucBalancer’s incorporation of dynamic parameters, including customizable red flag thresholds, allows for precise and practical barcode sequencing strategies. This adaptability is key in ensuring uniform nucleotide distribution, particularly in MGI sequencing and single-cell genomic studies, leading to more reliable and cost-effective sequencing outcomes across various experimental conditions. All the code is available under an open source license, and upon review the authors have also shared the code for the Shiny app.
This evaluation refers to version 1 of the preprint
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www.semanticscholar.org www.semanticscholar.org
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To this end, we develop a novel ASE method namedRepoUnderstander by guiding agents to comprehensively under-stand the whole repositories. Specifically, we first condense thecritical information of the whole repository into the repositoryknowledge graph in a top-to-down mode to decrease the complex-ity of repository. Subsequently, we empower the agents the abilityof understanding whole repository by proposing a Monte Carlotree search based repository exploration strategy. In addition, tobetter utilize the repository-level knowledge, we guide the agents tosummarize, analyze, and plan. Then, they can manipulate the toolsto dynamically acquire information and generate the patches tosolve the real-world GitHub issues.
论文提出了一种名为RepoUnderstander的新颖方法,该方法指导代理通过以下几个步骤来全面理解整个代码仓库:
- 构建代码仓库知识图谱:通过自上而下的方式将整个仓库的关键信息压缩成知识图谱,以降低仓库的复杂性。
- 基于蒙特卡洛树搜索的仓库探索策略:赋予代理理解整个仓库的能力,通过模拟多种路径并评估它们的奖励分数,逐步缩小搜索空间,引导代理关注最相关的区域。
- 信息利用与补丁生成:指导代理总结、分析和规划,然后操作工具动态获取信息并生成解决现实世界GitHub问题的补丁。
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This manuscript offers a modeling platform in which horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is incorporated into the ecological dynamics of microbial communities. The investigation is valuable as it brings to the forefront a potentially significant process and highlights its implications. However, the investigation in its current form is incomplete because it is based on a narrow range of parameters and assumptions. As a result, the scope and relevance of the findings are not fully clear. A more in-depth description of model assumptions and the formulation structure and a more thorough analysis of the impact of different parameters would strengthen the manuscript. This work will be of interest to microbiologists as well as researchers in ecological and evolutionary biology.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study compares the cortical projections to primary motor and sensory areas originating from the ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres. They find that, while there is substantial symmetry between the two hemispheres regarding the areas sending projections to these primary cortical areas, contra-hemispheric projections had more inputs from layer 6 neurons than ipsi-projecting ones. The evidence is convincing and most of the conclusions are supported by rigorous analyses.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This manuscript provides important structural insights into the recognition and degradation of the host tRNA methyltransferase TRMT1 by SARS-CoV-2 protease nsp5 (Mpro). The data provide compelling support for the main conclusions of the authors. These results will be of interest to researchers studying structures, substrate recognition and specificity of viral proteases and their action on cellular targets.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study provides valuable insights into the cellular responses to complex aneuploidy in human preimplantation embryos. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is now convincing after addressing previous concerns. This work will be of interest to embryologists, geneticists and scholars working on reproductive medicine by increasing our understanding of how human embryos respond to chromosomal abnormalities.
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www.researchsquare.com www.researchsquare.com
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eLife Assessment
This work introduces an important new method for depleting ribosomal RNA from bacterial single-cell RNA sequencing libraries, demonstrating its applicability for studying heterogeneity in microbial biofilms. The findings provide convincing evidence for a distinct subpopulation of cells at the biofilm base that upregulates PdeI expression. Future studies exploring the functional relationship between PdeI and c-di-GMP levels, along with the roles of co-expressed genes within the same cluster, could further enhance the depth and impact of these conclusions.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study presents important findings on the role of CXXC-finger protein 1 in regulatory T cell gene regulation and function. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is solid, with mostly state-of-the-art technology, although the inclusion of more mechanistic insights would have strengthened the study. The work will be of relevance to immunologists interested in regulatory T cell biology and autoimmunity.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important manuscript provides an extensive and convincing analysis of the foetal and adult TCR repertoire in the mouse thymus. A potential implication of the work is that the earliest appearing T cells during ontogeny may have properties that are fundamentally distinct from those appearing later in life. The study will be of interest to immunologists concerned with T cell development and TCR repertoires.
