eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Predicting dynamic expression patterns in budding yeast with a fungal DNA language model

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Kuan-Hao Chao
   2. Majed Mohamed Magzoub
   3. Emily Stoops
   4. Sean Hackett
   5. Johannes Linder
   6. David R. Kelley

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study shows that self-supervised pretraining on related fungal genomes can substantially improve sequence-to-expression prediction in budding yeast. The evidence for the main conclusion is convincing, with careful comparisons to models trained from random initialization and clear gains on held-out expression data. The broader claims about the optimal evolutionary scope and transfer of regulatory grammar are less fully supported.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Novel but stable endosymbionts have contrasting effects on aphid dispersal and plant feeding damage in the cereal pest Diuraphis noxia

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Xinyue Gu
   2. Alex Gill
   3. Qiong Yang
   4. Perran A. Ross
   5. Lucy Hayward
   6. Monica Stelmach
   7. Paul A. Umina
   8. Sheik Nadeem Elahee Doomun
   9. Mel Berran
   10. Lauren Coakley
   11. Sonia Sharma
   12. Ary A. Hoffmann

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study investigates how experimentally introducing two facultative bacterial endosymbionts into the Russian wheat aphid, Diuraphis noxia, affects aphid performance, dispersal, and damage to cereal host plants. The authors provide solid evidence that the two symbionts can generate contrasting phenotypes: Rickettsiella increases plant damage while reducing wing formation and dispersal, whereas Regiella reduces aphid population growth and feeding damage. The successful establishment and stable transmission of these novel symbiont-host associations, combined with experiments spanning individual, whole-plant, population and mesocosm scales, are notable strengths of the work; however, the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unresolved, evidence for horizontal transmission is indirect, and some population-level conclusions rely on relatively small sample sizes or effects that are not consistently detected across time points, and therefore the potential application of these findings to pest management remains promising but speculative. The study will be of broad interest to researchers working on insect symbiosis, plant-insect interactions, and biologically based approaches to pest management.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. IFN γ and IFN γ mimetics prevent IFN-I-mediated TB susceptibility by regulating iron metabolism and lipid peroxidation

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Prasanna Babu Araveti
   2. Shivraj M. Yabaji
   3. Muhammad Zainul Arifin
   4. Suruchi Lata
   5. Yuriy O. Alekseyev
   6. Alexander A. Gimelbrant
   7. William R. Bishai
   8. Vadim Zhernovkov
   9. Oleksii S. Rukhlenko
   10. Boris N. Kholodenko
   11. Igor Kramnik

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Using a range of complementary approaches, this study examines how type I and type II interferon (IFN) programs exert opposing effects on macrophage responses relevant to tuberculosis. The work addresses a key biological question and provides valuable mechanistic insights. However, the data to support several key conclusions is incomplete and requires further strengthening; in particular, the role of ferritin needs to be established more definitively, the TNF stimulation findings should be validated in the context of M. tuberculosis infection, and in vivo evidence is needed to support the proposed therapeutic strategy. Additionally, aspects of iron metabolism, lipid peroxidation, and the translatability of the findings between mouse and human macrophages would benefit from greater clarity and deeper mechanistic investigation.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Break-induced replication drives large-scale genomic amplifications in cancer cells

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Mouadh Benamar
   2. Rebeka Eki
   3. Kang-Ping Du
   4. Tarek Abbas

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents important findings that genome-wide DNA double-strand breaks trigger large-scale genomic amplification (DIGA), which does not require origin re-licensing, but is dependent on some proteins that are involved in break-induced replication (BIR). While the findings and model are compelling, the evidence supporting the claims is largely incomplete, as it depends primarily on a single assay to examine amplification. This work will be of interest to scientists in the DNA repair, replication, and cell cycle fields, as well as cancer biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Galectin and Myc enable cochlear progenitor expansion in vitro and in vivo

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Marie Kubota
   2. Julia M. Abitbol
   3. Paul K. Lee
   4. Maggie S. Matern
   5. Sonia Bustos Barocio
   6. Taha A. Jan
   7. Alan G. Cheng
   8. Stefan Heller

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on a potential new regulatory mechanism for cellular proliferation in the mammalian cochlea, taking advantage of the organoid-forming potential of cells from the greater epithelial ridge (GER), or Kolliker's organ, a transient structure in the developing cochlea. The authors highlight three potential regulators - galectin 1, galectin 3, and Myc - providing solid evidence for potential roles in modulating the proliferation of cochlear GER cells using gene expression studies, single-cell profiling, pharmacological inhibition, and genetic overexpression both in vitro and in vivo. However, some of the analyses and interpretations are incomplete, and a better understanding of how the compounds and the gene overexpression studies affect the cells and modulate cell survival/death would aid a fuller interpretation of the data.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.1101/2025.09.01.673540

7. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.64898/2026.06.09.731162

8. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.1101/2025.07.21.665846

9. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.1101/2023.09.24.559205

10. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
    10.64898/2026.06.12.731853