microPublication biology最新文献

Bacteriophages Donatella, JellyBread, and LadyJasley are novel phages infecting Arthrobacter globiformis B-2979. Donatella and JellyBread have siphoviral morphotypes and were assigned to clusters FF and AY, respectively, with genome lengths of 42,875bp and 53,425bp. LadyJasley has a podoviral morphotype, a genome length of 45,576bp, and was assigned to cluster AV.

Exposure to cosmic radiation and microgravity has led to adverse health effects, including cardiac dysfunction, in astronauts after spaceflight. To better understand the underlying mechanisms, we concurrently exposed C57BL/6J mice to chronic irradiation and simulated microgravity for 30 days and collected cardiac tissue for gene expression profiling. Gm20594 and Hapln1 were found to be significantly differentiated in mouse cardiac muscle exposed to simulated microgravity and chronic irradiation. Existing literature detailing the typical function of these genes indicates that their differential expression can lead to heightened cardiovascular risk due to heart inflammation, reduced contractility, and increased apoptosis.

BALROG-ISO is a Nextflow pipeline for automated analysis of whole genome sequences of bacterial isolates to perform taxonomic classification, genomic annotation, annotation of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), and prediction of ARG origin (e.g., plasmid, chromosomal). A final summary report additionally offers a comprehensive and user-friendly visualization of key quality metrics and annotation results. BALROG-ISO minimizes command inputs and streamlines modular processes, enabling the concurrent analysis of more genomic samples while also reducing manual job submission and analysis inconsistencies. Overall, BALROG-ISO is an adaptable workflow pipeline optimized for a One Health approach to the exploration of antimicrobial resistance in bacterial genomes.

Temperature can impose strong selection causing thermal tolerance variation between individuals, populations, and species. We developed a high-throughput larval development assay for cold tolerance in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans . We exposed animals to 4°C cold treatments for either 12 or 24 hours. Animals exposed to the 24-hour cold treatment exhibited greater variation and heritability in cold tolerance during the L1 larval stage. The high-throughput approach that we developed is easily scalable to simultaneously measure a large number of strains, which makes it ideal for studying the genetics and evolution of cold tolerance in Caenorhabditis nematodes.

River herring, Alosa species, are threatened in North Carolina waters. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a non-invasive approach to monitor their movement. River herring, particularly juveniles, are known to exhibit diurnal shifts within water columns. To assess how this influenced the detection of eDNA concentrations from fish, water samples were collected from the Roanoke River during the day and night of the same day for four weeks. Using qPCR analyses, we found that nighttime eDNA concentrations consistently exceeded those of daytime concentrations indicating night is a better time to sample. If night sampling is infeasible, consistency in sampling time is important.

Retrotransposons and retroviruses shape genome evolution and can negatively impact genome function. Saccharomyces cerevisiae minimizes replication of Ty1 family retrotransposons using an inhibitory protein identical to the C-terminal domain of the transposon's capsid protein. We previously elucidated the molecular basis of restriction and subfamily specific targeting and engineered a re-targeted restriction factor. Here, we report that co-expression of the Ty1' retrotransposon and a variant of its restriction factor mutated to re-target a related transposon subfamily impairs yeast growth.

The spotted lanternfly ( Lycorma delicatula ) is an invasive, polyphagous planthopper. We previously identified an olfactory organ on the labium in adults; here, we show that fourth instar nymphs possess a similar organ. This organ consists of two placoid sensilla, each housing two olfactory receptor neurons: one tuned to hexanal and the other to methyl salicylate. We also found that 10 µl of pure hexanal elicits strong attraction in nymphs. These results highlight the olfactory capabilities of SLF nymphs and identify hexanal as a potential attractant that could aid in monitoring and management of this insect.

Conspecific intruders represent unique threats to each sex in an established mating pair, where each member may respond differently to the intruder. We investigated how individuals from established pairs of Julidochromis marlieri , a biparental cichlid that forms female-larger pairs , respond to conspecific intruders of either sex. When males were the larger individual in the pair, they have increased responses to male intruders compared to female intruders; whereas when females were the larger individual, they did not change their behavior. We suggest the pressures on both sexes are different based on the natural history of the species.

The Drosophila willistoni feature with NCBI Gene ID 6651170 was established to be orthologous to Drosophila melanogaster gene Gar1 . The Gar1 protein contains the conserved domain H/ACA_rnp_Gar1/Naf1 (InterPro accession IPR007504) and the N-terminus and C-terminus of the protein are glycine-rich. There are major changes in the gene structure of the ortholog, Gar1-PA, between D. melanogaster and D. willistoni , which have three and four coding exons respectively. Notably, none of the intron positions are conserved between the two species.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae has several unique open reading frames that contribute to overall fitness. This study examined ICS3 , a contributor of Cu ²⁺ homeostasis. Our results successfully replicate previous work by the Monteiro laboratory using a different method, confirming the positive effect of ICS3 on maintaining copper homeostasis for cell growth. No significant difference in growth of ics3Δ mutants was observed for Zn ²⁺ , another oxidative stressor. In addition, MATa and MATα mating types did not influence sensitivity to Cu ²⁺ or Zn ²⁺ .