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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eLife assessment
In this important study, the authors found, with the use of statistical methods, that compound heterozygous rare deletion variants affecting the kinase-domain of non-receptor tyrosine kinase TNK2/ACK1 and PTK6/BRK are associated with human systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The authors use a convincing mouse experimental model and human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived macrophages to clarify cause-effect relationships and the cellular basis of nephritis. With the identification of new SLE-related genes, this manuscript improves our understanding of human SLE pathogenesis.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This is an important work and it correlates capsid stability with mutations that promote heparan sulfate binding. The data is solid, but there is a need for further analysis and experiments to support the claims and to propose a more detailed mechanism that could explain how these mutations altered capsid stability.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This manuscript makes an important contribution to the understanding of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks by challenging the widely held assumption that their degree distributions uniformly follow a power law. The authors present convincing evidence that biases in study design, such as data aggregation and selective research focus, may contribute to the appearance of power-law-like distributions. While the power law assumption has already been questioned in network biology, the methodological rigor and correction procedures introduced here are valuable for advancing our understanding of PPI network structure.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study is important, with the potential to greatly impact future research on the evolution of chemical defense mechanisms in animals. The authors present compelling evidence for the presence of low quantities of alkaloids in amphibians previously thought to lack these toxins. They then integrate these findings with existing literature to propose a four-phase scenario for the evolution of chemical defense in alkaloid-containing poison frogs, emphasizing the role of passive accumulation mechanisms.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
Utilizing transgenic lineage tracing techniques and tissue clearing-based advanced imaging and three-dimensional slices reconstruction, the authors comprehensively mapped the distribution atlas of NFATc1+ and PDGFR-α+ cells in dental and periodontal mesenchyme and tracked their in vivo fate trajectories. This important work extends our understanding of NFATc1+ and PDGFR-α+ cells in dental and periodontal mesenchyme homeostasis, and should provide impact on clinical application and investigation. The strength of this work is compelling in employing CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing to generate two dual recombination systems, and mapped gNFATc1+ and PDGFR-α+cells residing in dental and periodontal mesenchyme, their capacity for progeny cell generation, and their inclusive, exclusive and hierarchical relations in homeostasis, generating a spatiotemporal atlas of these skeletal stem cell population.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study presents an important new bioinformatics tool for normalizing gene copy number from metagenomic assemblies and applies it to gain functional insights into the loss of microbial diversity during conditions of stress. The inclusion of extensive computational validation makes this a compelling study that raises intriguing new hypotheses regarding the impact of disease states on the gut microbiome. This paper will likely be of broad interest to researchers studying the role of complex microbial communities in host health and disease.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important paper shows that the acquisition and expression of Pavlovian conditioned responding are lawfully related to temporal characteristics of an animal's conditioning experience. It showcases a rigorous experimental design, several different approaches to data analysis, careful consideration of prior literature, and a thorough introduction. The evidence supporting the conclusions is strong and convincing. The paper will have a general appeal to those interested in the behavioral and neural analysis of Pavlovian conditioning.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study addresses how 3' splice site choice is modulated by the conserved spliceosome-associated protein Fyv6. The authors provide compelling evidence that Fyv6 functions to enable selection of 3' splice sites distal to a branch point and in doing so antagonizes more proximal, suboptimal 3' splice sites.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study reports single-cell RNA sequencing results of lung adenocarcinoma, comparing 4 treatment-naive and 5 post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy tumor samples. Of interest is the delineation of two macrophage subtypes: Anti-mac cells (CD45+CD11b+CD86+) and Pro-mac cells (CD45+CD11b+ARG+), with the proportion of Pro-mac/pro-tumorigenic cells significantly increasing in LUAD tissues after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In terms of significance, the findings might be useful. However issues remain after the revision with lengthy descriptive clustering type analysis, insufficient statistical support, and inefficient figure presentation. As it stands, the level of supportive evidence is inadequate.
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This useful study examined the associations of a healthy lifestyle with comprehensive and organ-specific biological ages defined using common blood biomarkers and body measures. Its large sample size, longitudinal design, and robust statistical analysis provide solid support for the findings, which will be of interest to epidemiologists and clinicians.
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This fundamental, clearly written, and timely manuscript links the timing of ART with the kinetics of total and intact proviral HIV DNA. The conclusions are interesting and novel, and the importance of the work is high because the focus is on African women and clade C virus, both of which are understudied in the HIV reservoir field. The strength of the evidence is compelling. Overall, this work will be of very high interest to scientists and clinicians in the HIV cure/persistence fields.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study shows that Toxoplasma gondii uses paracrine mechanisms, in addition to cell-intrinsic methods, to evade the host immune system, with MYR1 playing a key role in transporting effector molecules into host cells. The authors present convincing evidence that in vivo, MYR1-deficient parasites can be rescued by wild-type parasites, revealing a limitation in pooled CRISPR screens, where such paracrine effects may obscure the identification of key parasite pathways involved in immune evasion
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This valuable study highlights how the diversity of the malaria parasite population diminishes following the initiation of effective control interventions but quickly rebounds as control wanes. The data presented is convincing and the work shows how genetic studies could be used to monitor changes in disease transmission.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This valuable study reports multi-scale molecular dynamics simulations to investigate a class of highly potent antibodies that simultaneously engage with the HIV-1 Envelope trimer and the viral membrane. The work provides insights into how broadly neutralizing antibodies associate with lipids proximal to membrane-associated epitopes to drive neutralization. After extensive revision, the level of evidence is considered solid, although a quantitative assessment of the underlying energetics remain difficult to obtain.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This valuable study characterizes the molecular signatures and function of a type of enteric neuron (IPAN) in the mouse colon, identifying molecular markers (Cdh6 and Cdh8) for these cells. A battery of solid experimental findings suggest data from other species are likely translatable to mice, bridging the abundant literature from humans and other mammals into this experimentally tractable animal model, but the data establishing the role of Cdh6 in synapses among IPANs and in cell-cell contacts with non-neuronal cells is incomplete. This work will be of interest to scientists studying the motor control of the colon and more generally the enteric neuromuscular system.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study reports on a basis for neurabin-mediated specification of substrate choice by protein phosphatase-1. The data from the comprehensive approach using structural, biochemical, and computational methods are compelling, but the role of the crucial tryptophan residue in the recognition motif can be further tested to strengthen the main argument. This paper is broadly relevant to those investigating various cellular signaling cascades that entail phosphorylation as the main mechanism.
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This solid paper reports on the use of artificial intelligence to assess bone marrow adipose tissue in the skull. The method employing MRI is novel and that approach allows for the identification of genetic loci that regulate this trait as well as others using data from the UK biobank. Overall this is an important contribution although the authors should consider several points: 1-validation of the T1-weighted MRI signal intensity; 2-further discussion of the sex differences; and 3-cross-trait linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) for osteoporosis, Parkinson's disease, and cognitive function.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
The authors use a multidisciplinary approach to provide a useful link between Beta-alanine and S. Typhimurium (STM) infection and virulence. The work shows how Beta-alanine synthesis mediates zinc homeostasis regulation, possibly contributing to virulence. However, the work is incomplete and requires additional data to firmly establish the connection between Beta-alanine synthesis and zinc homeostasis. Measuring the source and zinc content of STM in vivo and examining mechanisms in human clinical strains and other serovars would be essential.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This article reports a useful set of findings on how electrophysiological response properties of neurons correlate with their position in the brain. The evidence currently remains incomplete, with reviewers making specific suggestions for how clustering needs to be redone. The manuscript would also benefit from a more focused presentation of results and the removal of incorrect claims about recording biases.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This valuable study clarifies the mechanism by which the kinesin-10 motor protein, chromosome-associated kinesin, Kid (KIF22), enables chromosome movement during mitosis, demonstrating that human and Xenopus Kid proteins function as processive, homodimeric kinesins capable of processive microtubule plus-end motility. The convincing work highlights that Kid can recruit and transport duplex DNA along microtubules via its conserved C-terminal DNA binding domain, revising our understanding of chromokinesins' role in chromosome motility during mitosis. Although the data are robust, the manuscript would benefit from some editing for clarity.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This valuable study uses the analysis of connectomic and transcriptomic datasets to survey the anatomy and connectivity of neurosecretory cells in the Drosophila brain. While the connectivity analyses are convincing, the anatomical and functional data provided to verify cell type identity and paracrine signaling is incomplete. Once these aspects are improved, this study would be of interest to neuroscientists working on hormonal signaling in Drosophila and other animals.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
The study describes a valuable new technology in the field of targeted protein degradation that allows identification of E3-ubiquitin ligases that target a protein of interest. The presented data are convincing, however, additional work will be needed to optimize for high-throughput evaluation. This technology will therefore serve the community in the initial stages of developing targeted protein degraders.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study identifies the "H-state" as a potential conformational marker distinguishing amyloidogenic from non-amyloidogenic light chains, addressing a critical problem in protein misfolding and amyloidosis. By combining advanced techniques such as small-angle X-ray scattering, molecular dynamics simulations, and H-D exchange mass spectrometry, the authors provide convincing evidence for their novel findings. However, incomplete experimental descriptions, limitations in SAXS data interpretation, and the way HDX MS data is presented affect the strength and generalizability of the conclusions. Strengthening these aspects would enhance the impact of this work for researchers in amyloidosis and protein misfolding.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study provides valuable insights into the host's variable susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, using a novel collection of wild-derived inbred mouse lines from diverse geographic locations, along with immunological and single-cell transcriptomic analyses. While the data are convincing, a deeper mechanistic investigation into neutrophil subset functions would have further enhanced the study. This work will interest microbiologists and immunologists in the TB field.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
The manuscript by Guo and colleagues reports valuable findings about the inhibitory activity of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) against TcdB, a key toxin produced by Clostridioides difficile. C. difficile infections are a major public health concern, and this manuscript provides interesting data on toxin inhibition by CAPE, a potentially promising therapeutic alternative for this disease. The strength of the evidence to support the conclusions is solid, with some concerns about the moderate effects on the mouse infection model and direct binding assays of CAPE to the toxin.
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study uses Mendelian Randomisation to show that early life phenotypes (i.e. onset of age at menarche and age at first birth) have an influence on a multitude of health outcomes later in life. The provided empirical evidence supporting the antagonistic pleiotropy theory is solid. However, some additional analyses and a more comprehensive discussion of the findings are needed to make the study stronger.
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www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This basic research study presents useful data concerning the menstrual fluid composition and its potential for endometriosis biomarker research. However, despite solid bioinformatics analyses, the choice of markers used to separate or identify the different cell types needs to be justified and the results better discussed in relation to current knowledge of the pathophysiology of endometriosis.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important work combines self-report, neural and physiology data to examine the efficacy and mechanisms of counter conditioning versus extinction in reducing re-emergence of conditioned threat responses and show that this appears to rely on the nucleus accumbens rather than the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings are supported by convincing evidence, though some areas could benefit from added clarity and a few targeted refinements and justifications of analytical choices. Results will be of interest to researchers across multiple subfields, including neuroscientists, cognitive theory researchers, and clinicians, particularly those with an interest in clinical applications in trauma therapies.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This valuable study examines the activity and function of dorsomedial striatal neurons in the estimation of time. The authors examine striatal activity as a function of time as well as the impact of optogenetic striatal manipulation on the animal's ability to estimate a time interval, providing solid evidence for their claims. The study could be further strengthened with a more rigorous characterization of activity and a stronger connection between their proposed model and the experimental data. The work will be of interest to neuroscientists examining how striatum contributes to behavior.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study presents interesting results aimed at explaining the effects of a human mutation on the mitochondrial import protein TIMM50 on mitochondrial function and neuronal excitability. While the evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, the mechanisms driving changes in the levels of certain proteins within and outside the mitochondria (such as certain ion channels) remain unexplained. This paper will be of interest to scientists in the mitochondria field.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study advances our understanding of how FGF13 variants confer seizure susceptibility. By acting in a set of inhibitory interneurons, FGF13 regulates synaptic transmission and excitability. The data presented here are convincing and combine cell type-specific knockouts and electrophysiology, complemented by histology/RNA studies. Collectively, this research will be of interest to a wide audience, particularly those involved in the study of epilepsy, inhibitory neurons, and ion channels.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This useful study reports how neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex maps time intervals during which animals wait to reach a reward, with this mapping remaining consistent across days. While most claims are supported by solid evidence, the study could have benefitted from an improved experimental design to more clearly disambiguate correlations between neuronal patterns and not only time but also stereotypical behaviors and restraint from impulsive decisions. This study will be of particular interest to neuroscientists focused on decision-making and motor control.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment:
This study presents valuable findings that add to our understanding of cortical astrocytes, which respond to synaptic activity with calcium release in subcellular domains that can proceed to larger calcium waves. The proposed concept of a spatial "threshold" is based on solid evidence from in vivo and ex vivo imaging data and the use of mutant mice. Details of the specific threshold must be taken with caution and are necessarily incomplete, but may be supported by additional experiments with higher resolution in space and time in the future.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study addresses key assumptions underlying current models of the formation of value-based decisions. The authors provide convincing evidence that the subjective values human participants assign to items change across sequences of multiple decisions. They establish methods to detect these changes in frequently used behavioral task designs.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
The study describes a useful tool for assessing microglia morphology in a variety of experimental conditions. The MorphoCellSorter provides a solid platform for ranking microglia to reflect their morphology continuum and may offer new insight into changes in morphology associated with injury or disease. While the study provides an alternative approach to existing methods for measuring microglia morphology, the functional significance of measured morphological changes remains unclear.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This well-written report uses functional neuroimaging in human observers to provide convincing evidence that activity in the early visual cortex is suppressed at locations that are frequently occupied by a task-irrelevant but salient item. This suppression appears to be general to any kind of stimulus, and also occurs in advance of any item actually appearing. The work in its present form will be valuable to those examining attention, perception, learning and prediction, but with a few additional analyses could more informatively rule out potential alternative hypotheses. Further discussion of the mechanistic implications could clarify further the broad extent of its significance.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important work advances our understanding of CHMP5's role in regulating osteogenesis through its impact on cellular senescence. The evidence supporting the conclusion is mostly convincing, although including additional experiments and discussions would further strengthen the study. This paper holds potential interest for skeletal biologists who study the pathogenesis of age-associated skeletal disorders.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
In this potentially valuable computational study, the authors conducted atomistic and coarse-grained simulations to probe the temperature-dependent phase behaviors of ELF3, a disordered component of the evening complex in plant. The results aim to highlight the role of polyQ tracts in modulating the temperature sensitivity. The level of evidence is considered incomplete, due to the lack of systematic calibration of the coarse-grained model and limited statistical uncertainty analysis, especially considering the relatively subtle nature of the differences due to temperature change.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study identifies species- and sex-specific neuronal cell types and gene expression in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) to help understand the evolutionary divergence of social behaviors. The evidence from single-nucleus RNA sequencing and immunostaining is convincing and suggests that cellular differences in the MPOA may contribute to behavioral variations such as mating and parental care that are apparent in two closely related deer mouse species. These rich observations provide an entry point for future hypothesis-driven experiments to demonstrate a causal role for these populations in sex- or species-variable behaviors in vertebrates. These data will be a resource that is of value to behavioral neuroscientists.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This valuable study investigates the brain representations of Braille letters in blind participants and provides evidence using EEG and fMRI that the decoding of letter identity across the reading hand takes place in the visual cortex. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing and the work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on brain plasticity.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study presents a useful finding on the ferroptosis-mediated tumor microenvironment (TME) in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) using public single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and bulk RNA sequencing data. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is somewhat incomplete and some data are rather questionable; the authors should clarify the relations between ferroptosis-related genes in immune cells and those genes applied in a risk factor analysis in tumor cells. Moreover, the authors should provide experimental validation for the risk score model based on ferroptosis-related genes. The work will be of interest to scientists or clinical scientists working in the field of breast cancer.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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. This study is of high interest to ecologists and conservation biologists, as it provides insight into how ecosystems and communities respond to climate change.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
Leveraging state-of-the-art experimental and analytical approaches, this important study characterizes the recruitment and activation of large populations of human motor units during slow isometric contractions in two lower limb muscles. Evidence for the main claims is solid and advances our understanding of how humans generate and control voluntary force.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study provides valuable advances in our understanding of how inputs from multiple sources can impact the physiology of motor neurons during the process of multisensory integration. Specifically, the authors show how streams of auditory and principally visual information modulate the physiology of Mauthner neurons in goldfish, thus allowing the different senses to influence escape behavior. Supporting evidence is generally convincing, although material reporting the direct control of behavior is less representative of the data.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study highlights the use of siderophores as antibacterials, and the authors also discuss the consequences and efficacy of 'siderophore therapy' in more complex communities/environments. The evidence supporting the overall hypotheses ranges is largely convincing. The work will be of broad interest to people working in the fields of evolutionary ecology, microbiology and medical sciences.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This work is an important contribution to the development of a biologically plausible theory of statistical modeling of spiking activity. The authors convincingly implemented the statistical inference of input likelihood in a simple neural circuit, demonstrating the relationship between synaptic homeostasis, neural representations, and computational accuracy. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists, both theoretical and experimental, who are exploring how statistical computation is implemented in neural networks.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study provides important findings on the modulation of cortical neuronal responses to sensory stimuli by motor-driven predictive signals. The study is methodologically sound and well-designed. Solid evidence is presented for the conclusion that audiomotor mismatch responses are observed in the auditory cortex and that these are strongly modulated by crossmodal signals, though further investigation of the effects of running speed on audiomotor coupling and of sound offset effects on the observed responses would strengthen the interpretation of the results.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study investigates the role of the Cadherin Flamingo (Fmi) in cell competition in developing tissues in Drosophila melanogaster. The findings are valuable in that they show that Fmi is required in winning cells in several competitive contexts. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, as the authors identify Fmi as a potential new regulator of cell competition, however, they don't delve into a mechanistic understanding of how this occurs.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This fundamental study advances substantially our understanding of sound encoding at synapses between single inner hair cells of the mouse cochlea and spiral ganglion neurons. Dual patch-clamp recordings-a technical tour-de force-and careful data analysis provide compelling evidence that the functional heterogeneity of these synapses contributes to the diversity of spontaneous and sound-evoked firing by the neurons. The work will be of broad interest to scientists in the field of auditory neuroscience.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This useful study employs AlphaFold2 to predict interactions among 20 nuage proteins, identifying five novel interaction candidates, three of which are validated experimentally through co-immunoprecipitation. Expanding the analysis to 430 oogenesis-related proteins and screening ~12,000 Drosophila proteins for interactions with Piwi, the study identifies 164 potential binding partners, demonstrating how computational predictions can streamline experimental validation. This study provides a solid basis for further investigations into eukaryotic protein interaction networks.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study presents important findings on cold tolerance shared between hibernating and non-hibernating mammals, identifying a key molecule, GPX4, through multi-species genome-wide CRISPR screens. The evidence supporting these conclusions is compelling, combining multi-species CRISPR screening with rigorous pharmacological assays. This work will be of significant interest to biologists studying hibernation physiology and medical researchers interested in cold tolerance.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
The presented evidence is compelling given a range of complementary and mutually supportive studies. Experiments are generally robustly conducted and well-presented, supporting the claims regarding miRNA mechanisms converging on EMC10 overexpression with 22q11 Del. This is an important study that works to establish a novel antisense oligonucleotide-based approach to treating 22q11.2 deletion syndrome; the findings are likely to advance therapeutic efforts. The authors provide evidence both in vitro in patient-derived iPSCs and in vivo in a 22q11 Del mouse supporting the knockdown (KD) of EMC10 as an effective strategy for the amelioration of neuronal and behavioral deficits.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This is an important study that aims to investigate the behavioral relevance of multisensory responses recorded in the auditory cortex. The experiments are elegant and well-designed, and are supported by appropriate analyses of the data. However, the evidence presented for learning-dependent encoding of visual information is incomplete and it is possible that the surprisingly short-latency increases in activity are actually motor-related signals. Demonstrating that they really are visual responses is necessary in order to draw definitive conclusions from this study.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study addresses a significant question in sensory ethology and active sensing in particular. It links the production of a specific signal - electrosensory chirps - to various contexts and conditions to propose that chirps may also serve an active sensing role in addition to their more well-known role in communication. The evidence supporting the role for active sensing is strong. In particular, the evidence showing increased chirping in more cluttered environments and the relationship between chirping and movement are convincing. The study provides a lot of valuable data, and is likely to stimulate follow-up behavioral and physiological studies.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This work attempts to demonstrate an ATP-independent non-canonical role of proteasomal component PA28y in the promotion of oral squamous cell carcinoma growth, migration, and invasion. The evidence remains incomplete and the work would benefit from further experimental work. The authors have not adequately addressed the reviewers' comments.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study provides valuable insights into our understanding of the development of the enteric nervous system. The authors use genetically engineered mice to study the behavior of stem cells in organizing the enteric nervous system and the secreted signals that regulate these cells. The study rests on a degree of incomplete evidence since the characterization of some of the mouse resources is not complete in the current version.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This fundamental study addresses the regulation of the MICAL-family of actin regulators by Rab GTPases, which play a key role in directing membrane trafficking within cells. The compelling evidence explains how Rab8 family members bind at two sites to allosterically regulate MICAL1, and relieve an auto-inhibited state unable to bind actin. This study lays the basis for further progress in understanding membrane trafficking and cytoskeleton dynamics in eukaryotic cells.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study offers valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms by which Osx influences osteocyte function, particularly through its regulation of Cx43. However, the evidence supporting the authors' claims is incomplete, necessitating additional experimental data and further investigation to fully substantiate these findings. While this study presents a new perspective on the complex role of Osx in bone biology, it also raises significant questions about the intricacies of its regulatory network.
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www.researchsquare.com www.researchsquare.com
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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.
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eLife Assessment
This study presents a useful theoretical model of molecular evolution and attempts to use it to resolve the paradox of rapid evolution of ribosomal RNA genes. While intuitive, the model's underlying issue is grouping many factors under "variance in reproductive success" without explicitly modeling the molecular processes. This limitation, along with insufficient consideration of technical challenges in alignment and variants calling, provides incomplete support for the authors' claim that the observed paradoxical patterns in rRNA genes can largely be explained by homogenizing processes, such as gene conversion, unequal crossover and replication slippage.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This is a valuable study on the diffusion rates of drug molecules in human-derived cells, presenting convincing data indicating that their diffusion behavior depends on their charged state. It proposes that blocking drug protonation enhances diffusion and fractional recovery, suggesting improved intracellular availability of weakly basic drugs. The findings are significant for drug design and understanding the biophysical behavior of small molecules in cells.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This is a useful revised manuscript that shows a set of data including the first cryo-EM structures of human PIEZO1 as well as structures of disease-related mutants in complex with the regulatory subunit MDFIC, which generate different inactivation phenotypes. The molecular basis of PIEZO channel inactivation is of great interest due to its association with several pathologies. This manuscript provides some structural insights that may help to ultimately build a molecular picture of PIEZO channel inactivation. While the structures are of use and clear conformational differences can be seen in the presence of the auxiliary subunit MDFIC, the strength of the evidence supporting the conclusions of the paper, especially the proposed role for pore lipids in inactivation, is incomplete.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.researchsquare.com www.researchsquare.com
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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.
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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.
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www.researchsquare.com www.researchsquare.com
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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.
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This study presents valuable quantitative insights into the prevalence of functionally clustered synaptic inputs on neuronal dendrites. The simple analytical calculations and computer simulations provide solid support for the main arguments. The findings can lead to a more detailed understanding of how dendrites contribute to the computation of neuronal networks.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This useful manuscript presents findings on Tom1p's interaction with Spt6p and its role in chromatin dynamics, supported by structural analysis through CryoEM. The evidence for the conclusions is currently incomplete, lacking key experiments including continuation in vivo interaction and orthogonal binding assays (e.g., SPR, MST, ITC) to fully support the proposed mechanism. While the results are promising, further validation is needed to strengthen the evidence and improve the manuscript's overall cohesion.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This important study by Bi and colleagues employed a clever genetics screen to uncover the role of the GidB rRNA methylase in translation fidelity, under certain conditions, in Mycobacterium smegmatis. The findings are solid, supporting the conclusions, but the structural analyses lack the necessary rigor and depth to provide a clear mechanism. The work will be of interest to microbiologists.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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osf.io osf.io
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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.
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.researchsquare.com www.researchsquare.com
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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.
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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osf.io osf.io
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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.
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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eLife Assessment
This fundamental work provides new mechanistic insight in regulation of PDGF signaling through splicing controls. The evidence is compelling to demonstrate functional involvement of Srsf3, an RNA binding protein to this new and interesting mechanism. The work will be of board interest to developmental biologists in general and molecular biologists/biochemists in the field of growth factor signaling and RNA processing.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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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.
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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arxiv.org arxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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).
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.researchsquare.com www.researchsquare.com
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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.
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eLife Assessment
The work presented is important for our understanding of the development of the cardiac conduction system and its regulation by T-box transcription factors. The conclusions are supported by convincing data. Overall this is an excellent study that advances our understanding of cardiac biology and has implications beyond the immediate field of study.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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